Roy. (expurgated edition)

[rockon99]

RIP Roy 🖤

[UkeNo]

I’ve just seen Kiyas Post and can’t quite believe it! This is very sad news. 
I would chat with him from time to time on Instagram and used to message with him nearly daily when he was in Japan at Buaisou. 
He was always really engaging and easy to talk with. 
I’ve been wearing his jeans since the first release at Self Edge. His jeans are the reason I stumbled across & came to join Superfuture. It’s not an exaggeration to say Roy is the reason I got into this hobby fully. 

My best wishes to his friends and family. 

[JDelage]

Well, I'm going to be wearing his pants the rest of the day at least. We were the same age so I know in my bones he's gone way too soon. RIP Roy!

[ATWM]

That’s really sad news. RIP Roy 

[Josh'N'Roll]

RIP Roy. I think I’ve told this story here before, but it bears repeating. I emailed Roy between runs of jeans for Self Edge to ask if he had a random pair in size 36 laying around his shop. He didn’t. I told him there was pair of Memorial Jeans for sale on eBay, but that I wasn’t going to pay double when I could just wait for the next lot to drop on the SE website. He said to forget the random dude selling used jeans online and offered to make me a pair. I had them in hand within a week. 
Condolences to his family and friends. 

[srudy]

There are no words for the loss of him as a human and as a denim maker. ROY was one of the most unique and interesting people I’ve ever met, he was smart, quirky, and good at everything he did. I hope we do some kind of tribute for him here in the Bay and on here, he was truly one of a kind. I will miss him dearly. 🩵

[Sansome1877]

We usually talked about random shit, once a month, for the last 12-13 years, will miss our random conversations about anything and everything.

sad to see him go.

[redragon]

Had never seen/touch any of his jeans but I do really admire his dedication to the craft. Will be missed dearly, rip…

[Suitedupmon]

Haven't posted here in a long time, but this was the first place I thought of when I saw Roy passed. RIP. I will never forget pining after a pair of Roy Denim when I was in high school.

Edited July 15 by Suitedupmon

[AnOldFolkSong]

Good job, Roy.

[oomslokop]

link to the 2017 leroy tour https://denimbro.com/leroy-strauss-top-top-elite-world-tour_topic3621&OB=DESC_page18.html

had the jeans for a month. nearly lost em in the jakarta post office. good times. rest in denim, roy. 

[lophophora]

Really sad to see this news. Though we talked infrequently, I was always thankful for his kindness and generosity. No one one was quite like ROY. Rest in peace. 

[Broark]

At a loss for words. Roy was unlike anyone I'd ever met. Our friendship started from denim and sewing machines but over the years it completely separated from any of that.
We chatted regularly, a lot about baseball where he helped me learn to appreciate listening to games on the radio instead of idly following scores on my phone.
I learned more about the current issues that the Giants face than I ever thought I would (from front office woes, lack of respect for the manager, to Raphael Devers being a complete moron).
Whenever the Braves and Giants would play we'd jab at one another, despite the Braves having a much better season this year the Giants won the most recent series. He couldn't explain how, but he'd take it.

I remember him telling me a story about how during a semi-monthly event in Oakland he'd wheel a sewing machine out and offer custom embroidery.
He wasn't doing this to make money, he just wanted to fine tune the machine and work on his embroidery.
Someone stopped by and asked him to make a Dodgers cap for that person's boss. He hated Dodgers (we'd often complain about their ways of gaming the lack of true salary cap in baseball).
He did the cap, but he stuck a hidden message inside the brim which stated "DODGERS SUCK", and he hoped that person never saw it.

He truly did not do anything half-assed. He put everything he had into whatever he was interested in at the time.
A while back we were talking about getting back into running, he was getting back into skating more regularly. I told him about my injured ankle from when I was a kid which made it tough to run.
Unexpectedly he told me all about this physiotherapy book that helped him and he swore by it. Knowing Roy that type of response shouldn't have been all that unexpected.
Truly didn't matter what the subject was, he would learn every single thing about it if it was truly interesting to him.

It had been a few years since we had last seen one another, but we were planning to catch up this fall and grab lunch in the Bay Area.
I'll finally get around to the Jack/Knife story he asked me to share. Just need some time, processing everything. Typing this out is helping a bit.
Don't be a stranger, stay close with your friends. Hold your memories close. Times like these make you realize how fleeting those moments can be.

[Sorjeans]

First time posting here on Sufu. Felt this was a good reason to step in. 

Just spoke to him a couple of times via IG. 

He’s been a huge inspiration of mine, watched his YT videos hundreds of times.

A great loss.

[julian-wolf]

Pulled my old Black Seed Test Lot Leroy’s out of storage, thinking I might try and get them back in the rotation. I think these were the first run he did of the R01 cut, which is still one of my all-time favorites

 

Love the matching selvedge ID + belt loop filler

Lots of repairs on these, hopefully lots more to come

 

These were the pants I wore to walk the stage for my graduate degree (not to mention for much of the research itself)

[srudy]

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/roy-slaper-obituary-22354816.php?fbclid=IwdGRleATUWMRwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR47P8XDAgNT6zLhnfOeHzdKqMLn7v3cQwM0pwHTIVbf1LOs66vNS1C0_Rgtjw_aem_vr4zqn3jWbFzCYPvh2QjiA

[ATWM]

That’s really sad.

It’s also always unsettling when a cause of death is not released for someone so young. It’s debatable as to whether or not it is in the public interest, I would argue that it is. Hopefully we eventually learn what happened. 

[CSL]

Yes^. The mystery aspect is unsettling. I wonder if Roy was someone who suffered from depression?

[heyson]

rest in peace ROY

[wmb]

sorry to hear this - didn't know him but sent him an email once about making a denim jacket.  I didn't realize how popular he was at the time... he emailed me right back that he didn't do one offs anymore and was very pleasant and helpful

[JohnM]

Sad news indeed.  I live near where Roy lived, knew him a bit, and own quite a few pairs of his beautifully sewn jeans.  Without going into detail, we had friendly exchanges and one that was less so.  He was direct and brutally honest with me one day.  Thankfully, I resisted the temptation to defend myself and asked him to elaborate on my fault.  He did exactly that, closing by saying that he's anything but perfect himself.  I learned a lot from this exchange, appreciated his directness and honesty, and will carry this with me for years to come.

We all get a sea of advice in our lifetimes, most of which we ignore or take lightly.  Every once in a while someone says something that is spot on.  That was Roy for me.

Regarding how he died, I'm torn.  First, it's none of my business and his family should honor his wishes, or their own.  On the other hand, not knowing leads to unnecessary speculation.  My wife has always said that none of us want to be remembered for how we died but, rather, how we lived.

In that spirit, Roy was incredibly talented, interesting, curious, direct, honest, and lived his life the way he wanted.  He didn't run with the pack, and while his way was not everyone's way, we can't help but appreciate and respect both the man and the work he left behind.

 

 

[TheEscapist]

RIP Roy

This Heavy Denim shirt is approaching 10 years. I tried not to bother him too much since he was always so generous with his time, but I thought I might send him an email with a photo to mark that occasion in January 2027. I wish I had done it sooner.

These are the Test Lot pair he gave me when he saw my post here looking for them. I just recently moved back into them when my R01 Leroy Test Lot pair started to fail. 

This is the R01 Leroy Test Lot pair that needs to be repaired or retired. My sister has helped me keep them going with repairs over the years. I started wearing them when the pandemic started, in April 2020.

This is an RT2 pair that suffered an early blow out. 

This is another pair of R01s that I believe I bought through Roy in one of his last direct sales that hopefully have quite a bit of life left.. 

Family shots, with a cool elbow repair a friend did on the shirt.

I still have a pair of XX20s ready to move into.

 

Edited August 2 by TheEscapist

[shredwin_206]

@TheEscapist I’ll admit that ROY jeans don’t do much for me until they’ve reached the state of that shirt and the most faded jeans. Truly beautiful collection. I wish I had bought more ROY stuff. Seeing all the flippers on eBay trying to sell shit for thousands pisses me off. 

[Jared_Lee]

Beautiful collection @TheEscapist. It's great to see so many pairs in various states of wear.

[crownzip]

So grateful I've been able to own a pair of Roy denim.

 

 

[shredwin_206]

[UkeNo]

https://www.online-tribute.com/RoySlaper

[Double 0 Soul]

Holy shit! .. this is terrible news

[kiya]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/arts/design/roy-slaper-dead.html

[Double 0 Soul]

Link doesn't work without a NYT subscription @kiya 

This has knocked me sideways a little bit.. sorry if i sound insensitive but  i've just absorbed a massive amount of news in a short period and i'm trying to understand what has happened?

On 7/28/2026 at 10:26 PM, CSL said:

Yes^. The mystery aspect is unsettling. I wonder if Roy was someone who suffered from depression?

i'm sure if it was a mental heath crisis folks would actively want people to speak about it.. keeping shtum is what leads to those tragic events, especially for men of a certain age who struggle to voice their feelings.. it's terrible news whatever the circumstances.