Rawr Denim article: White Oak Economy

Adulthood....well count me out then, ill never reach that!

I was 14 at the melonenium.

I didn't mind the article but what i didnt like was how she gassed "US" up . She likely turned so many readers who already know what she is saying by telling them how handsome and big our dicks are. Cheap way to get people to accept her .  I had a similar convo with matt about this during my Indigogene time. We talked about who i wanted Indigogene to be bought by and how "commercial denim is where its at" Everyone already knows the obvious.   

As for Rawr, I find they do a lot of capt obvious articles and do NOT know how to report without showing who they are cheering for.  I actually find they are a denim mag for teens


"So who are you? I’m sure you hate being put into boxes, but I’m going to do it anyway. You are the “Millennial” consumer and you’re the most important and largest consumer group to affect the world’s economy since the baby boomers (and they f!@ked a lot of things up so go careful!) A lot has been written about this consumer group but the key traits are they are more environmentally aware, more tolerant, liberal, and open minded. Even if you are older or younger than the age range (born from early 80s to early 2000s), the fact that you are reading this site means you at least have Millennial tendencies.

And despite the current high levels of unemployment, you are a very powerful spending group. You are one of the largest generations in living history and from 2017 onwards, you are expected to spend 200 billion dollars annually.

But you are also savvy buyers and buy into a brand’s story more than previous generations. You care about what you buy and through the explosion of online blogs and e-commerce sites, you have started to get pretty picky about who you buy into. And this is why there’s been such a selvedge boom in recent years: premium denim represents all the values that millennials look for in their brands.

We have a very long way to go but educating the public is the only way. Of course at the top of the denim consumer pyramid are you guys: guys who are buying from Tellason, Raleigh, Momotaro and the like. You buy occasionally and you buy to wear and wear and repair and wear again. You care where the fabric was woven, by whom, who stitched the jean together and how happy they were doing it. You care about shipping, water consumption, indigo quality and ecological footprint.

You’ve made premium trendy whether you like it or not, but trends help to push the market forward and if quality and ethics are trending then you all should give yourself a pat on the back".

I kind of think it Not the Millenials that are driving the Raw Denim. I think it's GenX.
They have money and are looking for the nostalgic look there parents/grandparents wore. We/they clearly can't wear what was worn in the 80's (acid wash . But now we can take a pair of Raw and make our own fades or wash them like a pair of old Levi's till there washed out.
So I say it's the 35-50 year olds driving the higher end Raw $200+ and the broke, cheep ass, jobless, living in the basement Millenials buying the $60 uniglow stuff.

Oddly I think it was Gustin that single handily brought our Generations (GenX & Millinial's) together.

I think it's likely a combination of younger and older generations rather than a single group driving the denim industry. I fall into the Gen-X category and while I can certainly afford to buy $200+ raws I only have 1 pair to my name (3sixteens) and would rather save that kind of dough for other things. Most of my jeans fall into the mid to low range category and I got them all at steep discount. I'm not ashamed to admit that I own several pairs of Uniqlo selvedge jeans. they're my beater jeans. I also own stuff by Taylor Stitch, N&F, United Stock Dry Goods and a pair of Gustin's, all of which were in the $50-75 range. I just thought the Rawr article was incredibly short-sighted and probably based on anecdotal evidence rather than factual data.

that's not going in the something that made me laugh today post.

You guys always have to bring the funny when I'm in the office, don't you? LOL.

Wasn't sure where to post this, but looks like Cone Mills is closing the White Oak plant. I imagine this'll be just the thing to make their stuff super hip again. www.wfmynews2.com/news/local/cone-denim-white-oak-plant-to-close-in-greensboro-after-more-than-110-years-in-operation/484314898

It is sad. I wonder what the rationale is for getting out of the denim business? There are many mills in Japan, and other places, and they seem to be able to make a buck, but I would suspect that there simply is not enough demand here in the states for Cone denim, and unless your a denim head, you simply won't pay that much for a pair of jeans.

The article doesn't surprise me. It seems to be the trend that private equity firms buy companies only to turn around and strip them of their worth. I'm not the hugest fan of Cone Mills denim but I suspect there will be demand for it now that they're closing shop. I don't know how this will pan out for Japanese mills. Demand will surely go up and with it possible price increases, but i'm speculating.