Introduce Yourself Here

[blue2gnt]

Greetings from Florida, new member here. 44 years old. Long post incoming, as I am now down a spiral of seemingly never-ending expenditure.

I recently made a trip to Japan - my 2nd trip there, but first trip since my interest piqued in Japanese denim. I was aware of selvedge denim for at least a decade, having watched a few videos here and there on Youtube, I just never went further than that. However, prior to this trip, for whatever reason I clicked on a video or two about Japanese denim; the videos from 'Fjorde' and 'Iron Snail' in particular really caught me and sent me down a rabbit hole - I decided I had to buy some.

So about a month prior to departure, I made it my mission to visit as many denim stores during my trip as possible, and stock up on jeans while I could get them cheap (relative to import pricing, I guess). I pinned twenty four stores on our travel map, between Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka (and Hong Kong, where we spent 3 days at the end of the trip). I was feeling strongly pulled in the direction of a few specific brands due to their reputation, style, cuts, and branding: SDA, PBJ, Momotaro, Samurai, and Iron Heart. So stops at all of these shops were in order, among others.

Prior to leaving however, I couldn't resist the urge to go ahead and order just one pair, to see if dedicating a good 10-15% of our trip was worth it, or if I was just obsessing for no reason. The brand and model that I chose to start with was Iron Heart 555 SBG. I ordered from Division Road, and it arrived in about 3 days. I put them on, and knew immediately, my obsession was totally warranted. This trip just got a bit more expensive.

During the 17 days, I dragged my [quite supportive, all things considered] wife to each of the following stores, trying on denim:

Sapporo: Flamingo, Unique & Sons, Kapital, Daimaru, Warehouse, and Sapporo BASE
Tokyo: All four Hinoya stores at Ueno station, PBJ, Momotaro, M'Arijuan, Tools Infinity, and Sun House Jinnan
Osaka: Hinoya Namba, SDA
Hong Kong: Workware, Hide & Seek, Black Riot, Take5

Ironically, since we were there during the final 7 days of the. year the 3 shops I most wanted to visit (Iron Heart Osaka, Iron Heart Hachioji, and Samurai Osaka) were all closed! So we'll get to those three next time. My wife even got the bug and snagged a cool pair of TCB's, the 'Cathartt's with the little flaps over the pockets, and heart-shaped buttons.

Attached are a few pics of my haul (I also bought a Momotaro jacket and an Evisu jacket). Upon returning to the states and wearing most of this stuff, I've realized IH is by far my favorite, and have since ordered or wish listed six more (IHSH-428, IHSH-189, IHSB-BIGBUCK, IHSB-BB-NAT, 526J-SLB, and 555S-SLB).

I suppose I'm stuck here now...

[goosehd]

@blue2gnt Awesome story, introduction, and way to jump down the rabbit hole. Welcome to the forum!!

[ROman]

@blue2gnt Great intro. Great place to be stuck as well.

[Denimhead 0]

@blue2gnt
Welcome to the forum

[Luijim78]

@blue2gnt Welcome among us, I'm Luigi

[HMamen]

Hi, folks.

Greetings from Haugesund, Norway. My name is Helge, and I run a small boot company called Dundas Footwear. Never owned anything from IH, but have drooled over their products every time we went to The Selvedge Run in Berlin in what seems like ages ago. A very good friend of mine recently shipped a parcel to me and asked me to register on the forum, so here I am.

[Denimhead 0]

@HMamen Welcome aboard. As a Norwegian American, always follow brands from the home country and Dundas are on my wishlist. Love the boots 🥾

[AdamJ]

@HMamen Welcome!

[Aetas]

@HMamen Welcome! Curious to hear some insights about Dundas footwear.

[HMamen]

Thanks a ton, folks.
Regarding Dundas Footwear, feel free to ask!

All the best
Helge

[Luijim78]

@HMamen Hi, I'm Luigi, welcome

[Indigo Alchemist]

@noescapin Welcome!

[harvestofgrief]

Hi, I'm Brian from Chicago. I bought a pair of the 666 non fade and love them so wanted to learn more about other stuff iron heart makes. I posted or read a lot of other fashion forums like, care tags, fuk and supernatural. Nice to see a traditional forum that's still really active. Besides clothes I like metal music, sewing and hiking.

[Twistlock]

@harvestofgrief , welcome!

[Luijim78]

@harvestofgrief Hi Brian, I'm Luigi and I live in Italy, nice to meet you

[rovdjurstorget]

Hi all, been a member since 2014 and never properly introduced myself(!) A little quick recap. My name is Ric and grew up all over the place, from Quito Ecuador, to Washington DC, Bilbao Spain, Orange County California, and have now lived the past 20 years working with Digital Design and Art Direction in Gothenburg Sweden. I was supposed to move and work with video game development (concept art) in Tokyo Japan in 2005. But I met a swedish girl and you know how that goes. Somewhere in a parallel universe I'm writing this from Japan.

I've always loved timeless design, rugged clothes and ivy league - I love worn in clothes and I guess that's where the best workwear, military and ivy league meet. Since the early 90's most of my wardrobe has consisted of levi's, flannels and leather/military jackets, but in those days that was it. No internet communities and no hashtags. Just kids wearing the shit our of their clothes.

Until 2010 when I discovered the japanese wave of selvedge workwear/repro community through social media. Iron Heart included. It was amazing to see people going back to the roots of heritage, style, workwear, the craft, and the longing to hold on to the culture peak of quality manufacturing that almost was erased. I kinda miss those early instagram days when everyone was discovering Red Wings, waxed canvas rucksacks, and Selvedge denim. It felt like a return to durability and rugged material, after years of disposable mass production.

I always found it strange that I remembered my childhood jeans (late 70s – early 80s) being stronger, heavier, and harder than the thin 'blowout' jeans we were later surrounded by. It felt like a weird Mandela Effect—how jeans all of a sudden became paper thin. That is, until I discovered Iron Heart and all the other amazing makers.

[Makarwise]

@rovdjurstorget 11 years of membership and now an intro. I like your pace of life

[rovdjurstorget]

@Makarwise Thanks! I figured I’d find 5 spare minutes sooner or later

[Makarwise]

@rovdjurstorget nice to make your acquaintance
Reading a book by Burkeman just now called Four Thousand weeks. It goes into quite a bit of 'time' finding'. Being at peace with not managing everything can be liberating!

[rovdjurstorget]

@Makarwise Just checked it out. I need to get my hands on a copy. Thanks for the tip! ️🫠