Rodeo Denim, Osaka

[Charlie Delta]

While reading a post on Fullcount on the excellent Denim news blog:

Tsujita (ed: of FULLCOUNT) recounts his younger days in the 80’s working in the famous vintage shop Lapine and traveling in the US with co-worker Hidehiko Yamane (of Evisu fame) to hunt for vintage denim garments. At the time vintage Levi's and the likes were already exchanging hands (American to Japanese) at hefty sums and it was difficult finding enough right pieces at the right prices to stock popular "used stores" like Lapine across Japan.

As a result in '89 Tsujita and Yamane launched the brand Rodeo backed by Lapine's owner. It offered raw denim with details that nodded homage to the vintage jeans they loved. Rodeo was famously different from existing brands like Studio D'Artisan and Denime, who pushed similar products but were supported by strong financial backing. It was known as a homebrewed label that distributed in vintage stores for likeminded individuals.

But in 1991 the ambitious duo splintered off and formed Evis (later renamed Evisu)

I got curious about this brand Rodeo.

So basicly it was what Yamane and Tsujita did before they each started their own brands.

It sounds like it was a very small, as the quote says "homebrewed" brand, and only existed for about 3 years.

That is exactly what interests me about it.

Has anyone got any more info on it?

Would like to know any- and everything...

(This was originally part of this thread but I didn't want to derail it and thought that this deserved a thread of it's own so I called Tweeds in for some mod action, thanks!)

[jpgm]

I definitely think this is worthy of it's own thread, as it could be a discussion on the Osaka 5 and not so much about each individual brand.

I recently read this on the excellent Denim news blog:

Slightly offtopic: I'd also be interested to hear more about this "Rodeo" brand.

ducky - i had heard of rodeo before i went to japan late last year, but didnt actually know anything about them as such. basically, i knew they existed and that was it.

when i was in osaka, i was strolling around and happened to walk straight past their store. naturally, i went in and checked the place out. the staff were really lovely, and pretty thrilled that a westerner knew about them and took an interest in their product.

as an aside, i found this to be the case with almost every denim store i went into in japan - skull, SDA, denime, fullcount, omnigod, dry bones, warehouse. loopwheeler were the same. i guess they wouldnt get all that many westerners in their stores.

anyway...

the guy at rodeo was telling me that they were the 'first of their kind' or something to that effect. my memory is a little hazy here, but i was of the impression that he was telling me rodeo was the oldest japanese repro company, older than SDA. maybe something was lost in translation there, quite likely.

the store had some nice vintage sweatshirts and tshirts, tricker's boots, leather belts and wallets - the usual japanese denim store fare. rodeo's jeans only came raw from memory, no one wash. i'm pretty sure they only two cuts - had a '47 cut and one other. the denim itself seemed pretty good, was of quite a regular weave, and had no modern bells or whistles. i think they have two stores in osaka.

that's about all i've got!

[jpgm]

also on rodeo - they were cheap! around 20,000Y for a pair of jeans.

they had type 1/2/3 jackets too.

[Charlie Delta]

Bumping this as it's a thread of it's own now.

Anyone?

[Skeese]

you guys mean Rodeo Uncle right? ....

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/studebaker/rodeouncle.html

[Charlie Delta]

Honestly I don't know.

Jpgm should be able to say if those are the ones he saw...

Note that for as far as I know this brand existed from '89 till '91 only,

so if those are more recent than I doubt it.

edit: this ofcourse makes no sense as Jpgm said he had been to the brands store recently...

[40ozprophet]

I LOVE that arcuate, regardless! great price point!

[jpgm]

you guys mean Rodeo Uncle right? ....

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/studebaker/rodeouncle.html

Honestly I don't know.

Jpgm should be able to say if those are the ones he saw...

Note that for as far as I know this brand existed from '89 till '91 only,

so if those are more recent than I doubt it.

yep, rodeo uncle is the one.

the lapine / rodeo site can be found at http://www.sutv.zaq.ne.jp/lapine/page038.html

mr duck - they still operate today, although i'm not sure if they have changed in any way since yamane and tsujita went their separate ways.

[jpgm]

i'm pretty sure they only two cuts - had a '47 cut and one other.

also....

looks like they mustve had limited stock at the store i went to, although there is a very slight chance that the obscene amount of denim stores i visited in osaka somehow confused me....

their lineup can be seen here: http://www.sutv.zaq.ne.jp/lapine/page015.html. they have 7 cuts.

paging edmond......

i'd be surprised if he didn't have some in his massive collection.

[rnrswitch]

They look pretty nice and pretty good prices. Their jackets are ridiculously inexpensive compared to other Japanese repro brands. I would like to see some close up pics of the denim and fit.

[OMG]

I bought a pair of the Lapine / Rodeo Uncle jeans about around 1999 in Osaka. I had no idea they had any connection to Tsujita and Yamane.(I'm a big Evisu and Fullcount fan) I'm still not convinced that this is the same "Rodeo though....I saw some old jeans in an old Evisu book and in the evisu shop with a Rodeo patch ,and they weren`t the same as the jeans I had. Or maybe the originals just evolved into the jeans/company that it is today. Anyhow, the originals I saw were much more impressive. The Rodeo Uncles I bought were nothing special. I don't have them anymore. Don't remember what I did with them.

[OMG]

After reading that DENIM NEWS article on Fullcount more carefully, I think that the Rodeo Uncles I had WERE from the Tsujita/Yamane company. But not the original jeans. I'm guessing that after they split up, the Lapine company continued to back the Rodeo brand with new creative directors to form the line up of jeans that are available today. The original Tsujita/Yamane jeans were just around for a few years in the late '80s early '90s like Cotton had mentioned. The reason I was confused was because I think I've seen other brands with the word 'Rodeo' in it, but I clearly remember the jeans I had were from the Lapine company, and the DENIM NEWS article clearly says the original Rodeo was backed by Lapine. But I could still be wrong...

[Charlie Delta]

That sounds logical, that the company would've just continued.

Quality wise, pics on the site jpgm linked to are very hard to base anything on though.

I'm mainly interested to find out more about what they did in the short period that Tsujita and Yamane were in control, though I imagine that will be hard to find out.

[OMG]

I think that I've seen a pair in the glass display cabinet at the evisu Osaka or Tokyo store. Not sure, my memory is a little fuzzy...

[Charlie Delta]

Yah, I can imagine the original jeans to be pretty rare now...

[salaami]

props to duck for this tantalizing bit of info. youre a quirky dude, and quirky is the new"intriguing" nice.

[edmond]

my rodeo uncle dont know where to post em evisu's the nearest i think

scoville and ykk newmax rivets!!!!!!!! yeah!

[edmond]

thanks for moving it here thanks

[selaviso]

boner alert. ed are these going in the vault?