IH-634Z - 21oz Denim Straight Cut Jeans - Indigo
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I recently visited Osaka and went on a denim hunt, but I'm always looking for a deal which resulted in me picking up a pair of IH-634Z from Hinoya, which lead to a lot of soul searching wondering if I should have bought 634S instead(anything on the denim?). I did watch videos on Japanese denim(mostly Osaka Five) before heading to Japan which raised my curiosity in Iron Heart 21oz. My denim interests has always been motivated by vintage 1930s-1940s style clothing which resulted in my purchasing mostly Levis Vintage Collection jeans(1901, 1933 and 1944[purchased in Tokyo a few years back]). I visited denim shops in reference to my hotel, Wrangler, Studio D'Artisan, The Real McCoy's, Momotaro and one final that I don't remember the store but it had a massive door facing a park and a grouch guy working.
-I almost sold my IH-634Z to purchase IH-634S until I tried them on again and love them.
-Why was the IH-634Z created and why are they not spoken of as if they don't exist? I found one guy on YouTube mention them a few years back but a mystery otherwise
-I can't find much on the denim or anything for that matter.
Thanks,
Mike from California -
It's a long story. But basically the non selvedge jeans sell very poorly outside of Japan. We sold them for a while, but demand was so small we gave up. They are still made and sold in Japan, but it is pointless us stocking something that hardly anyone buys.
Arguably the cut of the Z is better than the S because we are not constrained by having a straight out seam (to retain the selvedge ID), but the 21oz non selvedge denim does not have as much character as the selvedge equivalent.
As to why were they created, the Japanese bikers don't really give a toss whether their jeans are selvedge or not, so we offered them as a cheaper alternative to the selvedge version. They lack some of the features of the selvedge jeans (no hidden rivets for instance).
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Is sizing on those similar to the 634s?
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Are you still considering them? @sabergirl
. I’ve been a selvedge snob for so long I kinda want to wear something like this as a go to pair for a while. The old Reverse Hipster if you will.