Neil, brother of Jacks, just returned from a summer at El Vesubio, a farm in the central highlands of Nicaragua. While there Neil spent much of his time working with the local medical clinic, providing home visits to those living in the remote parts of the region. When not trekking through the jungle and cane fields, Neil built an impressive stone staircase that ascends the biggest hill at El Vesubio. These are Neil’s Jeans. The hand feel of these jeans is reminiscent of the dirt floors of the region, thousands of tiny feet compressing the dirt to slight luster. Neil bought his jeans November 2010, and has worn them as hard they could be worn. We are very excited for Neil to give ‘em a wash. It will be a true revealing.
Latest
Jacks’ Jeans (Pair #1)
Jacks is what we call a “first mover”, there from the very beginning. We are a few days late, but this post celebrates the one year mark on our first pair of jeans. Made from 13 oz cone mills red line selvedge, the fade patterns on these jeans are incredible. They recently came in for a tune up and should be good to go for another 3,000 miles.
Rubino’s Jeans
Rubino is a thrasher, a slasher, a master of his domain. He does what he wants when he wants and continues to roam the land in search of his next mission. He has been wearing his jeans hard since October. We couldn’t be more thirlled with the story that he has started to tell.
Marshall’s quadrabees
Marshall is a one of the jeansmakers. He is also our sewing machine, bicycle, tricycle and skateboard mechanic. Marshall sees to it that all of our moving parts are “pingin’!”, we appreciate pingin’ machines. When Marshall isn’t sewing jeans and other assorted creations of denim and leather, you can find him riding around downtown on one of the many tricycles in our fleet.
Dave’s Jeans
Dave is one of the jeansmakers. He got one of the first pairs of the Quadrabees completed. Dave wore these jeans non-stop for 4 months now. they have been washed by hand in the Rio Moa in Boaco, Nicaragua after days of riding horse. The jeans shielded the howling winds of a raw New England winter. As well as guarded Dave from the numerous spiked leguminous plants battling the bovine existence, in the war of reclaiming degraded pastures of the humid-tropics.
T.J.’s Jeans (again)
T.J. is one of three bike messengers in Hartford; arguably our most photographed customer, T.J.’s jeans embody the spirit of Hartford Denim. T.J. told us he usually takes two weeks to put a hole in the seat of a new pair of jeans. It took him two months to break through our 13 oz. cone mills denim. T.J. continues to wear his jeans so hard that he is up for a few more repairs. We repaired the area with a very large piece of Japanese 24 oz. denim. T.J.’s dream is to transform his 13 oz. cone mills jeans into a serious pair of 24 oz all via repairs.
Tom’s Jeans
Tom has been wearing the twelfth pair of jeans the company ever produced, which also happened to be our first custom pair. The 13 oz. Japanese indigo denim is overdyed black, with spec details including a leather tab closure in the place of a top button, a leather iPod holster and a strip of vintage, military-grade cotton tape running over the inseam. Tom has been wearing these since August 4, 2010. Tom has chosen not to wash his jeans since buying them, for fear of loosing the rigidity of this particularly starchy denim, but a recent snowfall forced his hand in a happy accident. After shoveling his parents’ driveway, his mother thoughtfully put the thoroughly soaked jeans into the dryer as Tom, all tuckered out, slept off his labors.
When he woke, Tom found his favorite pair of pants had softened considerably. The black overdye faded enough to reveal a brilliant blue beneath. The dryer experience was most traumatic for the leather top closure, so Tom came in with a very bold request for a very innovative solution. We did as he requested. Tom is a Hartford Denim customer, a visionary; a man with a singularly refined, yet adventurous taste.
Cooper’s Jeans
This pair was only the sixth Hartford Denim Company made. At that point, our style and technique were squarely in the larval stage (i.e. in mom’s garage [love you, mom!]). They feature a blunted fly, handsewn top button and keystone, and nontrast stitching.
Cooper is pretty hard on all his belongings, and though the jeans could handily withstand more abuse. We think these photos highlight that point where the yarns have begun to break down, exposing the real beauty that we continually strive to achieve: the beauty that rests at the nexus of product, user and usage.
