I’m telling you, I’ve had some awesome pants in the past but I have never had such trouble retiring a denim project than I had with this particular pair of pants. The Copper Label G003-MB jeans has its flaws but in my opinion this is probably one of the greatest jeans in the world. No joke.

It’s not just the fading, the denim quality or the fit but the combination of all the elements that just fit. It doesn’t matter whether you’re tall or short, the jeans will adapt to your lifestyle like no others.

The only criticism goes to the pocket lining fabric. Although the fabric is as soft as it gets and it’s dyed with natural indigo, the pocket is not as strong as the one with Vintage or GTB labels. By all means it is more durable than many others, but it will be the first to break and I had to patch and sew the pocket lining from both pockets more than once. But hey, the patching is just part of the process and I truly believe there are not too many people that put their jeans through as much as I did. It was truly a wear and tear project. I have raised up this issue and the Copper Label jeans now have enforced stitching that will enhance the durability of the fabric.

The denim kept evolving until the very end, although the process slowed down a lot after about 7-9 months of wear and few washes. Still I was happy to witness the denim evolving even after several washes. The first wash I gave the jeans was at about 3 month mark.

It has now been a bit over a week that I have been wearing my new jeans. Totally different fit, same fabric (although raw in the start) totally new denim experience. I am sure these jeans will adapt to become as great (if not better) than my Copper Label pants, but I have to say they have pretty damn big shoes to fill. You can follow the latest project at Project Wear and Tear site.

Thanks for the year G003-MB. They say one should quit while winning, this pair of jeans remains a winner.

P.S. Now that I think about it, the title sounds like a freaking Star Wars Droid… all of the denim labels do. C-3PO, R2-D2, G003-MB. All good stay tuned for more denim projects and updates!

The trip to Genting Highlands was the last journey (for now) that the pants have made with me wearing them, and what a trip it was. The cool mountain air, superb views and so much to do, three days just flew by mostly just enjoying the scenery.

Of course what really counted on this trip was the family time. My wife and especially Maxwell really enjoyed their time as well. Maxwell has not worn long sleeves almost the entire time he has been in Malaysia, and I could see the Lil’ Hulk was really happy about the cooler climate.

Our trip coincided with the Chinese New Year celebrations and 9th Day of Chinese New Year which is actually very significant celebration for the Hokkien community. Needless to say, there was plenty of fireworks and celebration going on.

The time up on the hills was superb but the way down was not bad either. Again, amazing views and a nice restaurant where we stopped by for some lunch.

All I can say is that it was an awesome trip and even I felt like I was on holiday, although emails were flying around as per usual.

So what about the jeans? How are they handling the local weather and all the trips. Very well I might say. The jeans are right now in the laundry basket waiting to be washed one more time before I’m packing them for retirement. I guess the “retirement” will be one more post next week but I thought of posting a little summary as well as plenty of pics for this edition.

The jeans have been constantly fading during our time in Malaysia, the short time we have spent here has dealt more lines on the denim that much longer time in Finland did, I guess it has all to do with the hot and humid weather and the fact that I’m still wearing the heavy oz jeans although it’s 35 degrees Celsius here. The seat, crotch and back of the knees have faded especially rapidly as can be seen from the pictures. More creasing has appeared and the pocket areas have become few steps lighter in the color scale. Naturally the look of the jeans has stagnated the bit but even without washing the whiskers have become more visible and the light parts of the jeans even lighter. The hems of the jeans have been slightly torn and they’re quite dirty at the moment, but add to the character of the jeans. The lining inside the jeans has remained pretty much standard lately and has not faded much. This was expected though. Oh, and the patchwork I have done on the jeans is holding up really well too. I really love the feel and the look of the jeans and to be honest it feels very weird to start wearing dark indigo jeans again after such a long time. However at the same time it’s bloody exciting as well.

That’s how the jeans look at the moment, but the pictures cannot tell how good the pants feel. They are getting softer and feel pretty much amazing. I have worn numerous pants in my life, but these are definitely my favorite jeans/pants ever. If the new project gets anywhere close to these jeans in comfort, fit and style, it’s going to be an awesome pair of jeans as well.

That’s where we are at right now, the leather patch is more tanned than I am but it’s all good. I still have time to get some sun. I’m out, peace.

But as I hinted last week, this article is pretty much a Chinese New Year’s edition. The Year Of the Golden Rabbit has already kicked off and what is said to be a year of prosperity and health has started really nicely. The Chinese New Year is naturally all about reunion and families coming together to celebrate the past and upcoming years with good food, traditions such as ang paws (red envelopes) and occasional gambling. Everyone’s generally in a good mood and people are enjoying themselves, much like with the Western holidays. So the past few days we’ve cruised around meeting relatives and two things have remained the same, the jeans and me carrying Maxwell. Maxwell’s my wingman, you know like Batman has Robin and all.

While not carrying around Maxwell, I might have picked up a tortoise in case I came across one. Please note that it was allowed to carry the tortoise and I did not bully him/her. Actually this was probably the first time I have carried a tortoise of this size before. Lucky I was a bit more cautious than a little girl who just happened to drop the tortoise. No pictures of the situation and the tortoise is fine, just got a scare of a lifetime I suppose.

I might have mentioned lanterns’ significance with the Chinese New Year on the blog before, but these lanterns that repel evil are as traditional as Chinese New Year itself. What I really love is the decorations they put up at temples during this time. Really elaborate lantern decorations. These lanterns are from Thean Hou Temple, to which we’ll get back to a bit later in the post.

Another tradition as famous as lanterns, (probably even more famous) is the lion dance. A little history on the lion dance. According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, “the story goes that once upon a time a monk had a dream in which there were many sorrows and evils plaguing the land. The monk prayed and asked the gods how he could prevent these evils from occurring. The gods told him that a lion would protect them and fight back the evils. The Chinese people had never see a lion before, but had heard stories that the lion was the king of all the other animals, so the monk combined all the lucky or magical animals he could think of and so made a lion.” This Chinese New Year I got in the middle of more than one lion dance, more like three. Hopefully that’s an auspicious sign.

If you look in closely you might recognize the lion these lovely ladies are posing with.

Usually people want to pat the lion and take pictures with him/her but this time it was the lions and their entourage that wanted to take a picture with me. Hopefully another auspicious sign.

I have visited many temples in Malaysia but one that for some reason I have missed out until now is the Thean Hou temple in Kuala Lumpur dedicated to Goddess Thean Hou (The Heavenly Mother). Needless to say the temple was pretty impressive in all of its awesomeness. These pictures usually drain your memory card and I had to think for a long time what pictures I would post on the blog, but here are few.

My lovely sister in law.

Another lion.

The Copper Label Momotaro Jeans are enjoying their last days/week of action before retirement. Yes, I said it 55 weeks and we’re closing in on retirement of this project to give space to a new project that will commence as soon as the jeans reach my residence in Malaysia. That will definitely be an awesome project not only because the jeans look dope, but also because the project is part of Project Wear and Tear, which has kicked off just to say nicely. So let’s see what this week brings along, but let me just say that the Malaysian weather tests the jeans like Finnish weather seldom does. I’m out, peace…

Yesterday was the first day in a week that I actually wore the jeans while driving to a more rural environment to celebrate Chinese New Year in a small town in Malaysia that my wife calls home. The sun is not just making my hair blond, it’s also giving my jeans light treatment Finland never could.

So nothing really to report aside from the fact that the jeans got their first break in over a year. It might be the hottest time of the year here, but it has been raining cats and dogs for the past few days. In the sense it’s nice as it cools down the air to awesome +25 degrees Celsius, pretty much ideal temperature.

Of course it also limits what you can do. Still the air is fresh and I have nothing against the rain, I find it awesome in its own way. So stay tuned for more updates and the next update will be Chinese New Year edition. That should be good. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

It seems that every week I’m here I meet some friends of ours and this week I had the pleasure of meeting our regular blogger/writer and friend Tuomas at the KLCC. I had just recuperated from the worst of my flu as I took on the traffic jams and Kuala Lumpur LRT/public transportation to get to the iconic KLCC Petronas Twin Towers for a meet-up.

I was actually surprised how fast I got there and had a chance to chill at the local Starbucks for a minute before Tuomas showed up. Just to clarify the dude was not late, I was actually early. So I had already replied emails and got some work done before spending a day chatting and roaming around the complex.

KLCC is a must see place in Malaysia. Not just because it’s a landmark and an iconic building but also because the place shows the commercial side of Malaysia ah so well. It’s awesome to walk around the place in the morning and early afternoon as there are not too many people walking around. The place had not changed all too much in the last 2,5 years. We checked out most of the stores and although I didn’t really have anything special I needed to buy I did pick up something from the Nike store (I will get back to this later). We also checked out the “luxury stores” (conspicuous consumption) and I must say I love the service orientation of Malaysians. I mean you walk in the Louis Vuitton store in Helsinki, the staff scans you from top to bottom and gives you a cold look or no service at all unless you fit a specific preppy mold they expect in Finland. Yes, it is that bad. My friend told me that they basically wouldn’t even let him in the Louis Vuitton store in Helsinki, just because he had worn jeans, sneakers and a T-shirt. Not cool Helsinki, not cool at all. The atmosphere and service were similar to what I experienced at the Gucci store in Copenhagen. Again, kudos to this store and their staff. I think majority of Finnish boutique staff should visit Malaysia and learn a thing or two about service. Real talk.

But not to get side-tracked, we walked around the entire day and at the end of the day I realized I had almost lost my voice already. The below picture is taken while things were still in status quo. Few moments later it was a whole different ball game. One thing great about the picture is seeing a brand new pair of Copper Label jeans next to ones worn for a year. Tuomas just started wearing the Copper Label jeans and I am sure you will hear more about the jeans in the Project Wear and Tear.

Tuomas had other appointments (of which he will definitely tell us more later) so we parted ways in the early evening and I made my way back to my relatives’ house via LRT. Once I got to the LRT station I realized I had no voice at all and I also got a major nose bleed. Not the nicest situation to be in. I had no tissue papers and since I lost my voice it was not an easy task asking for tissue papers from a local cake store. Thanks to their staff for helping though. I started to feel tad bit sicker once again and I still had 1-2 hours before I would be at home.

Once I got to the train I realized I had gotten blood all over my clothes, I must have looked like something else. Lucky I had my sunglasses because I’m sure I looked like a zombie. Once home, I got a shower and slept for a long, long time.

Next day, still no voice. Actually as I am writing this I am only slowly getting back my voice. Still feeling horrible. When I woke up yesterday morning my wife had thrown my jeans into the washing machine. A smart move considering it has been way too long since the last wash. So I would have clean pair of jeans once again. I kind of protested about washing them just yet, but she would not have it. Off to the machine the jeans went. After this they were naturally dried under the sun.

So the aftermath? The jeans keep getting better by the wash. The different water has an effect on the jeans as well as the jeans feel softer than after a normal wash in Finland, even if you use softener. We discussed the effect of different water in different areas with our friends from Momotaro already year ago and I have to co-sign this. Seems that the last month has been good for the jeans as post-wash they look as good as ever, if not even better. Oh, and they’re fresh and clean.

The leather patch has tanned nicely to brown color. Something that only really happened some time back.

The seat has faded a tad bit more with some twill breaking as a result of all that traveling I suppose.

What I’m really happy about is that my stitching is holding up nicely and pretty much all the patchwork is intact. Good look.

Let’s see what this week will bring along but with the extreme tropical climate I am sure the jeans will keep evolving at double speed. One more month to go before the next project. So let’s see what this month has in store for us and the jeans. Malaysia over and out.

This particular sewing kit is courtesy of Northam Hotel in Penang, it has traveled across the world in my duffel bag and today is the latest time I needed to dig up this small cardboard kit full of needles and string.

I chose white color for the patchwork just to highlight what was done. Just to mention, nothing major has happened and this is rather prevention of inevitable damage should I not do anything. Prevention is better than cure, thus I took the needle and fixed the problem. Below just few pics of the “damage”. You can see from the second picture how there is a portion where the seam-stitching has totally “disappeared”. So this spot I needed to fix and fast.

Below the result after the fix.

Pretty good. I am happy with the result and now the portion of jeans stays intact. While at it, I also strengthened the bottom of the crotch where the broken twills had frayed to the extend that there could be a hole in just matter of days. Small holes don’t count, but I am not taking any chances. Thus more sewing and the issue was fixed.

The jeans will now live to fight another battle (or two). The soaking of the jeans is pushed back at least a week or so. Unless I really want to throw these babies into the washing machine. Nonetheless, I will keep you posted and post more pictures of the project in my weekly update later this week. Until then, stay tuned and be easy.

it is been a while since I have posted an update of my Momotaro Copper Label project. I have some time off for now and I thought of posting an update on that matter.
Taavi, is pretty much very happy and comfy with the jeans. I can only add to his impression and i love my Copper one, too. During the year of wear, I have to admit that I cheated on the pants every now and then. Sometimes I need to wear a different pair of jeans for some days.
Another thing that is stricking my eyes on a permanent basis is that the stiching on different parts of the jeans break from time to time. This is kinda annoying to me but on the other hand a side effect of wearing. In my point of view the quality with respect to the stiching needs to be improved. I would like to know if others experience the same with respect to the stiching…
Anyways, soon the Copper label project will be replaced by the Momotaro KIKS TYO collabo and I honestly can’t wait to get my pair delivered soon and starting a new wear and tear project.

So far enough talk. Here are some pics of my Momotaro Copper Label Jeans with almost one year of wear and like 4 or 5 washes.

fixed my pocket with tape. tape always works

stiching broken on my left pocket

also stiching brocken

I really like my back pocket.

could still deserve some more wear….

I do not want to be negative about my loved jeans but I do want to tell that some things break when wearing a pants for almost one year. I never ever regret having bought this pair of jeans and I would buy it again.

If you do not own a Momotaro till now, go visit the NDH online shop here http://www.nordicdenimhouse.com/index.php?target=categories&category_id=3

so far so good and cheers to Malaysia

I took off to this journey with very light baggage. My duffel bag, packed with few jeans to our customers in Asia, 5 T-shirts, my Kato’ Brown Dyed button up shirt and my G003-MB Copper Label Momotaro Jeans. Yes, I left Finland with just one pair of jeans. I am confident these pants will accompany me until I get my next project next month (or so).

This far the jeans have traveled around in Finland, to Copenhagen and now to Munich and Abu Dhabi. Our stop in Munich was so short I had no time to take any pictures, but Abu Dhabi was a different case. We spent about 8 hours there before taking off to Malaysia.

I do look a bit tired in the picture. But this was taken after about 14 h of non-stop traveling with about 45 minutes of sleep in the 24 hours before this. Pretty fresh considering the circumstances.

Next stop, Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Where we met one our customers/friends. This was not the only rendezvous we had organized with our friends worldwide. Another special delivery was a pair of 8003SP Ladies’ Line Momotaro Jeans which we delivered in Sunway Pyramid, a local shopping mall.

It’s great meeting new friends and we’ve scheduled another appointment at the end of the month. But if you happen to be in the region, drop us an email and we would be glad to meet up, talk denim, sneakers or anything in between.

The time here has pretty much revolved around my baby boy Maxwell. The two month old “hero” who did not complain at all during the entire flight has a big task adapting to the +35 C degree temperature, considering he left from -10 C environment in Finland. Still, just like always the Little Tiger is being a sport about it and has become my tag team partner, no matter where I go.

The jeans have not been washed in few weeks and I think I will wait and give the jeans a special soak a week or so from here.

Still they are exposed to most sun they have ever been so it will be interesting to see if this has an effect on the evolution of the denim. I am sure the jeans are going to keep changing all the way until the very end. But as I am writing this, the pants are sunbathing outside.

It’s been only few days so let’s see what this week will bring along. One thing that’s for sure, there won’t be a single boring moment on this trip. I’m off, peace…

Since it’s only one more day before we will travel to sunny Malaysia for some “well earned” time off, I thought it would be nice to show the jeans at their current state. Even though it has been over a year since I started wear and tear these jeans, they are still nice, comfortable and pretty much the best jeans I’ve ever had. The next project is under production and will be shipped to us mid-late February so I will hold on to these until then.

I am not sure how much more time will I find for the blog tomorrow as we’re flying off early Tuesday morning. But to keep things rolling I wanted to share some pictures of the jeans after a year of daily wear, number of washes and plenty of life’s ups and downs. Should all go well, the next project update will come from Malaysia. It has been a great year, so it’s just fitting that the year has been spent wearing great jeans.

In the past two weeks, the jeans have been in contact with snow, beer, tea, grass (under the snow), plenty of hours spent crawling on the floor playing with the baby, driving to my hometown, countless hours of sitting in front of the notebook, hours of sittin in front of TV watching movies and playing Black Ops and let’s not forget 2 hours of cinematic art experience watching Machete. Oh, and my son peed on my jeans once. But let’s get back to what trips back home are all about, these also mean trips to the nearby hill for some sliding down the hill or “pulkka” as we call it in Finland.

These past few days it has been like close to -20 every day so a “pulkka” trip can be pretty exciting. Another exciting thing (and one of the best) was a trip to the forest to pick up the Christmas Tree. With my jeans on of course. There’s a lot of snow out there, but the pants are toughing it out. I got the tree and feel like a winner as you can see.

I seriously want to wash the jeans before Christmas, it’s been way too long since the last wash and all the action is wearing on the jeans, but at the same time bringing out more and more of fine lines. I thought that since, it’s Christmas and all and if I am going to wash the pants once again, it would be good to show how they look like right now. Pictures taken in good light in a studio environment.

I think I mentioned there was a little hole on the pocket lining of my right pocket. Well I don’t want the rip to expand so I took out a needle and string and just fixed the hole, before it could grow any further. While at it, I fixed a rip caused by my right hand wedding ring. I used white string as I felt it would give nice contrast to the previous needle work, done with black string.

And then to the most exciting part, the patching.

Some of you might know, that I always carry a patch of Momotaro Denim in my duffel bag, just in case there is a rip or something that reuires this emergency piece of fabric. The patch is the sample piece that comes along some of the Momotaro Jeans labels such as Vintage Label. This particular patch has been in my bag since the 0901 project.

Last night I cam across this type of emergency. While sewing the pocket lining, I realized I could see through few holes on the seat/crotch of the jeans. No rips yet, but the fabric has worn out and now needed some swift actions to avoid a serious rip.

So I digged up the patch cut it into right size and went to find the good old vintage Singer, sewing machine. Time for some sewing action. After measuring the spot and making sure the patch amended the issue, I sewed the patch on the jeans covering the ripping part. I double stitched the patch on from all sides and also stitched the middle of the patch for some extra durability. I am satisfied with the results and feel happy that the jeans are protected to stand for at least another 3 months until the next project kicks off.

The denim is slightly different from the Copper Label but the patch is there mainly for added strength and will not be visible to anyone, except me. Now the pants have a square sewed on the crotch part but the dark blue color makes it difficult for anyone to see the patching, unless someone is examining the pants very closely. And why would anyone be checking out my crotch with that much detail anyway?

So much happening with the pants and they still feel better than ever. Christmas eve is tomorrow and I have tons of things to do, so I’m out for now and next post will showcase a nicely washed pair of Copper Label jeans. Merry Christmas everyone!