IH-634S - 21oz Selvedge Denim Straight Cut Jeans - Indigo
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1. The chain stitch on the belt is not completely
2. Narrow front pockets
3. Not contrast fading
4. Wide knee - narrow thigh
5. Short-lived patchBut these are your 10 year old pair?
Yes / Да
Thanks for explaining. I don’t think any jean is perfect but here’s some context for you:
1. Chainstitch on the belt? Has the waist stitching broken? No surprise after 10 years in that case. It is very strong thread but it is only thread. It isn’t made of kevlar.
EDIT: Having just watched the video again you may be referring to the extra stitching over the pocket bags ending in a bar tack. That is two sets of constructional stitching together on the waistband. It is not incomplete.
2. The designer of the jeans rides motorbikes. Putting lots of things in your front pocket when riding a bike is not a good idea. This is why they are narrow, and shallow. It is a well known feature of Iron Heart jeans and quite deliberate. Not everyone likes it. That is fine.
3. You’re right. The 21oz denim is deliberately designed to fade without high contrasts. If you wanted high contrast jeans you bought the wrong jeans. There are many other options. Other brands have them, but within the Iron Heart range you have the XHS denims and the 19oz LHT denim to name two. They both fade with very high contrast, because they are designed to. Your jeans look exactly like a well worn pair of Iron Heart 21oz should do. I think they are lovely.
4. Again this is correct. That is exactly how the 634 is designed to be. It is based on an old model of Levi 501’s. Slimmer in the thigh and wide from the knee and down. If you would like a jean with a slimmer knee and more taper, then the 888, 777, and 555 cuts will all meet your needs.
5. The leather patches are made of veg-tanned leather. If you do not oil it and also wash your jeans over 40C then it will end up looking like yours does. This is true of all veg-tanned leather patches. Some of my leather patches look like yours after one year. I’d say yours looks pretty good. I’d also say that any patch that has survived for 10 years can’t be described as short lived. In the future, if you want your patch to survive longer, oil it before washing and avoid washing at high temperatures.
I’d say you have got your money’s worth out of your 634s after 10 years. That is quite impressive. They look like a great pair of jeans to me. It is a shame you seen unhappy with them now. I would be proud to call them mine.
Maybe after 10 years your tastes have changed? You would like something slimmer with high contrast fading? I can recomend the 888-XHSib, the 555-XHS or the 777-XHS. They all meet that description. The 888 even has deeper pocket bags, although the others don’t for the reasons mentioned above. You will still need to oil the patches on all of them though.
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I agree with @neph93
Most of my dissatisfaction with any high end denim/work wear brand I've bought over the years has most often been due to me buying the wrong model for my needs. It is a learning process that never really ends.
I have selvedge Levis 501s that are almost 20 years old and still holding strong. I have a pair of IH 555 N that ideally need the pocket bag replaced after 2 years… The difference? I wear the shit out of my IH gear because I love it so much.
The Cherry on top of the IH cake for me personally are the free lifetime repairs, when a repair is viable.
Nothing is without its flaws (except me, I'm bloody perfect me :D), thankfully some brands like IH have a pretty great hit rate most of the time in my opinion.
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I think they've held up better than my nine year old pair…
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I don't ride a motorcycle, but as someone who carries a gun behind the front right belt loop and two magazines behind the front left belt loop, I prefer the shorter pockets. Digging my entire hand into the bottom of my pocket is tough when you have stuff behind your belt.
I wonder how much shit people are carrying in their pockets? I have a Swiss Army Knife, a pocket pen, my wallet and a small vape device. My cell phone and flashlight goes in my back pockets.
Even if I didn't carry a gun, I wouldn't want to dig all the way down to my mid thigh to fetch out my vape.
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Damn, that's a lot of crap. Have you considered just wearing a tool belt?
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I carry more or less nothing in my front pockets. I have my work keys on a BLB and in a slim leather case and that goes in the top of the pocket. My car key will go in there on an odd occasion when I’m putting the kids in the car and have my hands full otherwise. Part of it is vanity (having things stuffed in your front pockets looks dumb) and part of it is as Doug says. I also carry so much shit that I need a bag on the best of days.
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For me, it's this:
Keys in the front right pocket and wallet in the back left. Occasionally, my cell phone goes in the back right, but it's such a giant damn brick, I'm usually carrying it in hand. -
In my opinion the 634 is the best/most comfortable fitting denim that i have ever worn.
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Pen-requisite
Swiss Army Knife-requisite
Wallet-requisite
Keys-requisite
Smartphone-I downsized to the small version of the iPhone 11 Pro-requisite
Flashlight-for walking the dogs, if you're self defense minded, requisiteGun isn't for everyone, the magazines are to balance the weight from right to left. I used to only carry one and was developing some lower back issues.
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I used to carry my wallet in my back pocket, but again, lower back issues.
The 40s suck
Lol
You are so old.
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It is so magnificent that interest of good jeans brings people from different countries together
1. Chainstitch on the belt? Has the waist stitching broken? No surprise after 10 years in that case. It is very strong thread but it is only thread. It isn’t made of kevlar.
- This is chain stitch. It must be stitched to the end in premium class jeans but it doesnt.
For example Samurai 710 19 oz has got chain stitch to the end.
2. The designer of the jeans rides motorbikes. Putting lots of things in your front pocket when riding a bike is not a good idea. This is why they are narrow, and shallow. It is a well known feature of Iron Heart jeans and quite deliberate. Not everyone likes it. That is fine.
- I m telling about palm width not about pocket depth. My hand doesn’t fit easy into the pocket even though I have a narrow palm
It is more comfortable pocket in Samurai. Because my palm fit easy in it.
- This is chain stitch. It must be stitched to the end in premium class jeans but it doesnt.
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Having chainstitch to the end of the waistband has zero bearing on quality. You may prefer it, but that does not mean it is better.
Cool. you can get your hands into Samurai jeans easier, then buy them. It is not a lack of quality that ours are smaller it is personal preference.
We know our jeans are nor for everyone, that is why the world is such a wonderful place, we all like different stuff.
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Recent posts got me thinking. I'd never even given pocket width and depth a second thought, and came to the conclusion that's because they are perfect for my requirements.
Wallet - back right pocket
Bandana, pocket square - back left pocket
Mob phone - front left pocket
Knife, pocket pen, loose change - front right pocketNever feels uncomfortable or overly full.
I would say though, that over 12-18 months regular use, approx 50% of the IH clothes I have had a button hole blow. They thread count of the heavier materials seen to have trouble holding a stich on the open edge of button holes. I'd suggest using a finer, tougher thread. I do that to repair them and they hold fine (thanks to an @Giles tutorial)
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@USSR you’re basing your opinions on 10 year old jeans. All newer (less than six years old) pairs of IH I have have a chainstitch going to the end, by the way. Things change. Do you have any 10 year old Sammy’s to compare with?
As for your pair, they’ve held up for 10 years. Have you considered the benefit of taking the chainstitch all the way out? Is there any in terms of construction? Chainstitch is actually a relatively weak constructional stitch. Have you thought that there may be no benefit, or that there is a reason why it stops with a bar tack on your 634’s? Perhaps the jeans are stronger as a result?
As noted earlier the pocket thing is a deliberate design choice. If you personally want to put your hands in your jean pockets then you are correct to buy other brands. But that is personal preference, it has nothing to do with quality.
I love Samurai jeans by the way. They’re great in many ways, not least those that make them different from Iron Heart. But to suggest that Iron Heart are not “premium” to use your own word, because of specific design choices on your 10 year old pair, seems a little silly.
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@USSR you’re basing your opinions on 10 year old jeans. All newer (less than six years old) pairs of IH I have have a chainstitch going to the end, by the way. Things change. Do you have any 10 year old Sammy’s to compare with?
Yes I am. Manufacturer didn’t have machine which could do a chainstitch going to the end 10 years ago.
I used photo of Samurai not to compare its with IH. So you will understand what I mean clearly. For visibility.Perhaps the jeans are stronger as a result?
It isnt important. They didnt use a chainstitch going to the end because they couldnt.
As noted earlier the pocket thing is a deliberate design choice.
You think so. I think that the pocket thing is a design mistake.
I love Samurai jeans by the way.
I dont like Samurai. I like Momotaro
seems a little silly.
It is ad hominem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
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@USSR thank you for the link. Happily you needn’t have bothered as my Latin, while nowhere near as good as my English, is a lot better than my Russian. I’m afraid the principle of ad hominem isn’t really applicable here. Ad hominem is an attack on the individual instead of the matter for debate. I’m not suggesting you are «silly» (that would be rude), I’m using the word «silly» to cover the fact that your arguments lack logic and substance, largely because they are rooted in subjective, personal preference, which is being presented as objective fact, but also because they are built on unsuitable data. In this case using a pair of well used, 10 year old jeans and extrapolating observations based on these to apply to the output of the entire brand.
To summarise, you have posted a vlog on YT criticising Iron Heart jeans. As an example you use exclusively a 10 year old pair of 634s that have clearly been worn. Your complaints are that the pocket bags are too narrow to put your hands in, they do not fade with high contrast, the cut is too wide below the knee, the veg tan leather patch has a short life span, and the chain stitching on the waistband does not proceed all the way to end of the waist band.
Two of the criticisms are invalid as they are suggesting the jeans at hand should be something they are not. The 21oz denim does not fade with high contrast nor can it. The 634 cut does not have a slim knee or tapered leg, nor can it. Criticising the jeans for these things is like criticising your dog for not being a cat, or rain for being wet. It has also been mentioned that Iron Heart produces jeans that are tapered below the knee and fade with high contrast. So extrapolation of the illogical argument to the entire brand is equally invalid.
The issue of the chain stitched waistband has been rendered moot by your own admission. Apparently this was not normal 10 years ago (I did not know this). Many premium brands now complete the chainstitch. Iron Heart is amongst them. Comparing like-for-like your pair of 10 year old Iron Heart’s have similar production values as other 10 year jeans with regards to waistbands at least. New Iron Hearts have the same chainstitched waistband as other jeans. Regardless the waistband on your jeans is intact, so the stitching seems to have done a grand job. Ergo another invalid criticism.
Next we have the pocket bags. As has been stated the design of these is deliberate. We have also established it is not to your liking. That is per definition a subjective preference. It is perfectly logical to avoid paying money for something you do not like. It is illogical to call something a mistake because of intentional design.
Finally we have the short-lived patch. I’m afraid that is simply a result of improper maintenance. If you don’t oil veg-tanned leather before applying moisture and heat, it will degrade and fail. Add to this the age of the jeans and this particular criticism is simply ridiculous (again, the logic of it, not you personally, that would be rude). As a parallel you can consider the wisdom of leaving a hammer out in the rain for ten years, then questioning its quality when it rusts.
So of the five criticisms you present the majority are invalid and one is based on personal subjective preference that is incorrectly elevated to objective fact. If it is your pleasure to make you tube videos based on these criticisms then that is entirely up to you. If however you choose to post it on this forum, on a thread where you have previously posted, praising the longevity of said jeans, then expect to be challenged. Or to put it another way, you will be called out on your bullshit.
I’m glad you have found a brand that satisfies you. Momotaro have a rich history and produce a quality product. I hope they bring you joy.
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anything lasting 10 years is a blessing
cool u took the time 2 share your thoughts on your purchase and even do a video on it
seems like u sort of trolling but that’s just my opinion and opinions are like a$$holes and elbows
@Matty123 is spot on
