Freewheelers and Co.
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Free wheelers is super steez for people in their late 20s and above…
Steez: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=steez . Not sure which definition is accurate. That said, I am a huge fan of FW and I fit GMB's age profile. The quality, fabrics and designs are stellar! Moreover, they have a broad line of products and they are constantly introducing new designs.
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Where is the best place to buy FW? I didn't find much on Rakuten.
Chiba knows more about this than I. That said, there are many places that sell FW, including:
http://www.thewildone.jp/index.html
http://the-rising.co.jp/?action=item_list&recommend=2
http://union-kobe.shop-pro.jp/
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Superflous has hit many of the best there. Also check Genco Clothing. They probably have the best back stock.
Also, plugging フリーホイーラーズ into a Rakuten search will bring up a few more hits. Old Goat for example.
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/old-goat/
Dealers outside Japan include Hickorees and Pancho and Lefty.
FYI, there's a full list of the Japanese dealers on their site.
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@Chiba:
Can't really fathom any reason for FW to be limited to people over 25…...
A lot of their clothes seem to be meant to be tucked, and imo a lot of their pants/trousers vary pretty noticeably from the 5 pocket layout that's the "norm". They all still look great, but for me at least it's a little too "mature", kind of like how mister freedom is.
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A lot of their clothes seem to be meant to be tucked
I own several FW shirts and have never tucked in any of them.
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Just a personal observation, we all have them! Here's a shot of when I visited their tokyo headquarters!
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Ben, which FW shirts do you see as meant to be tucked in? I also own several FW shirts but none of them need to be tucked in.
You're right that FW has a few lines of more formalish wear, and that some of it could be harder for a young guy without a lot of grativas to pull off.
But…..
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FW has a massively deep line-up (deeper than any small clothing brand I'm aware of) so it's not really fair to push them into one box.
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Tucking your shirt in only weakly correlates with age.
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I'm not too familiar with the brand so it's entirely possible I'm incorrect, but for instance here's what I saw after a cursory search
The curved hems look to me like you should tuck but again I don't know everything…
And Ed by young I mean really young like teenagers etc; I thought I could have different stuff in my wardrobe but I ended up selling my mister freedom shirts since I just didn't feel like me when tucked!
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The curved hems look to me like you should tuck but again I don't know everything…
Interesting. The curved hem screams to me do NOT tuck.
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Dif strokes then… personally, i like my shirts to pretty much mirror the length of my troso
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That's not a "different strokes" thing, flat bottom hems are intended not to be tucked, this other kind is intended for tucking. That doesn't mean you have to, just sharing the sartorial intent of that kind of a shirt tail.
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I understand what you're getting at Ben, and actually had some similar concerns at one point. But I've since changed my mind completely.
Let's take FW's "Trackwalker" shirt as case study. This is one of their best and most popular designs, and one that they produce in a wide range of fabrics (including the very popular wabash). It has a curved hem and either side of the hem is also rounded on the front. It's a classic and classy design (the full name for this shirt includes the date 1911). And one that can seem a bit odd at first. Truth is though that it looks very good when worn.
The real issue isn't with the curved hem, but with the length. Some of FW's shirts have quite long hems (i.e. Conductor), but the Trackwalker is not all that long. The above shirt is probably a size 15 and the length is 74cm. For many shorter people that will mean tucking in. But I've seen others wear that length very well (for example the model above.)
For me the Trackwalker is about perfect length. And its nicely curved hem is my new standard.
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True–though you would almost never model a shirt tucked in because prospective buyers need to see the whole shirt. That the placket ends above the belt line indicates to me this was designed as a tucker--though it looks fine untucked.
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MCL, I wouldn't disagree that this style of placket and hem was originally meant to be worn tucked in, but it's more difficult to say that the contemporary re-inventors of this shirt designed it to be worn tucked in. I don't think I've ever seen any of the guys from FW do that.
Also, my other favorite shirt, NC's British Officers Shirt, has the same placket style, and I've never seen Nigel wear it tucked in.
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^Very true, TBH I was thinking more of the early 20th century design than the actual FW piece.
I almost never tuck and most of my shirts have "tuck" hems–so I'm mainly talking about the original intent of that kind of hem acting as a shirt stay more that what we're supposed to do with them. The only button-down shirt I always tuck (back to your point about body length) is a very long-bodied Mister Freedom Ranch Hand Shirt I bought from you.
