The Logic to Iron Heart Lot Numbers (or lack of)…
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Well I've had a bit of a look and as I haven't been able to find it I thought I might raise it as a suggestion… or maybe someone can point me in the right direction.
Can someone put together a guide or explanation / breakdown of the product codes that are used to describe each item. Some of the letters are obvious, and I'm sure I could probably work out what the others were or make educated guesses. It just seems to me that for anyone new to it (like me) it would be a helpful thing to have. I have made the assumption that there is a consistent structure behind them that means one chart or table could explain the full product line, if this isn't the case then fair enough I'll just learn it all over time.
IHV-03, med.
IHSH-185, med.
IHSH-186, med. (khaki, and green)
IHSH-187, med. (khaki, olive, and black)^ these are the codes I mean in case its not clear (sorry @UnTucked I just grabbed these from your signature to use as an example)
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I have made the assumption that there is a consistent structure behind them that means one chart or table could explain the full product line…
Not an unreasonable assumption but sadly not the case. Mostly as a result of over fifteen years of development, new lines, tons of product, lost in translation moments between Japan and the UK, deviations, oversights, and moments of genius.
An example of the difficulty is as follows:
While IHV-## is Iron Heart Vest-lot number, and IHJ-## Iron Heart Jacket-lot number, IH-###-???, is normally reserved for Iron Heart bottom-lot number-fabric code.
However some (but not all) type III vests and jackets also use IH-###-??? Sometimes with or without a «J» for jacket, or «V» for vest.
All that being said, there is a broad pattern and efforts are being made to stabilize it, so something may be better than nothing at this point. It’s a good idea and worth thinking more about.
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If it was simple we'd have already done it
:). If Haraki and I went back 15 years and started again, there would be consistency, but as @neph93 says, we have a bastardized cock-up of codes.Some things that are almost always consistent:
IHSH = shirt
IHV = vest
IH = jeans or pants
IHT= t-shirt
IHJ = jacket
IHM = a military derived item
IHW = something made of woolOnce upon a time, if we have multiple colours of an item, they would have the same lot number, with multiple combinations (that is what Japan still do), now, outside of Japan, we try and have unique lot number per colour, which is denoted by the last 3 digits of the lot number.
In broad terms, getting any more detailed that that would require a PHD level of application, with a million and one exceptions.
Some exceptions.
When I decided to make the IHW-01 out of denim, I called it the IHD-01 it's successors now follow naming convention IHSH-nnn-aaa
IH-1955S should be IH-nnn - but then we lose the descriptor from the lot number
IH-NO-LOT conforms to no naming convention because it is a one-off cock up that we decided to call "no lot" -
Wow, so just a small can of worms then!
I understand though (not the system, clearly that's a mess :D), when companies grow organically over a period of time there is often little thought given to the structure / product numbering system…. and even when there is, its impossible to know how you're going to need it all to work in 10 years time because you can't predict what direction the product line is going to go in etc.
Thanks for the info though, I'll do my best to pick it up as I go.
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New and more recent products abide by a fairly set system. The lot numbers on IHSH, IHSW, IHJ, IHV, IHG, IHE, IHM, IHW, IHB, and others are chronological, more or less. The IHSH’s will be up to 300 in the course of 2021 I’d imagine.
Lot numbers on jeans bottoms and some jackets and vests tend to be descriptive of style or cut. For example, 7## is chinos and cargo pants, 8## is work pants, 526 is type III.
Some have interesting stories, or amusing explanations behind them. For example the first 2 in IH-2526j (duck type III) is because the western numeric for two looks like a duck. 634 has something to do with the Japanese word or symbol for samurai (I forget the details).
It is all excellent stuff for geeks, but a nightmare for nerds [emoji1]
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New and more recent products abide by a fairly set system. The lot numbers on IHSH, IHSW, IHJ, IHV, IHG, IHE, IHM, IHW, IHB, and others are chronological, more or less. The IHSH’s will be up to 300 in the course of 2021 I’d imagine.
Right so shirts that have low numbers like IHSH-07 for example must be long standing products that are still in production then. And lots of the numbers in between are likely to have been small batch runs that may never be made again? It seems crazy that there could be in excess of 300 different shirt styles that are still made, but perhaps if that number now also includes colour variations then it could rack up pretty quick.
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From the IHSH-07 product description:
Released in 2009, the 7th Iron Heart shirt designed by Haraki san and now the longest in continuous production.
And yes, loads are now defunct:
https://www.ironheart.co.uk/extinct-shirting/
What are still made (as of today) are here:
https://www.ironheart.co.uk/shirts/
Basically, if they are not in the active shop, they are dead….
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I had seen the rationale for the naming somewhere before but couldn't find it… Glad to see it here, @Giles. Such a cool story.
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