Heddels Blowout

At least 99% of denim on the market today isn't raw, it's been stonewashed, lasered, or sandblasted into what mimics an authentically worn pair of jeans. But this wasn't always the case, pre-distressed denim is a relatively recent phenomenon, which we're going to be getting into how the fashion market took over denim and they took the indigo with them. Learn all about Jackie Kennedy's favorite den...

We’ve talked about gold miners, we’ve talked about ancient sailors, we’ve talked about cowboys, soldiers, and poets. Today we’re going to get into something a little heavier, and we don’t mean Iron Hearts. Since practically its inception, denim has had a role in institutional racism in the United States. As we mentioned a few episodes ago, one of Levi’s earliest selling points was that it was “the...

We've arrived at the Baby Boomer section of our indigo narrative. The transgressive postwar counterculture may have been the first to embrace denim and workwear for its style over utility, but it would be the teens of the 1950s to create the mass appeal. Join us as we discuss denim being banned in schools, jeans on screen heartthrobs, and a pop singer being denied entrance at a Vancouver hotel. Th...

What's up, Frogface? We're here with a bonus episode of Reed and David talking over all 80 glorious minutes of Marlon Brando's biker bad boy flick The Wild One . The movie is not good, with lots of gender dynamics that have aged poorly but it also has a lot of jeans, leather jackets, hats and knits that haven't. It's got Perfectos, Cafe Racers, A-2s, B-3s, top hats, beanies, 5-panels, 501s, ringer...

The US government did it's best to reintegrate the young people returning from WWII, but an sizeable portion returned wanting nothing to do with it. Instead of getting a middle class job and starting a family, they wanted to do drugs, ride motorcycles, push sexual boundaries, and wear jeans. This didn't go over well at first. Our series continues with bikers and beats as Reed and David navigate de...

While on a road trip through New England in the summer of 1965, eight Japanese men unwittingly created some of the most influential images of late 2000s menswear. We're talking about Take Ivy , a cultural sensation that's become the de facto document of the 1960s prep look. And we're talking with the person who wrote the book on the intersection of Japanese and American fashion, W. David Marx , au...

This was quite the year for a variety of reasons. And what better way to reflect upon it than to count down the most read articles on a pants website? Reed and David are joined by Heddels Features Editor James Smith to run down our top hits (not necessarily greatest, but top) this year and look forward to what may be yet to come. This episode is brought to you by the Heddels Shop , listeners get 1...

Like the light switch and the steering wheel, zippers are one of those things that we interact with so much they just seem like perpetual fixtures of everyday life. The story of the humble zipper, however, is one of continuous failure unending iteration to bring us the cheap and easy thing we enjoy today. Designer, vintage dealer, and zipper enthusiast John Gluckow takes us through the history of...

DATELINE DEC 14, 2020:  JEANS GO TO WAR! As the United States exited the Great Depression, the world had to contend with a few other new powers flexing their military might on a global stage. And America did so in denim! This episode, Reed and David explain the different military and domestic applications our fabric had during WWII and how wartime rationing would change the look and feel of j...

When stalking the jungles of Vietnam, many of the elite US Navy SEALs didn't sport their standard issue camo, but rather opted for Levi's 501 and 505 denim jeans instead. We're talking with Chris Danforth , a writer and researcher who investigated this story and spoke to some of the SEALs who wore jeans on their night raids for its utility on the battlefield. Hear all about how they customized the...

Denim soldiers forward through one of the darkest times in recent American history, the Great Depression. Reed and David explore the denim histories of both the Dust Bowl migrants and the young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose denim uniforms built much of the infrastructure we still enjoy today. Hear about all that and more in part 7 of our ongoing podcast series. If you'd like to sup...

This week we're on with renowned photographer and former vintage dealer / cigarette security guard Eric Kvatek. After getting an initial lucky break, Eric has shot for everyone from 45rpm, Strongarm, Battenwear, W'menswear, Holubar, Heddels, and most notably all the books for Japanese brand Kapital. One of his passions from his collecting days is printed t-shirts, specifically Harley-Davidson t-sh...

Saddle up, partner! We're here to talk about how the image of the cowboy is a manufactured piece of myth-making that helped spread denim pants all across these United States. In part 6 of our denim history marathon, Reed and David discuss the origins of the actual cowboys in the tradition of Mexican vaqueros and how that morphed into denim clad gunslingers on the silver screen. Listen in for all t...

As the rivet cold war subsided out west, blue jeans went national. We dig into the effects rail connectivity had on the expansion of jeans eastward and how certain companies began dividing up the map into regional territories, establishing the modern day "Big Three" of Levi's , Lee , and Wrangler/Blue Bell . Listen in for all that and more on this week's episode. As always, listeners get 10% off a...

We're back in 1870s San Francisco and Reed and David are exploring the fallout of Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis's exclusive patent to put rivets on pants, creating the first iteration of what we know as jeans today. The resulting  period kicked off an arms race of competing brands trying to make their own inventions to compete with the patent-protected riveted Levi's pants. If you'd like to le...

It's nearly the end of the 2020 election in the United States. And David's taking this week's episode to explain why something seemingly innocuous as a pair of jeans is very much a product of and affected by our political system. If you live here, please take the time to vote either in person or by dropping off your ballot. In many states, you can register same day and you can check right here whe...

We did it, I swear we actually talk about jeans in this one! It's only taken about 90 minutes of background history for us to go from fabric to pants made out of that fabric. In this episode we delve into the rough history of the town that birthed the modern blue jean, San Francisco and the hardscrabble gold rushers that made it boom. Including two local immigrants who made a deal that would chang...

The story of denim continues—into the newly formed United States! David and Reed explore the development of mass production textiles in the early days of America and what life was like in these mill towns of 1800s New England. And then we discuss a person who unknowingly created the conditions that lead to millions of people being enslaved and probably caused the U.S. Civil War (and then he knowin...

Denim is the thrust of what we discuss on Heddels - and our original namesake in Rawr Denim. It’s become the people’s fabric, democratized into ubiquity around the world in just 150 short years. But how did it get there? How are we at the point where jeans can be the “default pant option” for a large part of the globe? We’re getting into the history of denim on a new series, and in this episode we...

We could put a man on the moon, but recently we couldn't put a piece of fabric on our collective faces. What happened to the mythical "Made in USA" of yore? Was there ever a Golden Age of American manufacturing? How did we get there and can we recapture it again? David and Reed put on their historian speculation hats and dig into why things used to be made in America, why workers used to be paid m...

Reed and David discuss what fall fashion and the typical "back to school" buying season will look like as they wear their respective basketball shorts and t-shirts. Is there going to be a need to buy clothes for this upcoming season as so many stay inside and many more face financial uncertainty? We also get into our favorites on the Taco Bell menu and ponder if celebrities can use mask wearing as...

Heddels writer Reed Nelson and managing editor David Shuck run down the issues of the day including the mass exodus of retail in NYC (and what's left to fill it besides real estate speculators), how postal slowdowns/shutdowns affect small business, and should Patagonia be given any credit for taking this long to cut ties with potential forced labor in Xinjiang. Also we make fun of random PR emails...

In the early twentieth century, it's estimated that 70%-95% of all clothing worn in America was made in a small section of midtown Manhattan. In 2020 it's less than 3%, but NYC's Garment District is still one of the most crucial communities in the entire global fashion industry. However, it's shrunk to the point where it's at risk of being uprooted and destroyed entirely. We're talking with Alex R...

The man, the myth, the legend. We've got an hour with the most passionate man in denim, a Swiss geographer named Ruedi Karrer who also has one of the largest private collections of denim in the world. Since the early 1970s, Ruedi has grabbed up nearly every scrap of raw indigo he could get his hands on, amassing a total of 16,000 denim garments in his " Jeansmuseum of Heaviest Fadings ". Learn all...

We're back this week with another two discussions. First we chat with our editor James Smith about a recent article of his documenting his journey buying clothes as a vegan and avoiding all animal products ( https://www.heddels.com/2020/06/my-experience-of-navigating-quality-menswear-as-a-vegan/ ) and all the difficulties and decisions that requires. Then David talks with Jaime Wong, the owner of...