Dropped by Godspeed again this weekend as Marty’s had a new shipment of brand new Tanuki Inc. pieces. Marty and co-resident Ben had been shooting some Joe McCoy products for their kingly blogs, but my own interests were captured mainly by the new denim and leathers.

Let’s have a look at Tanuki’s new Z denim first; this is a sample pair, size 32 in their Tapered cut.

If you have read my Tanuki Red Cast denim review (click to read!) from a couple of months back, you might notice that most of the detailing and construct here is largely the same. The fabric is different of course, but some smaller aspects of the jeans have been altered too.

I can’t be sure of exact measurement comparisons (the only sample pair here is a size 32, whereas my Tanuki jeans are both size 36), but judging from the placement of, and relative space occupied by, the leather patch, it would seem the rise has been increased on these new jeans?

The lighter coloured denim gives these jeans a bit more pop and contrast – the light coloured stitching really jumps out.

The denim itself is medium weight (I’m guessing ~14 to 15 oz) and fairly irregular and slubby. I would imagine the slub and hairiness would both dramatically increase after shrink-to-fit.

The accent threads have switched back to the usual light blue for the Z denim jeans, the gingham pocket cloth also returns to the original blue checks.

The hardware and general stitch pattern remains the same.

A new addition on the latest run of Tanuki jeans is a woven tag sewn into the waistband, just behind the leather patch! This is similar to Oni’s tag placement, of course. This tag talks about the unsanforised, slow-woven nature of this fabric and its raw, untreated nature, and the fact it will shrink after contact with water.

The denim is really cool, reminiscent of some of the older fabrics that Oni produced in the 2000s – the weave tension is loose but actual weave is relatively dense.

On closer inspection you’ll also see the hairiness of this denim.

All in all, a very interesting new denim. If I can get my hands on a size 36 pair, I’ll have a full review later this year.

But that’s not all folks……new leathers!

You might remember the Tanuki Inc. bifold wallets I posted a few months ago – those were roller foot machine-stitched using some very nice Japanese leathers. Marty still has a couple in store. These new long wallets are at a completely different level!

The new wallets are completely hand-stitched by M-san, with upgrades in construct and materials, and come in two versions – shell cordovan and natural vegetable tanned leather.

The natural wallet is the more basic of the two, but the quality remains at a higher end, bespoke level. Hand-tooling/stamping and Tanuki’s signature blue threads are featured here. The leather appears to be the same as the Japanese vegetable tanned carving leather used previously on the bifolds.

The shell version is my favourite out of the two. The shell looks and feels like Shinki shell cordovan. The blue suede lining and zipper look amazing, and the more simplistic outer and uniform stitch colour shows off the shape of the wallet and the characteristics of the leather better, IMO.

All in all, really impressed by M-san’s work for Tanuki so far. Hopefully I’ll have a full review of one of M-san’s wallets up on the blog later this year.