SugarCane 1990's M-Series Archive

[MJF9]

@nopal great sniffing, great jeans, great big price

[nopal]

Another delectable pair from same seller, if money isn’t an issue 

M41072 W34 L36 NWT:

https://zenmarket.jp/fr/mercariproduct.aspx?itemCode=m58659229541

[Double 0 Soul]

Some better images of the MP-604 Leepro from Pg-1

Black line ID ?!

Edited November 6, 2025 by Double 0 Soul

[julian-wolf]

^ Where’d you find the new photos?

[Double 0 Soul]

Don't get your hopes up.. they're too small for even our daintiest members..

https://zenmarket.jp/en/auction.aspx?itemCode=g1204985980

edit- looking back, @nopal posted a link to these on the previous page great minds think alike and all that..

Edited November 6, 2025 by Double 0 Soul

[Double 0 Soul]

I thought this was unusual too.. it's from the blanket lined version of the 213 blouse.. 'M11317' (albeit blanket lined will probably have a slightly different m-code)

..they're using the same lovely Scovill button backs as 90s era Silverstone rather than regular Sugarcane 91-97 'S' backs.. it's not a one off, seems to be the same for all the black lacquered donut buttons.

Edited November 6, 2025 by Double 0 Soul

[Double 0 Soul]

M41058 Size 31"

https://zenmarket.jp/mercariproduct.aspx?itemCode=m10443396046

[ATWM]

^ spendy! 

good thing I'm not into wrangler details. 

[Double 0 Soul]

Me neither.. saying that, i'm not much into Lee deets either..

Still didn't stop me spending £450 on the M41101s which @nopal posted on the last page 

[ATWM]

32 minutes ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Me neither.. saying that, i'm not much into Lee deets either..

Still didn't stop me spending £450 on the M41101s which @nopal posted on the last page 

Ha, that would have stopped me! Just cannot do it. Something from childhood I'm sure - Lee and Wrangler were both the visibly/notably shitty brands. Not that it really holds water against current Levi's, but sentiments remain.

Better that way I guess, I have too many other vices. 

[Double 0 Soul]

6 or 7yrs ago.. we went on a denim-mission (when i say we.. mainly me, maynard and julian) to find flash a repro of the Lee early war model, transition pair he found on Mushroom vintage.. with late 30s pocket shape but on a cinch-less 40s model.. alas, we failed but i thought at the time, if i can ever find a deadstock M41051 or M41101 with Levi-esque arcs.. then i would grab it for the sake of the mini-collection.. 7yrs later i got the opportunity, alas, it cost me more than i would have liked.. ..i'm still not sure if anyone repro'd the early war model Lee's?

https://vintage-mushroom.net/?pid=138554466

[MJF9]

Nice jeans the M41101 though Neal!

Edited November 13, 2025 by MJF9

[julian-wolf]

Two new ones (for me) up on Yahoo recently

First, raw M41072, which I’m sure have come up before but which I don’t think I’ve ever been aware of. Late ‘20s / early ‘30s  with suspender buttons plus light weight denim belt loops. Not my style but a great specimen, and not yet represented on this thread’s first page I don’t think. This pair’s new with tags and everything

 

 

[julian-wolf]

Even better, a raw pair of MP-604 for a lucky W28! Never seen a pair of these that aren’t pretty heavily worn before, had to do a double take. Big shout out to the seller for the decent photos

[Double 0 Soul]

Have you gone completely insane?! 

The MP-604 is the same pair i posted above.. which is the same pair @nopal posted on the last page  (wait / what)

The M41072 are also the same pair that @nopal posted at the top of the this page^^ 

The M41072 are listed on the first page.. this pair^ is from the same seller i got the M41101 Leepros.. they were listed for ¥ 60k but they dropped the price to ¥45k after the Leepros sold.. i might still buy them^ i just want to check out M41101s first, which should land here in the next day or two..

[julian-wolf]

7 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

 

Have you gone completely insane?! 

 

I guess I must have, then

Maybe had to see the listings myself for them to click?? Go figure

[nopal]

😄 those pairs deserved an encore anyway. 

[Thanks_M8]

Sneaky score, just about fits, maybe a reminder to lay off the cookies and stay on the bike.

[Double 0 Soul]

A couple of weeks ago, my M41101 Leepro landed.. i was instantly blown away by how incredible they look and feel.. especially the details. They just seem like a step up from what i'm accustomed to.. without harping on about them too much, i first noticed the lovely stitch detail on the patch, then i noticed the cinch and my heart sank.. it's beyond shoddy.. eugh!

 

 

I couldn't believe it.. i even checked the stitching,thinking that someone must have replaced the original.. but no, the stitch count  / thread colour are perfect so i gave it some thought.. Hmmm

 

In 1991 when these jeans were reproduced.. there was only one or two other pairs of buckle back repros being manufactured in Japan.. Back when the cinch buckle was popular in the west, Japan had no shared history of using the cinch for trousers and/or waistcoats so there would have been no domestic manufacturer for the cinch buckle.

 

So now it's time for this weeks thrilling installment of Double 0's 'How The Hell Do They Make That!?!?'

 

Basing my assumption on the poor quality of this^ Leepro cinch, sourcing cinch buckles in pre-interwebz 90s Japan can't have been an easy task.. the pin half of 'snail buckles' are manufactured using this method, forming lengths of wire around a cetral die.

 

 

This^ machine would be fed from a massive spool of wire.. It's designed to do one task and one task only.. it certainly wouldn't be a cheap machine to buy, design or manufacture.. but once you've bought said machine.. your material costs are negligible and it can churn out cinch buckles 24/7.. but in order for the machine to pay for itself, you need a market where you can sell 100s of thousands of buckles.. with Toyo only needing a couple o'hundred buckles they wouldn't have manufactured their own... (i know what you're thinking) .. the cinch pre-dates electrification right? .. yes it does,  it would have been the same process, a man with a hammer and hot wire from a forge using a central die.. with later industrialisation, the formers would be pressed in with manpower / levers or driven with belts from waterpower.

 

The frame^ part of the snail buckle would be formed from die casting.. a process which dates back to 1838 using the same principle as the Gutenberg press and became all the rage thereafter.

 

I'm not sure who got there first but this buckle design was coppied widely.. here is an example from British maker Buttons Limited of Birmingham England c1875-1907 .. looks like Wilkinson Sword right?

 

 

 

Notice the weld^ at the bottom of the frame.. we'll come back to that later

 

Solide were a French company, the early examples are marked Solide Paris.. but they were manufactured all over Europe.. metal detectorists have dug up examples in the US, UK and Australia.. many of the vintage examples come from Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic where Solide must have had a factory.. some excellent reading here coutrassy of WarnerHomeStead

 

 

..in a pre internet age, it must have been impossible to source these^ Solide type buckles too so Toyo sourced a copy for their M41030 instead.. I cut one from an old pair of M41030 to compare .. it's also the same cinch used in the M41026.. basically a copy of a Solide type cinch.. but how was this copy manufactured Double 0? they still didn't have any tooling? and tooling ain't cheap!

 

..so the M41030 Solide copy is made from zinc, zinc melts at a very low temprature.. it would have been diecast in a similar method to this

To the right^ of the machine is a crucible full of scrap zinc, the pipe is carrying propane to a burner underneath the crucible, this melts the zinc, the small handle delivers a measured ammount of molten zinc into the metal die, after a few seconds the cold metal die solidifies the molten zinc and Bobs yer uncle.. at the 43sec mark the camera pans over to all the other dies which are interchangable in the machine.. so for this process, you don't need to make a machine, you just need to make a die.. i used to make lots of tooling and dies.

The M41030 buckle would have been diecast as such, zinc delivered through the central diameter.

..we know this because it has linisher marks where they've removed the ingate

 

..but notice there is no weld on the bottom frame? ..so how the fk are the holes formed which hold the central bar? they can't be moulded because you wouldn't be able to eject the casting from the die.. they can't be drilled because you still wouldn't be able to get the central bar in?.. i inspected it further, here is the clever part..

 

Noice this lump here.. this has been formed from the central brass pin being pushed into semi-molten zinc

 

Notice the sides of the buckle are not parallel

 

..so what they're doing is heating up the zinc casting with a braizing torch and opening up the frame with expander pliers.. they're locating the pin in molten zinc and squeezing the frame onto the brass pin with regular pliers which causes the previously mentioned lump to be formed.. cheap but a pretty rustic form of manufacture..

 

Here comes the clever part, the pin still rotates perfectly freely but it really shouldn't considering it's enveloped in solid zinc.. but as the zinc cools, it only contracts at 0.7% whereas the brass pin contracts at 7% resulting in a tiny gap between the zinc hole and the brass pin allowing movement.. genius!

 

Ok Double 0 .. so how are Solide type buckles actually made?

 

 

If you look at them^ they're still just a piece of wire with a small lump above the pin.. this is a more modern version where due to either cost cutting or lack of skills, the ends of the wire are no longer braised together but it's a good example of the fact that they're fundamentally just a piece of 3mm guage wire.

 

..what you would have here is a stamp / die which looks something like this, i've made this from a block of PU resin just for demo purposes but i would usually use SG Iron (Spherdiol Graphite) the molecular structure is nodular instead of flakes making it impact resistant and it's self lubricating so i can machine shapes out of it without having to use a lubricant.

 

 

Here is where the pointy ends of the pins sit, branding ect whould be in here.. this shape needs to be stamped into the wire

 

The wire would be heated with a torch

 

..downward force would be applied with something akin to a bearing press which would form the shape in the wire

 

..heat would be applied and the wire formed around the outside of the die.. hammered onto the pin to form the hole

 

 

From start to finish, the process takes less than 30 seconds

 

The press is opened to release wire.. another worker would take the tray of stamped buckles.. they would insert the brass pin into the holes, then the buckle is braized shut with some braizing rod..

the excess is cleaned away with linishing cloth before another worker takes that tray of buckles for a final polishing on a buffing machine.

..and finally the cheap and cheerfull cinch buckles, 1000s of these shapes would be stamped out of thin matel plate

.. they go into a 2x part stamp with this shape on the bottom half of the die

..this shape on the top half of the die

..and force is applied as such count your fingers!

..anywhoos, im waiting on a bunch of Solide cinch buckles from Citron.. i've split the postage costs with @Mr Black i've just got to decide whether to replace the shonky cinch buckle or just keep them original because after all.. they're a product of their times.

 

Edited November 30, 2025 by Double 0 Soul

[Double 0 Soul]

Gents.. i will eventually post up some photos of these 90s era SC Leepro's but it's been raining here for 7 days straight and looking at the forcast, the rain isn't going to stop till at least the 17th maybe even the week after..

In the meantime.. the store price ticket says (spelling) Dessrt Hills Market / American Rush

My Initial thoughts was a shop called 'American Rush' within a larger shopping area  / mall called 'Desert Hills'

I found this image on google (dated 2017) of Dessert Hills Market Nagano Prefecture (home of TFH) which does look like a store within a larger shopping center / mall

https://www.unique-nagano.com/shop/original-american-casual-fashion-at-dessert-hills-market

Alas..I've drawn an absolute blank with 'American Rush' nada, zilch, nothing..

..but (different spelling)  'Dessert Hills Market' was..

Most probably 1) A vintage apparel store circa early 1990s run or maybe owned by Masayoshi Kobayashi, founder of The Flat Head

..according to the sign in the window^ they're selling vintage Levi's, Timex and Ralph Lauren.. so far so good

2) In 1996 The Flat Head is established (or 1993 according to Indigoshrimp ) ..reading between the lines, (different spelling) Dessert Hills Market became The Flat Head store?

3) The Sugarcane price ticket says 1996 so maybe on the cusp of the conception of The Flat Head, Dessert Hills also sold vintage repro along side actual vintage?

..and from 11 weeks ago also in Nagano Prefecture

 

 

TFH store /shop front Nagano Prefecture .. 3rd different store location

 

Can anyone shed any light on this^^ DHM / American Rush swing ticket?

 

@Cold Summer maybe?

 

[Cold Summer]

Ahh, interesting! Yes, you are correct - Dessert Hills Market started as Masayoshi Kobayashi's vintage shop. Over time, after Flat Head was established, they became a series of retailers selling mostly vintage repro brands. Unlike the TFH company stores, they sold not just Flat Head but other repro brands like Sugar Cane, Warehouse, Skull, Samurai, and various others. I went to a couple of their stores when I lived in Nagano. Their site is still up here.

I've never heard of American Rush, but a quick search in katakana revealed that it's a clothing retailer in Tokyo, whose site is here. This may have been some kind of collab between the two stores, or a special model sold at both.

[Double 0 Soul]

Thanks!

4 hours ago, Cold Summer said:

Unlike the TFH company stores, they sold not just Flat Head but other repro brands like Sugar Cane, Warehouse, Skull, Samurai, and various others. I went to a couple of their stores when I lived in Nagano. Their site is still up here.

I did find this^ but my anti-virus went nuts saying unsecured site.. get outta there! 

4 hours ago, Cold Summer said:

I've never heard of American Rush, but a quick search in katakana revealed that it's a clothing retailer in Tokyo, whose site is here. This may have been some kind of collab between the two stores, or a special model sold at both.

Yahoo has been unsupported in Europe since 2022, we just see this for Yahoo links..

Any chance you can post up a couple of screen shots? one with the store logo / branding

[Maynard Friedman]

Any use Neal?

 

Here it’s mentioned in a blog from 2005 and they describe their visit (I just translated it on Google).

[Double 0 Soul]

2 hours ago, Maynard Friedman said:

Any use Neal?

Yes! ..so American Rush is a vintage store? that probably makes more sense, the collab could have been something as simple as two vintage shops sharing a stall at an Inazuma type event.

The spelling of 'Dessrt' is just a mistake.. i mean how many folks are walking around wearing Superdry tees which bear Japanese writing yet they have no clue as to what it says never mind the orthography..

I'd suggest all of them 

Edited December 5, 2025 by Double 0 Soul

[Maynard Friedman]

As you’ve alluded to Neal, perhaps Dessert Hill’s (sic) was a true marketplace with individual stalls/traders/concessions after all and American Rush started there on a smaller scale before opening its own store down the line.

Anyway, here’s a photo from the 2006 Lightning Denim Style Book. It looks like there were 2 Dessert Hill’s stores open concurrently then.

[Double 0 Soul]

Hmm.. not sure what this is, M number so one would expect M11001

..but it has a leather patch and what looks like a black / grey tab?

Never seen one before? 

https://zenmarket.jp/auction.aspx?itemCode=v1202249050

[Double 0 Soul]

This M11026 looks to be in remarkable condition, if it was nwt, i'd buy it fo'sure!

It looks raw (especially the back pleat and cinch strap) or maybe soaked with just a little indigo rub here and there from storage.. the only thing which makes me think it's been worn is the condition of the neck label.. but everything else looks fresh af.

https://zenmarket.jp/mercariproduct.aspx?itemCode=m13528354576

Comparing the sizing to my size 40.. it's a 38, as per with these, the 38 works for me with a tee and looks better / more contemporary fit while the 40 works with layers and looks more trad, comfortable.. roomier

Edited December 13, 2025 by Double 0 Soul

[ATWM]

^ it def looks worn, but I'm not sure it's ever hit water. Which makes me dubious about the size...I too work with a SC 38 or 40. 

[Double 0 Soul]

If it was worn / raw you'd expect some sleeve creasing

[ATWM]

^ yea it’s weird, but there looks to be wear points at the pits, cuffs and collar - not a lot but suggests repeated wears. Maybe it was ironed/starched or something?