SugarCane is one of the brands of Toyo Enterprises. Other brands of Toyo Enterprises – Sun Surf, Buzz Ricksons, John Seyerson, Tailor Toyo, StyleEyes, Indian Motorcycle and Whitesville also manufacture Japanese American vintage denim. The history of the brand started in 1977. In the 1980s the brand started to produce repro together with other companies like Evisu, SDA and Denime. However, SugarCane sets itself against manufacturers of repro denim calling its production dungarees. Customized jeans models manufactured by SugarCane can be divided in two directions – standard denim produced in the USA and Japan original.

Standard denim jeans are manufactured of a cotton mixture – 60% American cotton and 40% Zimbabwe cotton. The color of denim is also standard rope dyeing. All stitching and back pockets patterns as well are done by hand and are thus exclusive. In 2006 a jubilee jeans model was produced. Union Star jeans are a repro of 501 Levi’s, however they have specific decorative elements – a pentangle, a trademark of SugarCane, a tag in the bottom of back pocket, hidden rivets instead of x-stitching, a leather patch instead of pressed paper.

Made in USA series represents jeans made in USA from Japanese denim, having American furniture and sold in Japan. These jeans models are remarkable for the use of gripper zipper manufactured by Scovill. Such zippers were used in old Levi’s models and are not manufactured any longer. Jeans are sold in a paper box together with a newspaper dated 1955. The series also includes repro models with arcuates, bar tacks, flat buttons, hidden rivets, centered belt loop, donut buttons, x-bar tacks, left-hand twill and leg twist – an astonishing attention to detail. However, standard American jeans models can be found by any Japanese repro manufacturer. The distinguishing feature of SugarCane brand is its own product line. Read the rest of this entry »