Kids Jeans.
While it's true that we're passionate about everything we make here at 3sixteen, there are certain times that we decide to create a product out of sheer selfishness. As our own families grew over these past few years, we began thinking about how fun it would be to make jeans that our children could wear in too. We were also mindful of the reality that making a pair of 3sixteen kids jeans would not be cheap, due to the fabric we'd choose to use as well as the way that they would be constructed. Ultimately, caution was thrown to the wind and we proceeded to design and manufacture our very first kid-sized jean: the KS-101x.
The KS-101x jean features a straight leg with a little bit of taper from the knee down, and boasts almost identical construction and detailing to its adult counterparts. We opted for our lightweight 101x Kuroki indigo selvedge denim that is woven exclusively for us, and gave the jeans a hot wash and tumble dry treatment to make them soft and easy to wear from day one. The jeans also utilize our standard YKK top shanks and gunmental punch-thru rivets at all stress points so that the jeans look and feel just like the real deal.
We did make some changes for the sake of practicality, though. The most notable addition to the KS-101x jean is the adjustable elastic waistband which allows the jeans to adapt as your child grows. We also opted for a zip fly over a button fly because they're easier for kids to operate. The pocketbags are a softer, lighter weight twill instead of our standard fabric, and we nixed the selvedge fly because it was frankly a waste of good fabric to add it in. Our standard leather patches would have been too stiff and uncomfortable to wear, so we swapped them out for a navy blue suede patch. Lastly, the hems were straight stitched as opposed to a chainstitch because the openings were too small.
With an eye towards longevity, we decided to make the inseams on our KS-101x longer than your average kids jean so that they can be cuffed up early on and then uncuffed as the child grows taller.
We mentioned earlier that we knew these kids jeans wouldn't be cheap, but the reality is that we don't know of any way to make them any cheaper. Sewing kids clothing is just as costly as making an adult garment because each jean, whether small or big, requires the same amount of cutting and sewing to assemble. Oftentimes brands will try to eliminate details or use cheaper fabrics to lower the cost, but that wasn't an option for us. In our case, the KS-101x actually cost more to sew than an adult jean due to the addition of the adjustable waistband. And while a kids jean is significantly smaller than an adult's, you might be surprised to hear that it takes only 25% less fabric to make the smaller version. Suffice it to say that we won't be paying rent off the KS-101x, but that's ok. We made them for us - and hopefully, for you and yours as well.
We know that other kids jeans can be had for a quarter of the price, but like everything else 3sixteen makes, we like to think of the KS-101x as an investment for the long term. We intentionally built these jeans to last for more than one child. Buy them once and hold onto them for younger siblings, or gift them to a friend with a younger child once you're done with them.
The KS-101x jean retails for $99 and is available exclusively via 3sixteen.com and our LA Flagship. It launches on Friday, November 15th at noon EST.
