Vintage Lee Riders

[darknworn]

Beautiful stuff, hardly seen on eBay. If I had a bigger gut I'd be sniping this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8318139343

"God is Dead" - Neitzsche

"Neitzsche is Dead" - God

[hahnstch]

yea, same here. maybe i should bid for it to keep it for the later years when i start growing beer bellies...

[teejayess]

I have a pair of the repros as my current project jeans. Really lovely, but the size and positioning of the back pockets makes your arse look huge. They've given me a bit of a complex

Edited by teejayess on Jul 12, 2005 at 11:18 AM

Edited by teejayess on Jul 12, 2005 at 11:18 AM

[darknworn]

are you a woman?

"God is Dead" - Neitzsche

"Neitzsche is Dead" - God

[Serge d Nimes]

Yeah, I don't like how they position the pockets toward the outseam on Lees. I have a pair from ~1963 or so and I don't wear them because of that.

Carpe Denim!

[teejayess]

Quote:

are you a woman?

--- Original message by darknworn on Jul 12, 2005 11:23 AM

No, but I do have a fat arse. In all seriousness, this is a fashion forum - it's not as if I'm the first person on here to find fault with certain pieces of clothing because of the way I look in them.

Edited by teejayess on Jul 12, 2005 at 11:39 AM

[berent]

I saw a rider repro with zip fly, was only 55 euro's, so I wanted to buy them. But I already have kind of a big ass, and those jeans made them look even bigger. Think those back pockets are placed little too high. Too bad......

[magicclean]

are lee, Riders, and lee cooper from the same company? i was at the departmental store and saw all their stuff side by side. out of all of them i believe only lee makes selvage right?

[Paul T]

lee Cooper were always a different company, but I believe they were bought by VF corporation (who own Lee and Wrangler) a few years ago. Riders is the name that Lee called their 'Cowboy jeans' from the 1940s...

[erl1580]

How can you tell if they are repros or orig lee riders? I just got a pair that still has the tag on the back pocket that looks almost exactly like these:

http://www.aeroleatherclothing.com/webapp/aeroleather/servlet/AeroViewPage?page=displayproduct&subcatid=106&prodid=7

Diffrence is mine has 1948 as the year and instead of that black arrow pointing to the lee tag on the back pocket, my tag says "specially tailored REGULAR model"

the selvedge is also similiar but different between the left and right leg.

here are some pics

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoView.jsp?&collid=74050189507&photoid=11013189507

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoView.jsp?&collid=74050189507&photoid=54283189507

not sure if i want to keep em since the leg opening isn't wide enough for me. But if they are really from 1948, how much could something like these go for?

[erl1580]

how do vintage lee riders compare in quality to levis LVC?

[Cue]

i went to school with a kid called lee cooper ... we used to call him jean and he didn't like that too much

[Corbin Law]

i wouldnt mind being called jean, but then again, my name isnt lee cooper....

chwa?

[Paul T]

"how do vintage lee riders compare in quality to levis LVC?"

Mmm, hard to compare a vintage with a new item. Old Lee, like old Levi's, jeans are very variable, the fits change over the years, but they're just as worthy of investigaion.

Lee Europe's reissues used to be terrific - really good value, and great sanforized denim. They've cheapened the range slightly (they were made in Eire, then Malta, and now Poland), the denim is still good but now it's non-sanforized, and some of the detailing isn't as nice, but they're still good value for money, significantly cheaper than LVC. Their standard cut is reasonably close to 47 Levi's... I would always dry clean mine for the first six months, and they fade absolutely beautifully.

I don't own any of the Edwin-made Lee reissues, but they're very, very well made with beautiful, left-hand twill, sanforized selvage denim which comes from Nisshinbo.

[erl1580]

how can you tell if they are vintage or if they are re-issues? Only year listed is on the tag which reads 1948. how much do you think a deadstock pair of 1948 Lee Riders could go for?

[Paul T]

Quick thoughts: Japanese reissues will have Japanese tags, Euro reissues have country of origin tags, too. Only the early Euro reissues are sanforized (alho they do shrink btw) and have the back pocket linings. Then there's all the normal clues, just how the denim looks and has aged; old lees, pre 60s, often have a greeny colour cast which reisses don't have. It's hard to replicate the look of old jeans which have never been washed in modern detergents.

I think yours look authentic, in that the reissues with the old-style tags had the -double- selvage. Do they have the pocket linings etc? All the same, I;m not certain, becuase the 1940s Lees I've seen actually had double selvage - the single selvage seems to come in early 50s, while the selvage is gone by 1958 (my estimate from looking at Lee ad archive shots). TO confuse matters, old Lees, from the ones I've seen (only maybe 20 pre-60s pairs in the flesh) do seem to vary in detail a lot - particularly the denim, maybe they vary more accroding to how they're washed.

I don't know about vintage prices, but I'm told they'll be in the same ballpark as Levi's equivalents of similar vintage...

[teejayess]

Quote:

Quick thoughts: Japanese reissues will have Japanese tags, Euro reissues have country of origin tags, too. Only the early Euro reissues are sanforized (alho they do shrink btw) and have the back pocket linings. Then there's all the normal clues, just how the denim looks and has aged; old lees, pre 60s, often have a greeny colour cast which reisses don't have. It's hard to replicate the look of old jeans which have never been washed in modern detergents.

I think yours look authentic, in that the reissues with the old-style tags had the -double- selvage. Do they have the pocket linings etc? All the same, I;m not certain, becuase the 1940s Lees I've seen actually had double selvage - the single selvage seems to come in early 50s, while the selvage is gone by 1958 (my estimate from looking at Lee ad archive shots). TO confuse matters, old Lees, from the ones I've seen (only maybe 20 pre-60s pairs in the flesh) do seem to vary in detail a lot - particularly the denim, maybe they vary more accroding to how they're washed.

I don't know about vintage prices, but I'm told they'll be in the same ballpark as Levi's equivalents of similar vintage...

--- Original message by Paul T on Jul 13, 2005 01:16 PM

My pair are Japanese reissues with 'Lee Cowboy Sanforized' tags.

[Paul T]

sorry, yes, my post was unclear. Only early Euro reissues are sanforized. All Edwin-made reissues, where the originals were sanforized, ARE sanforized.

[erl1580]

Don't know if this helps at all but I noticed a tag in the inside right pocket.

It also seems like the bottom half of the pockets are lined

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Enhance.jsp?index=2&collid=74050189507&

[Serge d Nimes]

If they have a zipper they are sanforized.

Carpe Denim!

[teejayess]

Quote:

sorry, yes, my post was unclear. Only early Euro reissues are sanforized. All Edwin-made reissues, where the originals were sanforized, ARE sanforized.

--- Original message by Paul T on Jul 13, 2005 02:51 PM

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I figured I'd probably misread your original post, but wasn't sure.

[Paul T]

The Malta-made 101 reissues have zippers... but aren't Sanforized. They are the ones which were sold with the 'Dry' tags.

Funnily enough, over time, the original Sanforzied ones used to shrink too, it just seems to take longer. Checking my old Sanforized and non-Sanforized 32-32 pairs, they all seem to end up at around the same size.

[johnmc]

Original pre 1965 Lee jeans will have no R (circled) or MR after any of the trademarks.

[erl1580]

just asked the person I bought them from and they told me that they are not repros but genuinely from 1948. So how much would something like this be worth? its pretty much brand new with all tags size 33 x 32.