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Hit by the full force of the pandemic, Japanese
brewer Sapporo Breweries Limited is trying to win
over new customers. But not by launching a new
beer. Instead it is working with Shima Denim Works,
a company that makes clothes from bagasse, the
fibrous residue of crushed sugar cane. Together,
they are making jeans. The waste products from
brewing beer are turned into a traditional Japanese
paper called washi and are then integrated into the
spinning and weaving processes for the new denim.
Despite their high price of 41,800 yen (nearly 300
euros), the Black Label Malt & Hops jeans are flying
off the shelves, like pints in happy hour.
Beer is not just a drink. It’s a generational call to arms,
an emblem of a cool lifestyle with the same statutory
function as the original pair of jeans. It was just a
matter of time before the two got together somewhere
other than a bar or a barbecue. Today, people are
attempting to deconstruct themselves. In the same
vein, isn’t it time for jeans to enjoy a reconstruction?
This is the intuition that crossed the mind of Japanese
brewer Sapporo... To prove its waste recycling
ambitions, it is showcasing the upcycled result without
losing a single, super-hip step. Aficionados know very
well that “real” jeans are made on Japanese machines.
So why not make jeans from Japanese beer too?