Blue Cast: Denham Founder Jason Denham on Collaborations & Cotton-Free Jeans
Blue Cast is a podcast series from the TENCEL™ Denim team. Each episode features a conversation with a special guest from within the industry or the fringes of the denim community. The following is a recap of episode 402.
The denim world has changed significantly over the course of serial entrepreneur Jason Denham’s career. Jeans were more of a fashion item in the ‘90s, when the Denham founder was a college student, a young employee at Pepe Jeans and then the founder of a denim consultancy. He developed his first label, Blue Blood, in the early aughts, and by the 2010s, denim became a more premium product.
More recently the focus has been on sustainability, however creating green jeans isn’t enough. During the latest episode of Carved in Blue’s Blue Cast podcast, Jason explained that products must still be exciting. While shoppers expect sustainability to be at the core of a product, it’s not the actual selling point, he told Lenzing’s Tuncay Kilickan. Given the added costs around sustainability, more “magic design dust”—along with durability and premium construction—can help to justify jeans as an investment.
“We should all start getting creative and designing and doing wonderful things with this denim product so that it lives for another 150 years,” Jason said.
One way that Jason’s eponymous denim label Denham has surprised customers is through its Zero Cotton collection that uses TENCEL™ Lyocell and ECOVERO™ Viscose in place of denim’s traditional cotton inputs. While Jason doesn’t want to “walk away from cotton,” this material choice enabled Denham to create jeans with a premium, soft feel that resonated with customers—especially those in Europe.
Another strategy that Jason’s eponymous denim label Denham leverages for added excitement is collaborations with companies like Nike and Rolex on products such as watches, sneakers and furniture. Partnerships, including guest artist projects, will be a key part of the Amsterdam-based brand’s celebrations for its 15th anniversary this year. Kicking things off, for the Spring 2023 season, Denham and London’s Blackhorse Lane Ateliers created a co-branded collection centered on slow fashion.
“I only [collaborate] with people that I really love to work with. It’s things that inspire me,” said Jason. “But it’s also to connect with a new audience.”
Denham may have originated in the Netherlands, but Jason describes its positioning as “East meets West.” Its biggest market today is Japan, despite having launched in Asia later, and Denham’s footprint also includes stores in China. Although it is a global brand, Denham takes a localized, “surgical” approach to operations, including design, product development and marketing. Merchandise is also largely manufactured close to the destination market. “I run each territory separately, because we have to talk to our consumers independently and differently. They have a different taste level in what they want from the product,” he explained.
Jason has called Amsterdam home since he relocated with Pepe Jeans. At first, he was concerned he would miss his hometown of London, but he was soon enamored with Amsterdam. “I fell in love with the culture, the style, the people, the lifestyle,” he said. “I’ve always said in Amsterdam that people eat jeans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Listen to the full podcast episode here.