The Arrival of FR. Denim. Japan. Los Angeles.

How 18 months of work came down to two totally different parts of the world that are defining my life in business.

I don’t like shortcuts. I don’t like noise and manufactured purpose. I don’t like when manufacturers lie. I don’t like chasing.

I like the idea of building good products, processes and relationships which ultimately lead to trust.

These two places - LA and Japan have redefined how I look at building a company.

Japan.

There is a version of life before you go to Japan and a version of life after.

Then when you get home you find yourself trying to process what you experienced from the moment you land in Japan to the last second before you board to leave.

The first time I went to Japan was in January of 2025 after I spent two weeks in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam. I love all three of those countries and have been going there for at least 15 years.

I was in those 3 countries in 2025 visiting the mills and factories that were manufacturing our now discontinued performance products. The best factories. The best mills. But then I started to see behaviour out of those factories that surprised me. Some were lying about things. The mills only wanted to talk about how most brands wanted the cheapest tech performance materials they could get their hands on because the customer would not know the difference. You can fake it in the performance space on a rack and that is evident in what’s out in the marketplace.

You can’t fake good cotton.
You can’t fake good factories.
You can’t fake good mills.

But how do you really know who is trustworthy and who is smoke and mirrors? It’s tough so you have to get out and see mills and factories in person.

That’s why I went to Japan. To visit our mill and factory and see firsthand the process from the very beginning.

The airport is incredibly well organized—even down to how the Uber line functions. The airport have staff on hand who find your Uber plate number and have you wait in a lounge until it arrives.

The check in process at the hotel is organized and easy.

More than enough staff.

When you go for coffee in a back alley, you can see the process and feel the pride of the barista in the coffee they serve. It’s an experience to order and drink a coffee in Japan.

You walk into a shop and the staff politely greet you. They let you walk around and explore uninterrupted so you can take everything in. No prepared sales pitch. No “Can I help you?”. But when you’re ready to ask questions they are well informed and incredibly helpful. You try on something and they take the time to set up the change room and kindly request leaving your shoes outside.

An 8 dollar ramen meal is prepared and served like you are in one of the best restaurants in the world.

Then you go for Sushi in a restaurant which is also hidden in a back alley.

No outside sign.
No menu.

You sit in front of the chef and watch him prepare each piece of fish individually. No platters or combos. You are asked to pick up each piece with your hands. It requires nothing added to it as it is prepared perfectly. Ginger is served in between each piece. Wasabi is hand grated in front of you before your meal even begins. Each piece of sushi is handheld in a cupping method to place the rice properly. It’s a 2 hour process and every part of that process is with pride. When you leave, the hostess walks you outside and parts with a full bow. Not a nod. Not a shit bow as Larry David would say. A full bow.

It’s a long flight to get there, but to see the mills and factories...it’s a long train ride. I was up at 4:30am to catch a 6:00am train down to where the mills and factories are located but when I set foot in the mill for the first time I was not prepared for what I saw.

The first thing being a sense of pride from every person you meet on arrival to every person you encounter on the floor.

Hat removal and full bow are standard practice when meeting each person in the mill.

The first thing you notice is everything is slowed down.

Nobody rushes.

The bullet train is fast and that’s it.

I have watched and seen firsthand how every single step in a roll of denim is done. The raw cotton from 3 countries sitting in organized rows; Brazil, Australia and USA being the first observation. The cotton and its combination sets the stage for everything.

The looming machines are so loud you have to wear headphones.

The inspection area where each station is set up with a roll of fabric suspended 10 feet in the air with the roll passing through vertically so every inch is observed.

Nothing gets missed.

Their filtration system demonstrated how the water is taken out of the river, used and then put back in as clean as when it came out. That was one area where you could understand where the pride came from. They were doing things the right way. They even had small, live fish in an aquarium to further show you how clean the water is after filtration.

I’m not trying to hype or market for these mills. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t because you’re not allowed to photograph the mill and you’re actually required to sign an NDA before entering.

The process in Japan is in place because that’s just the way it’s done. No noise. No hype. No shit attempt at so called marketing.

Process. Product. Pride.

That’s why our denim comes exclusively from Japan. Nowhere in the world does it like this.

Los Angeles.

Traffic. Airport chaos. Heat.
Lane splitting. Tattoo shops. Energy.

I fucking love Los Angeles. I feed off the insane energy that comes from there. Getting around on a motorbike is the only way or you sit in traffic and the first time you lane split (especially on a bagger) takes some getting used to.

It took a long time to find a factory that could build Selvedge denim at a world class level. Lots of calls first and then a number of meetings to build the relationship I knew we needed to launch our first batch of denim.

The ability to cut with accuracy.

The ability to jointly develop patterns so our fit was specific to FR.

Not send in a pair of old jeans from that company in San Francisco like everyone seems to do. No. We built our patterns from scratch in a slim and straight fit and it took months and months to get this right.

I had to spend a lot of time in Los Angeles to get this done right. Which we did.

It’s a small batch to start because we don’t want to rush into this...we want to take it slow like the Japanese process.

Every pair is numbered.

150 slim fit in indigo.
150 straight fit in indigo.
50 slim fit in black indigo.

Numbered by yours truly after inspecting each pair.

Back to Japan.

We went back to Japan to build a relationship with a new factory there which is very old and has been making denim for over 50 years. In small batches of 100.

We spent the full day with them so they could learn about our commitment to making product the right way. So they could truly understand what we are in business for.

Moving forward.

We will now be manufacturing in Los Angeles and Japan for all of our denim products along with select shirting and cotton pants. We are doing this through process built around the confidence to build the best product we can. Boots on the ground in both places for almost two years.

What I have wanted to build since day 1.

Nothing. Has. Changed.

Thanks for reading -

Peace

- ralph | fr.