So here's the deal, I had no intention of washing my jeans in a mix of Retayne so I carefully applied it full strength with a q-tip strictly to the inside of the hem.

I'd say it was a success as I wore a relatively clean light pair of Chippewas for the experiment with much less transfer than the last time. Granted, it might not take much to build it up and get the toilet bowl blue ring around them but I'm happy the process was at least slowed down.

I might do a second application.

Pictures below:

@Haddtoo:

Hope I filled the form….a must have for me

?

Is there some kind of a reserve form for this beast?

I can't believe I missed that!!!!

So here's the deal, I had no intention of washing my jeans in a mix of Retayne so I carefully applied it full strength with a q-tip strictly to the inside of the hem.

I'd say it was a success as I wore a relatively clean light pair of Chippewas for the experiment with much less transfer than the last time. Granted, it might not take much to build it up and get the toilet bowl blue ring around them but I'm happy the process was at least slowed down.

I might do a second application.

Pictures below:

I could have sworn I saw a drop date on my phone for the IHSH-170 the other night… was I dreaming?

@Giles:

You can't have your cake and eat it.  Denim fades because of the way the indigo warp is rope dyed.  The indigo oxidises onto the surface of the denim and the abrasion of that oxidised layer/s of indigo is what exposes the white core of the rope dyed yarn and gives us the fades that most of us like in our jeans.

If doing anything with vinegar makes any difference to the amount of abrasion and hence indigo loss, then I'll eat my jeans.  I suspect Retayne won't make any difference either because it can't stop the physics of abrasion.

If you want fades then you have to put up with indigo transfer.

Well….when I said "see this as a denim problem" I really meant that I see the opportunity to try to at least slow this down from the denim side. I get the chemistry and intent involved, really I do and if nothing can be done then screw it but it's difficult getting a new pair of custom Nick's in silver grey rough-out and on the first day the look like they've got one of those blue toilet bowl rings around them.... just saying

Ok, well I see this as an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is. I've used the forum largely as a second hand shopping experience and have contributed very little to the community as a resource. Now's my chance.
Here's the experiment:

I hate crocking. I love my boots and denim equally but see this as  a denim problem.
After some research on the interwebs it sounds like vinegar and cold water do a good job of setting indigo.
I've also researched a fabric dye fixative and come up with a product called Retayne.
I'm going to apply both to a fresh pair of IH raw denim and see where this rabbit hole takes me. Findings will be posted on the other side.

Cheers.

I recently wore my fresh pair of lefty  while wearing a pretty light colored rough-out red wing. The indigo transfer is substantial and while I understand that it's part of the "evo" of the boot I don't want it to look like a dark blue ring going around all my lighter rough-out boots.

Does anyone have a cleaning solution for this?  :-\

I doubt there is much to do in the way of stopping transfer besides only wearing your cuffed pairs with the light boots….. god that sounds confining.

Just picked up a pair of brown/suede carpenters. The stitching is sublime and I'm almost afraid to wear them they are so pretty.

Huge props to @veloaudio for my new IHSH-102 purple people eater

Got mine today and it's every bit of awesome that the others have said. Shoulda listened to my gut and ordered up to the next size (even after my exchange with Giles I still effed this up!). I'll be ordering the XL to replace ASAP.