Glory Threads - How Did You Find Iron Heart?
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I was doing a tour on the My Nudies forum, and @FOXY was the next person, so we did a personal handover since he happened to be in Berlin at just the right time. I was very taken both about his jeans and the guy, real fine person, it felt weird for only the very first seconds to spend time with a dude this way, much like a blind date minus the romantic interest. We lucked out finding a really pleasant restaurant - just everything worked well that evening- and talked mostly denim. He wore beautifully faded IHs and also told me about this forum. The rest is history…..
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Now that’s a cool way to get into IH.
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Another obvious point i'll make as to why I started to gravitate towards IH is fit. I've tried a few American brands and Japanese brands and while there are one or two that make bottoms/tops that fit, there are others that miss the mark completely. I like that IH accomodates Western builds first and foremost. The cut of most IH tops is near perfect, as in perfect length, chest and shoulders. Then there are the little details like beefy snaps, side gussets and heavy fabrics…basically details that we geek out about. Second, I love the fabrics and patterns. Truly nice looking stuff. Lastly, I think it's pretty cool that Giles and crew put themselves out there on the forum -- it adds a personal touch that I don't see often with other brands.
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I became aware of selvedge denim in 2006, and after buying a pair of washed nudies decided I wanted to go raw. For the next few years I wore APC's NS for the most part but also had a pair of Sugar Cane 1947's I liked a lot. In '09 I picked up some kit from SESF in person (SExSCx06?) 2010 I decided I'd get into Levis seeing I was in SF.
Late '10 I was on a mission to find the best possible hoodie I could find. Zipper couldn't be standard YKK, had to be thick, good hood, pockets etc. I eventually found the IHSW-05 which I purchased from Japan. Quality blew me out of the water. I immediately decided i wanted a pair of jeans. Seeing the price, I picked up a second hand pair of IH-634S' before going on all. Rest has been a wonderful ride of long lasting joy.
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I first started searching for raw denim in 2010~. Ended up with some Sugar Cane 1947 that were too big, but non returnable. I wore them for two years because they were the most expensive denim I had ever bought at the time. As I looked more into denim Iron Heart kept popping up in my searches. 2012 we were in NYC with the family walking around the city. I knew SE stocked IH and very slyly guided the family in that direction without letting anyone know. About Three miles later I asked my wife if I could "check this store out." To this day she thinks we stumbled upon SE on accident. Bought some 634s and the rest is history. A few weeks/months later bought the plate belt from IHUK. An 07 next, a few UHF and some cut and sown and I was hooked. Now I feel a bit off if I don't have some IH on.
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Another obvious point i'll make as to why I started to gravitate towards IH is fit. I've tried a few American brands and Japanese brands and while there are one or two that make bottoms/tops that fit, there are others that miss the mark completely. I like that IH accomodates Western builds first and foremost. The cut of most IH tops is near perfect, as in perfect length, chest and shoulders. Then there are the little details like beefy snaps, side gussets and heavy fabrics…basically details that we geek out about. Second, I love the fabrics and patterns. Truly nice looking stuff. Lastly, I think it's pretty cool that Giles and crew put themselves out there on the forum -- it adds a personal touch that I don't see often with other brands.
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Agree with all of this. The fit part was something I meant to mention as well. They really have nailed the fits for the most part which is hard to find in general let alone in a Japanese brand.
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Some great stories so far btw.
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I think I was born to wear jeans. I started as a child in Wranglers. As I grew up I would flip flop between Lee's and Levi's. Through the marvels of ebay, I was discovering that there were great things going on in Japan with denim. In September of 2014, I went to San Francisco for work, and started to read the hotel book on the city and kept reading an article about a store called Self Edge. I had an appointment also on this trip to go to the Levi's store to have a pair of jeans that would be tailor made for me.
I went to the appointment and found that the pair of jeans would be $750.00, mainly based on which denim I chose, rivet and button color. which I guess I expected it to come to. Then I went to SESF on Valencia, walked out with a pair of 633's, 21 oz which I loved. Next day I went back and got a pair of 634 SEXIH13's and the 526J. I flew back to Charlotte, went online to find out more about Iron Heart and discovered IHUK. Then I discovered the 1955S and 1955UHR. And now the rest is history. I never did get the Levi's
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I've always worn jeans, as far back as I can remember. I remember being a kid in the 1970's and wearing Levi's and Wranglers, and I pretty much stuck with them through my teens in the 80's (mostly 501's). I do remember the whole "stonewashed" craze, and I shudder to think about walking around in public in those, but hell, it was the 80's. I do know that it was about that time that I started being dissatisfied with the way jeans were fitting me– I was pretty skinny, and jeans were pretty high rise at that point.
This continued through the 90's, I think at some point I started wearing Gap jeans because they fit a lot better than all the Levi's I tried on. In the early 2000's, my roommate's girlfriend started talking about Diesel jeans, and how great they fit, and how girls loved guys in Diesel jeans.
Well, she didn't have to tell me twice. I think this is where my jeans obsession truly started.
After I bought a few pairs of Diesels off of eBay, I started hearing about Seven for All Mankind and True Religion (before they got ridiculous but still, yuck), and bought a pair each of those. Luckily, I figured out pretty quickly that I didn't like "fancy" jeans. Plus, now that I was spending more money on jeans, it was pissing me off that the quality and durability weren't improving. I started trying to figure out if there were better jeans out there, that fit well but were more traditional. I discovered Earnest Sewn, and went through about a one year fling with those. But somewhere during that year (probably 2009-2010) I started hearing about raw denim, and how much better a worn-in pair of raw denim looked compared to artificially worn jeans, and that raw denim lasted longer because they weren't already beat to hell from day one. Plus I liked the whole idea of your jeans being unique to you because they would conform to your body and fade in a unique way.
This research, of course, led me to Nudies and mynudies.com. I bought one pair (Straight Sven Japanese selvage, which I still have) before discovering Superfuture, which led me to PBJ (005, 007, and 005bk, all of which I still have and love even though I never wear them), then Samurai (710 and 710 Black Shadows, still have and wear both occasionally, the regular 710's were my HWDC1 pair and are my best fitting and best faded pair), and finally IH (SEXIHXLSXA13's and then BB01's). I'm happy to have finally discovered true quality jeans with PBJ, IH, and Samurai, and that these jeans will give me years of wear and will only look better as time goes by. This has led me to an overall appreciation of quality clothing in general, I love the idea of having clothes that are rugged enough and timeless enough to still be a part of my life many years down the road.
This was my post on the other thread about this topic. Since then, I’ve pretty much lost interest in PBJ and Samurai (nothing wrong with either brand, I still think they’re great, just not IH-great) and am now a devoted IH fan. The 666 cut fits me perfectly, and it’s made in enough stellar denims to keep me always chasing after my next pair. And I feel the same way about IH westerns, no other shirt comes close.
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I was searching for a belt to go with my new leather jacket when I came across what to me looked like a rather dodgy site, charging a fortune, payment in dollars and based in a bedroom in gosport, all looked a bit iffy. However the belt was just what I wanted, the denim looked amazing and the leather jacket co recommended them so I took a punt, glad I did as my apprehensions proved to be totally unfounded
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And while we are on it. Where is beatle these days. ?
@spitfiredealer , she’s just out there living her life mate, just that her life is no longer denim. She came to Gosport for the Sunday of Giles Kanreki weekend.
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Thanks for update Mega. Her fits on sufu were quality back in the day. The kinda early 2000’s oversized with stacks were proper cool.
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No doubt dude, i’m only here because of her and her ability to make any and every item look so damn cool.
In fact, appropriate to this thread, I remember in my early days when I was really in to Samurai she said to me “Samurai will make you happy but you won’t be satisfied until you wear Iron Heart”. I credit her for my untold amount of time and money spent
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I came across what to me looked like a rather dodgy site, charging a fortune, payment in dollars and based in a bedroom in gosport, all looked a bit iffy….
Quality. I remember similar things occurring to me my first visit to the site and that was in 2013 on the 2nd or 3rd iteration. Didn’t suspect things were not legit, but it felt a bit weird.
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I was searching for a belt to go with my new leather jacket when I came across what to me looked like a rather dodgy site, charging a fortune, payment in dollars and based in a bedroom in gosport, all looked a bit iffy. However the belt was just what I wanted, the denim looked amazing and the leather jacket co recommended them so I took a punt, glad I did as my apprehensions proved to be totally unfounded
I wonder if we can find any screenshots of ironheart.co.uk 1.0 for posterity…
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My story is a little similar to that of @Filthy 21/23oz junkie , I had been wearing a Levis LVC red/black checked wooly shirt for about 7 winters - I was hoping at the time to find an exact replacement for sale somewhere on line and my google search journey encountered an image of @Cole in his red/black buffalo 127. This in turn brought me to all things Iron Heart. My early purchases ended up being a wallet from the web store and a deck jacket from a forum member, and shortly after the red/black 127!
Based on the logic that I can get at least 7 winters out of a heavy duty shirt I now have enough Iron Heart UHF's in rotation to last me my lifetime to go!! -
I wonder if we can find any screenshots of ironheart.co.uk 1.0 for posterity…
I wonder how many times I visited that page… It was beyond bare... Which made it hella intruiging...
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Thanks for update Mega. Her fits on sufu were quality back in the day. The kinda early 2000’s oversized with stacks were proper cool.
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were't you there as well? or have i gotten the wrong person…
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Think I first came across Iron Heart in 2009 or so when I found a, to me, obscure looking website from the UK with some bricks background (I believe). Selling $XXX denim from Japan. I once had a pic somewhere @Alex but I can't find it, damn…
While I somehow was interested, it was a lot like, yeah I do have windows to throw out cash, so no need for sending it to the UK to get....
me moving on...A bit later there was a small feature on hyper with the first IH buffalo UHF and a $300 tag and I was like yeah, or I get one from xxxxx for like $25 :D.
Anyway, late 2010 on a super bored backfly from NYC to Frankfurt, a guy from Japan was sitting next to me. He noticed my JP Evis(u) I was wearing and we chatted about JP denim and things along and he was like you need to check Iron Heart out.
So back home, in a free minute a few days later, Jan 4th 2011. Went again through the net and found a way more legit looking UK site and ordered right away a pair of 634S....As said before the other day, one of the best decisions I have ever made :)...
