Ooe-Yofukuten & Co.

[Talan]

I think I’ve lost track of the model with a single back pocket. Does anyone know anything about its release prospects?

[julian-wolf]

@Broark For what it’s worth, I’m just now reading through the S&S email from a few days ago and it looks like Ryo and Hiro will be visiting S&S a few weeks after Inspiration to announce a new collab. model. If this is anything like previous years, they might save some extra stock of the Inspiration jeans to sell while there. No guarantee, obviously, but it could be worth reaching out.

[Broark]

15 minutes ago, Talan said:

I think I’ve lost track of the model with a single back pocket. Does anyone know anything about its release prospects?

Nothing has been confirmed yet (that I know of).

[olmecasteve]

I'll be making the trip to inspiration this year as well. 

From what I remember from past inspirations Ryo and Hiro tend to bring new offerings in limited sizes. 

I scored the duck vest 2 years ago and the cossack jacket some years back as well. I'm hoping they bring a few pairs of those one back pocket trousers. 

[scooby]

Good luck scoring Ooe's today - saw some big influencer posted about them/the release event today on Instagram

Hopefully no one gets trampled

[Broark]

33 minutes ago, scooby said:

Good luck scoring Ooe's today - saw some big influencer posted about them/the release event today on Instagram

Hopefully no one gets trampled

They have a way of ruining everything they touch, don't they?

[aho]

8 hours ago, Broark said:

They have a way of ruining everything they touch, don't they?

It's tough...You love to see a great niche mom and pop brand get the recognition but also, get off my lawn bandwagoners I liked them first (for at least the last 16 years I might add) 😂

[scooby]

9 minutes ago, aho said:

It's tough...You love to see a great niche mom and pop brand get the recognition but also, get off my lawn bandwagoners I liked them first (for at least the last 16 years I might add) 😂

They deserve the recognition no doubt 

I think in terms of scalability they'd already had it. They sell out instantly

I don't think many sufu members use Instagram but in the past year I've seen a massive spike in "heritage menswear" influencer content. If I see another video explaining what a WWII model is I'm going to gouge my eyes

It's annoying to see influencers trying to cash in

Hey subscribers! you heard it here first, here's the most niche ultra exclusive rare handmade Japanese Raw Selvedge denim only real purists know about! 

[Broark]

Do they deserve the recognition? Absolutely, they make a great product and they're dedicated to their craft.
But I selfishly don't want more competition on future releases, they already sell out quickly. Looking back I got my first pair from them 10 years ago which is kind of crazy.
I guess when influencers shill something that I've been a fan of for some time it just feels so disingenuous.
And don't forget to like, comment and subscribe.

[Double 0 Soul]

I told y'all this would happen 10yrs ago on DB and nobody took me seriously

If i remember rightly @CSL said .. and i quote "of course 00.. loose lips sinks ships"

Mr Beast will be giving them away before you know it!

[Broark]

You were always the harbinger of things to come 00, a canary in the mines!
This isn't all that dissimilar to whenever your favorite taco truck or local restaurant gets blown up by food influencers.
I've got a bbq spot near our house that I've been going to for years and lately they've been gaining notoriety.
I'm happy to see them doing well, but I'm also slightly annoyed that I can't just pop in anymore without waiting in line.

[Double 0 Soul]

22 minutes ago, Broark said:

You were always the harbinger of things to come 00, a canary in the mines!

Don't forget.. i had 40,000+ posts over there

Im like The Simpsons, if you say enough shit, some of it's bound to come true

[Maynard Friedman]

The tried and tested scattergun approach always delivers!

[shredwin_206]

I really like OOE’s jeans but the rise is terrible. If they’d do a proper higher rise like FW I’d be all over them. 
I also get sick of seeing OOE repost the same few influencers in their stories haha. Rant over. I’ll stay in the FW thread  

[julian-wolf]

[At least] Two parts to the story, really. On one hand…

4 hours ago, Broark said:

This isn't all that dissimilar to whenever your favorite taco truck or local restaurant gets blown up by food influencers.

Of course it's different. When the food influencers blow up the local spot, the folks running the spot have the potential to make a lot more money. That sort of exposure + influx could even be what lets them finally expand into a brick and mortar—which is maybe frustrating for the long-time customer but often great for the community, and most importantly for the folks running the place. Fine, sometimes they'll over-extend and the whole thing will go to shit, but that's going to be a risk either way. Ooe has been so supply-limited for so long that it's really hard to believe generating more interest in their product will generate any more actual work for them. Building more hype doesn't do much other than build more competition among customers. Fine, to be fair: it also probably drives quite a bit more traffic for their retailer partners like S&S, where there's bound to be something cool in stock even when those cherished Ooe jeans aren't, but even if that's a positive for the industry overall, it's not helping Ryo and Hiro directly in the same ways as it might help your homie with the taco truck.

The story would be a little different if they were taking the Roy + SE approach of just ratcheting prices higher and higher in order to curb demand and find some sort of real equilibrium, but so far that doesn't seem to be where they're going with this. Who knows?

On the other hand, though…

25 minutes ago, shredwin_206 said:

I also get sick of seeing OOE repost the same few influencers in their stories haha.

This has been my biggest real turn-off from them for years; I know it's come up in this thread before. We can complain all we want about the influencers latching on and blowing up the spot, but in the end, for better or for worse, that's exactly the result Ryo and Hiro are seeking in how they run their own social media. Clearly they've decided it's a net benefit to them & to the community, so who are we to say otherwise?

Edited 17 hours ago by julian-wolf

[Maynard Friedman]

I’m still eagerly awaiting the Ryo X Roy Anagram Collection…

[Broark]

@julian-wolf you’re right, your point about moving from a truck to a brick and mortar has happened with two spots that I’ve frequented for years here in Austin (both about a mile from my house, and one even catered our wedding and just won a Michelin star) and you’re right, it allows their business to expand and grow and continue to develop. Not exactly the case when we’re talking about a two person operation that’s directly limited by their ability to produce in limited quantities.
On your second point, I’m also curious since it seems like they repost just about everything that they get tagged in. I’m not an influencer by any means but when I do post something from them they will usually repost it.

[ATWM]

^ I know I posted awhile back about being bothered by the IG strategy. Since I’ve gotten off IG, of course I am no longer bothered by it. Annoying as I can find the strategy, I really rather view them as a symptom of the new commercial reality for small makers, wherein if you want to expand it is one way to break out to wider audiences, and perhaps the most utilized way. As I mentioned somewhere else recently, this has really been to the detriment of creators in all sorts of mediums writ large, but also to the extreme benefit of a few who would otherwise not have made it in the prior world of brick and mortar retailers with buyers. They’re playing the game well enough. The game may suck, but hard to hate the players. I love that they can do what they do and be appreciated. 

As for their jeans though, well, I’m generally quite happy enough with my WMJ pair and Simone that I would probably entertain taking that route again, to be honest (though with one worn and 2 untouched Ooe pairs this is a while down the road). It’s not the same thing, and he’s not getting his own denim for his pairs, but Ooe to my experience hasn’t really been appealing because of their fabric. Simone really offers some similar charm in a different way. And of course there are others.

I know Ooe makes other designs besides jeans, I can’t speak to those, but there are usually good alternatives out there and if the Ooe spot is blown up, well, okay. 

[Broark]

Well said @ATWM, feels like the social media marketing strategy is just somewhat of a necessary evil these days. A byproduct of the times we live in. I’ll still throw my hat in the ring and hope to land a release every now and then. But I won’t lose any sleep of any of it either. 
And agreed on Simone’s product, I’ll likely be a repeat customer after the contest!

[julian-wolf]

^ I like my Word of Mouth jeans a lot, but they’re not made to nearly the same standard of construction as anything I have from Ooe. That’s completely fine with me, in the end—I didn’t buy them to be built with every stitch perfect—but it makes them feel like a much closer to comparison to someone like Rockets or Bridge of Time (not that I’ve tried either of these personally, to be fair) than to Ooe. The only other jeans I’ve worn that felt like they really parallel Ooe in that regard are Roy’s, so maybe it’s too high of a standard to be comparing on anyway

[Broark]

Yeah I don’t think the product is a good direct comparison, more so about the fact that they’re similarly set up (one/two people operations). Plus I think they’re trying to achieve different goals.

[Maynard Friedman]

Aren’t they both trying to make and sell (primarily denim) clothing? I think their goal is the same but their strategies to achieving that goal is different.

[Broark]

Well sure, literally they are, but I think their ethos is a little different. It’s all about the semantics, right?

[beautiful_FrEaK]

On 3/21/2025 at 8:20 PM, scooby said:

Good luck scoring Ooe's today - saw some big influencer posted about them/the release event today on Instagram

Hopefully no one gets trampled

Who's that "big" influencer?

[Maynard Friedman]

^ Barron Trump

[Broark]

23 minutes ago, Maynard Friedman said:

^ Barron Trump

He’s just got such a natural talent with technology.

[ATWM]

Yea I was speaking more towards small makers - but, I will be honest, I also know that I don’t have the eye for detail that some you all have. I definitely am more inclined to see a whole thing first and sort of leave it at that if I feel it works. Whether it’s the precision of the construction or historical accuracy, these things never really have captured me all that much.

My Ooe’s are wonderful, but, and this despite the narrative about them, I don’t really, not in any meaningful or practical sense anyways, find the stitch work better than on pairs of Freewheelers or even my old Raleighs (who I maintain had some damn good jeansmakers if not patterning and design). I’m sure some would disagree with sound reasoning - I’m just saying it hasn’t been material to me for my purposes. I guess this is why I was never totally taken in by Roy - perfection in stitching for jeans, while admirable, just isn’t in concert with how I think of jeans and why I appreciate them.

Weird comparison here but if I think of photography it’s like the difference between viewing a sizable print (at appropriate viewing distance) from a camera that capture an image at 50 mp vs 100 mp. The resolving power of the camera (provided a base level of detail, say 24mp) is almost never what makes the picture successful, and if you had the same picture side by side, the 50mp print is going to register exactly the same to almost everyone. Maybe a few can guess correctly, spot a tiny difference - but the viewing experience of the picture is so much more dependent on other factors. 

So in this sense - the sense of things that appeal to me at least - the comparison to WMJ (or yes Rebuilt or BOT etc) seems apt enough, even if the makers veer a little differently in their visions. 

Edited 10 hours ago by ATWM

[scooby]

2 hours ago, beautiful_FrEaK said:

Who's that "big" influencer?

I DM'd you on Instagram

7 hours ago, julian-wolf said:

We can complain all we want about the influencers latching on and blowing up the spot, but in the end, for better or for worse, that's exactly the result Ryo and Hiro are seeking in how they run their own social media.

It's the natural result but I don't know if it's their intention

I always took their over-sharing as a way of engaging with their customers without having to say anything. I've asked them questions about products before after they'd shared something I posted and they almost always just reply with a like or a thank you