Word of Mouth - The Crust & Fades Contest

[beautiful_FrEaK]

@julian-wolf we are just organizing this. The initial picture thread for the registration of the contest will also be the thread to post the pictures of the final jeans.

I will open the thread on July 17th and we will likely give people one week time to post their pictures. More info to come soon!

[ATWM]

17th may be the end of the comp but will still be wearing my pair after that! 

[olmecasteve]

7 hours ago, ATWM said:

17th may be the end of the comp but will still be wearing my pair after that! 

Very much my plan
My pair isn't anywhere near as faded as many of the regular posters here. Working in an office doesn't really do much for any 'real' progress 

[MJF9]

Folks, just to add to @beautiful_FrEaK's post ^^^ I'll propose a timetable for pics, judging and outcomes over the weekend 

[reallypeacedoff]

Mine ain't gonna last the week 🤣

[reallypeacedoff]

[MJF9]

The Word of Mouth Jeans Pizza and Crust Contest #WoMCon – Close out post

We started, fittingly, on World Pizza Day, 17^th January 2025… 18 months have flown by… and our last day is 17^th July 2026

This post lays out the close-out plan… if anything is missing or unclear, please flag it and I’ll resolve it

Reminders - the original contest posts

I set out the judges and the scoring criteria back last year here

And the contestant list and choice of jeans here 

Prizes were set out here i.e. 

• 1st - Free WWII Type-1 Jkt from Simo
• 2nd - Free pair of jeans from Simo
• 3rd and 4th - 40% discount on a new order

There is also the generous Duke Mantee Prize here voted for my @Duke Mantee, Simo and @Maynard Friedman

Close-out Timetable

-          17^th July to 26^th July – Contestants post their final pictures

-          26^th July – Submission deadline

-          27^th July – Final pics thread will be closed

-          27^th July – 9^th August – Judges vote for both prizes

-          9^th August – Deadline for judges to score (any judge's votes received after 9^th August will not be counted)

-          Before 14^th August – Results announced

As we all know, no plan survives first contact with reality, so please bear in mind we all have life going on alongside this and it lands during holiday time (including mine!) 

@beautiful_FrEaK and I will contact the judges and collate the scores... I’m pleased to say Maynard will judge but is chocka busy hence we'll co-ordinate... that said, I’m pleased to say @Dr_Heech has agreed to oversee the collation of scores and announcement of the winner – we don’t want any claims of conflicts of interest now do we!!  

I believe the above timetable is achievable rather than being overly ambitious.  If the judges can get through the scoring sooner (after being found ) we'll announce the winners sooner, of course  

Game on!! Best wishes folks!!

Edited July 12 by MJF9

[CSL]

My name shouldn't be on the judges list.

Initially I was asked to be a judge but then I decided to participate instead.

Edited July 14 by CSL

[reallypeacedoff]

CSL's top pick is...CSL!

[CSL]

I am completely unbiased!!!🤣

[MJF9]

Like an old school teacher used to say,  that was a deliberate mistake to check if anyone was paying attention . Good spot - we'll def not ask you to score @CSL

[UkeNo]

Morning Coffee - probably my last post before the final submission

The roping on these is amazing! 
Thanks for a great competition everyone x

 

[reallypeacedoff]

Wild how fast the 1.5 years flew buy!

[CSL]

Getting a few last moments in with the WOMs.

Pics from the 14th and 15th.

Hot as the blazes here today but I'll put em on for the last hurrah-dog walk now.

[Broark]

Final day checking in!
One more wash then final photos.

[nopal]

On 7/4/2026 at 11:55 AM, nopal said:

Thirteen

Fourteen 

 

[shredwin_206]

 @nopal unreal! 

[reallypeacedoff]

Love how light they are overall @nopal!

[julian-wolf]

Last-day fit pics~~

@ the old fit pic spot for old times’ sake
 

 

feat. Ues, Birks

[CSL]

I guess it's really over.

Ladies and gentlemen, please remove your jeans...

Judges, any guidelines for final pics?

Edited July 18 by CSL

[MJF9]

11 hours ago, CSL said:

Judges, any guidelines for final pics?

Well, I'm not strictly a judge and this is a touch late as the Final thread was opened on 17th... and Julian's already got the ball rolling already with a nicely descriptive post,.. 

But, that said, the guidelines are as follows... the main benefit is the judges can then more easily compare the jeans and pick their 1,2,3

• 1 pic of front (full length, laid flat)
• 1 pic of back (full length, laid flat)
• 1 pic of each side (full length, 1 each side, laid flat, so 2 pics)
• up to 6 photos of your choice e.g. close ups
• final jeans as they are after 17th July
• photos only

Stressing they are guidelines... aiming for consistency to help scoring.  Julian - it's up to you if you want to repost the final pics, and move the post to the 'journey' thread or keep your final post as-is, as the guidelines came after the 17th - your call. No drama folks.  

Good luck all!

[ATWM]

Ok I just posted mine, figured needed to get it done now as I won't be home again for a minute. 

As a photographer it's funny - I never usually stress photos on the forum and take them all with my fogged and old iPhone lens, but color spaces/image compression/file sizes - now I'm all like I want to just drop box high res files for the most accurate depiction - which of course is not possible because people have different monitors, different cameras with different tonal biases etc etc.

Anyways, I used a proper digital camera here for the first time in my sufu life, but no lighting and a quite neutral imaging pipeline - only the default camera color conversion profile and white balanced about as well as I could get it to avoid casts one way or the other. My photos in capture one are better to look at with more contrast and detail (obviously!).

But anyways, we are all on the same forum.

I'll be honest - I've gone a bit lighter on these jeans the last few months - actually probably since the new year - and the reason is I want to keep them going awhile yet, I just like them where they are at. The rest of the photos are on the other thread. Given I've posted a few updates here and there probably no surprises for where these are at. 

[CSL]

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to set up a dropbox folder where hi res pics can be deposited for the judges to view.

 

[vIGGiou riou]

18 minutes ago, CSL said:

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to set up a dropbox folder where hi res pics can be deposited for the judges to view.

 

agree. I had to cut pictures to very bad resolution format due to the low limit of sufu

[reallypeacedoff]

Made a link here for Dropbox. Are you able to upload? Someone wanna test? Maybe rename your images to start with your username...for example:

• 1 pic of front (full length, laid flat)...username-1.jpg
• 1 pic of back (full length, laid flat)...username-2.jpg
• 1 pic of each side (full length, 1 each side, laid flat, so 2 pics)...username-3.jpg, ...4.jpg
• up to 6 photos of your choice e.g. close ups...username-5.jpg, ...6.jpg, ...7.jpg, ...8.jpg, ...9.jpg, ...10.jpg

Edited July 19 by reallypeacedoff

[CSL]

1 hour ago, reallypeacedoff said:

Made a link here for Dropbox. Are you able to upload? Someone wanna test? Maybe rename your images to start with your username...for example:

• 1 pic of front (full length, laid flat)...username-1.jpg
• 1 pic of back (full length, laid flat)...username-2.jpg
• 1 pic of each side (full length, 1 each side, laid flat, so 2 pics)...username-3.jpg, ...4.jpg
• up to 6 photos of your choice e.g. close ups...username-5.jpg, ...6.jpg, ...7.jpg, ...8.jpg, ...9.jpg, ...10.jpg

OK! Think I've got things working.

Note - You have to hit 'join folder' before you can upload.

I made a CSL folder. Figured it'd make sorting easier for the judges.

I suggest everyone does the same and puts their pics in their own folder.

Probably stating the obvious...🤓

[CSL]

Here are my photos, taken indoors, mid-afternoon.

18 months. No washes. (Not my original plan but as the fit was good I didn't want to risk shrinking).

I tried a real camera but couldn't find a lens with the right perspective so went with iPhone.

I'm quite surprised how well they've helped up, requiring just one reenforcement to the crotch seam.
One front pocket was getting close to needing repair. 

I think this had to do with the fact that they were very soft and non-starchy in the raw state. I would imagine a wash would have brought out some stiffness, guessing? The loose fit no doubt meant low stress to the seams too.

Usually I don't wear jeans in the Summer months but the loose fit and light (at least light feeling) denim did not feel oppressive and consequently I was able to give them steady wear through the 18 months.

Overall I've been pretty gentle on them, much of the wear coming from long hours in the van, flights, dog walks, etc. Frankly I wanted to avoid the heavy repairs I'd had to do on the TCBs during that contest, where I went out of my way to put stress on the jeans.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20 by CSL

[reallypeacedoff]

Added mine to the final thread but some of my favorites. Been a great comp, chill and more of a community feel. Not an all out fade freakz comp lol.

[julian-wolf]

@CSL I’ve been consistently glad for the opportunity to use your pair as an experimental point of reference. From the front, I think they might be my very favorites of all, but from the back the lack of puckering at the yoke & seat & waistband & pockets is so stark. I’ve never tried the whole not washing thing (& I’m not confident that my lifestyle would really allow for it, anyway), but watching your contest jeans break it has really made my want to give it a try

[CSL]

@julian-wolf

I hear you. No way to get that puckering without washing.
I was surprised more fading didn't happen on the backside of the top block.

 

 

Edited July 20 by CSL