Tanuki Japan

[mikecch]

Saw Tanuki jeans in person for the first time today, the natural indigo denim, and I think the fabric is pretty solid.

 

Going to try and find a regular fit pair. In the mean time, anybody with impressions or photos please share~

[Iron Horse]

*gets popcorn ready*

[mikecch]

^ Yes, and also please continue the discussions from the unknown brands thread 

[edmond]

Tsk tsk

[mpukas]

Tsk tsk

? 

[lance]

brand looks to have promise

Edited September 2, 2016 by lance

[ShootThePier]

"Tanuki" seems to have a few different meanings, one prominent reference is to testicles. Interesting...

[ColonelAngus]

? 

 

check the Denim Blunders thread. there are quite a few people here who have decided to hate on Tanuki because of the secrecy behind the brand. I don't share this hatred and am curious about the quality of the jeans

[itsbenhere]

People hate the brand because of how unbelievably lame they are. Just from looks I'd bet they are no better or worse in terms of jeans than most other brands discussed here.

[FeloniousMonk]

Well, how unbelievably lame their sales pitch is, not necessarily about the jeans. Their so-called story does seem to be a mash-up of every successful hook for Japanese-made denim in the past five years. But who knows, the jeans might be great!

 

Will be interesting to see this thread in 6-12 months as the first pairs get bought and worn in for a while.

[Geeman]

Will be interesting to see when the 'secret collaborative masterminds behind' them are revealed (looking at you collect) how many people who condemned them cop them..

[garden gnomes in space]

I will stand behind this statement by saying those are the worst cuts I have ever seen.  a pre soak size 36 has a 39" waist and a laughable 10.5" rise.  

[d-rew12]

I will stand behind this statement by saying those are the worst cuts I have ever seen.  a pre soak size 36 has a 39" waist and a laughable 10.5" rise.  

I agree, I was interested but then saw the measurements. No way.

[mikecch]

This wasn't nearly as entertaining as I thought it might have been.

 

Tsk tsk

 

Ed, you've mellowed with age 

 

Will be interesting to see when the 'secret collaborative masterminds behind' them are revealed (looking at you collect) how many people who condemned them cop them..

 

Apparently some of these guys were developing denim since at least the 70s...I'm thinking people involved might have been Canton, Maruo, Oishi, Big John, maybe even Edwin employees. I am also guessing there are Westerners involved.

 

The guys behind it must be well connected too - I mean, they had Oni, Oak Street Bootmaker, etc collabs planned even before the first jeans reached retailers.

 

All speculation though.

[ColonelAngus]

People hate the brand because of how unbelievably lame they are. Just from looks I'd bet they are no better or worse in terms of jeans than most other brands discussed here.

But how can you attest to their lamesness if 1) you don't own a pair and 2) you're passing judgement based on pictures. Yes, the whole secret denim cabal sounds pretty stupid but that doesn't necessarily mean the jeans suck. Somebody sonewhere knows who these denim masters are, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to line up collabs with OSB and Oni

[mikecch]

I don't think most people actually hate the brand, it's just us select few on SuFu / DenimBro who have (let's face it) very skewed & sometimes close-minded views about this denim hobby...whereas the majority of high-end denim consumers would eat this up. Most people are not like us.

 

The background story is no more mysterious than Oni's when they first became noticed in the West.

Or, let's say, how many of us know which mills and sewing workshops a brand like SDA uses?

 

From my point of view though, I'd like to keep an open mind and I'm willing to give almost anything a go. The slim and tapered Tanuki won't work for me, but seems like the regular cut will. I've been trying to get a regular cut pair, will bomb this thread with photos if & when I do.

 

God knows we need some excitement, and there hasn't been that many major new Japanese brands lately.

Edited September 3, 2016 by mikecch

[itsbenhere]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, the lameness purely comes from the marketing tactics which you can definitely see without owning them. I mean come on man...

 

"With decades of cumulative experience in denim manufacturing, the “super-team†behind Tanuki is able to manipulate shuttle looms to create unique fabrics, sewing them into jeans that elevate Japanese denim to yet another level."

 

Seriously, what makes these jeans special? what is next level? I'd love to see some truly special jeans, different from anything else, but at this point I think that it is impossible unless you want to go into the super gimmicky realm of weird shit (glow in the dark, scratch n sniff etc) and that doesn't interest me at all.

 

"This results in strange fit issues like pockets that do not work, or rise that is too short, or lack of flexibility in areas where a person moves."

 

How can they say this with a straight face is gnomes is correct, and the rise on a "36" (really a 38) is fucking 10.5". 

 

I wanted to find their actual website to criticize it, but I couldn't find anything so I had to use Blue Owl's copy. I'm ignoring the Denim Hound's review which has equally ridiculous statements. It's true that to some people are more attracted to things purely for the reason that they're unknown or hard to get, which i think is silly. But to purposefully try and stir up that mystique is no doubt lame. But to do it in such a goofy, heavy-handed and obvious way is just said and it makes me facepalm.

 

And I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, I said they're no better or worse than any of the other brands many of us like here. I have really high respect for most brands of jeans, even though I love flat head everything it's not because I think they're objectively better, it's just that when it comes to the look and ethos I like them better. For me to say that Tanuki looks as good as FH, SDA, WH, etc is in my opinion a high compliment.

 

Last thing, I really disagree with the notion that Tanuki is no different than other brands who we might not know everything about. a lack of information because these brands are japanese and maybe don't speak english, or the overseas retailers aren't interested in disseminating every step of the production, or aren't focused on overseas sales, is HUGELY different than a brand (who's english is suspiciously perfect) saying they won't tell you anything about them, before anyone's even asked. 

 

Lastly, to me the collabs with Oni and OSB are just icing on the cake: just read about gnome's shitty OSB experience cutting corners to look legit. Oni is just a personal thing but to me is also lame. And i'm weirded out by how western-forward this japanese brand is in terms of language-proficiency, marketing angle, collabs, "cuts". it makes me very suspicious. and if everything I've said is true but it turns out to be run by some western guys, man would that actually be the icing on the cake.

 

sorry for the long post just like to call out what is imo bullshit

[BlackPig]

Glorified JBJ from what I've seen. But will save judgment for later when I see more posts about them.

Edited September 3, 2016 by BlackPig

[ShootThePier]

New products is always a good thing. Other manufacturers will have the opportunity gain more knowledge from Tanuki's successes and/or failures.

[mikecch]

Yes, it's obvious that the marketing is not aimed at uber-hobbyists or super-pedantic people like us.

But then, if I were launching a big denim brand, I wouldn't market to people like us either - you just wouldn't sell enough pants.

 

The market seems so saturated with denim brands and different hypes at the moment, one does wonder how you would differentiate yourself or generate enough interest to launch a brand?

Natural indigo dye? (Who doesn't do it?)

20+ oz denim? (Oh hey, the magic number is 38 oz now!)

Old master operating shuttle loom, but only when it's not too cold or too hot? (Yeah, apparently there's more than one!)

Made in North Korea? (What happened with that anyway?)

I mean...there's not much left, we're talking about a pair of pants.

 

Not saying that one should need to keep things deliberately secret - in fact, that is the very opposite of what I'd do...I'd bombard people with every technical detail possible until they get bored and leave.

But you do see what happens when a product proves successful?

PBJ & Sugar Cane gets hot with their fabrics, other denim brands from SE Asia and America want to buy (and sometimes do get) the same denim from the mills.

Fullcount uses ELS cotton, and then every other Japanese brand does too.

A couple of American shoe makers use CXL, now everything is made in freakin CXL.

I don't blame Tanuki in not wanting the reveal the company or mill behind their fabrics, because it seems to be their major selling point.

 

And I agree with Ben that, in terms of the Japanese brands or makers that we all know and love, very little actually separates the products...I mean, we're talking minutiae such as the weave of the fabric, metals in the hardware, tannage of the patch, subtle difference in aesthetics, make-up & sizing of threads, etc.

This is pretty common among many hobbies, where in the higher-end of products, the differences (as might be perceived by the average, sane person) are minimal.

This type of minutiae you can't advertise because most people who would buy your pants don't care!

You'll have to rely on #selvedge, #madeinjapan, #secretdenim, #oldmasters.

 

 

Apologies for the rant, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, it might do us some good - in terms of being able to enjoy our hobby and attract other people to our hobby - if we can keep an open mind.

Ultimately it'll be up to enthusiasts like us to really break it down and examine this brand and its products.

So hopefully this thread, apart from being a little less dramatic and entertaining than I'd hoped, could prove to be a useful one.

Edited September 3, 2016 by mikecch

[Niro]

More brands/competition is always better for us as consumers.

 

I am not interested in Tanuki at the moment, but that can quite easily change.

[mpukas]

My only interest in Tanuki is their claim that their pockets are functional. It's one of the biggest pet peeves of mine that the pocket on so many Japanese brands of jeans are cut to high anb small to be functional. Beyond that, I agree with Ben's basic statement that they don't look any better or worse than most other brands discussed here. Lots of BS hype in their marketing blurbs, as mentioned above, that is more than a little concerning tho... 

[itsbenhere]

You should check into Stevenson's pockets, you wouldn't believe how easy it is to use the front pockets. I've been on and off thinking about the 747 (San francisco) for a long time since it seems like a nice mid (perhaps too low) rise straight cut.

[SuperJackle]

I was kicking around the idea of the 737 awhile back too. That might be up your alley too Ben. Little bit higher rise on that one. Rivet and hide and japan holic were the only places I was able to find it though.

Sorry to derail the thread, carry on.

Edited September 4, 2016 by SuperJackle

[dudewuttheheck]

I agree the marketing is a little lame, but if the products are good, I don't really care. Still, there fabrics don't excite me at this point and the fits don't look to be the best for me. 

 

I am really just interested in seeing what actual owners say and how the fades look.

[mikecch]

Whoa, FedEx from Japan is super fast.

 

After a couple of months of looking I was able to track down a pair of Tanuki jeans in regular.

One of the Tanuki guys was able to send me a pair via one of their retailers in Nara who had stock of the regular cut.

You can't get them directly from Tanuki unless you own a store or run Heddels/Denim Hound, so don't bother.

See end of post if you're interested in a pair.

 

It's funny the only two sample pairs of Tanuki regular cut outside of Japan at the moment are in Melbourne.

Martin at Godspeed has the NR1, I have the RR1.

 

Didn't want to speak too much right now because availability of the regular cut outside Japan is not 100% confirmed at this time.

But in all likelihood Godspeed will be stocking them within the next two weeks.

 

Really rough photo for today, but I will be taking heaps and putting them up over the next couple of weeks:

 

The good news is that the regular cut have pretty good proportions as far my measurements go.

A size 36 regular cut, in raw unsanforised state, has the following measurements:

 

Waist     18.75

Inseam  37

F Rise   12.5

B Rise   15.25

Thigh     13.5

Knee      9.25

Hem       8.5

 

Shrink-to-fit measurements will be available after I'm finished with some of the photos.

Basically, a slim straight with mild taper after shrink-to-fit, no funny stuff.

Inseam long enough that a large cuff or double-cuff are possible for anyone under 6'3".

 

Review will be up maybe next week, and I promise it will be a real review.

 

In the mean time, if you are interested, speak with Martin at Godspeed.

Edited September 6, 2016 by mikecch

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Looking forward to your review!

 

The taper seems to be quite strong for a regulaur cut but that's not a bad thing for me.

What I find noticable is the front rise measuring 12.5", which is quite high, the back rise with 15.25" is rather low compared to the front rise. 

[mikecch]

Yeah, it's not a true regular straight.

Slim straight with mild taper more like it.

But they measure so much better (from my perspective) compared with the other cuts.

Edited September 6, 2016 by mikecch

[edmond]

Because ita based on momotaros pattern

And less of a hip flare because of a straigjt waist to hips cut

[mikecch]

^ According to raw measurements, the closest would be to Momotaro's slim tapered cut, but the Tanuki Regular is slimmer from the thighs all the way down by 0.5 inch or so, with longer inseam.