Bad News for anyone who wants some Japanese Repos - Page 10

I thought they added them to the ends of words because they can't pronounce consonants without adding a vowell.

No, desu, among other words, drops the u sound at the end. There aren't any strict grammatical rules for when to do it or not.

I think desu can be pronounced either desu or des it sounds more or less the same, evisu, evis... both are エヴィス (evisu). the difference exists only in the roman alphabet. but Levis actually becomes リーバイス (ri-baisu), so although the roman spelling is similar, the japanese spelling and pronunciation is different (ri-baisu vs. evisu)

Still... is it mere coincidence that "evisu" has four of the same letters, in order, as "levis"?

No, Im pretty sure it was intended.

I want to see some Israeli dude whose last name is Levi start making jeans. That would be interesting.

in the late 1980's, the price of vintage levis (big E) selvedge jeans went thru the roof. all of the japanese buyers were buying every single piece they could find and exporting them to japan. Evis (note the big E) then started making exact replica's of vintage levis to capitalize on the trend. when levis applied legal pressure, the brand name was changed to "Evisu" and the story made up about the god ebisu. the evisu seagull logo is simply a slanted version of the levis pocket logo. another interesting note: levis was painting this logo on the back pockets during world war two, to save on thread which was rationed.

Some background in this story on the legal suit, from Monday's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/bu...rtner=homepage

Levi Strauss the company sucks.

Levis denim sucks.

In my opinion, half of the fun of wearing a repro was basically wearing a big FUCK YOU LEVIS on your ass. You could also look at the repros as kind of an ironic gesture.

Anyway, I'm sure that the Japanese denim industry will move on, by finding creative new approaches or more subtle ways to infringe. Glad I got my Samurais when I did, though. Does anyone know if the infringing repros are still available domestically in Japan right now?

Wow, having read that, I don't think I'll ever buy their crap again. I was thinking of checking out some 514s, but not now.

Maybe they should spend some of their legal budget on hiring GOOD DESIGNERS.

Man, that is evil...

"The value of the brand will become diluted..."

Believe it or not, I think this may already be happening.

"the brand will become deluded"

I know it's not the popular stance here, but I've got to say I side with Levi's on this one. Perhaps their tactics are a bit aggressive, but I really think they're in the right here. They have a valid trademark that they should be, and are, entitled to protect. This has nothing to do with the quality of their product or design.

I would venture a guess that if this situation were reversed (i.e. if a small independent company that made jeans that all the denimheads liked sued Levi's for trademark infringement), everyone here who is criticizing Levi's would be supportive of the small company's action against the "evil corporate giant."