#56 | Olé Denim 306 13oz Fades

It seems like forever since the days of leaving the house to work at the office or meet friends and family for food and drinks. Though I miss the social interactions the most, I'm getting tired of wearing loungewear regularly. I switch in and out of the same clothes regularly consisting of adidas track pants, pullover hoods and could use more button-ups and denim in my life. As I reflect on my wardrobe, I took a peek at some jeans that I wear to the grocery store on a weekly basis and began to think back on my memories with them. I've always loved that raw denim's rips, tears and fades take you back to a certain time of your life and give you a feeling, similarly to a photograph. You might be saying to saying to yourself "Wow Ryan, you're weird", and I'd agree with you but let me tell you what this article of clothing has been through.

This is my pair of Olé Denim 306 13oz jeans. I've owned these since 2015 and have worn them a couple of times a week regularly since 2016. These used to be a deep indigo when I first purchased them and my plan was to wear these as my "travelling pants". Before I had the chance to wear them on a trip I broke my ankle and wanted to still wear denim, so I paired them with a pair of black New Balance 574's and some crutches. After I got through physio, I was ready to do some exploring and booked some trips taking these to Vancouver, Las Vegas, China, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia later that year. That was my first time leaving North America making it even more memorable.

After that year, I figured it was best to beat these up and wear these hard so I found myself skateboarding in them, "dancing" at club and skating at the ODR. At this point they weren't only my travelling pants but a faded casual pair that I would wear during evenings and weekends. As you can see in the photos above, we now see that they've lost a fair bit of that natural indigo where the jeans crease and are worked like the whiskers (front thighs), honeycombs (behind the knees) and the pockets. Though these are great quality, they aren't indestructible. I've had a couple of crotch blowouts and rips in my pockets which only added character. I was concerned that they'd get larger if they weren't cared for. Wear, care and repair.

You can see here that I decided to do some sashiko repairs to add some more character to the jeans and continue to do as they become more worn. I worked with my good friend Sengshiko to work on some of these designs. I remember this being quite important because I had a couple more trips planned and I wanted to have them fixed up in advance. So prior to Covid-19, I've also worn these to Toronto, Costa Rica, Mexico, Tokyo, India, Portland and a few other places in North America. Some of these trips you may have seen on this blog.

Thanks for letting me nerd out a bit and maybe I'll even share some other pairs of denim I've worn over the years. I can't wait for the day that we're all able to travel, grab beers and roam around safely. Until then, these are going to be my grocery shopping jeans.

Yours Truly