The Obtainer - 10/10/22, Monday
↦ Your Prime Day Primer
Monday, October 10th Edition
Prime Day starts tomorrow. What’s in everyone’s carts? And if you haven’t heard … the faded black jean is the must-have wash at the moment. See what pair I’ve been rocking lately.
- Leon Hedgepeth, Shopping Editor ⋯ @leonhedgepeth
BuyingGuide
Are You Ready for Prime Day Round 2?
Amazon has shifted the retail landscape once again. One massive 48-hour sale just wasn’t enough for them. The July shopping event shattered retail records with $11.9 billion in sales. This included $6 billion on day one and $5.9 billion on day two—up 8.5% compared to 2021. This made the Prime Day event the biggest U.S. online shopping days to date this year.
And, as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, there’s a second Prime Day sale kicking off tomorrow. Through October 12th, Amazon is hosting the “Prime Early Access Sale,” a shopping event to kickstart your holiday buying or the last chance to treat yourself before you start buying gifts for everyone else.
If you’ve been eyeing an item for a minute, Amazon makes it too easy to prepare for Prime Day. You can set up personalized deal alerts once and if you’re a Prime member, bookmark recently viewed items or searches. If that’s not your jam, create deal lists with Alexa—just say, “Hey Alexa” to add an item to your wish list, cart or to save it for later. If you don’t have a Prime membership yet (with its free expedited shipping, and Whole Foods discounts), Prime Day is reason enough for the yearly investment.
According to Numerator, the average transaction size in July was $52.26, up from $44.75 during Prime Day 2021. The number of deals promoted is appealing but it can also be somewhat overwhelming. So, start early, make sure your wish list is up to date and scan some of the early Prime Day deals. Even some of July’s most popular Prime Day products are coming back on discount, along with current best-sellers. Here’s what’s in our cart thus far.
6 of Our Picks
Fire HD10 tablet,$149.99 / $74.99 by Amazon
Wireless charging station,$49.99 / $29.99 by Fuvuan
Japanese automatic watch,$550 / $219.99 by Seiko
Stan Smith sneaker,$85 / $67 by adidas
Ultra cotton T-shirt,$13.99 / $11.64 (for a two-pack) by Gildan
Denim sherpa jacket,$108 / $72.98 by Levi's
Hodinkee’s Own Special Sale Day
Hodinkee is getting in on the sale action too, celebrating their mission to make the world of watches better—which, at its core, is all about access. For today only, Hodinkee will highlight its 10 most beloved stories, offer 10% off sitewide, and provide access to 10 highly-coveted pre-owned Rolex watches for retail price. For the uninitiated, getting the chance to score a Rolex at its original retail price is all but unheard of these days.
The individual models will be announced at 9 am ET today, with the different watches dropping in surprise order every hour throughout the day, starting at (you guessed it) 10:10 am. Dubbed the Hodinkee 10/10—the name refers to the way watch hands are set in most photos—it’s being billed as a first-ever watch retail holiday. And let’s hope this is an annual occurrence.
Test Drive
The Faded Black Jean
From Denzel to Richard Gere, the faded black jean is here to stay even though we’ve seen a new appreciation for them thanks to a revamp of ’90s fashion. What makes these two guys look so cool is that they’ve paired the jeans with a black top creating a monochromatic contrast and the fit of the denim is straight—they both look good in sneakers and loafers.
The faded black sits finely between pure black and light grey, creating a well-patinaed look from the first time you throw the jeans on. Because of the rebirth of the faded black jean, I had to hunt down a pair of my own since I love a neutral garment, and I was missing this wash in my current denim arsenal.
I researched the interwebs to see what specific fit Kanye was recently wearing, and it was a vintage Levi’s 505. While the man certainly makes brash and questionable decisions, I appreciated how he was styling these jeans. The pair he’s wearing will take some digging—your best bet is to try an online vintage spot, but the fit can be found on Levi’s secondhand site.
Then I discovered that orSlow makes some pretty damn near perfect black faded jeans. They’re a Japan-based brand founded by Ichiro Nakatsu, who takes inspiration and reinterprets denim and military wear crafted carefully on old machines that replicate traditional manufacturing processes. Focusing on their denim, they have their 105 standard fit, which fits like a pair of Levi’s 501s (hence why the numbers are the same but backward), and then they offer a 107 Ivy fit, which is slimmer and fits more like a 505.
107 Ivy denim,$275 by orSlow
But unlike Levi’s straightforward waist sizes, orSlow’s sizing is harder to figure out since they are 0-5. I went with a 1, which fits like a 29-30 according to the brand’s size guide, but I found that it leans much more towards a 29, so I suggest sizing up—maybe even two sizes, since after washing they’ll shrink a bit more. But the wash is beautiful, and the 13.5oz Japanese denim is ideal for year-round wear. If the 501 is a straight-fit, this is a slim-straight fit with a comfortable mid-rise and a subtle taper throughout to give it a clean-looking silhouette.
I’ve had these since the beginning of the year, and they’ve stretched enough to be comfortable, but I wear them with no belt. The broken-in leather patch makes the denim look like you’ve owned them for years, and these have a zip-fly which is either a welcome surprise or a bastardization, depending on your personal button-fly stance. These are a great pair of jeans, and they look sharp with sneakers, boots, denim shirts and even long-sleeve sweater polos. Now that I’m more aware of the sizing, I’ll be buying additional pairs of the brand’s jeans. The quality is some of the best on the market, and they truly get more comfortable with each wear.
The three best stories from around the web.
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How do we, the Average Joes with nothing but a passport and wanderlust, feed our insatiable lust for travel while doing so mindfully? And more importantly, will it actually make a positive impact on our planet’s ecosystem?”
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Luca Guadagnino’s world is one in which I would happily reside. He has already designed fashion sets, retail spaces and private residences among other things, and for this autumn’s design special, we interviewed him in Milan.”
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He’s spent decades pretending to not be himself. Now, at 47, one of the world’s greatest actors speaks with rare candor about navigating a career he never quite chose and building a life he sometimes can’t fathom.”
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Christian Bale keeps trying to quit Hollywood… but he hasn’t succeeded yet.
October 5