Jeansland Podcast
This is why I do this. Jeansland is a podcast about the ecosystem in which jeans live. There are an estimated 26 million cotton farmers around the world, and about 25% of their production goes into jeans, which could mean 6.2 million farmers depend on denim. I read estimates that at least 1 million people work in retail selling jeans, and another 1.5 to 2 million sew them. And then there are all the label producers, pattern makers, laundries, chemical companies, machinery producers, and those that work in denim mills. I mean, the jeans industry, which is bigger than the global movie and music business combined, employs a lot of human beings. And many of them, like me, love jeans. The French philosopher and existentialist Simone de Beauvoir, when visiting New York, said, "Everyone in the New York subway is a novel." I never met her, but I guess she made the observation because of the incredible diversity of people who ride the subway system. I'm convinced the people in our jeans industry are like those in the subway. They are unique, with rich and complex stories to tell, and I want to hear them. And deep inside me, I think you might feel the same way.
https://jeansland.co/
Jeansland Podcast
Ep 66: The Missing Denim Boom
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Growth in denim follows a pattern.
In Episode 66’s Andrew’s Take, he looks at what has actually driven expansion in the jeans business over time, and why it’s stalled.
Every real boom came from a shift in the product itself. New machinery, new yarns, new fits, new finishes. Changes that made people stop wearing what they had and buy something new.
That hasn’t happened in a while.
The industry has become more efficient, more technical, more optimized. But it’s also become more predictable. Now all we talk about is how jeans are made, not why anyone wants them.
A short look at where growth really comes from, and what’s missing now.
I want to talk today about the industry and when it grows and when it changes. There's a pattern in the business that nobody talks about. Genes consumption or prices don't grow because of marketing. They don't grow because of sustainability reports. They grow when something real changes in the product. Something substantial. Every boom in our denim history came from disruption, something totally new. Let's go back in time. On the production side, before the 1950s, denim was woven on shuttle looms. Slow, narrow, beautiful, and completely inefficient. Then came the projectile rapier looms and later air jets. The shift started in the late 50s and accelerated through the 60s and 70s. Wider fabric, faster output, lower cost, and better quality. Not romantic. But it scaled the industry by making it faster than ever imagined and cheaper. And then the 70s hit, and something dangerous happened. There was the invention of open end spinning. Suddenly yarn got cheaper and more consistent and cleaner. Ring spun purists hated it. Mills loved it, and brands, most of them, didn't care. Lower the price, give me more. Because open end spinning made jeans more affordable to millions of people. That wasn't a trend, that was totally expansion through massive industry change and invention. On the fascist side, the 1970s saw the product itself change. It broke out of its basic five pocket strait jacket. Bell bottoms arrived, patchwork arrived, denim shirts, denim jackets, denim dresses, head to toe indigo. Denim suddenly changed from the James Dean basic to fashion, and that injected a demand and price spurt. The American and European youth market didn't ask for the changes, but they loved it when they saw it. And the boom, because of creative product, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Someone who had two jeans now maybe got three to five pieces in different styles. Then came washing. First there was stone wash in the late 1970s or early 80s, and who cares who invented it? Some people say it was in Japan, some people say Italy. I couldn't care less where it came from. But when stone washing came, everyone, everybody wanted it. And the jeans business grew at an incredibly fast pace. Customers no longer had to break in their jeans. When I was a kid, all the jeans that were in the stores were rigid. Stonewashing was a chance to buy it soft and worn in, and people loved it in massive numbers. And then mid to late 80s came acid wash. I'll never forget acid wash. I was first shown it in the Calvin Klein showroom on 39th Street. And whether you liked it or you didn't like it, it was an enormous change. Between 1985 and 1987, depending on who you believe, this change was definitely not subtle. It was aggressive, loud, very chemical, and completely unapologetic. And it triggered something the industry rarely sees a whole new wardrobe reset. Consumers didn't just buy new jeans from acid wash. They abandoned the old ones temporarily. They bought everything they owned all over again, but this time an acid wash. Can you hear the cash registers? That's a boom. Then we got to the late 90s. After years of commodity thinking, something snapped. Slub yarns, ring spun revival, vintage looks, Japanese influence, Italian finishing, all of these together created the birth of premium denim. And suddenly jeans weren't just cheap and available, they were worth paying for again. Margins came back, the stories came back, desire came back. That was a real product-driven boom. And it came when adverts were not in trade publications, but on social media. Celebrities gave global credibility to the premium genes industry. And it grew from that. Since then, it's almost like silence. We've had improvements, yes, subtle changes, softer, stretchier, non-stretch, ten cell, but more than that, the story in genes has not really changed, and green claims don't change fashion. Better chemistry is not a way to sell fashion. Certifications are cotton narratives, not really a way to sell fashion. Let's be honest. None of these changes make the customer feel or crave anything in a meaningful way. Lately we've been talking about how genes are made, not why someone needs a new pair or is inspired to buy a new pair. And when that happens, the industry booms. We have become a commodity business. We talk about the components now, not about the product itself. Price has replaced desire. Efficiency has replaced innovation. And everyone starts fighting over pennies instead of creating something worth dollars. It's same old, same old, season after season, styles change, fabrics move, whatever way a designer wants, but no major innovations. And we're totally overdue. Somebody or something needs to create a monster change. History's clear. No real change, no dynamic growth. So the question isn't about sustainability, it's not about compliance. It's not even about cotton versus polyester. The real question is what is the next thing in jeans that makes you stop wearing the jeans you got and want to buy a new pair because they're cooler? Until we answer that, we're not a denim industry. We're in the business of making the same thing, slightly cheaper, every year. That's not a boom. That's kind of a fade.