Shockoe Atelier Jeans Review: America’s Most Underrated Denim

I’m excited for this one: a double review of Shockoe Atelier, my favorite selvedge denim company right now.

And yes, I said a double review. I’ve got a pair of their Black Stonewashed jeans but because guys are most interested in how raw denim looks after years of wear, I recruited Albert of the Upstate Guy Style Instagram account to showcase his 3-year-old jeans, made in Shockoe’s signature “Kojima” blue denim. His are in a Slim fit and mine are the relax tapered Ivy fit, so we’ve got a really good sampling of Shockoe’s products.

There are two sides to denim reviews: there’s the side where you talk about the fit, construction, price, all things you can learn pretty soon after buying them. There’s the other side: how they fade and hold up with consistent wear. 

And so, with our powers combined, we brought you an incredibly niche video and article on a brand we really want to become more popular.

Shockoe Atelier’s Denim

Let’s talk about the denim. The construction is very important too but their star fabric is Kojima, from Collect Mills in Kojima, Japan. (That’s Albert’s blue pair.)

Shockoe’s Kojima Denim

Collect Mills actually founded Momotaro and Japan Blue Jeans, and Shockoe’s Kojima is so beloved they actually ran a fade contest on the r/rawdenim subreddit. This guy below won after 6 months of wear, but I think Albert’s look better. (Though he’s had years more wear.)

Shockoe Atelier Standard Kojima Fade contest edition 1st place
byu/formulalopez inrawdenim

This fabric is 14.5 ounces, so heavier than your average Levi’s but not comically thick like Iron Heart’s 25oz jeans, and the denim has slub, nep, and hair on it —but again, not to a comical degree like Naked and Famous’s King of Lords. Kojima is a denim that has character but isn’t over the top, something you can comfortably wear without feeling like you’re wearing a costume.

Shockoe’s founder Anthony Lupesco told me, 

The reason we fell in love with that fabric is it’s pretty easy to break in, you don’t have this long period of suffering, so it helps folks get into it and have that raw denim experience where you break it in, it fades over time, and it can take a beating.

This is selvedge denim, so it’s woven on antique shuttle looms that are very imperfect and make imperfect fabric that, by nature of its imperfectness, is one of a kind. No other pair will be just like yours, and that ‘s a great place to start your relationship with your jeans.

Because the point of selvedge denim (for many guys) is how they reflect the wear and care you put into them and how much they become a part of you, and a part of your life, as your go-to pair.

Anyway, Kojima is just a superb denim that just hasn’t been overly-tinkered with: it has character, but not to an artificial or over-the-top degree.

Shockoe’s Black Stonewash

My jeans, meanwhile, are one of their few non-raw pairs. They’re stonewashed, meaning it’s been washed with abrasives to produce a slightly faded and mottled appearance.

Anthony at Shockoe noted in a phone call that when it’s raw, this particular denim shrinks a ton, so they decided to sell it “one washed.” But they also just like this slightly ’90s finish on black jeans. They felt stonewash looks simply too ‘90s on indigo jeans and I’m of the same mind. That’s just me, though.

In any case, the effect is subtle on these jeans. It lightens the color just enough to make them easier to wear with a black jacket or t-shirt without looking like you’re super into black, and the extra harsh washing process makes them really soft for 14oz denim.

Shockoe Atelier’s Construction

• Lifetime repair warranty
• Riveted and lined pockets for durability
• Leather backed rivets for ease of repair

Shockoe is a family business that Anthony Lupesco started with his parents. He said he loved the idea of having a tangible product at the end of your work day, and in his own words, “since we’re making something in America, I figured you can’t get much more stereotypical than a pair of jeans.”

And like, hell yeah, dude.

Denim and dungarees have a long history in Europe and India, but Levi Strauss is the man who patented copper rivets reinforcing stress points. That’s what defined the jean as we know it, and it happened in 1872 right here in the United States. Etymologically, denim may mean “from Nîmes, France” (de Nîmes) but jeans are indeed an American invention.

When a lot of guys see products like this — jeans that cost more than mall brands — they wonder what’s the difference they’re paying for.

Most of it is the fabric, which is woven on slow, antique, rare shuttle looms in the United States. It’s made ten times more slowly than regular mall brand denim, which is woven on projectile looms.

But there are also a lot of cool touches with Shockoe’s jeans that show a real reverence of and expertise in the product.

Industry standard is one pair of jeans takes between 7 and 12 minutes. Shockoe takes between one and a half to two hours to make a pair.

They offer free lifetime repairs because they really believe in that philosophy: that the point of jeans is to be your hardy, do-anything companions that will take everything you throw at them and just get better with age.

“The end goal is these become that pair of jeans that are barely held together because you love them so much and wear them so much and still can’t get rid of them,” Anthony told me.

Industry standard is one pair of jeans takes between 7 and 12 minutes. Shockoe takes between one and a half to two hours to make a pair.

To that end, their construction reflects what they saw when customers sent back repairs.

The back pockets are lined, which is rare, because people’s keys kepy punching through them.

The corners of the back pockets are also riveted because people put their back pockets through a lot of punishment and this keeps them from tearing away.

And all the rivets, including the button fly, are leather backed. That’s because to do repairs, you sometimes need to open up seams, which is hard to do if there’s a rivet there. The leather allows them to pry between the rivet and the leather so they can remove it without damaging the fabric. 

There are other thoughtful touches too, like the waistband is chainstitched to the rest of the jeans, but along the top it’s double needle lock stitched so that you don’t get an uncomfortable rib bumping up against you. You even get handwritten product details on the pocket telling you when the jeans were made.

There are just so many great touches that reinforce — well, that reinforce the jeans, but also this notion that these are your ride-or-die jeans.

Shockoe Atelier Price

If you know much about selvedge jeans, made on those extremely slow looms that work ten times slower than modern projectile looms… even without all this extra labor of the leather backed rivets and stuff, you’re typically meant to expect $300 for a pair. And if they’re made in America, they’re not that hard to find for over $400.

So I was really surprised to learn the Kojimas are $275 and my black ones are $250.

That’s a good price! There are larger brands that are cheaper, like Naked & Famous, but they’re not made in America, nor do they have all the extra construction details I just outlined. 

Wrapping Up: Is Shockoe Atelier Worth It?

Definitely. I encourage you to look around the market for American made selvedge that’s this high quality, with this level of attention to detail, and a lifetime repair warranty. I haven’t found much that competes with Shockoe.

The commitment to durability and repairs really makes the investment worth it, and you also get the satisfaction of supporting a small, family run business, and of supporting American manufacturing.