notwithit
Pullup laureate
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As one of a handful of people test-driving the soon-to-be-released Massdrop x Naked & Famous Massdrop Ichiban selvedge Weird Guy jeans, I thought I'd share some initial impressions. Obviously plenty has been written here about Naked & Famous, including a 900-page thread that's been around since 2008. So why am I writing this? Mostly because Fok (and Mike at Massdrop) asked me to, and they bribed me with a sample pair.
First, a word on the Weird Guy cut:
N&F has a handful of cuts, but the original three are Slim Guy (slim-straight), Weird Guy (tapered), and Skinny Guy (skinny, obvs). Of these, the Weird Guy is probably the most universally flattering. In Levi's terms, Slim Guy is like a 514, and the Skinny Guy is closest to the 510. The Slim Guy can look a little sloppy at the point where it hits the shoe on account of the wider leg opening, and the Skinny Guy is probably only going to work if you are, as the name implies, skinny.
The Weird Guy strikes a solid middle ground: the rise and thigh generous enough to work for a decent swath of humanity (although powerlifters might want to try the recently released Easy Guy cut), while there's enough taper below the knee to give them a modern, 'clean' look. I already own a couple pairs, all of them on the lighter-weight end of the spectrum: dungaree (from a few seasons ago with a grey weft and tonal stitching), featherweight (5 oz, whoop!), and lightweight natural indigo, which together are pretty much my go-to summer jeans collection.
As the nit-pickiest of nit-pickers (and in an effort to remain fair and balanced, now that Fox News no longer claims to do so), I have a couple of nits to pick with Weird Guys. These are all personal preference, but I'm the one writing this, so you'll have to voice your disagreement in subsequent posts.
- The fly seems oddly short. There are four buttons in all (including the one at the waistband), and since these aren't particularly low-rise, I would think they could space them out a little more. It doesn't make a huge difference, but it's also never quite made sense to me.
- The pocket openings are restrictive enough to be slightly annoying. Admittedly, I'm pretty skinny and have fairly large hands. I understand the reasoning, since a pocket opening that fits closer to the body yields a more streamlined silhouette (I think that's the logic, anyway). Regardless, in an age of > 6" cell phones, they can be a little hard to work with.
- In my very subjective opinion, a touch more room at the hip, thigh, and knee could up the comfort level without drastically altering the appearance.
On to these jeans in particular:
The denim - which is apparently exclusive to this release - falls pretty comfortably in the middle of just about everything, including the weight at 13.75 oz. There's a little bit of slub, but nothing crazy; they're a little on the starchy side, but not overly stiff; there's a slight hairiness to the denim on close inspection, but it's not particularly visible from afar; and the hand is moderately rough, but not to an extent that's going to yield any discomfort. There's a decent amount of weft (natural-colored rather than white) poking through, which lends them a slightly brighter appearance in spite of the relatively dark indigo (which is, as it turns out, natural rather than synthetic). My favorite aspect has to be the selvedge line, which is a lighter blue that I haven't seen before.
The details are mostly on par with what you'd expect from N&F (caveat: I'm wearing a sample pair, so there's an off chance that the actual Massdrop release will differ slightly from my description). There are, as per usual, bar-tacked back pockets, riveted front and coin pockets, and a (slightly rattly) button fly (the hardware is all custom to N&F). The hem is chainstitched, and the stitching falls a touch further from the hem than I've come to expect from most jeans. The stitching is a medium brown that contrasts with the denim without the garish effect you can get from bright yellow stitching. There's hidden selvedge at the coin pocket, which I strongly prefer to the exposed selvedge I've seen on a few older pairs of N&F jeans (and I always feel a little cheated if there's no coin pocket selvedge at all). The selvedge lies nice and flat rather than irksomely folding over. The top buttonhole on my pair could have been cut a little further, but this isn't my first rodeo and I didn't have a problem widening it slightly. I've always been somewhat ambivalent about the arguably NSFW leather patch N&F uses, but the thick, undyed veg-tan leather they used (reading 'Naked & Massdrop') may be my favorite detail.
On to measurements, with the very significant caveat that I'm a total amateur here. These are a size 28 (yay for vanity sizing).
hem: 6 7/8"
front rise: 11"
back rise: 13 1/2"
thigh (1" down from crotch): 11"
waist, laid flat w/ natural dip: 14 7/8"
waist with front and back waistband aligned: 15 1/4"
I was a little hesitant putting these on for the first time. My other pairs of N&F Weird Guys are all size 29, which is comfortable from the get-go but requires me to wear a belt in situations where I want to minimize my risk of sudden pantlessness. I opted to go with size 28 because that was all they had. They started out a little snug but totally buttonable, and within a couple of hours they stretched to being pretty comfortable. I'm currently on my 7th day wearing them and the waist now measures 15 1/4" laid flat, 16 1/4" with the front and back of the waistband aligned.
edit: I just realized I forgot to include my stats. I'm 6'1" and currently around 145. I'd consider my 'normal' jeans size to be 30, so I'm sizing down 2 here (same as I'd size APC NS, if people still wear those).
On to pictures:
fresh out of the box
oddly misspelled tag, custom hardware
hidden coin pocket selvedge
fit pic, 2nd day of wear
anticipating some decent honeycombs behind the knees
Anywho, I'll keep posting some updates as these evolve over the next few months. Looks like the drop is now live, so...have at, I guess?
First, a word on the Weird Guy cut:
N&F has a handful of cuts, but the original three are Slim Guy (slim-straight), Weird Guy (tapered), and Skinny Guy (skinny, obvs). Of these, the Weird Guy is probably the most universally flattering. In Levi's terms, Slim Guy is like a 514, and the Skinny Guy is closest to the 510. The Slim Guy can look a little sloppy at the point where it hits the shoe on account of the wider leg opening, and the Skinny Guy is probably only going to work if you are, as the name implies, skinny.
The Weird Guy strikes a solid middle ground: the rise and thigh generous enough to work for a decent swath of humanity (although powerlifters might want to try the recently released Easy Guy cut), while there's enough taper below the knee to give them a modern, 'clean' look. I already own a couple pairs, all of them on the lighter-weight end of the spectrum: dungaree (from a few seasons ago with a grey weft and tonal stitching), featherweight (5 oz, whoop!), and lightweight natural indigo, which together are pretty much my go-to summer jeans collection.
As the nit-pickiest of nit-pickers (and in an effort to remain fair and balanced, now that Fox News no longer claims to do so), I have a couple of nits to pick with Weird Guys. These are all personal preference, but I'm the one writing this, so you'll have to voice your disagreement in subsequent posts.
- The fly seems oddly short. There are four buttons in all (including the one at the waistband), and since these aren't particularly low-rise, I would think they could space them out a little more. It doesn't make a huge difference, but it's also never quite made sense to me.
- The pocket openings are restrictive enough to be slightly annoying. Admittedly, I'm pretty skinny and have fairly large hands. I understand the reasoning, since a pocket opening that fits closer to the body yields a more streamlined silhouette (I think that's the logic, anyway). Regardless, in an age of > 6" cell phones, they can be a little hard to work with.
- In my very subjective opinion, a touch more room at the hip, thigh, and knee could up the comfort level without drastically altering the appearance.
On to these jeans in particular:
The denim - which is apparently exclusive to this release - falls pretty comfortably in the middle of just about everything, including the weight at 13.75 oz. There's a little bit of slub, but nothing crazy; they're a little on the starchy side, but not overly stiff; there's a slight hairiness to the denim on close inspection, but it's not particularly visible from afar; and the hand is moderately rough, but not to an extent that's going to yield any discomfort. There's a decent amount of weft (natural-colored rather than white) poking through, which lends them a slightly brighter appearance in spite of the relatively dark indigo (which is, as it turns out, natural rather than synthetic). My favorite aspect has to be the selvedge line, which is a lighter blue that I haven't seen before.
The details are mostly on par with what you'd expect from N&F (caveat: I'm wearing a sample pair, so there's an off chance that the actual Massdrop release will differ slightly from my description). There are, as per usual, bar-tacked back pockets, riveted front and coin pockets, and a (slightly rattly) button fly (the hardware is all custom to N&F). The hem is chainstitched, and the stitching falls a touch further from the hem than I've come to expect from most jeans. The stitching is a medium brown that contrasts with the denim without the garish effect you can get from bright yellow stitching. There's hidden selvedge at the coin pocket, which I strongly prefer to the exposed selvedge I've seen on a few older pairs of N&F jeans (and I always feel a little cheated if there's no coin pocket selvedge at all). The selvedge lies nice and flat rather than irksomely folding over. The top buttonhole on my pair could have been cut a little further, but this isn't my first rodeo and I didn't have a problem widening it slightly. I've always been somewhat ambivalent about the arguably NSFW leather patch N&F uses, but the thick, undyed veg-tan leather they used (reading 'Naked & Massdrop') may be my favorite detail.
On to measurements, with the very significant caveat that I'm a total amateur here. These are a size 28 (yay for vanity sizing).
hem: 6 7/8"
front rise: 11"
back rise: 13 1/2"
thigh (1" down from crotch): 11"
waist, laid flat w/ natural dip: 14 7/8"
waist with front and back waistband aligned: 15 1/4"
I was a little hesitant putting these on for the first time. My other pairs of N&F Weird Guys are all size 29, which is comfortable from the get-go but requires me to wear a belt in situations where I want to minimize my risk of sudden pantlessness. I opted to go with size 28 because that was all they had. They started out a little snug but totally buttonable, and within a couple of hours they stretched to being pretty comfortable. I'm currently on my 7th day wearing them and the waist now measures 15 1/4" laid flat, 16 1/4" with the front and back of the waistband aligned.
edit: I just realized I forgot to include my stats. I'm 6'1" and currently around 145. I'd consider my 'normal' jeans size to be 30, so I'm sizing down 2 here (same as I'd size APC NS, if people still wear those).
On to pictures:
fresh out of the box
oddly misspelled tag, custom hardware
hidden coin pocket selvedge
fit pic, 2nd day of wear
anticipating some decent honeycombs behind the knees
Anywho, I'll keep posting some updates as these evolve over the next few months. Looks like the drop is now live, so...have at, I guess?
Last edited:
