It seems that my first Swrve purchase is finally coming to the end of its usable life, RIP(ed) Jeans.
I must have bought these long before I started taking notes for this blog, so at this point, the jeans have, er, swerved for over eight years, very respectable!
My current @swrve collection. Jeans & knickers have to be 5+ years old. Jeans now sadly at end of life, knickers still going v strong. pic.twitter.com/ZWN0qqWkfd
— Julian Dierkes (@Schaumkroenchen) 21. Januar 2019
Here, the jeans appear with my Swrve knickers (also amazingly durable) and a more recent purchase, the “Combat Wool” blazer.
Cycling Features
Looking back now, I did wear the jeans biking, but I also note that “casual” bike rides are pretty rare for me. I’m typically on my bike heading to the office and wear bike gear in the winter (like the knickers) or shorts. Not an occasion for bike-specific jeans. The most common occasion are events like heading downtown to watch a Whitecaps game, in part because of the fabulous bike valet service makes the bike the most attractive way to go to games.
So, the occasions when the bike-specific features have made a difference have been fairly few. Of these, I probably appreciate the articulated knees and the higher rise in the back most. By contrast, the reflective bits on the belt loop or in the cuff are less essential because I have lots of lights/other reflective bits. The cell phone pocket does nothing for me (as I don’t carry a cell phone) and I also leave my lock on the bike when I’m riding.
Great Jeans
But, even though the bike-specific features are not as essential as I thought when I bought them, these are GREAT jeans. Great fit, they looked good when they were new and dark and they’ve weathered really well to have little holes and whiskers, etc. that others would pay for.
Obviously, 8+ years is a very respectable age for jeans, even for a pair that was more expensive than some cheapo brand and thus raised expectations. I did have to help preserve them for a bit (because I didn’t want to give them up) by having some patches put on the inside of the knees to prevent the hole that finally happened this past weekend.
When I’m actually retiring these, I will almost certainly replace them with another pair of Swrve jeans given how much I’ve enjoyed them and how convincing other Swrve purchases have been as well.
604 Bicycle Commuter 