SUPERDENIM SMALL QUESTIONS THREAD (Use instead of making new threads)

[Double 0 Soul]

18 minutes ago, julian-wolf said:

^ Tender Co.’s jeans are 100x more suitable as work wear than vintage Cane’s, but that almost feels beside the point: I don’t think AlienToy was suggesting that you start buying & wearing any of it yourself

Whether you wear it or not—really, whether or not you even appreciate it stylistically—the thread has an absolute wealth of great perspective on design and construction, both in theory and in practice, that you won’t easily find anywhere else

At the very least, it’s worth reading through the first 5 or 10 pages just for the early production photos (assuming those are still up)

..as I’ve just tried to explain.. (unsuccessfully) i know I will like it, what im trying to do is avoid buying it! I stand a better chance of not buying it by not reading the thread. 

iirc superdenim used to sell it back in 2009 when they had that little retail space upstairs on York high street.

I wear vintage Carhartt carpenter pants for work, they cost me £25 from the vintage shop, 18mths later I chuck them in the bin and go get another pair for £25. 

I learnt my lesson well..

Edited January 27 by Double 0 Soul

[julian-wolf]

Ah, I misunderstood. Yeah, avoiding temptation is as good a reason as any to skip it

[Double 0 Soul]

I've got unworn clothing and sneaks in the wardrobe now.. the last thing i need is more but no doubt.. i will buy more 

 

7 minutes ago, julian-wolf said:

Ah, I misunderstood. Yeah, avoiding temptation is as good a reason as any to skip it

 

My fault.. in my head i'd clearly explained the situation.. i've just looked back and i hadn't.

Edited January 27 by Double 0 Soul

[ATWM]

ah man, I get that. 

I don't think I have anything like your black boot moment but I definitely crossed a threshold with denim sometime in 2024-2025. I saw it coming from 100 miles away, said I wasn't interested in collecting just wearing...and still. Sigh.

I haven't purchased anything for months now, but it's been quite intentional and surprisingly difficult tbh. This not counting a pair of OA's I expect to take delivery of in the coming month or two from S+S - which I preordered before I decided to try to just stop it for a minute. Lots of stuff I would love to try - trying to just admire it instead. 

I may make one exception for this year, and that is a Tender or Working piece sold from the shop down the street from me because one seriously pricey piece bought locally where I have specific admiration for the design and process, where I can try on etc seems to be more aligned with how I'd like to spend my money when I do, as opposed to importing stuff from Japan (as much as Seichiiro makes the process fantastic). I do think Tender stuff can take a beating with the best of it though - well, the denim garments at least. The stock denim is tough and there is poly stitching at stress points I think. Probably the most durable pair I've had since I got into this mess. Not to tempt you or anything...sure wouldn't be the value that Carhartts are. 

[Double 0 Soul]

It's not just about taking a physical beating .. i mix lots of liquid resins, liquid silicones, gel-coats, polyurethanes, varnishes.. and so on.. these are not waterbased so if they splash or transfer to my clothes i can't wash it out.. it sets hard then cracks as the fabric folds leaving a hole.. i do have the appropriate chemicals to scrub the resin away before it sets hard but these chemicals also fk your clothing.. when your jeans cost £25 and are cheaply replaced this matters not.. i suppose it's why the old boys wore a smock or lab coat.

Even If i'm doing metalwork, the old machines spit out cutting fluid which often ends up on my clothing.. any kind of decent clothing looks fucked in no time.. ok, it gains super +rep here but i was burning through fancy 'workwear' in no time.. when we had a strong ecconomy (2x dollars to the pound) 15yrs ago, these jeans were not expensive.. nowadays our ecconomy is fucked, we get 1.3 dollars to the pound +20% VAT on imports, +12% duty.. so a lot of clothing is 75% more expensive than it once was.. this matters not when your clothing lasts for years.

As hard wearing as JW says they are.. i could wear some Tender jeans for work, spill some liquid rubber down the leg as i'm mixing it and they're fucked.. i just can't afford to trash £200 pants every few weeks.. ok i could be a lot more careful but i don't want to spend my worklife second thinking every move i make.. i already have enough work stress to deal with, without having to worry about my clothing.

[Lorcan]

Yeah I have an old Newlyn smock and a lab coat at work for this, although I guess I'm only using smaller quantities of anything than you, unless I'm doing a load of spray varnishing or something. 

Mostly I get away with it although My Sugar Cane 42s seem to have a crusty mark of unknown origin... I think hopefully acrylic based

[yung_flynn]

37 minutes ago, Double 0 Soul said:

liquid silicones

Silicone oil is nearly impossible to get off leather in my experience. Once it absorbs into the leather, the low surface energy keeps bringing more to the surface as soon as you wipe it off. Cured silicone is a pain too but most will peel off. Thankfully, my lab coat is the main victim there although I'm not doing much lab work nowadays

[Double 0 Soul]

Here we go.. these jeans are a veritable smorgasbord of patternmaking potions.. 

 

Varnish

 

Coolant

Brummer & Body Filler, where I’ve wiped my filler knife on my back pocket

 

 

Tape measure damage

 

Silicone & Polyurethane Resin

..which, when folded, cracks the material 

 

 

It doesn't matter what brand the jeans are.. it doesn't take long before they're covered in the above^ ... i have 4x boxes of clothing at work and everything looks like this..

 

From our denimhead / workwear perspective you might think this is no bad thing.. but once/mth i walk to the bank in the city, i'm not going to change into my cycling gear so i just go in my 'denims' .. on the way back to work i walk down the highstreet just to see how dystopian our once lovely city has become since the economic decline .. i pass the 'End is Nigh' god-grifter types, past what once was Top Shop / Top Man which now sells 48x boxes of out of date crisps piled up in the doorway, Vapes, stolen phones and Christmas decorations all year round.. past the spice-zombies and i walk down E Parade.. this street is an ongoing battle ground between homeless peeps and the security who're employed by the businesses to keep them from deterring their customers.. as i walked, a security guard approached from my right and said "What's Up Have You Lost Your Mates" .. i thought who's this fucking bellend talking to?.. turned and looked over my left shoulder and there was nobody there..  .. shrugged and kept walking.. then it dawned on me.. Did he think i was homeless?

 

Yep.. that's what i'm projecting people.. "Sufu-Homeless-Steeze"

 

..and this wasn't really his fault, when i started work as a young apprentice, everyone went to work in their own clothes, the only non-uniform 'work clothing' was the donkey jackets issued by the NUM.. British Steel and such, whereas nowadays, even small businesses can kit their employees out in company branded, fleece, polo shirt and so on for very little cost.. because it's all MiC.. i wasn't wearing branded workwear, so i didn't look like what he considered, employed.. 

From his perspective.. (and i assume the perspective of 99.9% of folks who've never heard of sufu) the only folks wearing stained, threadbare denims are the homeless people..

He obviously doesn't understand denim-culture.. but neither does anyone else, in my mind im a denimhead, every time i post my WH Typ1 here it gets neverending super rep but in everyone else's mind i'm projecting homeless vibes.. 

 

I need to take a leaf out of the 'United Patternmakers Association' guide to plastics.. from the 00 archives issues in 1958 

 

..and wear an apron.. and maybe a tie 

 

but.. when i was around 18, i used to wear an untucked Woolrich flannel to work, one day i was planing a piece of timber and the shirt tail got trapped between my timber and the planer bed, which dragged my shirt into the Wadkin planing machine then started dragging me in.. one of the old guys rushed over and pressed the emergency stop.. which was right next to where i was standing but when you're been dragged into the rotating blades of death you're not really thinking straight..  then he gave me a bollocking for not tucking my shirt in while using machinery.. one of the reasons i've never worn an apron.. even tho I have one here

 

 

…hopefully this explains why I don’t wear Tender / expensive clothing to work anymore.. although, at the end of the winter, I am going to send my WH Typ1 to Ruedi and relegate a new Typ1 to work duties..

I’ll be able to walk down E Parade with my head held high…

Edited January 28 by Double 0 Soul

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

@Double 0 Soul this has been very informative. Not to encourage any more buying but can I ask why don’t you use overalls/coveralls, over your day to days clothes? 

[Double 0 Soul]

I have done in the past (I’ve tried a lot of different approaches) but in the summer they’re far too hot and sweaty,  I would take my arms out and tie them around my waist but this is really uncomfortable in the heat, it’s much more comfortable  to wear chino type work-shorts and tee in the hot weather.

Edited January 28 by Double 0 Soul

[ATWM]

On 1/26/2026 at 7:50 PM, Muck Dynasty said:

Looks like the owners of this site are trying to kill it altogether with a monthly subscription 

 

Thoughts?

When everything is free everything is usually closer to garbage. The internet 15 years ago could be an exception of sorts, mostly because plenty of platforms were waiting to get you baited in first to either charge you or sell you. I paid a subscription fee for the first good forum I was ever a part of, back in 2004. 

There will always be Reddit or Instagram that are happy to make more money off of your lurking. 

[oomslokop]

On 1/23/2026 at 1:50 PM, Double 0 Soul said:

Not me Ooms.. although he did make Travolta shine in Face Off and that ain't easy! ..

@Thicolas Rage is probably the only one standing 

I'm sure im missing something.. one of my film nerd friends absolutely adores Nic Cage.. he even has a red sequin cushion.. if you brush your hand over the sequins it reveals a picture of Nic Cage (he also has one of Hasselhoff at the opposite side of the sofa) .. He keeps harassing me to watch The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent.. i even get txts saying "have you watched it yet?" .. "stop bullying me" 

 

is there an unfollow button on superdenim?? 😤

[oomslokop]

On 1/25/2026 at 11:22 PM, MJF9 said:

like Shaun Ryder once crooned 'it's great when you're straight yeah!'  

shit i thought all these years hes only into loose fit!

[Double 0 Soul]

2 hours ago, oomslokop said:

is there an unfollow button on superdenim?? 😤

I only had 2 followers and one of them was Ed.. after he got ran out of town by the pitchfork mob, i was down to just some rando.. being the leader of a micro-cult really appealed to me

[space_cowboy]

Sent a pair jeans off to get hemmed, one of the bottoms came back looking like this. Looks like selvedge was slightly folded in on itself when the hem was done. Out in the wild, no one would ever notice, but would this bother you?? 

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

4 hours ago, space_cowboy said:

but would this bother you?

Fuck no. I couldn’t care less. 
moreover - I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t explicitly mentioned it. 

Edited January 30 by Hopethisoneisnttaken

[Double 0 Soul]

It's seen often on some vintage Levi's .. with sloppy WWII construction, the selvedge was still folded in when hemmed .. CSF repro'd it

Hems only became perfect in these days of the lazer accurate JP repro.

[space_cowboy]

@Hopethisoneisnttaken You're right, I had them for several days before I even noticed . @Double 0 Soul That's a good tidbit.  Perhaps I'm a little too neurotic about this stuff 😂

[Broark]

This is similar to how the Sugar Cane collectibles '43 model was made as well.

[ATWM]

2 hours ago, space_cowboy said:

Sent a pair jeans off to get hemmed, one of the bottoms came back looking like this. Looks like selvedge was slightly folded in on itself when the hem was done. Out in the wild, no one would ever notice, but would this bother you?? 

Kinda like it. Maybe not on all my pairs but def okay by me. 

[CSL]

It would bother me.

1) because I'm obsessive with details and imperfections, and 2) because I'd paid a so called expert for a specialist job and received a compromised result reflecting poor quality control and lack of care. 

...And then I'd probably do nothing due to a combination of procrastination and conflict avoidance...

It's a different story when it's been done on purpose in pursuit of a particular ethos - like those Sugar Canes.

[Maynard Friedman]

I have a pair of vintage kids Levi’s (502 I think) from the early 1970s and the selvedge has been twisted into the hem like that. Wabi-sabi!

[Dr_Heech]

9 hours ago, Maynard Friedman said:

I have a pair of vintage kids Levi’s (502 I think) from the early 1970s and the selvedge has been twisted into the hem like that. Wabi-sabi!

Can we get a pic of that please mate?

[Double 0 Soul]

I've noticed this at Japanese retailers recently..

 

(*****************) are now FTA-compliant starting in 2026.

We can ship duty-free to countries that have signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Japan.

EU, UK, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia,

Canada,Mexico, Chile,

Philippines, India, Peru, Mongolia,

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei,

Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia

"Please bear the shipping costs when returning items."

 

 

I assume this isn't Japanese consumption tax which has been deducted for years for international sales by all good JP retailers..

As a UK consumer am i avoiding duty but still paying VAT at the border??.. or is this just a case of VAT and duty are paid at point of sale rather than the border.. 

 

With Zen (proxy) you have the choice of paying VAT or not.. so this^ could be something similar where the price i'm seeing is already inclusive of VAT .. if not, it's certainly cause for celebration! 

 

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

@Double 0 Soul it’s still unclear to me if this is the 10% internal tax in Japan that is deducted or refers to import tax at the receiving country. 
 

with proxy services I think it’s very hard to avoid the internal 10%, since the transaction occurs between two Japanese entities. 

[Double 0 Soul]

Yes, re-proxy, you still have to pay the 10% tax if the goods are new or from a business because they're shipping to a Japanese address so it's considered a domestic sale.. you don't pay 10% tax on used goods unless they come from a registered business like 2nd for instance.

Most Japanese retailers don't add the 10% if the sale is outside of JP.

Here in the UK..

We only pay border charges if our goods are above £135.. in which case, (re-Zen) if my goods are below £135, i choose not to pay / remove the VAT..

If my goods are over £135.. i choose to pay the VAT before my goods ship so i can avoid the £12 admin charge by the carrier at the UK border.. either way, i'm paying 20% VAT and 12% Duty on goods above £135 and zero VAT / Duty on goods below £135.

^This only appertains if our goods are shipped from a registered business.. if they're shipped from a private individual, the limit is £39

What interests me is the '2026 Duty Free / Free Trade Agreement' .. and if it really makes any difference to the above^^

 

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

Gotcha. So, the only piece of viable info in that sense that I can add is that a few years ago a friend of mine order a pair of unmarked boots from Mexico for around 400$ (can get charged from any value above 75$) or so, and was not charged our 18% local tax and other duties (around 12% as well) because we had a free trade agreement with Mexico at the time. 

[Double 0 Soul]

Thanks.. 

Hmmm, interesting.

Zen used to allow me to mark down the value, now they won't .. Zen didn't previously add VAT therefore i was never able to remove the VAT.

I think they registered Zen Market with HMRC so they can collect and pay border charges on my behalf, part of this agreement stops them lowering the value.

 

I've chatted with @CSL about this in realtime (also @UkeNo is aware of Hinoya doing it) .. the prices i see as a UK consumer are not the same prices seen in JP, USA and so on.. when the site detects a UK IP address, the prices are adjusted accordingly.. so maybe the trade agreement just means that the border charges are still applied but prepaid if you've registered your business with HMRC ?

[okimoto]

Hi all,

Brand new pair of McCoy’s Buco Charger sunglasses - the temples are very asymmetrical. Is there any world where this is an intentional design choice or is this just shit McCoy’s quality control?

[julian-wolf]

For lack of anything more constructive to say:

lol