Thomas Stege Bojer
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10 min read
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Oct 12, 2018
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One of the most frequently asked questions I get from readers and followers is “which jeans should I buy?!” While I can tell you which jeans I like to buy, you have to figure out for yourself which jeans you should buy.
That’s why I’ve decided it’s time I write a beginner’s guide to raw denim. Believe it or not, I actually haven’t done one since I rebooted Denimhunters a couple years ago.
Yes, I have done some super in-depth guides on how to wash your jeans, how to find the perfect fit, how to repair your jeans. But those are possibly too in-depth — yes, there’s such a thing as too much geekiness 🤓 They were also written with retail staff and denim professionals in mind.
This guide is for the guy who just wants a good pair of jeans, who’s been told they should be raw (and selvedge).
I’ve noticed that the process of buying jeans usually goes through three phases. Over the coming months, I’ll talk you through all the details of the three phases in a series of video posts. This guide provides an overview of the entire process.
Please note that you likely won’t go through the phases and steps chronologically in the order below. The reason I’ve broken it down like this is to make sure I get around all the most common questions and frustrations that first-time buyers usually have.
The first phase of buying raw denim usually starts with you somehow wanting a pair of those dark blue jeans. Maybe a friend has told you about them or maybe you saw them in a store. Whatever the reason, before you act on an impulse, my advice is to do a bit of research. Start online. Ask your friends. Go back to your local denim store.
Depending on how much time and effort you want to dedicate to this phase, you’ll probably spend anything from a couple hours to several months researching.
What I’d like you to focus your research on is this:
I’m planning to unpack each of these in more detail in the video series, but let’s take a quick look at each of them.
What’s Your Budget?
You can get raw denim jeans that cost €400 or more. Others cost you €50 or less. And there’s something at every price point in between.
What you need to decide before you move on is how much you’re willing to spend. It’s like when you’re looking a new car or planning your next holiday. If you’re serious about it, you need to decide how much you can and will spend.
No matter what your budget is, my advice is to follow the ‘less is more’ principle. Rather than of buying four pairs of €50-jeans, consider buying one €200-pair. Chances are you’ll be happier with the pricier pair, simply because they’ll be more valuable to you. In any case, be realistic about your budget.
What’s Your Style?
While the fit, the back pocket signatures, the labels, the denim and everything else about the jeans do impact their style, it’s the sum of all of that I want you to consider.
One way to do that is to think about who your favourite idol is. Who did you idolise growing up, who do you idolise today? It could be a musician, a fictive character in a movie, even a family member or a friend?
Do you have your idol in mind? Good, which jeans is he or she wearing? How do they fit? Which colour are they? What about the details? Now picture yourself in those jeans. Still good? Keep that in mind as you go through the next phases.
What’s Your Brand?
Once you know your budget and you’ve daydreamed about rocking the hell out of those jeans your idols wears, think about what brand(s) you’d like the jeans to be.
I’m planning to dedicate an entire video to brands by combining the two first questions of phase #1 in a matrix that lists brands in different price ranges based on style. Stay tuned for that!
In the end, no matter how much time you spend on phase #1, you’ll eventually get to phase #2, which is when you start making concrete decisions based on the research you’ve done.
In the second phase, you’re getting much closer to the moment when you’ll put down your money on a pair of jeans. In this phase, I’d like you to consider the following:
Like in phase #1, I’m planning to go into more detail with each of these topics in separate videos. But, for now, let me share the key arguments of each step.
How Would You Like the Jeans to Fit?
A good fit is essential to get jeans you’ll be happy with. The fit is determined by two attributes: the shape of the leg and the rise.
The shape of the leg is what gives you the different fits. Generally, you can choose between skinny, slim, straight, carrot, loose and bootcut. The fit is determined by measurements at the thigh, the knee, and the leg opening.
A classic straight fit that’s possibly on the slimmer side of the curve, the Clint from Indigofera.The rise is the distance from the top of the waistband to the crotch joint. Unlike trousers and slacks, the back rise of jeans is curved. The rise is important because it determines where the jeans sit on your body. And together with the yoke, it’s the rise that gives jeans their figure-hugging fit.
The real difference in how jeans fit, though, is your body type. But many of us continuously struggle to find jeans that fit well because we often forget to take our body type into account.
I’ve identified five common male body types, which I’ll go into more detail with in an upcoming video. But if you want to know them now, check out my in-depth fit guide.
How Would You Like the Jeans to Feel?
One of the key reasons jeans have become the world’s most popular garment is that they’re comfortable. The way jeans fit has a lot to do with that. Generally, fits that give us more room are more comfortable. But with a soft and stretchy fabric, even the tighest fit can be comfortable.
Adding stretch to the denim is one of the most common ways of ensuring comfort. The weight of the denim also matters; usually, lightweight denims are the most comfortable. You can also go for a denim that’s loosely woven, like Iron Heart’s 21 oz. denim (above), which is surprisingly comfortable for a denim that heavy. As long as you factor in an extra bit of stretching out when you’re finding your size.
Talking about denim that changes in dimensions as you wear and wash it, you should consider whether the denim is pre-shrunk or not. Most denim is today, and it’s done with the fabric finishing process called ‘sanforization.’ But if the denim is ‘unsanforized,’ it’ll shrink up to around 10% after the first couple of washes. That’s something else you really need to factor in when you’re finding your size.
Naturally, the fabric is also essential for the way the jeans fade. That opens up a whole other discussion, which leads us into talking about how the denim is made. I’ll talk more about that in one of the videos. But, for now, let’s just assume the denim is going to get great fades.
How Long Do You Need the Jeans To Be?
Lastly, in phase #2, I want you to consider is how long the jeans should be. You need to decide whether you’re planning to cuff the jeans or not. If you are, you probably need to size up in length.
If you don’t plan to cuff but the jeans are only available in a length that’s too long, you can always have them hemmed. Just be aware that few tailors in Europe can do that with the original chain stitch. That’s one of the reasons many denimheads simply just cuff their jeans. Which by the way also shows off that beautiful selvedge ID on shuttle-loomed denim.
Planning to cuff your jeans or not?With the length of the jeans, you should again pay extra attention if the denim is unsanforized; that 10%-shrinkage is going to be most pronounced in the legs, where it might translate to around 10 centimetres.
Answering the three questions above will get you a long way towards finding the perfect pair of jeans. Once you’ve bought them, you enter phase #3.
This is when the real fun begins and you (finally) get to wear the jeans! As you live in and with your jeans, you’ll usually go through the following steps, which will likely make you ask questions about:
What to Expect from Breaking In Raw Denim
The first days and weeks in your new jeans might be a little uncomfortable. Especially if you’ve chosen a tight fit or a heavier denim. But just hang in there, even the stiffest raw denim will eventually get soft as you break it in.
To ease this process a little, consider soaking the jeans before you start wearing them. Doing so will also make the jeans last longer and postpone crotch blowouts and other rips.
With new raw denim, you’ll probably also experience what’s known as ‘bleeding’ or ‘crocking.’ That’s a fancy way of saying the colour will rub off. Soaking might minimise this a bit, but how much they bleed totally depends on the denim.
Bleeding denim is not a bad thing, because you want the colour to come off. But maybe you don’t want it on your white leather sofa. Don’t panic when your other clothes become blue, the colour comes off in the wash.
How to Wash and Clean Your Raw Denim
How to wash raw denim is a topic that usually causes a lot of discussion among denimheads. Personally, I would recommend you to wash your jeans every now and then. Not only because I think washing makes denim look better, it also makes it last as long as possible.
With a lot of wear and no washing, raw denim becomes brittle. The starch that’s left in the denim from the production process hasn’t been washed out. When you combine that with grime and dirt that builds up over months without no washing, you get a less durable denim.
The fit also impacts how long the jeans will last. The tighter the jeans are, the quicker you’ll wear out the denim in places with high friction, such as the crotch. Stretch in the denim usually accelerates the process further.
In an upcoming video, I’ll show you how to wash your jeans. If you want to know now, check out my guide here. You might also want to take a look at some of the most common denim care myth, which I’ll naturally also address in a video.
Why You Should Expect to Repair Your Jeans
As you wear your jeans, they will eventually start falling apart. When they do, you should have them repaired instead of simply buying a new pair.
Denim is quite easy to repair! And not is it good for your wallet and the environment, repairs also make your jeans look even cooler.
The most common places for jeans to wear out is around the knee, the crotch area, and essentially anywhere the denim creases. It’s usually the warp yarn that breaks first as it gets the most wear.
You can repair your jeans with darning, sewing or ironing on patches, or even with special fabric glue (something I wouldn’t recommend, though).
A quality repair done on a darning machine by a professional will cost you around $25-$50. It might be sound expensive, but since it’ll significantly extend the lifetime of your jeans, you’ll be saving money in the long run. The problem is few places offer proper darning, so you might have to mail your jeans to the tailor, possibly to another country or continent.
That brings us to the end of this guide. I hope you’ve found it useful. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and share your feedback below. And stay tuned for the videos! 🎥
Good news for denim retailers: we’re spending more money on jeans. The news gets even better if you’re selling premium denim: data suggests that consumers are willing to pay more per jean! The question is whether they’re buying the “right” jeans?
How do you as a retailer help your customers find jeans they’ll actually end up wearing? How do you make sure your customers are happy with their purchase today and a year from now?
In this first episode of the series about buying jeans, I’m diving deep into the topic of how to find the perfect pair of jeans. I’ll tackle the questions above and share my experiences about how to buy the “right” jeans, using four simple buying priorities, which will get you satisfied and loyal customers for retailers.
In 2007, I bought my first pair of raw, selvedge denim jeans.
I remember them clearly. The 1967 505 from Levi’s Vintage Clothing, and I recall getting them at an end-of-season sale. I actually think they were from one of the last US-made production runs of the model, but I’m not sure.
I don’t remember the exact price nor the discount either, but I remember quite vividly how I had to bite my lip when the guy in the store asked for the money. My gosh, they felt expensive.
The sad part of the story is that I never really wore the jeans. I don’t remember exactly why; I guess my mind decided to oppress the trauma; maybe it was the fit, perhaps it was the size. In any case, I ended up giving them away.
Although a seemingly insignificant purchase at the time, this became the start of my passion for raw denim and everything that surrounds the culture of what we today call heritage fashion. It also became the beginning of what feels like a never-ending search for the perfect pair of jeans for me.
Over the years, I’ve bought more jeans than I dare count.
I’m sure many denimheads can relate to feeling a weird mix of pride and shame when answering the question, “how many jeans do you own?”. And you just know that if that person doesn’t get your denim obsession, she’s thinking, “what the hell does he need all those jeans for?!”. At least that’s how I often feel.
But, if you’re like me, one of the main reasons you have enough denim to get you through a small ice age is that getting new jeans is intoxicating and highly addictive. Putting on crispy new jeans is exciting. And you secretly love to witness how the fades slowly evolve as the jeans start moulding to your body.
The issue is that, deep down, you know that the real reason you have all those jeans is that you haven’t found that perfect pair yet. For collectors and self-proclaimed denimheads like myself, it’s not a problem; it’s a hobby. Men spend crazy amounts of money on hunting and fishing gear, cars, watches or, like my dad, old coins!
Still, we all know how the Eureka moment you had when you thought you’d struck gold with a new “perfect” pair turns to bitterness as you reluctantly realise that you’re never going to put solid fades into those jeans.
And for the average bloke out there, this is serious business. Greensboro and Kojima, we have a problem!
The problem is not spending money on jeans. We’re pretty good at that.
According to Technavio, the global jeans market had an estimated value of $58 billion in 2014, up 12% from $51.6 billion in 2007 (source). And as of 2015, the average number of 5.8 pairs of jeans owned by the surveyed population of US males in the ongoing research conducted by Cotton Incorporated, the trade organisation behind the research, was down from an 8.4-pair high in 2006. That’s a 31% drop.
Now, the numbers are not scientifically comparable, but they do tell us that US males (who’ll represent all men for the sake of my argument) have fewer jeans in our closets. The numbers also show us that, across the globe, we’re spending more money buying jeans.
In other words, customers are willing to pay more. That’s great news for the denim retailers that sell quality jeans, which inevitably come at a premium.
What that data doesn’t reveal is what we’re looking for when we set out to buy jeans.
In Lifestyle Monitor’s 2015-survey on that topic, the most important purchase criteria for US males were, in prioritised order; ‘fit,’ ‘comfort,’ ‘durability’ and ‘quality.’ Never mind that there’s probably an overlap between ‘fit’ and ‘comfort,’ as well as between ‘durability’ and ‘quality.’
‘Price’ comes in at a close fifth place while how the jeans ‘look’ and the ‘style’ of them are less important.
For US females, the purchasing criteria are a little different: ‘fit,’ ‘comfort,’ ‘flattering look’ and ‘price’ are the top four.
Now, I would argue that denim shoppers would have a bigger chance of finding the perfect jean if they reversed the order slightly.
Objectively observing the act of buying jeans, it shouldn’t be that difficult. You start with an idea of what you want; how they should fit, what they should look like, how much you’re willing to spend on them. And then find something that fits those criteria. But you and I both know it’s not that easy, at all.
During my time working in denim retail, I met waaaaay too many frustrated denim lovers, novices and aficionados alike, who couldn’t find the jeans they were looking for. And over the years, content related to buying jeans has consistently been the number one top-ranking category on Denimhunters.
Although it’s considered a wardrobe commodity by many, buying jeans is not like buying basic T-shirts or socks. It often feels more like getting a tailored suit or a custom-made pair of shoes (not that I own neither of such items, but you get my point!).
The sheer amount of price points, fits, styles and brands can make you dizzy alone.
That’s before you consider the fact that a size 32 in a fit you like is not necessarily a waist 32 in another fit, from the same brand that is! And I’m not even talking about the differences in how they actually fit your body; I’m talking about hardcore numbers; differences in measurements.
Even with the same fit, from the same brand, in the same size, you might experience inconsistencies if the styling has changed or if the jeans are made from a different denim.
Don’t even get me started on buying unsanforized jeans, which has taken me years and thousands of $$ to learn to appreciate.
Denim retailers shouldn’t sneeze at the potential consequences of this.
The best case scenario is that you won’t make a sale, but the customer might come back.
The worst case scenario is that you get an unhappy customer who’s bought the wrong pair of jeans, which means you’ve broken his trust. And then you can be more or less certain that you won’t get his business again.
He could even go on to tell his friends about the experience. You know what, he probably will. And you don’t want to look down the barrel of a gun loaded with negative reviews. Social proof is a highly powerful mechanism!
On a personal level for the denim shopper, such frustrating experiences lead to lack of confidence and not feeling good in the morning when putting on the jeans, which means the garment is more likely to end up gathering dust in a closet than getting worn and torn.
So how do you avoid all the horrors described above from happening?
In my experience, and as I write in my book Blue Blooded, you need to go through the following four steps, or “priorities” as I call them, to find the perfect pair of jeans.
The priorities are based on my experiences buying jeans for a decade and blogging about the topic since 2011. They also formed the foundation of the strategy I followed when I was working in retail, advising customers about which jeans to buy.
To me, they are “priorities” because, in my experience, you have to go through them in the above order to get the best result. Now, let’s look at each of them in a little for detail.
Before you go denim shopping, decide how much you’re willing to spend. It’s simple, and a rule you can apply in virtually any shopping scenario, but it helps you to make better decisions.
No matter what your number is, my advice is to follow the “less is more” principle.
Instead of buying two pairs of $100-jeans, buy one $200-pair and then go on a denim shopping hiatus if needed. In my experience, you’ll be happier with the pricier option, simply because it’s more valuable to you, which means you’ll be wearing it more.
Once you know your budget, you need to find something that fits you.
The way your jeans fit is crucial to how much you’ll enjoy wearing them. The wrong fit can make or break the jean. Lifestyle Monitor’s data says the same.
How you’re built tells you what jeans will look good on you, even before you slip them on. If you’re lean, a slim or even a skinny fit can work, but chunky denim in a looser cut will probably also look good. However, if you’re short or have chunky thighs (like me), looser fit jeans can make you look shorter than you are, especially if you wear your jeans low on the hips.
You can read much more about how to find the perfect fit in this in-depth guide.
How your jeans look is obviously important too. But if they don’t fit you then all the greatest denim in the world, or the most authentic stitchings, won’t matter much. That’s why style is the third priority.
The way your jeans look, in others words their style, is made up all the details denimheads like to geek out about. All the small details like thread colour, seams, rivets, patches, labels, not to forget the denim itself.
For aficionados, certain details can be the main reason they buy a jean. For the majority of consumers, it’s more important that the jeans match the rest of their wardrobes.
Finally, only when you’ve found a style of jeans that fits both your body and your budget should you consider the brand.
I’m not saying that shopping based on brand is bad per se. If the style works for you, if the jeans fit you, and if all is good with your budget, using the brand as a guideline can be totally fine.
But all too often, consumers disregard the three previous priorities and buy jeans solely based on the name on the waistband label. I’ve done this myself several times, and I usually end up not wearing the jeans.
I’m not saying that the brand is not important; it’s loaded with values, storytelling and associations! If you don’t like a brand because of what it makes you feel or what you associate it with, I’m not going to force you to buy the jeans even if the previous priorities are met.
All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t let your affinity for a brand be the only reason you make your decision, whether that is to buy or not.
Launched in 2011 by Thomas Stege Bojer as one of the first denim blogs, Denimhunters has become a trusted source of denim knowledge and buying guidance for readers around the world.
Our buying guides help you build a timeless and adaptable wardrobe of carefully crafted items that are made to last. Start your hunt here!