100 Year Jeans

Name: 100 Year Jeans. Raw Regular Fit
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: PNT035IND28R
Price: 322.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Woven with high-strength raw Japanese selvedge denim, and the same aramid fibres as body armour.

$645.00 $322.00

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The 100 Year Jeans are designed with a regular, straight leg fit. They come in two different leg lengths to help you find the perfect size. Model is 6ft 2 / 188cm with a 32 inch / 81cm waist, and wears size 32 / 34.

14 oz. raw Japanese selvedge denim made by Kaihara
Material woven with aramid fibres for extreme strength
Jeans constructed by Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, London

The first ever pair of jeans were designed to be exceptionally tough – the strongest pants anywhere in the world at the time. So we’ve gone back to the first days of jeans to build them as they were meant to be built.

Constructed with a blend of high-strength 14 oz. raw Japanese selvedge denim and the same ultra-tough aramid fibres as body armour, our 100 Year Jeans are built to outlive you.

To build jeans this strong we’ve worked with world class partners. The denim starts life on low-speed, high-strength shuttle looms of Japan’s most fabled denim manufacturer, Kaihara, before the jeans are hand constructed by Blackhorse Lane Ateliers in London, where every pair is personally signed by the craftsman who built them.

Technical Details

Material made by Kaihara, Japan: 92% cotton, 8% aramid

Made with 14 oz. raw Japanese selvedge denim

Highly abrasion resistant

Seat reinforced with Cordura layer

One piece continuous button selvedge fly

5 belt loops

2 front pockets

Front selvedge ticket pocket

2 angled rear pockets reinforced with double layer

Rear selvedge ticket pocket

Machine wash 30°C

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The 100 Year Jeans are built to outlive you

The first ever pair of jeans were designed to be exceptionally tough – the strongest pants anywhere in the world at the time. So we’ve gone back to the first days of jeans to build them as they were meant to be built. Constructed with a blend of high-strength 14 oz. raw Japanese selvedge denim and the same ultra-tough aramid fibres as body armour, our 100 Year Jeans are built to outlive you.

Tough enough to survive 75kmph falls

While raw selvedge denim woven with aramid fibres is insanely tough on its own, we’ve taken the typical failure points in jeans and made them even stronger. We’ve lined the seat of the jeans with a layer of Cordura – a high tenacity Nylon with extremely high abrasion resistance. During lab testing we recreated a 75kmph fall and drag on concrete, and the seat survived without a single hole appearing. The rest of the jeans easily passed at 45kmph too, making these some of the toughest jeans ever made.

Woven in Japan. Hand built in London

To build jeans this strong we’ve worked with world class partners. The denim starts life on low-speed, high-strength shuttle looms of Japan’s most fabled denim manufacturer, Kaihara, before the jeans are hand constructed by Blackhorse Lane Ateliers in London, where every pair is personally signed by the craftsman who built them.

Engineered with aramid fibres for extreme strength

To create an incredibly strong material we weave aramid fibres directly into the selvedge denim. On a weight for weight basis aramid fibres are 5x stronger than steel, which is why they’re normally used to make body armour and bulletproof vests. 8% of these jeans are pure aramid.

Built with raw denim

We make our 100 Year Jeans with the same raw denim the first jeans were made from, which is very different to the denim most jeans are made with today. These days denim normally goes through a series of treatments like stonewashing, sandblasting and lasering straight after it’s been dyed. It’s what makes a pair of new jeans feel soft and worn-in straight off the shelf. But by accelerating the wearing process these treatments weaken the denim. Raw denim is much tougher because it bypasses nearly all these treatments. It’s denim in its purest and most rugged form.
Raw denim ages better

Raw denim softens and moulds to the shape of your legs over time, eventually creating a fit that regular denim just can’t match. The jeans will also develop beautiful fade patterns too, with each pair fading differently depending on how they’re worn in. Some of the fade patterns have their own names, like honeycombs for the backs of the knees and whiskers for the thighs. Even the pockets where you keep your phone and wallet will develop their own patinas.
They soften up. Once you’ve broken them in

Since raw denim hasn’t been washed it retains more dye than regular denim. And this makes raw denim jeans feel pretty rigid and unforgiving when you first put them on. You literally have to break them in by wearing them over a couple of weeks. If you’ve ever owned a pair of raw denim jeans before, then you’ll know what we mean. If you haven’t, then you need to know that squats, roundhouse kicks and yoga are going to be off the cards for the first few weeks. But once you’ve broken them in, they’ll be the most comfortable jeans you’ve ever owned, and retain all the natural strength that denim is supposed to have.
Think before you wash them

How and when you first wash raw denim is still a contentious subject. Denim is a tough cotton twill fabric, which is normally indigo dyed to create its signature colour. So some denim purists will hold out for as long as possible before washing their jeans – normally until they can’t bear the smell anymore. This will give you higher contrast fades when you eventually do wash them, because the material has had more time to crease and fold as you wear it. You just need to be a bit careful what you sit on as the dye can leave marks. If you’re not bothered about fading patterns then you can wash the jeans relatively early on and the colour will be more uniform.

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Even though they’re raw, you can buy your normal size

Getting the right size in a pair of raw denim jeans used to be difficult, as the denim would shrink up to 15% the first time you washed it. But the Raw 100 Year Jeans go through a process called ‘sanforization’ where the denim is treated with steam to reduce shrinkage after the first wash – and we’ve constructed the jeans to account for that small amount of shrinkage. So you can still buy your regular size.

Selvedge creates a more durable denim

Selvedge denim can only be woven on low-speed looms called shuttle looms. The looms seal the edge of the fabric, creating a distinctive “self edge,” which is where the word selvedge comes from. And most importantly, selvedge creates a tighter weave, making for a more durable denim. In a world of fast fashion and mass manufacturing there aren’t very many shuttle looms left. And there’s an even smaller number of skilled artisans capable of operating them. But today Kaihara has 200 looms still in active use.

It has the stamp of master craftsmanship

Weaving denim on shuttle looms is a much slower process than making denim using high speed modern machinery, which means it’s impossible to mass produce denim like this. And that’s what gives selvedge the stamp of master craftsmanship. You can spot selvedge denim by looking for the distinct white edges when you roll up the hem of the jeans or look at the ticket pockets. And if you’re wondering what the thin yellow line is that runs through the white selvedge strip on the jeans – those are the aramid fibres we’ve used to make the jeans even stronger.

Our denim is made in the birthplace of Japanese denim

The Japanese city of Fukuyama has become a mecca for denim obsessives. Surrounded by the Chūgoku mountains on one side, and the Seto Inland Sea on the other, its unique climate has produced exceptional cottons since the Edo period. Today, Fukuyama is home to Kaihara, Japan’s top denim manufacturer. Founded in 1893 it started life making handwoven indigo-dyed bingo kasuri – a traditional fabric painstakingly woven on shuttle looms.

Onk-soushin, the philosophy of old meeting new

Kaihara runs its historical shuttle looms alongside state of the art modern machinery. It’s a philosophy called “onk-soushin” – a way of producing new fabrics by working with old and new techniques at the same time. And it’s this philosophy that allows them to vertically integrate the whole process, from spinning and dyeing the denim, to weaving and finishing it.

Dyed using painstaking rope-dyeing techniques

Kaihara’s denim is known for its unique depth of colour, texture and character. And it’s all thanks to the materials and dyeing processes they use. If you wanted to make denim quickly or cheaply you wouldn’t do it the way they do. Every pair of jeans is dyed using painstaking rope-dyeing techniques where yarns are suspended from the second floor of the factory before being slowly lowered into vats of indigo dye. Just as slowly as they go in, the yarns are then removed from the dye, allowing the dye to oxidise and stick to the cotton.
Kaihara’s environmental standards

As a manufacturer using natural cotton and indigo dyeing to produce its high-spec denim, Kaihara takes its coexistence with nature seriously, setting its own environmental standards that are far stricter than the Japanese national standard. So all of its waste water is filtered back into drinking water before it leaves the mill.

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Hand built and signed by London’s only denim factory

After our high-strength denim is woven in Japan, we bring it to an artisan denim workshop in London where the jeans are constructed. Blackhorse Lane Ateliers is the only denim factory to have existed in London for the last 50 years. They’re on a mission to make the best handcrafted denim in the world. And they do it all out of a single workshop located just 5 miles down the road from our office. Every single pair of 100 Year Jeans is individually signed by the skilled denim maker who crafted them.

The master craftsmen of denim

Using a mix of tailoring innovation and heritage construction Blackhorse Lane Ateliers produces jeans and denim jackets the way they used to be made – to last. Their denim is finished to such a high standard that the company’s founder takes an unusual approach to anyone attempting to buy more than one of his products. He does everything he can to persuade them not to. “We try to make them understand that they don’t need it,” says Bilgehan ‘Han’ Ates.

Ultra-durable, vintage detailing

Every element of the 100 Year Jeans is constructed with skilled craftsmanship that’s designed to last, with ultra-durable, vintage detailing. There’s a one-piece continuous button fly, a hallmark of quality vintage jeans. There are five large belt loops, and metal buttons and rivets which add durability to stress points. And since the back pocket rivets on denim were traditionally hidden to prevent cowboys from scratching their saddles, we’ve left them concealed. All the stitching is sewn with heavy duty thread, and you’ll find intricate chain stitching at the hem and the waistband.

Reinforced pockets

The jeans are built with six pockets. There are two large front pockets made from soft cotton inside. Layered just behind the front right pocket you’ll find a small selvedge ticket pocket. Two angled back pockets sit at the back of the jeans, and they’re lined with a double layer of fabric. You’ll find another selvedge ticket pocket at the right back pocket.