Glory Threads - How Did You Find Iron Heart?
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I came across what to me looked like a rather dodgy site, charging a fortune, payment in dollars and based in a bedroom in gosport, all looked a bit iffy….
Quality. I remember similar things occurring to me my first visit to the site and that was in 2013 on the 2nd or 3rd iteration. Didn’t suspect things were not legit, but it felt a bit weird.
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I was searching for a belt to go with my new leather jacket when I came across what to me looked like a rather dodgy site, charging a fortune, payment in dollars and based in a bedroom in gosport, all looked a bit iffy. However the belt was just what I wanted, the denim looked amazing and the leather jacket co recommended them so I took a punt, glad I did as my apprehensions proved to be totally unfounded
I wonder if we can find any screenshots of ironheart.co.uk 1.0 for posterity…
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My story is a little similar to that of @Filthy 21/23oz junkie , I had been wearing a Levis LVC red/black checked wooly shirt for about 7 winters - I was hoping at the time to find an exact replacement for sale somewhere on line and my google search journey encountered an image of @Cole in his red/black buffalo 127. This in turn brought me to all things Iron Heart. My early purchases ended up being a wallet from the web store and a deck jacket from a forum member, and shortly after the red/black 127!
Based on the logic that I can get at least 7 winters out of a heavy duty shirt I now have enough Iron Heart UHF's in rotation to last me my lifetime to go!! -
I wonder if we can find any screenshots of ironheart.co.uk 1.0 for posterity…
I wonder how many times I visited that page… It was beyond bare... Which made it hella intruiging...
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Thanks for update Mega. Her fits on sufu were quality back in the day. The kinda early 2000’s oversized with stacks were proper cool.
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were't you there as well? or have i gotten the wrong person…
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Think I first came across Iron Heart in 2009 or so when I found a, to me, obscure looking website from the UK with some bricks background (I believe). Selling $XXX denim from Japan. I once had a pic somewhere @Alex but I can't find it, damn…
While I somehow was interested, it was a lot like, yeah I do have windows to throw out cash, so no need for sending it to the UK to get....
me moving on...A bit later there was a small feature on hyper with the first IH buffalo UHF and a $300 tag and I was like yeah, or I get one from xxxxx for like $25 :D.
Anyway, late 2010 on a super bored backfly from NYC to Frankfurt, a guy from Japan was sitting next to me. He noticed my JP Evis(u) I was wearing and we chatted about JP denim and things along and he was like you need to check Iron Heart out.
So back home, in a free minute a few days later, Jan 4th 2011. Went again through the net and found a way more legit looking UK site and ordered right away a pair of 634S....As said before the other day, one of the best decisions I have ever made :)...
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It has to be in 2007 if i remember correctly. I was an full addict of Superfuture/Superdenim thread. Every single day. Learn a lot about boots, raw jeans and fabrics shirt. I was since young obsessed about the red chambray, hickory or blue chambray…for ex seen in the Eastwood/Morricone western movies. My 2 first purchase was the IHSH-07 & 09. Tagged S...at this time the IH catalogue was very short...one important point with IH shirt, was the pattern. The cut. Long & slender arms. The length. Absolutely perfect for me. Bikers thoughs. Big difference with FH, SDA, RMC...
And the bottoms cames:301-9301-301od-666...BB...
And Giles!Paula! & Kiya from SESF. And now Alex! This is a very important point. An amazing and so gentle/generous customer service. A total discovery for me and my poor english. Still now! After many years and bit of success, still totally carefully, devoted.
I still wear the 07&09. Sold the S ones. The M ones, bought later. And now own the tagged L’ ones...and many...many other shirts and fabric!
Peace & Love! Pierre.Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk
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“you won’t be satisfied until you wear Iron Heart”
This is really my entire experience of IH….I am going to openly steal this.
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I wonder if we can find any screenshots of ironheart.co.uk 1.0 for posterity…
We can….
https://www.ironheart.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=11115.msg536354#msg536354
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wow. i remember back in 2010 or so..
i started being into raw denim. there was this store that newly opened, the denim store. (which is also where i met my wife, now ex) they stocked a few japanese denim (pbj, sugarcanes) from what i remember. and they also had cheap mondays and nudie jeans. so i started out with cheap monday's with much persuasion from her…
fast forward 6 months, i've been doing some digging all along on the internet. back then i was mostly a superfuture guy. with the exception of indigoroots (now defunct) ran by some guys from singapore. I was on a trip in hk for a holiday with the family and i made sure i had to check out Take5. i was absolutely fazed by samurai back then, their 24oz, heavy denim. i remember seeing noragi-san as this mad dude with a whack attitude, pretty cool if you asked me. on that trip, i made my first foray into japanese denim with a Samurai 710 19oz. mind you, my experience with japanese denim, was through a lot of caressing of the denim whenever i'm down at the denim store.
also around that year, i met 2 blokes. johnny and james. back then, they were running a leather workshop out of this little shophouse. many conversations and iced teas we became good friends. i think, IIRC, back in those days james was still stationed in france and had contact with giles.
on indigoroots forum, i was always the 'samurai guy'. i had a couple pairs by then, absolutely loved them and i taking the piss with a few blokes, Ronald, max (flo) and b_F (tilmann). ronald and flo extensively wore IH and tilmann, was into samurai a lot. he even had this samurai jeans guide on sufu. so i remember saying somewhere "if you get a pair of samurai, i'll get a pair of IHs."
i remember stalking SE's website like an eagle, looking at the 301s cut because i was a crazy skinny fit dude back in the day. then fast forward a few years, OGL expanded into a retail store and stocked IH. i rocked up to the first event at the kandarhar lane store dressed fully in samurai. (what a dick) i know.. and i'd believe on the second meet up as well, which paula might have came along.. by then i'd probably had a couple of tee from IH. even few years down the road, i was in PBJ, mostly because of the HWDC2 and i don't even remember when i came onto IH forum.. but my first pair of IH jeans was the 666-21/23oz UHR that i wore for the DWC.
by then, i would have amassed about 10 or so tees, got the denim jeans, then got hooked to the shirts and jackets as well... pretty much shot up in the amount of items i had in the past 5 years i'd say. i'd love the 666 cut so well i had to get the 25oz as well, which i picked up at the kanreki..
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I think, IIRC, back in those days james was still stationed in france and had contact with giles.
Correct. The first time I met James was when he came over to Gosport from France to discuss the possibility of stocking Iron Heart in their new store….We agreed and I have never regretted the decision, @Johnny and James are two of our favourite people in the world….
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For Me it was first finding MY Nudies on the web. First jeans were nudie then it was Skull 5010 jeans. Always saw Iron Heart. But they wanted a lot of money for one pair of jeans. So it took some time to buy My first pair ( 301s ) from Self edge in NYC. Now have a lot of IH jeans & shirts.
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We agreed and I have never regretted the decision, @Johnny and James are two of our favourite people in the world….
they're brilliant lads. we were sitting down one time and can't believe how long it's been..
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@Giles do you and H have someone to pass the torch down to when you're days with IH are through? I don't mean to sound morbid and I know it won't be necessary for years to come, but It's obviously something that will happen at one point. This is such a great brand with two great bosses and it needs to live on when that day comes. I would assume Alex would the choice for IHUK but does H have a protege lined up?
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@Alex is the IHUK succession plan, and Haraki is over the moon about that. He's been badgering me for years to get Alex involved.
Haraki is still struggling a little bit with what to do. He has really pulled away a lot from the day to day running of the more mundane parts of the business. Tom san is now responsible for IHUK and even has a helper san, Tom has also made an investment of her own money into IHUSA. Jiro san looks after all Japanese domestic business. But I suspect that H does not see this as the final solution. He did ask me a few years back, if I would take over and run IHJP, but that was simply impossible before we got Alex on board, but we may initiate that discussion again….
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I think I've posted this story somewhere before so I'll keep it short. Back in the day when $150 for jeans and $80 for a shirt was on the high side for me I discovered Self Edge while looking for some mens retailers online that were a little less mainstream. I loved just about every piece from every brand they carried but couldn't stomach the price. I didn't have the luxury of seeing the goods in person so it took the slow, nagging curiosity of wondering why this shirt (the Johnny Cash) cost over $300. At least 6 months later I finally said, "F it. I'm rolling the dice and seeing whats so good about IH." Next thing you know I can't recommend the brand enough to people.
Awhile back some friends of mine and I were having a conversation about items that in our opinion are just way better than any other similar items made by another brand. This covered literally everything, not just clothes. The only thing I could think of that in my opinion is just way better than what any other brand makes is an IH flannel.
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Awhile back some friends of mine and I were having a conversation about items that in our opinion are just way better than any other similar items made by another brand. This covered literally everything, not just clothes. The only thing I could think of that in my opinion is just way better than what any other brand makes is an IH flannel.
Agreed. I own quite a few flannels but when it comes to warmth there's no topping IH. I sweat in my UHF's if it gets above 30 but holy hell they're warm as shit was it hits 0 or subzero temps.
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I tinkered with other brands but finally it came to…
Who makes the best jeans? Iron Heart (mainly my baby the 888)
Who makes the best flannels? No contest, Iron Heart
Who makes the best winter coat? Errrrrr..... Iron Heart
Who makes the best denim work shirt? Iron Heart
Who makes the best hoodies?
SupremeIron HeartI think i’ve found my brand
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@der Anschiss Good stuff and an interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
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It's so fascinating to read everyone's stories. I wish that I could remember exactly what led me to Iron Heart. I know that it was c. 2009 or so. I think that I had just started making belts and other products out of recycled fire hose, and during my explorations of that material, I started wondering if anyone had ever sewn pants or jeans out of really heavy fabric. I'm pretty sure that I just googled it, and ran across IHUK v. 1.0. I was loath to purchase such expensive clothing, but I was fascinated by it. The same google sesh led me to read a profile of Kiya from the SF Chronicle, that talked about Japanese denim. I had never even known that the denim scene existed, much less that SESF was so close to my house at the time.
Fast forward a couple weeks or so after I had obsessed over the websites long enough, and I dragged my girlfriend at the time down to Self Edge to ogle some jeans. From the second I touched them, I knew that the Iron Hearts were the ones I had to try. I convinced myself that black jeans were the only hole in my wardrobe that needed filling, so I ended up with a great fit on some super black 9301s. They were sooo heavy and thick and hardcore, felt like armor. I grabbed a Strike Gold belt on that same visit, because I was positive that none of my belts were going to be up to the task. I remember the guy who was incredibly helpful and patient with me at Self Edge trying to lure me into going upstairs to check out the shirts and jackets, but I somehow sensed that was a mortal danger to my wallet.
After a couple of weeks in the super blacks, I found a pair of almost unworn 634s on ebay, with the old pre-lawsuit arcs. I remember taking those out of the envelope when they arrived in the mail, and almost dancing a little jig over how soft and comfy the 21oz. was compared to the superblack. I wore the crap out of both of those pairs, and grabbed some overdyed SE007 not long after.
Fast forward again to a few years later, when I moved to Mexico in 2012. I was a little isolated, and definitely lonely in Mexico City, with no friends except my wife, and her family, so I started hanging around in the forum. My first purchase from IHUK was some 705 cargoes that were on special. They were a bit too big, but that 23oz. serge is such an amazing fabric. Soon thereafter, I went for my first IH flannel, the purple 101. For reasons that are probably obvious to all of you, after that I was more than hooked, and have gone a bit overboard, upping the collection, ever since.
The quality and simplicity of Iron Heart clothing really speaks to me, but I have to say the main reason why I've really gravitated to the brand is the forum. Having ready access to a community of people from all over the world who also are into the brand, as well as feeling like I really know (and appreciate) how the business is run, makes it special.
