Stock room – Some jeans we prepared earlier

Hood Jeans are a small, family company based in Norfolk, England. Chris set up the company in 2000 but the roots of Hood Jeans go back a lot further. Their father started his working life with Lee Cooper in the late 1950’s before leaving to help set up Falmer Jeans. In the 1960’s he started his own company, this was called Motown Jeans and was based in Essex. This is where Chris and Julie first met before leaving in 1994 to set up their own company.

They spent the next few years designing jeans for major high street names before being asked by a motorcross team to design their race kit. They were given such fabrics as Cordura, Ballistic Nylon and Kevlar to use within the kit and gained much knowledge of their strengths. They did this for two years before combining these new fabrics with their background of denim jeans and the seed for Hood Jeans was planted. They developed these ideas over the next couple of years before launching the Hood Jeans label in 2000.

Cutting table – Cutting them all in one go with a straight knife, Chris uses a 10 inch Eastman.

Above: Button hole – Most of the machines in the unit are ‘single purpose’ and remain set all the time – like this buttonholer. Left: Waistbander – Julie demonstrates the waistbander, then, below, how to do the belt loops on a bar tacker.

The K7 Jean was launched in 2001 and has become one of the best motorcycle jeans on the market. The K7 name is a tribute to Donald Campbell, a true British hero. Over the next few years we have added the K7 Jacket, Cargo Jean, Army Green and the H-2 Jean to the range, for 2005 we have created the ND4 Jean.

Above: Leg hem – Julie alters the length of another pair of K7 Jeans. Left: A Union Special ‘feed of the arm’ seamer.

The workshop

Our business philosophy is to produce a very good product, only sell this direct thus cutting out the middle men and keeping our overheads low. This means we can then sell the jeans at a reasonable price. We enjoy the size of our company and the personal touch this allows.We thank all our 1000’s of customers for their custom and encouragement, this support has helped us during our early years and is much appreciated.