My brother over at Columbus & Co did us a solid and wrote up this guest blog on quality clothing fit for chopping blocks and bikes. Style is everything and his site is dedicated to it so check it out. And commence….

MustariBrand asked me to give his readers who love to ride and work in their jeans more insight into the rising American Made selvedge denim jeans. Selvedge denim is a type of denim constructed continuously on a old style shuttle loom, which was historically how jeans were made up until the 1950’s when mass production took over to produce higher quantity and lower quality jeans.

Selvedge refers to the edge of the denim that is finished to prevent any type of unraveling. The denim is sewn to complete the closure at the seam, which gives it a clean natural edge as shown below in the first picture. There have been a ton of denim craftsmen popping up all over the United States remaking this style of durable, well constructed denim for the men out there that are hard on their clothes, that give a shit where their products are manufactured and that want to support an individual over a corporation.

The majority of the denim used for selvedge denim style jeans is raw denim, meaning it hasn’t been prewashed, treated or dyed funny by the manufacturer. This denim is in its most pure or raw form, hence the name raw denim. Don’t buy denim that is pre-faded or dyed to look like you wore the hell out of them in your garage building a bike, that’s some straight poser shit kind of like every bro with a cut that thinks there a Son of Anarchy. Selvedge denim will have a harder texture, that breaks in overtime with more wears. This style of denim tends to  form to your body and create its own natural streaks and wear marks.

Best practices are to wear the hell out of these things without washing and drying them. Hand washing or soaking in lakes, bathtubs, and oceans help the break in process. The denim purists who don’t wash the jeans because they want the natural break in process to occur will freeze their jeans to get any odors out. I’ve been seeing a lot of selvedge denim in various chopper photos from blogs and videos that MustariBrand puts me on to. Keep the trade alive and support a local with the purchase of some of these rad jeans.

Some noteworthy brands: Raleigh Denim, Left Field NYC, Levi’s American Made, Rogue Territory, and Rail Car Fine Goods.