#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

#55 | Hello Runi

 

We're thrilled to welcome Runi (roo-nee) to our family! She joined us on December 11, 2020 as a Christmas gift to ourselves. This is my first time raising a puppy, and boy is it a ton of work - way more than I had ever imagined. She's a blessing though, minus waking up in the middle of the night, crate training and her nipping. But for real, she has been amazing. I don't have much else to say other than, look how cute she was at her first Christmas.

Yours Truly

#54 | Forget 2020 Confetti Tube

You may know  that I also work at a marketing agency called Lmno. Over the past couple of months, we worked on a product to share with our clients for the holidays. 2020 was a strange year, many people had to adapt to new changes for better or for worse. We recognized that that these past 365 days have been a challenge that no one could have ever predicted, so we wanted to hopefully give people a glimpse of hope or allow for them to let out a little chuckle. 

With that, our project team created the Forget 2020 Confetti Tube. We shredded real 2020 calendars to place in a clear plastic tube with graphics printed to it. This tube came within a stamped box and a letter of certification where they were hand numbered and signed by members of the agency. On the tube it says:

1. Open confetti
2. Throw confetti in the air
3. Walk away and don't look back

Warning: "Consuming contents can cause serious 2020 flashbacks."

Happy new year!

Yours Truly

#53 | Fit to Live Capsule Collection

Over at Olé Denim, we spent some time in the Fall working on a small collection of clothing and accessories that we wanted to have ready for Christmas and the New Year. Like the initial production of our jeans, we wanted to create items that could be used regularly and also something that we would spend our own money on. Our entire collection was sourced and made in Canada.

We took our slogan "Fit to Live" that was part of a Martin Luther King, Jr. and re-created the type based on his signature. The quote symbolizes both striving for passion but also the idea that our products are built to last and be versatile. We made two shaker style knit beanies in Storm and Navy, as well as a mid-weight cotton black tee.

Shop the collection here.

Yours Truly

#52 | Taj Mahal

 

This is from a while back now, but Agra was one of the coolest places in India that we had visited. Agra wasn't a city I was familiar with but of course I had heard about one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal. We had visited the beautiful grounds with our travel guide who shared the story of an emperor working with a world-class team to design the Taj Mahal and surrounding buildings. It was originally developed to honour and hold his late wife who passed while giving birth. To this day, the original family who worked on the exterior apparently still works on the repairs to upkeep this romantic piece of history.

Yours Truly