Why, why, why must you tease? Pictures, dammit. PICTURES!

Costco.
$13.00 a pair.

JWM

MESSAGES FROM MY HELPFUL READERS

Ooops, forgot to turn on comments for an hour.

Here's the other emailed suggestions so far:

Chris advises:    If you don't have a membership, get somebody to take you to Costco. New blue jeans for

Curtis tells me: Gerard, You of all people should know that you buy jeans at Wallyworld. They’re new and you get 3 pairs for a fifty.

Rick helps out with: Just saw your "jeans" post. I too used to be able to walk in to Gap and buy a normal pair of jeans. Honestly, the whole fake-wear thing reminds me of tattoos and limos these days -- $75 and you too can be famous. "I don't play a doctor on TV, I just look like I play a doctor on TV."

Anyways, here's some news you can use. (Don't wear it out.)

Fortunately, I found that Lee still makes normal jeans. And they practically give 'em away. They're always sending me (not to much, but enough times) emails with free shipping, 30% off, etc. I don't know how they can do it.

I mean, if you know your size, it takes two seconds and you get them in a couple days in the mailbox. Don't have to join a club or nuthin.

http://www.lee.com/LEE_STORE_US/en_US/home.html

Even looks like Mike Rowe is working for them now. What's not to like? Someday, normal will be the new normal. Again.

Just go to Sears. New Levis. No holes. Still blue. Forty bucks. Of course, it's been a while. Things may have changed.

Thankful you can still fit into five year old jeans!

Amen to the Sears comment. $29.95 here in upstate NY.

dude - The Gap is for (cough) metrosexuals and assorted other dainty types.

J.C. Penny's for Levis and Kmart (or Wal-Mart) for Wranglers.

In and out in 15 minutes!

Shopping is so 20th century. I bought 4 trousers today in 10 min with out leaving my chair. And delivery is free.

Costco's. Or a hunting store. Or couldn't you just get them online? My family increasingly finds that we hate the stuff for sale in the clothes stores near us, so we just get things from LLBeans, and the outlet stores when we're up north.

Wierd Ju Ju.
Went shopping just today.
I'd buy online if there was an easy way to digitize my a$$ to send to the shipper for a proper fit.
Call me a dinosaur, I still like playing the game of paper for goods.
J.C. Penny. Lee, $35 for two, double checked in the fitting room.
American Digest ROCKS!

Oh, by the by, I did notice that roughly 1/3 of the jeans on display were trophies from recent Zombie, or Hobo hunts.

Wrangler Rugged Wear. $14 dollars a pop at the factory stores in Draper. They come in "regular" or "widebody" fit, too.

I get six months out of a pair if I can get by without wearing bags daily.

F'n Walmart. Dickies Jeans for like $10-15 (I forget which).

Costco, JCPenney (at Northgate - if you can tolerate the parking lot and the mall), Fred Meyer, all have decent, new, blue jeans.
Happy hunting!

Oops! One more, sort of dorky thought: Renton Western Wear ... in fabulous downtown Renton. No joke. They have lots of denim.

If you are ever in Bangkok there are Levis stores everywhere and Levis sections in all the department stores. They sell both new blue and the grotty ones.

one word: Walmart!

In the navy boiler room new jeans were a dreaded problem. That stiff feeling in 120 degrees and sweaty doesn't go over too well. We merely ran them through the ship's laundry a half dozen times before we wore them. Worked like a charm. I sure laughed when later in civilian life, the sixties code was the very bell bottomed jeans I had lived in for four years.

I get my Levis at Kohls. I don't go through them as fast as I used to when I worked out at the camp and did actual manual labor - digging, raking, sperating scrap metal, putting brush into the truck and then onto the burn pile - but that is the current place I go. Also for the Dockers, so that I have the casual trousers for day-to-day at the office.

They don't come that board-stiff any longer, with that much dye in them that they need a few washings first (Levi Strauss and Co. must have learned to save money on the dye by cutting it back a bit), but they are whole and sound. I am more than capable of putting my own holes in them and finding other things to stain them still - I don't need the manufacturer to give me the 'look' of honest labor - I can still find that for myself, thank you very much. And still do, surprisingly.

And I know when I need a new pair when the one I have gets too comfortable, too soft. There is a hole in the back pocket where the wallet sits, the front of the legs are going very, very pale, and I know that within a month the tear will begin, and an old friend is going away.

The American people gave to the world the fashion icon that says 'modern' and 'fashionable', and that icon is of the laborer.

Eat your heart out, ghost of the USSR, you ghoul of a bankrupt system - you don't know what work really is.

I got my last pair of Levis at Sam's Club. $22.
They were out of Lee's at Kohl's--regular price $26, on sale $22.

$50?! I wouldn't pay $26 for jeans even if they were encrusted with Calvin Klein's leftover Cheerios.

LLBean Online. $35 Free shipping. Very high quality.

Ain't America grand?

Amazing.

No one mentioned Eddie Bauer, and them being from Seattle and all.

So ... Bauer.

"Costco.
$13.00 a pair."

Got you beat: $7.76 a pair - the Goodwill store.

Upstate South Carolina-Jeans? Nah, 10 pairs of light weight shorts and 5 pairs of light weight sweat pants. That covers from mid Feb to the end of Nov. Sweats for Nov thru Feb. T-shirts for all year wear. A fleece pull-over for the cool days.
Of course there isn't a Swoosh of any other logo on any item.

It helps to have moved from northern Vermont.

**Ahem**

Why is it that I am here 25 comments deep before someone has mentioned that Levi Strauss is opposed to the Second Amendment?

Nope. While there was a day when I too wore those stiff-blue button-fly 501s, and in later years had a selection of Dockers, I no longer wear either of these brands. Like movie stars who spout off their liberal credentials, any corporation which takes a liberal stand will get no more money from me.

I'm wearing Carhartts now as I write, and the Wranglers are somewhere in the laundry which I will change into tomorrow. I bought the Carhartts at Cabelas, and the Wranglers at Sportsman's Warehouse.

Am hoping you found suitable since the original post. heh.

Long live cowboys and Cowboy Cut Wranglers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWcdZS43MI

L.L. Bean here, too. The only clothes I've bought in a store in the last decade or so are socks and underwear.

Levi Strauss also cut their ties with the Boy Scouts of America, in the mid-80s, over homosexuality. Many Christian organizations subsequently enacted an unofficial boycott of Levis, which resulted in a 15% loss of market share within a few years. Levi closed all their American plants and went overseas. Publicly they blamed their losses on everything except the boycott.

Partially related: look what happened to K-Mart when they insulted millions of gun owners, who apparently bought a lot more at K-Mart than guns and ammo.

Levis? Only a gunsel would wear Levis.

This was the first bit of your work I read ... I liked it. Later, I came upon "The Missing" ... not here at AD and I thought ... No way, couldn't be the same guy. Now I just look forward to seeing what you share next. Umm, one of my sons ordered these ... They were the seventies jeans ... Two sizes too big, remember? You gotta have a little room to rock.

http://us.levi.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2076855

THANKS DEANN I appreciate it.

"They don't come board stiff anymore."

But I just discovered that they do! Went to Tractor Supply to get dog food and decided to get some new jeans while I was there. Anyway, picked up a pair of Levis regulars and they were so stiff I could hardly get my legs in. Bought 5 pairs at $29.00 each and washed them once. Just like old times.

I don't buy Levis anymore, which is too bad, since they always fit me well.

They're headquartered in SF, and when the gay community declared war on the Boy Scouts, they went right along- removed their ads from Boy's Life, etc, etc, etc.

I declared war on Levis and haven't bought a damned thing off them since. Besides, as P. J. O'Rourke once said, "Dockers are pants for men with fat asses."

Gerard. I really enjoy your writing. I forget to say that as often as I notice it..

I do like this product, i just felt i had to rub a little more to get my water proof eye makeup off. ,

Im glad you all support the outsourcing of american labor. You should fall off your wallets and buy the new american denim being produced in small batches just like they did 5o years ago. And none of the brands you mention are the ones.

Rising sun denim, baldwin, rrl jeans, 3sixteen. Of course those cost money. You cheapskates who want to pay 10 dollars for dishonest labor and chinese materials can sit on here and badmouth levis. But you are just as bad in the cheap clothes you buy you support much worse

1. Levi's have lousy quality and worse politics. Eff 'em.

2. Wranglers are around $30 - $40 at Tractor Supply Company.

Can't relate -- I haven't worn jeans since I was in 7th Grade (1956-57). I buy my slacks at Sears, JCPenneys, WalMart, wash'n'wear, usually last at least 8 years -- under 20 bucks each, right off the rack.

YES, L.L. Bean for jeans and all kinds of other basics like t-shirts. Very high quality and durability and it's true: FREE SHIPPING

Fake shit. What a surprise.

What the hell is a slack? Like those who collect welfare? Pants with pleats are for folks with hernias. Handy if afflicted, however the cure is preferable. Seriously, the heavy denims, [not Levi or newer Lee type products for example] are the only britches worth working in. The heavies resist bob wire, charring from fire, and particularly cactus and goatheads. Gospel.
soapweed

You are too damned old to wearing blue jeans, Gerard. And you are an Ivy Leaguer. You should wear khakis informally.

Soapweed,
YES! Avoid the goatheads! A bare foot stepping on one of those evil little bastards will have you cursing like a sailor.

Around these parts wearing Levi's identifies the wearer as a leftist from out of the state. Also known as 'Frisco's' jeans.

Most here wear Wrangler or Carhartt brand. Wouldn't want to be found dead in a pair of Levi's.

Diamond Gusset jeans, still made in America. Decent fit, very good quality given the very reasonable price, especially during sales events. Haven't bought in five years, though, they do last very well. Unlike some other brands, they have odd-size waist like 35.

https://www.gusset.com/

I you want American made jeans I like Texas jeans, $29.95 mail order from Texasjeans.com but otherwise I've been wearing Rustlers by Wrangler for a long time, they fit right and last a long time and cost around $15.00 at BiMart. Just the thing if you're tossing hay bales around all day or working on trucks, don't know about office work, not much experience there.

Lee Jeans at Sears.

I buy almost all my other clothing at the local BassPro Shop.

I am sorry to report that I have recently disposed of aproximately $2000 worth of pre-owned jeans complete with "authentic" "tear & repair details."

I have boycotted Levis since they dumped the Boy Scouts back in the 80s.

Now I wear Carhartt only, bought at Murdoch's or Big R.