Urban Outfitters Goes Unbranded

One brand of raw denim that has been getting some ongoing buzz for the past few months among several online fashion communities (see here, here, and here) is Urban Outfitter's Unbranded Brand. Urban Outfitter's teaser website reads: "The Unbranded Brand is jeans with no name, no branding, no washes, no ads, no gimmicks. Just great denim at a great price! Wow, what a concept, only paying for the product itself... crazy, isn’t it?"

For those out of the loop, raw denim - sometimes referred to as dry denim - is a type of denim fabric that is not treated with any type of wash after being dyed during production. Unlike most denim sold at your local department store, raw denim is sold heavily starched, in a solid indigo color, and with no signs of wear or artificial distress marks. The appeal of raw denim is that it fades with wear to eventually look like a distressed pair of denim and that this fading process and the fit and distress marks that result is completely natural and unique to the person who wears the denim. If you're an outsider of raw denim, this may come as a surprise to you but most users of raw denim (including Zac Efron and Kanye West) typically abstain from washing their jeans for 6 or more months to facilitate the fading process.

Urban Outfitter's Unbranded raw denim, specifically, can be purchased here at $78 a piece, making them quite possibly the cheapest pair of selvage raw denim available. They are set to compete with Naked & Famous' own line of raw denim which is similarly priced, and APC's line of raw denim which is similarly styled.

Word on the street is that Urban Outfitter's Unbranded denim is actually made by the same people who make Naked & Famous denim. I've actually had a chance to compare both in-person and can say that they do look and fit very similarly. My guess is that Urban Outfitter's Unbranded denim is just priced lower and stripped of Naked & Famous' branding to capture a more price-conscious target market without hurting the Naked & Famous brand name.

UPDATE 03/15/10
After posting about Freshjive, I wanted to add that Urban Outfitter's Unbranded brand is a brand in itself and is pretty gimmicky as well. Instead of using a black box with a white stroke, Urban Outfitter's uses a huge leather patch above the back pocket. It's hard to tell from the picture below, but it looks fricken huge in person.