Oni Jeans? - Page 5

Damn, old threads bringing back memories

fuck i loved these. such a great fitting pair. washed the shit out of them though.

Oni is back!
No new models since the natural indigo one though (and that NF collb. ) - hopefully they have something special in the works.

Did I ever mention I played around with the back-pocket stitching on my two pairs?

its cause they are a very small company with very small production runs, which is a giant pain in the ass because once there out there out for 6 months, but at the same time its extremely respectable of them. i love oni. oni turned the japanese denim market upside down here in the states when they first came out with the shoai. shit was incredible.

lol, last time i looked last year i dont think they even had a website but they are producing ai jeans? amazing! they might have a site now ... .

I know they're a small company, but things have been a bit quite even by their standards.
They used to have at least one new model (usually a new fabric) in both Blue & Red fits every year - this year there's only been re-issues.
Not trying to imply anything negative - I'm an Oni fan myself.

The official line is that the guy who operates the vintage loom for the fabric, at around 80 years old, is a little infirm and thus cannot work through the winter (and cannot work quickly), hence production is slow and taken in intervals.
Edited by mikecch - 12/22/11 at 2:32am

i dont think so. they do have the shoai that came out, which is about as good as it gets. they also came out with a couple new jeans recently. i dont think its necessary for them to come out with new stuff each year. its a jean, there is only so much they can do. they already have the blue cut, which is one of finer cuts out so there really isnt much to do.

they do things their way and dont get caught up in the bull-shit of selling x number of jeans or limited edition this or that, which at the end of the day we all know is bull-shit anyway. more companies need to be like oni but it is highly unlikely because it seems many producers pander to morons who think buying a "limited" jeans for $375 bucks that is made of cone denim with a few extra rivets and a wider-cut thigh and tapered hem is special. they are loosing sight of what they do best and why they got into the industry.

The Shoai to me is an re-issue. I know the blue cut is good and all, but by new I mean a new fabric and some new details - the fit is always either the red or blue.
It's fine to say that a jean is just a jean, but Oni's niche is novelty and hobbyist denim, so new & interesting stuff is pretty much a given - such as the silk weft and paper denims that came out a couple of years ago - it's what keeps collectors and enthusiasts coming back.

I do agree, Oni has always stayed true to just making nice jeans and avoided marketing hypes. They don't even do interviews for the Japanese denim mags.
Some hobbyists are even a little troubled by the fact that they have no information regarding which mills & workshops are involved in the manufacturing of Oni's denim.
That's why I was surprised when the NF collab. came out...

Though, I have to say that Oni can avoid doing all this marketing type business because they have a very solid base and strong connections in the denim business - the creator of Oni is the son of the founder of Canton Denim (the Oishi family) - they have very good relationships with mills, workshops & retailers, starting from the 50s reconstructing US denim for the Japanese market, in the 60s making Japanese jeans, and finally in the 70s actually using Japanese denim fabric on jeans. Oni does not have to worry so much about getting jeans sold as quickly as possible (though they usually do sell quite quickly) - this is not a luxury that everybody has.

Again, this is not a criticism, more of a reflection from a Oni fan who has been watching the brand for a few years.
Edited by mikecch - 12/22/11 at 6:27pm

each time the shoai comes out it is slightly different. they might give the denim a different hue or change the patch material or come up with other unique details specific only to the shoai. are they a re-issue? sure, but that is because the resources needed (dying process, materials, labor) are scarce and they cannot produce year-round. the shoai is a truly special product that many japanese repo companies simply cannot recreate.

they did the canvas fabric a couple years ago and also did a great single top stitch jean not to long ago as well. imo, they have come up with a one of the better fits out there so i dont see a need to change the fit all that much. f anything they could taper the leg a touch more from the knee down but then that would "modernize" the cut, but i dont think that is what they are about.

making a ton of jeans or coming out with a new fit every six months is what this market is about. to me, its about using old technology (both in dying and manufacture processes) to produce the finest denim you can buy.

It's not true to say that many Japanese repro companies cannot create natural indigo jeans - it's just that the market has not called for it since about 2005/2006.
Keep in mind Oni Denim is a trading brand, not a factory/workshop brand, the same workshop & fabrics can be had by other companies should they choose to...Oni's niche in the market allows them to sell this kind of product right now, whilst others have since veered away from natural indigo denims. Sugar Cane & SDA were doing natural indigo from many different regions in Japan before the Shaoi came out, and indeed the natural indigo denim revival in Japan occured in the 1990s...we're just catching the tailwind of a dying trend here (no pun intended.)

Yes, I know about the various models they've come out with - I still own the ultra slubby 18 oz pair from 2009 (which they re-issued this year) and I have that single-stitch construct pair you mentioned.
My point, again, is variety...part & parcel with the niche that Oni occupies in the market.
I'm not talking about fits either, more about the fabric & construct, which is what is most important to their fan-base.

No point in this argument - again, I love Oni Denim, but when it comes down the process of sourcing & manufacturing, it is not so different from some it's peers like SDA, etc - it just happens to be smaller, more specialised, and have a slightly different appeal to a straight-forward reproduction brand.

I wrote up a small rant about Oni Denim and it's connection to the 1st generation Japanese denim brands here:
http://indigoshrimp.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/talking-about-oni-denim/