The thought that some dudes pair of jeans that he shit himself in then threw down the mines is now available for appointment viewing is just amazing to me
lol... I had envisioned a stack of old jeans sitting on a rock next to a stack of old newspapers! ...when you've got nowhere to go... & you got'sta GO! 😰💩😅
I believe it's mostly because those mines got really hot, so they'd take off their jeans in the hottest areas. Though the question of why didn't they retrieve them does make you think...
They would often have spares to change if they ruined, ripped, or otherwise needed to change and would forget or not care enough to grab them to get them repaired or if they were too far gone for working anymore, since they spent most of their time down there working longgg shifts
I didn't travel internationally until the 90s but I remember people telling me that even though I didn't smoke if I went to some places I should bring the my customs limit of American cigarettes for tipping if I went various places.
They used dynamite in mines back then. Dynamite going off in a mine is going to scare the shit out of you, so you need a second pair of jeans just in case.
They probably kept work pants on site, you show up and get changed at 6:30 and start working. That's how my (mining-unrelated) dirty job goes. Totally believable that Dave (that idiot) dropped the old pants-rack down the mineshaft.
Miners often would abandon their pants down the shafts and change into a different pair if they got messed up or ruined somehow, and they forgot to bring them up to repair or didn't care. They would be down there so long they spent most of their time down there. Made sense to have spares. So they aren't just from dead miners remains lol
I'm actually shocked that you omitted the distinguishing feature of the crotch rivet. Levi's originally placed a rivet there, but eventually removed it because people kept burning their dicks after sitting around a fire for a while. I can't recall exactly when they got rid of it, but it certainly didn't last too long.
Any man who burned his penis on the crotch rivet was very well hung indeed! Even the scrotum would likely be safe, usually it was the perineum that would be burned, the crotch rivet went where the two inseam seams intersected, several inches below the bottom of the fly.
Wow, that is pretty neat 😂 They'd have to be pretty close to the fire tho I'm guessing. Or maybe the riveting in general was just different. I was near a campfire recently and don't think I felt any hotter around the rivets
Back in the 80s, one of my dad's friends used to buy all the jeans at yard sales and Goodwill for pennies, and then resell them in Japan for ridiculous amounts of money. Ah, the good old days.
This is actually a broader phenomenon of collecting (either personal or by museums) that working class clothing and children’s clothing, as well as clothing in less common sizes (very large or very long mostly) are under high demand because they were significantly less likely to survive. Working class clothing would be worn as long as possible then cut up to make children’s clothing, then cut up to make rags, and only then they would be given to the rag and bone man, who would sell the rags on to be made into anything from cheap fabrics like ticking, shabby, or linsy woolsey, or sold to be mixed with blood and bone meal to be turned into fertilizer.
Yes but fine stuff is more likely to be preserved. Like gown worn during significant events like then you become an queen. Same with weapon an armor, the nice stuff is obviously art and preserved the crude stuff is recycled.
Summer of 1990 my father took us on an adventure to the Soviet union. We took a tour bus through Europe, all the way to Moscow, with a suitcase full of American-made jeans. My father traded the jeans for cases of champagne that were worth their weight in gold in the UK. He cut the bus driver in for a case, and he smuggled the bottles out. My father drank a case of champagne on the drive back. I have a real Soviet flag from that trip. We were in a park, and the old man saw some people selling flags. The flags were one-sided and for show. My father wanted a real flag and pointed at the one on the pole, saying, "Like that one." So the guy jumps up and climbs the flagpole. Next thing I know, the guy is giving my father the flag from the flag poll for money. He was explaining to me why it was important that the flag had print on both sides when he said, "Keep walking, faster, let's go." I look back, and the guy who just sold us the flag was being chased by two guys in nice clothing. It's a nice flag...
What? Why was it important that the flag was printed on both sides? And why was the guy being chased? And what did your father gain from having the guy chased? Storytelling is an ability you weren't taught it would seem.
@@johnwt7333 Their storytelling is totally fine. A flag printed both sides is one meant to be flown from a pole, so it’s more legit. Their father didn’t have the guy chased, it would’ve likely been Soviet authorities, for stealing the flag off the flagpole. It’s fine if your comprehension needs work but try to be less rude.
@@Toothily it's not. He spent one paragraph telling us a pointless and incomplete story unrelated to the subject in question. One entire paragraph to tell us that his father bought a flag! First two paragraphs are fine. Boring but fine.
@@Toothily are you from the US by any chance? They tend to get easily offended and go full Karen on strangers, calling them "rude", "insensible", "unfiltered" and whatnot.
In the early 70s, in Portsmouth, NH, kids weren't allowed to wear blue jeans to school. They could wear any other color, but no blue jeans. One day my sister wore some Levi's. The school was so upset they called my mom, and she was like, "You're kidding." They explained BLUE jeans weren't allowed because that's what common, blue-collar laborers wore and heaven forbid, that was bad. Mom pretty much told them to go to Hell, and sis kept wearing them.
Yep, same here in RI. Here I think they would have suspended your Sis. To keep it in context girls had to wear skirts or dresses to school until, hmm, probably the late 60s when women started wearing nice pants as office wear. (Several high school boys wore kilts to school in protest.) One of my friends mothers had made her jeans that were a pinkish color and she got no flack about them in high school. I remember discussing this when we were out on the grass waiting for the officials to let us go back in after a bomb threat. Their were rules for dress/skirt hem lengths too. related to length below fingertips or above knee, depending.
@@johnwt7333 RI is a state in Northeast USA. Sorry. Part of my unstated point was I was sitting on the lawn in maybe 1970. I went to a fairly large high school, graduating class of about 200. Outside of the city, bombs back then were usually fictitious because someone wanted out of a calculus test. Back then there were folks like the Weather Underground really terrorizing people so it had to be taken seriously. The capacity to blow things up now scares me. ANDO existed since the 1950s but I never heard of it since the 1980s. (First World Trade Center garage bombing, 1993.) Your education system doesn't suspend people for a few days if they are being disobedient? What do they do with bad behavior kids? Even just the small things like wearing a rude T-shirt? Where do you live? I don't live in an Home Owner's Association area so there are mostly only Town rules about fences and not letting your pets run free. Much less traction for Karens. Most of the protests, bombs and so on happen in cities especially near government buildings. There is a fuss going on about homeless encampments in the city but I don't live or often go near there. France has protests that look like they shut down the entire country. This (USA) is a huge country. Depending on which way I go, if I get in my car and drive from New England to California it's about 4800 km or 3000 mi and would take about 44 hours, nonstop. If you sleep and shower, sit at a table to eat, and stretch it takes 4 to 5 days. Here in the Northeast we only get to go 65mph (104kph) on the limited access highways. In the flatter middle parts sometimes the speed limit is up to 75mph(121kph).
Yeah, sounds like one of those "Rich people spend big bucks at auctions and therefore they are valued at a high price, which causes rich people to buy them for big bucks at auctions" loops. Is that dirty pair of jeans supposed to be equivalent to a painting you hang on the wall or is there something else you would do with them?
@@trumpetbob15 i feel like the video tried to explain a reason that people want them, but it was just "jeans used to be not popular and then they became popular and they're still popular, but levi's was once struggling so therefore old jeans are expensive"
It’s so funny that in the 50s teenagers would wear jeans to look rebellious meanwhile now people think I am dressing up every day because I wear jeans to school every day.
I think you skipped over the part explaining why people wilm pay 5 figures. Yes, demand has been high but most people aren't dropping their salaries on a pair of old Levi's
It should be noted that not all Levi's worth money is from before 1970. For example, Selvedge 501s were still made up to 1985 - selvedge denim is better made, higher quality denim that is less likely to rip, and thus worth more. Since Levi's don't make these anymore, these can go for $300+, even pairs from the 80s. Additionally, original bellbottoms from the late 60s and 70s (646 and 684 models) can go for a few hundred, particularly ones with the Big E tag (though it should be noted that Big E does not necessarily mean on it's own that the jeans are from before 1970, as they were still in use in some lines up until the late 70s).
I still have several pair of 501s that I wore in high school at the bottom of a drawer (they still fit me, I fantasize I will wear them to do yard work or other messy tasks, but somehow never bother to dig them out). I graduated high school in 1987, so these would be from around ‘84 to ‘86. I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually have interest in them, but apparently I can a hundred bucks or perhaps even more for them, if eBay auctions are to be trusted… thanks for the tip!
old clothes collectors are fucking wild my dad was wearing one of 70's or 80's band tshirts, hes been wearing the same ones since he got them from the tour they are thread bare, and wearing the same clothes for 40-50 years makes them a special kind of funky and both me and my mother have joked about burning them because of how bad they are anyway one day while we are out a girl comes over and asks where he got it from "uhhh, the tour on the back of it" offered him a thousand for it there and then "nah, I like it"
I have a pair of shorts, Jean shorts, that I've had for 20 years. But I live in Michigan, so it's only valid shorts weather for at the most 3.5 months and even then a good number of those days don't qualify. Plus with a handful of other shorts to wear, this one pair is in good shape. In 20 years, I've probably worn it less than 100 days. I can see it reaching 26 or 28 years no problem.
As someone who is not a jeans connoisseur, I imagine there is a brand out there that makes pants with the build quality of yesteryear. And as someone who is a connoisseur of other things and knows consumer behavior well, I wouldn't be surprised if the people who pay the exorbitant prices for vintage Levi's say they're buying just for the quality, when in fact they're buying more for the brand name and to be part of an in group. Meanwhile, the real enthusiasts are probably watching a better brand they love die.
@andykillsu Thanks for the PSA but if you're stupid enough to go into an abandoned mine you're propably stupid enough to eventually die some other stupid way instead.
But why? Why would anyone come up with collecting destroyed, dirty jeans? If they were in mint condition I would understand that. But all the ones shown in this video are rubbish.
@@Jehty_ the reason that they have been used can be a factor. it holds a story. people also pay crazy money of a used baseball because player X has used said ball. or people that collect old pottery. In the end enough people just like to collect. and the more uniek a item is the more rewarding it is for them.
While in electronics school a fellow student paid for his entire tuition by packing his sailboat with jeans and sailing to south America to sell them. He mentioned always getting stopped on the way back (empty) by the feds. Now I know.
_In the future:_ “These are a pair of pandemic sweatpants worn continuously for that entire year of malaise. They were found in the wall of a studio apartment. Notice the authentic orange stains of what is believed to be *Cheetos,* an early type of junk food. We shall start the bidding at one million federal credits…”
In the mid 70s my dad was with the navy in the pacific (can’t remember if this was Japan, Hong Kong, or Taiwan) and traded the pair of of jean he was currently wearing to a guy for 5 pairs of tailored pants, 7 nice shirts, and 5 silk robes. Shit was wild
I still don't understand how people can comfortably wear them. They're the hardest thing to sit in, and sometimes both fit too tightly and are too loose at the same time.
You need to get a good pair of jeans. They are kind of impossible to find though… I haven’t found a decent pair in a couple years. What do you wear instead?
Same. The fabric is also very stiff and scratchy. It's amazing how they became the default pants worldwide, just riding a trend. Maybe corduroy will become retro and fashionable again one day.
This, so much this. I for one cannot stand denim jeans, they are extremely uncomfortable. I get that they were originally work pants and comfort was not their first priority, but why do people insist they're comfortable now? I'm convinced people have just been wearing them for so long that they can't feel their legs anymore.
You poor thing! ...It can take a whole lotta effort and time just to find your perfect pair... but when you do, they really do seem worth their weight in gold.
If you noticed the mention of Ueno Tokyo in this video, may I recommend Jet Lag The Game, Capture The Flag Across Japan. In this 7 episode season the team who makes Half As Interesting and a special guest make multiple trips to and through Ueno. This season and those before it are riveting and, like Levi's riveted old jeans, are priceless.
I didnt realize he said Ueno, but my recommendation for fans of Ueno has to be Shin Megami Tensei, a japanese RPG whos plot is centered around Ueno being turned into a molten radiated crater as ground zero of a nuclear warhead apocalypse
1:24 Was confused and double-checked the captions, it appears Sam misread his script here and said "patron part" instead of "patron pant"… at least Giraffe as Interesting caught Ueno
I'm just here to scoff at anyone that thinks "jean" is a singular pair of pants. No. Jeans only ever exist as a plural - a beautiful rarity. Also: This all American idol was of German origin. As Sam neglected to mention, their inventor's real name was "Levi Strauss" (actually really Löb Strauß from the region of Bamberg, Germany). Since Löb changed his name to Levi, his pants were just named after himself: Levi's (pants). I'm honestly getting more and more concerned with the lack of research Sam's team does lately. There were times where such core facts would have been either at least included, or front and center in his videos a couple of months ago.
@@joycelynnelobert8779 we're here to learn meaningless info that probably won't even be relevant in a pub quiz. Don't say "pedantry" like it's a bad thing
POTENTIAL ERROR! You said the 7 pairs of antique jeans were worth more than their weight in gold; each pair of jeans would need to weigh less than 1.5 lbs for this to be accurate!!!
@@slurpinpuffs I looked that up as well. that isn't the actual weight of a pair of jeans; that is a measurement of the quality of the material; 13oz jeans are 13 oz of denim per square yard of material.
My 7th grade history teacher traveled to China once and they actually gave him a hard time at customs because he'd brought two pairs of Levi's. They'd assumed he was a reseller and trying to illegally import them. Basically his only saving grace was that he had ONLY brought those two pairs of Levi's so he was able to convince them he didn't intend to visit China bottomless.
At least it’s being recycled. What more can we really ask for? This company pretty much makes and recycles it’s own product. I would only hope this company also believes in fair worth for their employees.
I was kind of surprised to come across this video. A few things that should be mentioned: The jeans find in Arizona was at Castle Dome and the person who found them is a Canadian named Frank Schlichting. He's a well known trespasser and looter of abandoned mines. He's currently banned from entering the United States and is being prosecuted for trespassing (actually, breaking and entering) at a mine in Nevada. As for the Indiana Jeans reference, that's the moniker of Brit Eaton. He's also a well known trespasser and looter. These people give mine explorers a bad name and should not be celebrated.
a combination most likely. I can imagine that for people that make jeans and the likes. it might be interesting to study the older versions. they might be able to use it again in there design. Also those same people are often also the people that will collect them out of a love for the product. it's like how people that make books now a days might love to have a very old book. just to study how that book was made. As in techniek, materrial, look.
I understand everything except why people want the old jeans? I wear Levi's everyday and they just come from Amazon like everything else. They're also guaranteed unbeshitted, unlike all other used pants.
They (usually) don't buy them to wear them; they buy them as a cultural snapshot. And a lot of places in the United States are proud of their history of miners and factory workers.
As someone who has left a couple of comments correcting Pacific Northwest pronunciations in Wendover videos, I particularly enjoyed the joke about the comments. Good stuff.
I have a box of old Levi’s from my younger days when I was thinner that are at least 20 years old. Since I retired I’ve been loosening weight and I am starting to fit into some of them again.
Finding jeans or other valuable clothing in abandoned mines is extremely rare. We won't get into details on the Arizona find other than to say don't believe everything you read or watch on UA-cam.
I thought those old jeans had some sort of substance that is incredibly valuable for a modern industry like tech, and that is far cheaper to extract it from them than it is to create new ones, perhaps something akin to pre WW2 steel, something to do with radiation, maybe the cloth was required in electronics so the radiation didn't throw the electrons in the chip array
They're probably just collector's items. It can be pretty hard to find surviving clothes worn by the working class 100 years ago, since the fabric would have been reused (like sam mentions in the video). I imagine there are a number of museums who would love to get their hands on a pair or two
That still doesn't answer the core question of why there is high demand for Old jeans. You'd think there was something special about it, like with old steel, which is why they don't simply buy a better-fitting pair off the rack.
I’m real surprised your covering this though it was too small a market. I watch abandoned mine exploration channels that explore places in cali and Nevada and they always say that old 19th century Levi’s rake in big
Go ahead and play in the mines. And while you are there, leave a pair of your jeans for someone else to find 50 to 100 years from now. They don't have to be the pair you were actually wearing when you entered the mine, but that's an option.
I dislike wearing jeans, I'll never understand how it is still the most common type of pants in the world when there are much more comfortable & flexible alternatives in the modern day.
Couldn't disagree with you more. I prefer shorts just in a general sense, but jeans are by far the most comfortable pant option. I think you might be buying the wrong fit/fabric/style for your body type.
@@Thrillhou I have been forced to try on countless pairs of jeans throughout my childhood, and literally not a single pair ever fit properly or was comfortable in any sense. The material is too darn stiff and scratchy, and nothing ever fits right. I will never understand how any of you can actually defend denim from a comfort standpoint, I have never had a pair of jeans I liked.
@Thinginator hey- each to their own. Personally, I've always absolutely -hated- the feeling of sweat pants, pajama pants, etc. Anything soft and billowy and formless like that just makes my skin crawl. Can't stand 'em.
They are expensive, because they are like NFTs a big scam. Speculation at its best and normal tax payers will be forced to bail out the idiots who bought all those worthless, if the bubble finally bursts.
My school teacher visited Moscow in the 1980s or early 90’s. A Russian went upto his wife and asked her how much money she wanted to take her Levi jeans off there and then, in the street and hand them over.
I do not recommend playing in old abandoned mines. There's one back behind my house a ways, my grandpa drove me by it once when I was a little kid cause passing by it was just the quickest route to his work. So I found out about it then, and later I decided "I'm gonna go look at it, because I'm a rebel now, and need a place to go that no one will find me" started visiting the mine. Then one day I showed a friend and he was like "dude, we should go hotbox the old ass cave" and I didn't even know what that meant so I went with him. After smoking and playing around acting like we were mining by hitting rocks against the wall, we left and that night it had a complete cave in 😂 Pretty sure I was hitting stone, and my friend was trying to break an "ancient log guardian of the mine" aka some old ass log in the middle of the walkway
It was not entirely clear to me why completely unusable vintage jeans still fetch so much money? In the car collection circles a cool old car has to be in good condition to fetch a premium. A rusted out shell that you have to squint hard to make out what it once was is borderline worthless.
Props to HAI for getting an appointment to film a 7 second clip of old jeans.
ikr. I love how he just randomly pulls some incredible production value out of his hat these days, and treats it like it's nothing.
I like to think that Amy flew across the country just for that shot, although I'm guessing she was in LA on other business already.
What makes you think there wasn’t a 15 minute clip for the upcoming video on the logistics of denim archeology on Wendover?
Maybe Amy just really wanted to see the jeans exhibition and wanted to get a tax write-off on it.
Sneaking suspicion Amy is a Swiftie by the bracelets and having recently been in LA (for the end of the tour leg??)
The thought that some dudes pair of jeans that he shit himself in then threw down the mines is now available for appointment viewing is just amazing to me
lol... I had envisioned a stack of old jeans sitting on a rock next to a stack of old newspapers! ...when you've got nowhere to go... & you got'sta GO! 😰💩😅
How does your opinion change if they’re jeans that a skeleton wore for a century between a mine collapse and an excavation?
@@JohnDoe-my5ipeven better 😂
I believe it's mostly because those mines got really hot, so they'd take off their jeans in the hottest areas. Though the question of why didn't they retrieve them does make you think...
They would often have spares to change if they ruined, ripped, or otherwise needed to change and would forget or not care enough to grab them to get them repaired or if they were too far gone for working anymore, since they spent most of their time down there working longgg shifts
My uncle traded his jeans for priceless antiques in Russia in the 70s. Now I’m using acoustic insulation made from shredding jeans. Value is weird.
Jeans were luxury in the Soviet union
I didn't travel internationally until the 90s but I remember people telling me that even though I didn't smoke if I went to some places I should bring the my customs limit of American cigarettes for tipping if I went various places.
@@kitefan1 my dad traded a pack of cigarettes for an East German border guard's hat pin AT THE CHECKPOINT. The whole family was in the car.
@@jonathanbyrdmusic Awesome. Unfortunately I did not travel then.
I'm using insulation made of shredded priceless antiques.
I know that gold/silver miners in the 1800s often went bust, but I didn't think that they literally lost their pants in the mines.
They used dynamite in mines back then. Dynamite going off in a mine is going to scare the shit out of you, so you need a second pair of jeans just in case.
They probably kept work pants on site, you show up and get changed at 6:30 and start working. That's how my (mining-unrelated) dirty job goes. Totally believable that Dave (that idiot) dropped the old pants-rack down the mineshaft.
I’m pretty sure they’re basically grave robbers digging out the remnants of those who died in mine collapses…
Miners often would abandon their pants down the shafts and change into a different pair if they got messed up or ruined somehow, and they forgot to bring them up to repair or didn't care. They would be down there so long they spent most of their time down there. Made sense to have spares. So they aren't just from dead miners remains lol
They are often found near dynamite stockpiles so I assume they had spares .
I'm actually shocked that you omitted the distinguishing feature of the crotch rivet. Levi's originally placed a rivet there, but eventually removed it because people kept burning their dicks after sitting around a fire for a while. I can't recall exactly when they got rid of it, but it certainly didn't last too long.
Any man who burned his penis on the crotch rivet was very well hung indeed! Even the scrotum would likely be safe, usually it was the perineum that would be burned, the crotch rivet went where the two inseam seams intersected, several inches below the bottom of the fly.
Wow, that is pretty neat 😂
They'd have to be pretty close to the fire tho I'm guessing. Or maybe the riveting in general was just different. I was near a campfire recently and don't think I felt any hotter around the rivets
Back in the 80s, one of my dad's friends used to buy all the jeans at yard sales and Goodwill for pennies, and then resell them in Japan for ridiculous amounts of money. Ah, the good old days.
Hey they should call them "Indiana Jeans"
HEY YOU MISPRONOUNCED UENO
You're a legend for still commenting it.
@@yukimoeHe really got me on that one, he knew I would call him on it. I got outplayed
@@kingace6186 sheep*
This is actually a broader phenomenon of collecting (either personal or by museums) that working class clothing and children’s clothing, as well as clothing in less common sizes (very large or very long mostly) are under high demand because they were significantly less likely to survive. Working class clothing would be worn as long as possible then cut up to make children’s clothing, then cut up to make rags, and only then they would be given to the rag and bone man, who would sell the rags on to be made into anything from cheap fabrics like ticking, shabby, or linsy woolsey, or sold to be mixed with blood and bone meal to be turned into fertilizer.
...shouldn't getting made into a Trabant be in there somewhere too?
@@nlpnt No trabants factories in the USA or Canada. But this is why things sometimes have (or had) tags that say all new materials.
Damn that’s how it should still work huh
@@yitzakIr agreed
Yes but fine stuff is more likely to be preserved. Like gown worn during significant events like then you become an queen.
Same with weapon an armor, the nice stuff is obviously art and preserved the crude stuff is recycled.
Summer of 1990 my father took us on an adventure to the Soviet union.
We took a tour bus through Europe, all the way to Moscow, with a suitcase full of American-made jeans. My father traded the jeans for cases of champagne that were worth their weight in gold in the UK. He cut the bus driver in for a case, and he smuggled the bottles out. My father drank a case of champagne on the drive back.
I have a real Soviet flag from that trip. We were in a park, and the old man saw some people selling flags. The flags were one-sided and for show. My father wanted a real flag and pointed at the one on the pole, saying, "Like that one." So the guy jumps up and climbs the flagpole. Next thing I know, the guy is giving my father the flag from the flag poll for money. He was explaining to me why it was important that the flag had print on both sides when he said, "Keep walking, faster, let's go." I look back, and the guy who just sold us the flag was being chased by two guys in nice clothing. It's a nice flag...
This is the wackiest heist tale I've heard for a while and I love it
What? Why was it important that the flag was printed on both sides? And why was the guy being chased? And what did your father gain from having the guy chased? Storytelling is an ability you weren't taught it would seem.
@@johnwt7333 Their storytelling is totally fine. A flag printed both sides is one meant to be flown from a pole, so it’s more legit. Their father didn’t have the guy chased, it would’ve likely been Soviet authorities, for stealing the flag off the flagpole. It’s fine if your comprehension needs work but try to be less rude.
@@Toothily it's not. He spent one paragraph telling us a pointless and incomplete story unrelated to the subject in question. One entire paragraph to tell us that his father bought a flag!
First two paragraphs are fine. Boring but fine.
@@Toothily are you from the US by any chance? They tend to get easily offended and go full Karen on strangers, calling them "rude", "insensible", "unfiltered" and whatnot.
Not playing in abandoned mines is actually a conversation I had with my parents growing up in Colorado.
In the early 70s, in Portsmouth, NH, kids weren't allowed to wear blue jeans to school. They could wear any other color, but no blue jeans. One day my sister wore some Levi's. The school was so upset they called my mom, and she was like, "You're kidding." They explained BLUE jeans weren't allowed because that's what common, blue-collar laborers wore and heaven forbid, that was bad. Mom pretty much told them to go to Hell, and sis kept wearing them.
That sounds like real Karen on the schoolboard nonsense alright.
Some 70 year olds really do literally have nothing better to do.
Now that's a real mother right there
Yep, same here in RI. Here I think they would have suspended your Sis. To keep it in context girls had to wear skirts or dresses to school until, hmm, probably the late 60s when women started wearing nice pants as office wear. (Several high school boys wore kilts to school in protest.) One of my friends mothers had made her jeans that were a pinkish color and she got no flack about them in high school. I remember discussing this when we were out on the grass waiting for the officials to let us go back in after a bomb threat. Their were rules for dress/skirt hem lengths too. related to length below fingertips or above knee, depending.
@@kitefan1 bomb threats, suspensions, Karens, protests, "RI" (don't even want to know what it is).... how do you people live?
@@johnwt7333 RI is a state in Northeast USA. Sorry. Part of my unstated point was I was sitting on the lawn in maybe 1970. I went to a fairly large high school, graduating class of about 200. Outside of the city, bombs back then were usually fictitious because someone wanted out of a calculus test. Back then there were folks like the Weather Underground really terrorizing people so it had to be taken seriously. The capacity to blow things up now scares me. ANDO existed since the 1950s but I never heard of it since the 1980s. (First World Trade Center garage bombing, 1993.)
Your education system doesn't suspend people for a few days if they are being disobedient? What do they do with bad behavior kids? Even just the small things like wearing a rude T-shirt? Where do you live?
I don't live in an Home Owner's Association area so there are mostly only Town rules about fences and not letting your pets run free. Much less traction for Karens.
Most of the protests, bombs and so on happen in cities especially near government buildings. There is a fuss going on about homeless encampments in the city but I don't live or often go near there.
France has protests that look like they shut down the entire country. This (USA) is a huge country. Depending on which way I go, if I get in my car and drive from New England to California it's about 4800 km or 3000 mi and would take about 44 hours, nonstop. If you sleep and shower, sit at a table to eat, and stretch it takes 4 to 5 days. Here in the Northeast we only get to go 65mph (104kph) on the limited access highways. In the flatter middle parts sometimes the speed limit is up to 75mph(121kph).
I still don't understand why they're so expensive
Yeah, sounds like one of those "Rich people spend big bucks at auctions and therefore they are valued at a high price, which causes rich people to buy them for big bucks at auctions" loops. Is that dirty pair of jeans supposed to be equivalent to a painting you hang on the wall or is there something else you would do with them?
Rare things are usually expensive because capitalism.
Levi’s themselves will buy them back at a high price
@@trumpetbob15 i feel like the video tried to explain a reason that people want them, but it was just "jeans used to be not popular and then they became popular and they're still popular, but levi's was once struggling so therefore old jeans are expensive"
Basic supply and demand.
The real question is why people want them?
It’s so funny that in the 50s teenagers would wear jeans to look rebellious meanwhile now people think I am dressing up every day because I wear jeans to school every day.
When have jeans ever been considered anything close to formal wear?
@@hotwheelsearl When kids started wearing pajamas, sweatpants, and leggings to school regularly.
@@westrim Ah, thanks. What the jean banners would have considered lingerie for tops, too.
@@hotwheelsearlwhen people realised that jeans actually look good on their own.
Lots of places have black (not blue) jeans as the dress code
I think you skipped over the part explaining why people wilm pay 5 figures. Yes, demand has been high but most people aren't dropping their salaries on a pair of old Levi's
It should be noted that not all Levi's worth money is from before 1970. For example, Selvedge 501s were still made up to 1985 - selvedge denim is better made, higher quality denim that is less likely to rip, and thus worth more. Since Levi's don't make these anymore, these can go for $300+, even pairs from the 80s. Additionally, original bellbottoms from the late 60s and 70s (646 and 684 models) can go for a few hundred, particularly ones with the Big E tag (though it should be noted that Big E does not necessarily mean on it's own that the jeans are from before 1970, as they were still in use in some lines up until the late 70s).
I still have several pair of 501s that I wore in high school at the bottom of a drawer (they still fit me, I fantasize I will wear them to do yard work or other messy tasks, but somehow never bother to dig them out). I graduated high school in 1987, so these would be from around ‘84 to ‘86. I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually have interest in them, but apparently I can a hundred bucks or perhaps even more for them, if eBay auctions are to be trusted… thanks for the tip!
old clothes collectors are fucking wild
my dad was wearing one of 70's or 80's band tshirts, hes been wearing the same ones since he got them from the tour
they are thread bare, and wearing the same clothes for 40-50 years makes them a special kind of funky and both me and my mother have joked about burning them because of how bad they are
anyway one day while we are out a girl comes over and asks where he got it from
"uhhh, the tour on the back of it"
offered him a thousand for it there and then
"nah, I like it"
I'm just more impressed your dad fits in a shirt that's 50 years old 😂 he must be in good shape
I have a pair of shorts, Jean shorts, that I've had for 20 years. But I live in Michigan, so it's only valid shorts weather for at the most 3.5 months and even then a good number of those days don't qualify. Plus with a handful of other shorts to wear, this one pair is in good shape. In 20 years, I've probably worn it less than 100 days. I can see it reaching 26 or 28 years no problem.
Mining through the rubble of the Jortstorm can be a pathway to many riches
...some considered to be unnatural?
Bold of you to assume there will be anything left in the wake of the Jortpocalypse
Jortstorm would be a great, terrible band name.
As someone who is into specifically Japanese denim and its history, I've always found the vintage levi hunters weird in a super relatable way.
Weird in a super relatable way, that's the best kind of year.
As someone who is not a jeans connoisseur, I imagine there is a brand out there that makes pants with the build quality of yesteryear. And as someone who is a connoisseur of other things and knows consumer behavior well, I wouldn't be surprised if the people who pay the exorbitant prices for vintage Levi's say they're buying just for the quality, when in fact they're buying more for the brand name and to be part of an in group. Meanwhile, the real enthusiasts are probably watching a better brand they love die.
NO do not go into dangerous mines and steal jeans... There is a MASSIVE problem with people going into old mines and taking things out of them.
the problem is not them going in to the mines. it's more the risk them never getting out of them.
@andykillsu Thanks for the PSA but if you're stupid enough to go into an abandoned mine you're propably stupid enough to eventually die some other stupid way instead.
Is the problems people endangering themselves or do you think abandoned claims should be preserved?
Agreed!
He never actually said why they are THAT expensive. I'll hazard a guess and say rich collectors.
I'll hazard a guess and say rich idiots.
because they were made by white people before yellow and brown people took the manufacturing job away from decent white hardworking folks!
But why?
Why would anyone come up with collecting destroyed, dirty jeans?
If they were in mint condition I would understand that. But all the ones shown in this video are rubbish.
@@Jehty_ Because they are r3tards
@@Jehty_ the reason that they have been used can be a factor. it holds a story.
people also pay crazy money of a used baseball because player X has used said ball.
or people that collect old pottery.
In the end enough people just like to collect. and the more uniek a item is the more rewarding it is for them.
While in electronics school a fellow student paid for his entire tuition by packing his sailboat with jeans and sailing to south America to sell them. He mentioned always getting stopped on the way back (empty) by the feds. Now I know.
_In the future:_
“These are a pair of pandemic sweatpants worn continuously for that entire year of malaise. They were found in the wall of a studio apartment. Notice the authentic orange stains of what is believed to be *Cheetos,* an early type of junk food. We shall start the bidding at one million federal credits…”
This is the first time Sam has accused me of being on the toilet not wearing pants and he’s been right
1. Put on a fedora
2. Approach someone wearing jeans
3. Shout "THOSE BELONG IN A MUSEUM" at them
In the mid 70s my dad was with the navy in the pacific (can’t remember if this was Japan, Hong Kong, or Taiwan) and traded the pair of of jean he was currently wearing to a guy for 5 pairs of tailored pants, 7 nice shirts, and 5 silk robes. Shit was wild
I still don't understand how people can comfortably wear them.
They're the hardest thing to sit in, and sometimes both fit too tightly and are too loose at the same time.
You need to get a good pair of jeans. They are kind of impossible to find though… I haven’t found a decent pair in a couple years. What do you wear instead?
Same. The fabric is also very stiff and scratchy. It's amazing how they became the default pants worldwide, just riding a trend. Maybe corduroy will become retro and fashionable again one day.
This, so much this. I for one cannot stand denim jeans, they are extremely uncomfortable. I get that they were originally work pants and comfort was not their first priority, but why do people insist they're comfortable now? I'm convinced people have just been wearing them for so long that they can't feel their legs anymore.
You poor thing! ...It can take a whole lotta effort and time just to find your perfect pair... but when you do, they really do seem worth their weight in gold.
jeans are the comfiest legwear ever. i can sleep in them
Does it makes you wonder, there's 4-5 jeans left there, what did those 4-5 miners do after they take off their pants? 🤔
Went home after work?
A bit like how people now might have there boiler suite over there cleaner clothing.
the jeans where left behind when not needed anymore.
If you noticed the mention of Ueno Tokyo in this video, may I recommend Jet Lag The Game, Capture The Flag Across Japan. In this 7 episode season the team who makes Half As Interesting and a special guest make multiple trips to and through Ueno. This season and those before it are riveting and, like Levi's riveted old jeans, are priceless.
I didnt realize he said Ueno, but my recommendation for fans of Ueno has to be Shin Megami Tensei, a japanese RPG whos plot is centered around Ueno being turned into a molten radiated crater as ground zero of a nuclear warhead apocalypse
So now Sam has given the jean counterfeiters all the information they need to fake vintage jeans.
if you think they didn't already have that information to begin with ive got a bridge to sell you
@@plushifoxed Seriously, I generally assume these types of comments are form 10-15 year olds who are still new.
@@planescapedrelax… why are you so bothered with this comment… 😅
1:24 Was confused and double-checked the captions, it appears Sam misread his script here and said "patron part" instead of "patron pant"… at least Giraffe as Interesting caught Ueno
"Hey you mispronounced Ueno"
Great shout out to Jet Lag The Game 😄
Hey they should call them “Indiana Je… >:(
HEY YOU MISPRONOUNCED UENO TOKYO
I'm just here to scoff at anyone that thinks "jean" is a singular pair of pants. No. Jeans only ever exist as a plural - a beautiful rarity.
Also: This all American idol was of German origin. As Sam neglected to mention, their inventor's real name was "Levi Strauss" (actually really Löb Strauß from the region of Bamberg, Germany). Since Löb changed his name to Levi, his pants were just named after himself: Levi's (pants).
I'm honestly getting more and more concerned with the lack of research Sam's team does lately. There were times where such core facts would have been either at least included, or front and center in his videos a couple of months ago.
Pedantry
so it is as american as apple pie! in that it is not american at all lol
@@joycelynnelobert8779 we're here to learn meaningless info that probably won't even be relevant in a pub quiz. Don't say "pedantry" like it's a bad thing
POTENTIAL ERROR! You said the 7 pairs of antique jeans were worth more than their weight in gold; each pair of jeans would need to weigh less than 1.5 lbs for this to be accurate!!!
Perhaps they hold a substantial load of 'golden-brown' nuggets! 💩
according to Google, jeans weigh about 10-13oz, so less than a pound
@@slurpinpuffs I looked that up as well. that isn't the actual weight of a pair of jeans; that is a measurement of the quality of the material; 13oz jeans are 13 oz of denim per square yard of material.
Have you seen all the holes and missing parts in those jeans?
@@colejosephalexanderkashay683 ahh, that makes sense. i’d weigh my jeans right now if i weren’t at work
My 7th grade history teacher traveled to China once and they actually gave him a hard time at customs because he'd brought two pairs of Levi's. They'd assumed he was a reseller and trying to illegally import them. Basically his only saving grace was that he had ONLY brought those two pairs of Levi's so he was able to convince them he didn't intend to visit China bottomless.
thank you HAI for helping me learn that the pants i bought yesterday were made in 2023
Why do I suddenly have the urge to buy wool dryer balls?
Someone reads labales
And this how Charlie made a decent penny in boiled denim.
That's why he boiled it. To get the shitstains off the old denim to resell it for maximum profit.
Brilliant!
At least it’s being recycled. What more can we really ask for? This company pretty much makes and recycles it’s own product. I would only hope this company also believes in fair worth for their employees.
I would guess the energy it takes to go out and search old mines is far greater then making a new pair of jeans.
I have been watching ghost town living and it’s always fun seeing him find old jeans
me right now just thinking of "NewJeans"
I love the Easter egg about mispronouncing Ueno, lol
Ah yes, NewJeans’s greatest nemesis: OldJeans.
I was really expecting a Ghost Town Living shout-out.
Disappointing
I was kind of surprised to come across this video. A few things that should be mentioned: The jeans find in Arizona was at Castle Dome and the person who found them is a Canadian named Frank Schlichting. He's a well known trespasser and looter of abandoned mines. He's currently banned from entering the United States and is being prosecuted for trespassing (actually, breaking and entering) at a mine in Nevada. As for the Indiana Jeans reference, that's the moniker of Brit Eaton. He's also a well known trespasser and looter. These people give mine explorers a bad name and should not be celebrated.
So are they just expensive because collectors or is there some sort of magic secret to old denim that makes it better?
a combination most likely. I can imagine that for people that make jeans and the likes. it might be interesting to study the older versions.
they might be able to use it again in there design. Also those same people are often also the people that will collect them out of a love for the product.
it's like how people that make books now a days might love to have a very old book. just to study how that book was made.
As in techniek, materrial, look.
This video would've been better if Ben (the writer) had talked to Brent from the channel Ghost Town Living, he could've given a great explanation
That’s a great UA-cam channel. I love seeing him abseil down and explore old tunnels
Is that the silicon valley bro who's old, historic pub "burnt down" in his town he bought?
Well, that means I have been wearing Levi's Jeans from the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s all my life. Woah.
The GameCube is vintage? That hurts.
The phrase "denim mining" reminded of the tumblr post of the russian spy going "I work all day in hamburger mine to buy 1 rock and roll disc."
I'm a Levi's expert and I give you props for getting a lot of good info into such a short video.
Can you explain what reason is behind the demand for old Levi's? I can't imagine these old jeans are still wearable in their current state
Hello denham denham please let us know ha
Den from ham
it's like any collectibles but kept in good condition you can wear 100 year old jeans@@michael2636
Hey, that comment about how to date jeans was not a stupid joke.
What does Popeye order for breakfast?
Egg, egg, egg.
And spinach, Olives.
So the jeans are simply bought as collectible items? The video could’ve said this clearly. I find the delivery a bit confusing.
You must be new to this channel? I think it's a point of pride to get through a video without ever clearly addressing the subject matter.
@@philbert006 I’m not, just find this one especially confusing.
I understand everything except why people want the old jeans? I wear Levi's everyday and they just come from Amazon like everything else. They're also guaranteed unbeshitted, unlike all other used pants.
They (usually) don't buy them to wear them; they buy them as a cultural snapshot. And a lot of places in the United States are proud of their history of miners and factory workers.
I feel so called out about that you mispronounced ueno comment. I literally said that out loud when it happened.
As someone who has left a couple of comments correcting Pacific Northwest pronunciations in Wendover videos, I particularly enjoyed the joke about the comments. Good stuff.
I have a box of old Levi’s from my younger days when I was thinner that are at least 20 years old. Since I retired I’ve been loosening weight and I am starting to fit into some of them again.
I still dont really understand why people want old jeans, is there something that is different from the old and current jeans?
The longterm play of HAI is to become the premier stock video service. Its just a really longterm play.
Finding jeans or other valuable clothing in abandoned mines is extremely rare. We won't get into details on the Arizona find other than to say don't believe everything you read or watch on UA-cam.
I thought those old jeans had some sort of substance that is incredibly valuable for a modern industry like tech, and that is far cheaper to extract it from them than it is to create new ones, perhaps something akin to pre WW2 steel, something to do with radiation, maybe the cloth was required in electronics so the radiation didn't throw the electrons in the chip array
They're probably just collector's items. It can be pretty hard to find surviving clothes worn by the working class 100 years ago, since the fabric would have been reused (like sam mentions in the video). I imagine there are a number of museums who would love to get their hands on a pair or two
"A video about pants for people who mostly aren't wearing any." As I sit here without pants eating my breakfast 😂
That's weird that something as boringly ordinary as jeans would be banned. That's like banning butter knives.
That still doesn't answer the core question of why there is high demand for Old jeans. You'd think there was something special about it, like with old steel, which is why they don't simply buy a better-fitting pair off the rack.
My father (born 1971) didn't wear a pair of jeans until 1983 were it was mandatory for his squares dancing class. He wore slacks most of the time.
I’m real surprised your covering this though it was too small a market. I watch abandoned mine exploration channels that explore places in cali and Nevada and they always say that old 19th century Levi’s rake in big
3:40 captial instead of capital
As the old saying goes: There is nothing as English as Apple Pie. [Except Tom Scott of course.]
I love the video clip of Tucson. So proud.
There must be people that chose to be buried in their denim. Grave robbing might be lucrative here.
Look, I know I'm old but the vintage Gamecube did not help.
What I want to know (or maybe I don't) is, why were miners in the 1880's taking their pants off at work and leaving them behind.
87k for those Jeans? HAHAHAHAHAA, some people really do have too much money.
Holy cow I didn't realize unt today vintage comes from vinte which is 20!! Mind blown.
Now Amy just need to do one thing, Sign up for hello fresh
Ah yes, jeans are exactly what thought I'd learn about today
Go ahead and play in the mines. And while you are there, leave a pair of your jeans for someone else to find 50 to 100 years from now. They don't have to be the pair you were actually wearing when you entered the mine, but that's an option.
I can swear I’ve already seen a part of this video between 0:23 to 0:32 before it was uploaded like 4h ago.
I love how this video never explains why people even want old jeans in the first place. They’re not useful or anything, they’re just rare.
I dislike wearing jeans, I'll never understand how it is still the most common type of pants in the world when there are much more comfortable & flexible alternatives in the modern day.
I just want sweatpants to become fashionable, is that so much to ask? Denim jeans suuuuuuck!
Couldn't disagree with you more. I prefer shorts just in a general sense, but jeans are by far the most comfortable pant option. I think you might be buying the wrong fit/fabric/style for your body type.
@@Thrillhou I have been forced to try on countless pairs of jeans throughout my childhood, and literally not a single pair ever fit properly or was comfortable in any sense. The material is too darn stiff and scratchy, and nothing ever fits right. I will never understand how any of you can actually defend denim from a comfort standpoint, I have never had a pair of jeans I liked.
@Thinginator hey- each to their own. Personally, I've always absolutely -hated- the feeling of sweat pants, pajama pants, etc. Anything soft and billowy and formless like that just makes my skin crawl. Can't stand 'em.
@@Thinginator scratchy?
Where did you find those jeans that you tried on? Hand-knitted by your grandma?
So why are they so expensive? Because I still don't know. I am extremely confused. They're old, dirty pants...
They are expensive, because they are like NFTs a big scam. Speculation at its best and normal tax payers will be forced to bail out the idiots who bought all those worthless, if the bubble finally bursts.
Ah yes the American tradition of rich people spending tens of thousands to cosplay as working class
My school teacher visited Moscow in the 1980s or early 90’s. A Russian went upto his wife and asked her how much money she wanted to take her Levi jeans off there and then, in the street and hand them over.
I do not recommend playing in old abandoned mines. There's one back behind my house a ways, my grandpa drove me by it once when I was a little kid cause passing by it was just the quickest route to his work. So I found out about it then, and later I decided "I'm gonna go look at it, because I'm a rebel now, and need a place to go that no one will find me" started visiting the mine. Then one day I showed a friend and he was like "dude, we should go hotbox the old ass cave" and I didn't even know what that meant so I went with him. After smoking and playing around acting like we were mining by hitting rocks against the wall, we left and that night it had a complete cave in 😂
Pretty sure I was hitting stone, and my friend was trying to break an "ancient log guardian of the mine" aka some old ass log in the middle of the walkway
The guy who shit his jeans 100 years ago, tosses them aside and your like TREASURE!
The note was super informative thanks!
For Sale: Badly stained vintage Levi's. Definitely not from a graveyard.
What's stopping people from making fake old pants with all the old signage? Other the straight up chemical analysis how would one know?
The reason why idiots pay stupid prices for old rags still eludes me though.
It was not entirely clear to me why completely unusable vintage jeans still fetch so much money? In the car collection circles a cool old car has to be in good condition to fetch a premium. A rusted out shell that you have to squint hard to make out what it once was is borderline worthless.
Always love new HAI videos.
what a fascinating jeaneology
So when is Amy going to be on Jet Lagged?
I love newjeans anyways so. STREAM SUPER SHY !
1:07 ok you got me
Kinda wanted to hear why is there a demand for those vintage jeans. Just the collector's value? Or maybe some other reasons?
The prediction that so many views of this video will be on the toilet, is sooooo accurate:D
Hmm. Must be where the minions found so much denim.
this is why u should stan newjeans
I think we still have my mom’s old denim jacket… it’s approx 30 years old. But not brand name.