I bought a pair of these 25oz indigo/black jeans after studying this blog and looking at the pictures.  I liked the photos where the older worn jeans would have a fairly unique appearance more like deep indigo rather than black.  I assumed that I could accelerate that lightening process by soaking them in very hot water.  I tried it at least 3 times, and was surprised to see almost no darkening of the wash water !  Of course the hot water did shrink them, but it was not a problem.  I just used my heavy duty waist expander on them while they were hang drying.

I bought a size 40 pair of these Mad Black jeans right away when they first came out.  I noticed that the waist measurement was only 38.2 inches, but I was not concerned, as I have a heavy duty waist expander that works quite well on my Iron Heart jeans.  I soaked the new jeans in cold water before using the expander.  I was able to stretch the waist more than 2.5 inches wider. These do seem to be softer than my other 25oz IH jeans.  I would not describe them as rigid, nor will they stand up on their own.  This dark color is currently my most favorite in my IH collection.