In my last post I talked about things getting heated in the Gustin discussion forum. The impetus for the unrest was Lawless Denim. Lawless Denim was a startup denim wear manufacturer in Phoenix, AZ that had done a campaign on Kickstarter. There were several members on the Gustin forum that kept talking up Lawless and several others that saw discussion of another brand on the Gustin forum as being in poor taste. Eventually the moderators stepped in and shortly after that a group of members of the Gustin forum broke away and established the Selvedge & Style Forum. All of this took place in the Summer/Fall of 2014.
I was one of the people on the Gustin forum that left to join the Selvedge & Style Forum. I was interested in the jeans being offered by Lawless and followed the Lawless threads pretty closely. At some point in October of 2014, Roman Acevedo (the owner of Lawless) posted about a need for someone to help with the Lawless website. This is where I got involved with Lawless Denim.
I reached out to Roman and he engaged me to start assisting with the website and agreed to compensate me with merchandise. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was to be a live and learn moment. I did not get any sort of contact or signed written agreement. I only had a series of emails where Roman had agreed to give me a pair of custom jeans for my daughter, two denim shirts, a pair of jeans, and a custom leather jacket totaling about $1300 in merchandise. In addition to these items I was also purchasing some items. In the end I received three of the four items I purchased and one of the items Roman had promised for my work and got stiffed for about $1200 worth of work.
One of the items I did receive was the pair of tan jeans pictured below. The jeans have a tan warp and white weft with a tan/gold selvedge ID. These jeans are ones that I purchased from Lawless Denim as a custom pair. I got to choose the patch, thread color, pocket bag fabric, and button finish. I opted for the Katana II patch with yellow thread and brass buttons with natural canvas pocket bags. The construction on the jeans is amazing with triple stitching on the inseam, double belt loops at the back, and a raised patch that allows a belt to pass through. The fit is spot on and these are one of the best fitting pair of jeans that I own. The only issue that I have encountered with the jeans is the size of the back pockets. On all the other jeans that I own my iPhone 6s fits without any issue, but in these jeans it sticks out about a quarter of an inch.
If you’d like a pair of jeans that has the same attention to detail and construction shown below, you can check out Indigogene. Indigogene was started by Sal and Manny, who both worked at Lawless before Roman drove it into the ground. Manny was responsible for making patterns, cutting, and sewing jeans and Sal is a denimhead who got sucked into working for Roman and even moved his family to AZ to work at Lawless (makes my losing payment for $1200 of work look silly). Manny’s jeans at Indigogene have the same attention to detail as the ones he produced at Lawless, and I’d highly recommend checking them out.
Since Roman was such a terrible business person, Lawless Denim went under in Spring/Summer of 2015 and left many orders unfulfilled. The fact that I received five items is amazing since there are many people that never received any of the items they paid for. That is why these are the rarest pair of jeans that I own. I honestly doubt that there is another pair with the exact same details as these which makes them one of a kind.