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

[Broark]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, EG can be very hit or miss for me from season to season.

Every now and then they make a great jacket or two and then the next season nothing really does it for me.

Sassafras is a brand I've seen some cool stuff from but never am able to find many retailers with much of their stuff.

Nanamica is a brand I hadn't considered as well, good tip.

Might look into the Mister Freedom Skipper jacket as well, seems like a nice unlined parka style jacket.

[Iron Horse]

What do you guys think about Role Club's Engineers? I love how they look and understand that it's a one man operation so costs should be high, but is it worth paying at that price for CXL (whether horsehide or steerhide)?

Have you looked at Attractions (or Ed's upcoming engineers)? You'll get horsehide and an unstructured toe box for less. Role Clubs are nice but pricey, and I hear the wait time is about a year now.

[clt3]

Have you looked at Attractions (or Ed's upcoming engineers)? You'll get horsehide and an unstructured toe box for less. Role Clubs are nice but pricey, and I hear the wait time is about a year now.

 

Yeah man. Gonna buy a pair of Ed's engineers when he starts taking orders. Road Champs also seem like a good alternative for flat toes.

 

Just wondering why they would be about $200 - $300 more than most other boots for offering what I would think is standard leather. Of course leather is not the only variable when it comes to the boots, but does his construction and stitching and all worth that extra cash?

[spitfiredealer]

Thanks @chicote will check them out

[Iron Horse]

Yeah man. Gonna buy a pair of Ed's engineers when he starts taking orders. Road Champs also seem like a good alternative for flat toes.

 

Just wondering why they would be about $200 - $300 more than most other boots for offering what I would think is standard leather. Of course leather is not the only variable when it comes to the boots, but does his construction and stitching and all worth that extra cash?

 

People 'round these parts will tell you "worth" is subjective. To me, it seems Brian charges what he does because it's a one-man show (or shoe, if you will), similar to someone like Roy. Also, Brian custom makes the boots for you based on your foot measurements, and I believe he sends leather samples to customers who are on the fence about color. 

 

Still, I would probably buy a couple of other boots with that kind of money first, and still have change to spare.

[General Dread]

Can anybody identify this brand of jeans please?

 

http://fdp-niederbayern.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mdb_drexler_pep_guardiola.jpg

 

Thanks

 

GD.

 

[beautiful_FrEaK]

With that tab at the crotch: should be Dsquared

[General Dread]

With that tab at the crotch: should be Dsquared

 

Many thanks indeed!

[itsbenhere]

Yeah man. Gonna buy a pair of Ed's engineers when he starts taking orders. Road Champs also seem like a good alternative for flat toes.

 

Just wondering why they would be about $200 - $300 more than most other boots for offering what I would think is standard leather. Of course leather is not the only variable when it comes to the boots, but does his construction and stitching and all worth that extra cash?

 

 

He constructs his boots with a hand-welting method, that takes way longer and the only people who do that are him and Clinch (Brass Tokyo). That right there raises the price a lot, it's much more fair to compare his price to the only people who use that construction, not people who use machines to make a good year welt.

[clt3]

He constructs his boots with a hand-welting method, that takes way longer and the only people who do that are him and Clinch (Brass Tokyo). That right there raises the price a lot, it's much more fair to compare his price to the only people who use that construction, not people who use machines to make a good year welt.

 

Yeah makes sense. Around the same price range as Clinch.

[edmond]

My boots are too handwelted thats why my boot guy can work on cordovan

[itsbenhere]

Let's seem some update pics!

[edmond]

Sample is almost done. Ill post pics when it reaches me

[Iron Horse]

He constructs his boots with a hand-welting method, that takes way longer and the only people who do that are him and Clinch (Brass Tokyo). That right there raises the price a lot, it's much more fair to compare his price to the only people who use that construction, not people who use machines to make a good year welt.

 

And then there's that too. 

[edmond]

My engineer boots are also hand welted yes they are more expensive sad to say. But not THAT expensive its actually the same actually the cost of the factory meaning its their problem and not the buyers problem to shoulder it being hand or machine. Other factory can afford a weltinf machine while others dont. So i dont think really. That should be the reason or excuse to jack up the price by 30 percent. Its just me maybe.

[edmond]

Is the lofgren hand welted? Or machine welted ? Never seen one in person.

[itsbenhere]

Pretty sure lofgren is good year welted.

 

Are you saying hand-welting doesn't take a lot longer to do than methods involving machine?

[chicote]

^Right, I always figured the additional cost of hand-welted boots was offsetting labor costs more than anything else.

[edmond]

Hand takes longet of course but what in sayin is that for costing its the same.

Machine godyear welt

Machine cost , maintenance cost, warehouse cost, hazard pay cost, electricity cost ,

Hand goodyear welted

Tequila cost and maybe a couple of sticks of cigarette

[Cucoo]

For very small and one-man operations that's plausible, but the machine cost goes down in the overall scheme once you make more than 1 boot every couple of weeks. That's why handmade is more expensive in this day and age than factory made.

 

I don't think Red Wing could operate the same way if they scrapped all machines and had every stitch made by hand again

 

By the way, I don't think hand stitched is inherently better than machine stitched, or is it? If it's the same technique using the same resources, what's the difference besides "it takes longer"? (I don't mean to belittle the effort and craftsmanship that goes into handmaking boots, it certainly is impressive.)

[itsbenhere]

I feel like nothing is really better...jacquard t shirts aren't better than printed on, chainstitching isn't better than lockstitching, selvedge compared to nonselvedge, plated jewelry vs. solid... 

 

To me i just appreciate craftsmanship, so i think the more hand done the better. Handmade wallets have more soul, handmade boots are more impressive than good year stuff just because it's more work.

 

Allegedly though gemming can fail (?) from good year welt, but like most things I think that no one is really going to to have that problem.

[edmond]

Doesnt matter really why do they upcharge a lot?

[volvo240thebest]

Well dunno how much this will be of interest for you gentlemen but here's my experience regarding hand stitched resole vs machine stitched resole.

One of my colleagues has a quite big collection of Tricker's shoes. Recently he had one pair resoled locally by a cobbler who does everything by hand, and one pair sent to Ger Wijsman in the Nederlands. Ger uses a Goodyear welt stitching machine. There is no friggin comparison... The machine stitching is much more clean and well executed.

[itsbenhere]

I think the difficulty of cleanly hand-stitching is what makes it so expensive. If you want to be perfect, you have to practice a lot and take your time, or you get something sloppy!

You're paying for all the time it took to learn how to do that.

[Mr-Bielby]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, EG can be very hit or miss for me from season to season.

Every now and then they make a great jacket or two and then the next season nothing really does it for me.

Sassafras is a brand I've seen some cool stuff from but never am able to find many retailers with much of their stuff.

Nanamica is a brand I hadn't considered as well, good tip.

Might look into the Mister Freedom Skipper jacket as well, seems like a nice unlined parka style jacket.

Stone Island or CP company for modern military looking jackets

[clt3]

Anybody know measurements for real vintage type II jackets? Or any compaines that are closest to vintage?

[edmond]

Yeah i need to know one too

[VivaMarlon]

Any tips on getting jeans tapered? Looking to get them done somewhere locally (LA area), anyone have good/bad experiences to share, maybe things to stay away from?

[SuperJackle]

Any tips on getting jeans tapered? Looking to get them done somewhere locally (LA area), anyone have good/bad experiences to share, maybe things to stay away from?

Railcar is somewhat close to you, and they did a great job tapering my flat heads. Have a look in the railcar thread for more feedback. I reccomend.

[VivaMarlon]

Thanks! I actually posted a similar question in the Samurai thread and everyone seemed to agree that Railcar is the best option.