Hi Y’all,

First off, if you’re browsing the blog on your mobile device like iPhone or Blackberry you might have noticed that we have integrated mobile browsing theme to the blog to make it easier to read our updates with your mobile device. So if your checking in with your iPhone the view will be something like this.

To switch back to the normal view just scroll down and choose to turn off the mobile theme.

Now, back to business.

This week I crossed the first month mark in my current denim project and well what can I say. The jeans get better by the day. Well since it has been a month already I should be posting more detailed pics of the jeans but to be frank there is not much to show just yet. Although the denim is slightly lighter in color and also a bit finer in texture, there is still not much marks to show at this point. However I do have to point out that these jeans to wear a bit faster than the Vintage Label Momotaro Jeans. There are certain wear marks already that did not appear until after first washes with my previous project.

The winter still rages on here in Finland and although we did have few sunny days this week most of the time it’s still that same old cold and snowy weather. The roads are totally covered with snow and in some locations the city (or whoever is in charge of the roads and sidewalks) is definitely not doing their share in shoveling the snow from the sidewalks. Like I was showing in my last post, some folks will only find their cars during the Spring when the snow melts.

The deep snow has also worn the cuffs of my jeans at a much faster pace than in the past as you can see below.

The cuffs are usually the first to experience the tear side of things but not yet (touch wood) just some lighter shades due to constant encounters with the snow.

The creasing on the back of the jeans is showing signs of what we can expect as the project proceeds.

This time around I am not planning to give the jeans any soakings until I really need to or until the snow has melted and perhaps I can soak the jeans in the lake like last time. Well that’s only few months ahead but just to keep the jeans as fresh as possible I will bury the jeans into snow for a minute. I know this does not really have much of an effect but it has a psychological effect. Hey, folks with no snow stuff their jeans into a freezer to keep them fresh during their wear and tear projects. Thankfully we’ll still have snow for a long time, haha. No jeans in my freezer, period.

But that’s all for now, my next Copper G003-MB project update will most likely be posted from Copenhagen. Most of our crew will be heading to Denmark for the Terminal-2 fair on Wednesday but I’ll post a little preview on that on Tuesday. Don’t forget our Chinese New Year promotion and stay tuned for our updates. We love you all, I’m out, peace.

Yet another Stuff to… post. It’s a good thing there’s an abundance of material – the world is just full of cool stuff.

Tony’s been talking about this being the Year of the Tiger, and even posted a picture of that black and orange beast. I got a whole new beast for you. The Vyrus 987 C3 4V. The fastest and most powerful production bike in the world. Fastest. Most powerful. ‘Nuff said.

Image courtesy of Team-BHP.

Not to mention it’s Friday! One of the best days of the week. The weekend begins. How good does that first drink of the weekend taste like when you get home before launching into the wild nightlife of Wherever City? It tastes gooood. Just make sure that your bar is up the speed and hefty enough to take the weight of the assortment of bottles on it. For example by using an old workbench as a bar, voilá:

Image courtesy of PotteryBarn.

And just because Fallout is that cool, here’s the new trailer for Fallout: New Vegas. Enjoy. And have a great weekend!

Hi Y’all,

As promised I will be posting more Chinese New Year related stuff this and next week and we’re just getting started. New Lunar Year means a new beginning and  to celebrate this people often purchase new gear. I mentioned this in my past post so pardon the follow up but in celebration of this joyous and auspicious celebration we are throwing The Year Of Tiger Promotion. Welcome the new lunar year in style and make use of the 13% discount you can get by using coupon code NDH-CNY10 at the checkout. The coupon code is valid from 5th until 15th of February 2010.

Art by Simon Birch

Remember The Year Of The Golden Tiger is bound to be an auspicious one. I’m excited about this upcoming holiday season. Stay tuned for more, drop us your comments and questions. We love to hear from you. Gong Hei Fatt Choi, Gong Xi Fatt Cai, Happy Chinese New Year. I will say repeat these words again and again, but you have to start the wishes early enough. Cheers, I’m out…

Hi Y’all,

As you well know, the year of the Tiger is approaching and you can sense the prosperity of the new lunar year. We’ll be celebrating the lunar new year (in style) in Copenhagen, Denmark due to the CPH-Vision/ Terminal-2 fair, which we’ll be attending together with our friends from Momotaro Jeans. But I’m sure it’s going to be an auspicious CNY.

New Lunar Year is a new beginning which should be embraced in dressing yourself in fresh gear. For myself and the fam this means copping new gear for the new year. Of course Chinese New Year is much more than just Ang Paus and new gear. It’s a time of reunion. I will defo talk more about this closer to the CNY, but here’s a little something on the topic.

Nike Sportswear is commemorating the event by launching Cortez Classic inspired by the Year of the Tiger, tiger stripes and all. The details are pretty awesome, sil screened tiger stripes, highlighted horsehair and extra pair of laces by Starks. Oh, and the kicks will be launched as a limited edition (200 pairs) release on the 10th of February with a very nice thematic box. But those more interested of the shoe and not so much of the box, it will also be released with a normal shoe box on the 13th of February.

Pictures courtesy of sneakerfreaker.com

Nike Asia Pacific has also created the below video in celebration of the launch.

Another brand making moves in the sneaker scene in celebration of CNY is Converse. The brand has launched a series of the year of the tiger designs for the season. Converse has produced a Chinese New Year 2010 collection that features all of the lines under Converse flag. These include: Chuck Taylors, Jack Purcells, classic One Stars and a concealed Weapon. The designs feature plenty of red and gold colors in celebration of this prosperous season. The kicks will be available in the beginning of the new Lunar Year, but only in China. So give a call to your connections there and cop yourself a pair of fresh kicks in celebration of the year of the golden tiger. Pics below.

Pictures courtesy of sneakerfreaker.com

Finally I drop you a little hint on a future post I will be making on the topic of The Year Of the Tiger. I’m kind of excited about an upcoming expansion of The Year Of… brand. Some of you already know what I’m talking about here but just a teaser now. Will post more on the topic once the time is right.

That’s all for now but rest assured we will be welcoming The Year Of… the Tiger in style. Stay cool everyone but don’t get cold, the spring is on its way. I’m out, peace.

Ah. Another week, another post.

Let’s create an imaginary scenario (if you’re a guy that is).

You come home from the office, the factory, the bar or the sweatshop and you want to change into something more comfortable. You pull on your dark denim Momotaro’s – the ones that you’ve been wearing for a while, the ones starting to show some of that wear already -  and the pleasure of feeling them becoming a second skin makes you smile. Heading to that ragged bunch of T-shirts piled up at the back of the closet, you pick something nifty like the Amity Island Boat Hire tee. Just because you watched the re-run of Jaws: The Revenge last night.

Image courtesy of Red Bubble.

You then vamoose to the living room, pulling out that laptop from a cool old duffel bag, not unlike Tony’s, smacking it on your table. Why not make it a cool puzzle coffee table, the kind you can get from Viva Terra.

Image courtesy of Cool Material.

Putting your feet up, the laptop warm on your belly, you might wander over to your favourite website; the NDH blog, knowing the people there are always ready to entertain you with the coolest and most interesting randomness found online. Like Darth Bale here (yeah, we can’t help but put Star Wars stuff here constantly – bear with it, (Storm) Trooper).

Now then – you might think after giggling manfully at Darth Bale – what all men need, is an axe. And you would be right in thinking that. All men need an axe, and what better axe than the one that sets the standard for all professional axes – the LaGana Vietnam Tactical Tomahawk. Yes. It’s a tactical axe. A. Tactical. Axe. How could you not want one? You should want one. A tactical axe.

For example: “Honey, I’m home! What’s for dinner? Oh, pot roast – my favourite. Let me get my tactical axe and chop it up for us.” Let the romance ensue.

No axe, no romance.

Later, watching TV after dinner, you can always whack it on your cool puzzle coffee table to keep it safe. Plus, I’m fairly certain, it’d work great as a bottle opener.

Image courstesy of Cool Material.

Keep on hacking, boys and girls.

-R

Hi Y’all,

When I said let it snow, let it snow, let it snow I did not expect Helsinki to experience snowfall of such proportions. I am not sure if Helsinki has seen such a winter in a decade or something (again I could be wrong considering I have not been around for almost half of the time) but still the winter’s great. I am sure many car owners might disagree with this statement as we see below. Oh, and that isn’t my car.

Keep an eye on your car, or you might not see it until spring.

Back to the denim project. I am not letting my jeans off easy. No holidays and no off-days. The weather has been very snowy for the past few days but prior to this we had a number of really and I mean really cold days. I think it was like -20 Degrees Celsius for like 4 days straight. But it’s fine, on these cold days it’s usually really sunny and beautiful out there and hey, it’s just a matter of dressing up for the occasion. My choice is same as usual, heavy oz denim. You can’t go wrong with that. Naturally I do have a shirt or two as well as a proper parka not to forget my trusted timberland boots, but when it comes to bottoms the jeans have not failed me not even in -23.

The weather has calmed down and warmed up it’s awesome -5 and lots and lots of snow.

So I get to continue my current project where I let off with my Vintage 0901 project. That is, introduce the jeans to snow as often as you can. Because few months later, the snow is nothing but a memory from the near future (seriously few months later the snow makes a glorious comeback).

One thing I realized about this set of jeans is that I start to see fading a bit faster than with the Vintage Label jeans. This could be the result of the special cotton as well as the natural blue dye used with the Copper Label but 3 weeks on and I can see whiskers forming. More of this next week or so. Now, another snowy picture.

I guess I mentioned that I love the fit. The jeans have adjusted really well in the past few weeks and although the jeans are slightly slimmer than what I am used to, the fit is just amazing. As I’m writing this, it has started to snow again and I’m expecting the traffic to be a mess tomorrow morning but that’s cool. Gonna chill for a minute now and gather some strength for another week of on this crazy journey.

Stay tuned for more and don’t forget your car. I’m out, peace.

Hi Y’all,

It’s a new year and new year means new products. Last time I introduced our new brands QUOLOMO and erect81, but this week I get back to our old friend KIKS TYO and more precisely the new KIKS girl for the Spring 2010, Yuki Hoashi.  Just when you got the first glimpse of the upcoming shirts featuring Yuu Tejima we bring you the fresh face of the Sneaker Girl series and I can tell she fits the league of Yuko Ishida and Aki Hoshino very well.

The new shirts for the month of February include Baby J’s with Yuki holding a bunch of Baby Jordans in her arms.  No further description required, let picture explain the rest.

The other newcomer is is titled Terminator and this time the lovely Ms. Hoashi is posing with a pair of Terminators. As the title says, the shirt is inspired by the Terminator movies as well as the series Sarah Connor Chronicles. The movies ain’t got nothing on this. Lovely.

Let this serve as a sneak preview for what to expect in the not so distant future. Personally I can’t wait to get these shirts. KIKS are keeping it fresh and we do our best to do the same. To be frank, it’s not too hard as the weather has been rather chilly for about a week already. I’ll continue on that note with this week’s Copper G003-MB edition. But until then, stay fresh and enjoy the weekend to the fullest, I know I will. Peace.

Hi Y’all,

As some of you might have noticed, we have added some additional information and sneak peeks to our upcoming brand additions, QUOLOMO and erect81.

I have covered QUOLOMO in the past but just a quick follow up before the official introductions. QUOLOMO is a t-shirt, apparel and lifestyle project from Tokyo. Their creations draw inspiration from sub-cultures, artists, pop-culture personalities and Japanese animation. QUOLOMO means “wear” in traditional Japanese and it is focused on creating wearable items dedicated to the time tested sensibilities and standards of quality, artistry and originality.

The brand has released some very rare tees featuring the art on photographer Yone. I dropped a video on the Yone x Reach Partouze exhibition from last spring and below’s another one from the show.

erect81 again is a crossover of erotic art and fashion from Tokyo. Produced by the crew that brought you KIKS TYO and QUOLOMO, SEVEN UNDER the brand will bring you the same high quality just with on a bit more extreme level.

Below a little intro video to the brand featuring av gravure idols Kaede Matsushima, Naho Ozawa & Hitomi Hayasaka.

That’s all for now, we’ll be back with more soon. Stay tuned and stay safe, I’m out…

Hi Y’all,

I’m continuing on something remy kicked off some time back. Our new weekly edition for the new year “Stuff to wear…” This week I’ introducing to you something special, a duffel bag. But not just any duffel bag, a Finnish vintage duffel bag. Genuine leather travel gear from few decades back. The bag is indeed made in Finland few decades back (I think it was made in the 70’s)  but is still in what I would call prime condition.

The bag does not only look badass, it’s also very handy when traveling. Just the right size for traveling, in my opinion at least. It also has story to it. If you look at the side of the bag (below pic) you can see a hand print on it. This hand print actually belongs to a Mexican taxi driver, who had apparently just finished mechanic work or something because as soon as he had thrown the bag to the trunk of the car the hand print was stuck there and that was 30 years ago. Ain’t that something.

Well obviously these are stories I heard from the bag’s previous owner (my parents), since back then I was nothing but an idea. But somehow I really find this story amusing to say the least. I adopted the bag a year ago and since then it has traveled with me to here and there, still toughing it out and not complaining. Like a good bag should. A nice vintage bag goes well with other vintage gear like jeans, shirts and shoes. As you can see below, heh.

The pic was taken last summer (ah the summer), and although it’s just something like 6 months back it feels as if it was ages ago. My Vintage Label Momotaro Jeans which are actually stored inside the bag at the moment were a true travel companion to my bag last year and thus I feel that since I am more or less wearing the Copper Label Momotaro Jeans on daily basis, I should keep the jeans I love in a bag I appreciate almost as much as my jeans. Also it saves me a minute when packing for a trip, should I feel a need to pack an extra pair of jeans along to the journey. Next stop for the bag is Copenhagen, Denmark where we’re heading in two week’s time. But more on that later.

That’s all for this edition of Stuff to wear… Stay tuned for more and have a prosperous week ahead everyone. One love y’all, I’m out… Peace.

Hi Y’all,

I’ve been flying around as if I had wings on my back. It’s all good though, I enjoy flying though it would be good to land at some point as if you fly for too long you’ll become rootless and it’ll be difficult to keep you feet on the ground. What I meant to say was that I have been just a bit preoccupied with a thing or two.

Nevertheless my Momotaro Jeans Copper Label G003-MB jeans have been with me the whole time. I have not gone to the extreme of wearing the jeans while sleeping, but other than that I’ve worn them all the time. Last time I promised you some fit pics and I stand behind my words, here you go (Pardon the camera phone quality and my scarf censoring the lovely Aki Hoshino on my shirt).

The fit is indeed a bit slimmer from the Vintage Label 0901 Jeans I was wearing last year. But still the jeans are awesome. Definitely softer in texture all because of the fine cotton used in making the jeans. Speaking of the production process, if you have not done so yet, check out our Media Centre for some videos of the production process of the Momotaro Jeans, the sewing bit shows the sewing of Copper Label jeans. Made by hand without compromise.

Back to the project, below some pics of the jeans in their current glory.

The front (forgot the belt into the picture)

And the back (no belt this time). Notice the stacks on the back of the knees, these should develop rather nicely in few months.

The seat is still pretty much in their original state although there has been some wear on the hidden rivets and the belt loop on the back. The back of the jeans is sure to fade more in the months to come, at least if the jeans are anything similar to the Vintage Label project. See I can’t help but to compare these jeans to my previous project. I need to let go, but what can I say, it’s difficult, heh.

I really love the leather patch on the Copper Label Momotaro Jeans. Simple, clean and just awesome. Also due to the pre-washed state of the jeans, every leather patch is pretty much different from one another.

Last I leave you with a picture of my belt in its current state, I can’t help but to appreciate the stubbornness of the belt. I was sure it would break within a year. It’s been already 1,5 years and it’s still going strong. Way to go belt!

That’s all for this edition of Copper G003-MB, keep checking our blog and our updates on other social media channels. Oh, and don’t forget our New Year’s Promotion and the upcoming KIKS TYO tees. We love you all now I’m getting back to my list of emails and things to do. Be easy and I’m out…