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James Hankins

james hankins, 52, denim entrepreneur

The Risk Taker

Years later, he still doesn’t know why the guards waved him through into the artists’ area at the Pomona Music Festival without any accreditation. But there Jimmy Hankins was — with a trunkful of brand-new jeans handmade with American denim. They were his jeans, Asbury Park Denim, a brand he had started a few months before when he found himself close to rock bottom. When the first musicians began coming out of their trailers, Hankins struck up conversation. Then he asked them if they wanted a pair of jeans.

“At that moment, there is no one who has been on a tour bus for three or four weeks straight that doesn’t want a $200 pair of fresh new jeans,” he says now. “That was my magic moment right there. That’s where I knew where my edge was coming from.”

“My mentality was that if I do this thing, what do I have to worry about losing?” he says. “Well, the house. So I thought, ‘Then let’s get rid of it!’ ”

Call it a preemptive strike. It was a risky move that most 20 year olds wouldn’t make, let alone someone nearing 50 who was teetering on the edge of insolvency. So he sold it and moved to Los Angeles to learn how to make jeans. But from his time in the industry, Hankins knew how to sell and how to source material. He found denim mills in North Carolina that still used old looms, and paid as much attention to the pattern-making as he did to the most minute detail — including rivets inspired by Asbury Park manhole covers.

His initial venture to the music festival yielded his first musician clients. Then more turned up. Pretty soon, New Jersey boy Jon Bon Jovi was wearing his jeans on stage as were the Eagles of Death Metal, the band fronted by Jesse Hughes. He estimates his jeans are now on the legs of more than 100 artists and influencers and in stores across the U.S. And when he looks back on it, he can identify the moment that give him the courage to pull it off.

“Everything came to a grinding halt, and all I thought was important was almost wiped out,” he says. “I thought, ‘What am I going to do now?’ And then I thought, ‘Well, I can do anything I want!’ ”

ageist sound advice

Okay, call us selfish, but we really wanted the founder of a jeans brand to tell us how to buy the right pair of jeans. So here goes.

“Leg openings are incredibly crucial. If you’re still in the same style jeans that you bought 10 years ago, your leg opening is about 16-17 inches. Today if I were to go out and buy, I’d say go out and wear 15-16 inches. Wear it for a day or two. You want to get to the point where it doesn’t remind you it’s on. Fit isn’t whether you can get it on or not, fit is how it makes you feel.”

“Take it slowly — don’t follow the pendulum swings of trends. Just step outside of your comfort zone and put something on that’s going to be a little bit more forward and wear it for a couple of days around your house. And your body starts to feel it and enjoy it. And buy a nice pair of boots too!”

 

See medical disclaimer below. ↓

The ideas expressed here are solely the opinions of the author and are not researched or verified by AGEIST LLC, or anyone associated with AGEIST LLC. This material should not be construed as medical advice or recommendation, it is for informational use only. We encourage all readers to discuss with your qualified practitioners the relevance of the application of any of these ideas to your life. The recommendations contained herein are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. You should always consult your physician or other qualified health provider before starting any new treatment or stopping any treatment that has been prescribed for you by your physician or other qualified health provider. Please call your doctor or 911 immediately if you think you may have a medical or psychiatric emergency.

AUTHOR

Andreas Tzortzis
He has worked as a journalist for the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek and Monocle Magazine from Berlin and London before leading Red Bull’s mainstream-facing content platform, The Red Bulletin, from Los Angeles. He recently returned to his hometown of San Francisco with his small family. dre@agei.st

 

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