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My good friend Sarah approached me a few months ago to see if I’d be interested in working on a piece for Antenna Magazine‘s Winter 2011 issue. I’ve never had any of my writing published before so I was excited for the opportunity; plus, the concept sounded like a lot of fun. The piece compares 24 hours in the day of a dad (me) versus a single man, and my updates were limited to 25 words or less per hour.  I received a copy in the mail this week and finally got to see the completed piece. It’s on newsstands now, but I also scanned it for your reading pleasure. Many thanks to Sarah and Kaity for including me.

I really enjoyed working on this this for several reasons. Firstly, it was fun to compare my life to someone’s who is in such a different place. I didn’t get to read his half until I got the final issue, and while his blurbs didn’t exactly bring back fond memories of licentiousness I do vaguely remember what it was like to be able to come and go as I pleased. My life really does look a lot different now, and it’s especially clear when you see our hourly activities side by side.

Secondly, I’m thankful to have some sort of documentation of what things were like during our first year with Logan. 2011 has brought so many changes for our family and for my work; I’ve had to learn how to handle more responsibilities and get things done in less time. It’ll serve as a good reminder as to how God has provided for us and helped me to make the necessary adjustments along the way.

Lastly, in reading the final piece over, I realized that despite the challenges that come with juggling a company, a retail store, marriage and fatherhood, I really am having a good time. I ran into an acquaintance who works at Antenna while visiting Sarah who told me, “man, I wouldn’t want to be you.” It reminded me of when I got engaged and several coworkers told me in jest that I was going to be miserable. Marriage has been good to me, and becoming a father has been an amazing experience. I won’t lie – there are occasions when I wish I had more time and less responsibilities, but those are fleeting thoughts.

I’m too busy having fun with my wife and kid.

These are my first pair of 3sixteen jeans that I’ve really worn in. Prior to this, I had another pair of SL-100x that were starting to break in nicely until they fell victim to my chainstitching mishaps. I figured what better jeans to learn to hem than my own, so I tried a few times, messed up, cut the jeans shorter, etc. until I ended up with highwaters. It’s not unlike trying to salvage a haircut you are giving to a friend.

I started on these in May of 2010, right when I headed out to San Francisco with Lily for a short vacation. They were my daily wearers throughout that summer but then sat idle through the wintertime. I broke them out again this spring and have had them on just about every day since then. I’d say they have just over 1 year of effective wear, and unlike my other raw jeans, I gave this pair consistent hand washes every 2-3 months.

This batch of denim was sourced from Kaihara, before we started developing our own exclusive denim with Kuroki. One thing I liked about this denim was that it gives a pretty contrasty fade and  yields more vertical streakiness than I expected.

Love that roping effect that our Union Special 43200g gives.

Our first collaboration with Barneys Co-Op, the SL-BNY1, has finally released.

My buddy Jian, who recently joined the Complex team, approached me about filming a video for their website about our jean repair process. With a mixture of excitement and trepidation, I agreed. I think the video turned out great; certainly a testament to the talents of the director, Jonathan Lees, and his team.

Darning jeans is a complex process because each jean is different and reacts differently to the machine, and each repair scenario has to be approached in a unique way. While the video makes the process look simple, it’s actually a task that generates regular headaches. Sometimes the machine acts up (it’s over 50 years old), sometimes the thread tangles and knots, and sometimes the timing is off. Sometimes I make a mistake and have to spend half an hour taking the repair apart and starting from scratch. I’ve spent more than a few evenings spent in our sweltering basement raining curses down on the machine. If not for the ongoing guidance and tutelage of Julian, who heads up Self Edge SF’s repair services, I might have given up by now.

Frustrations aside, I really enjoy the repair process. Since Johan and I design our own jeans but don’t manufacture them ourselves, I feel like darning holes and chainstitching hems are the closest I can get to jean (re)construction.  There’s also a certain satisfaction that comes from handing a rebuilt pair back to an excited customer. Now, if only I could get people to wash their jeans before bringing them in… I’m not trying to get a staph infection here.