Advertise on podcast: Jeansland Podcast

Who says the denim industry can’t have a little more fun? In Episode 91, Andrew is joined by two longtime friends and familiar faces in the denim world, Erin Barajas and Amy Leverton. Between the three of them, there are decades of industry experience, plenty of stories, and a shared appreciation for the wonderfully unusual people who make this business what it is. Amy, founder of Denim Dudes and one of the industry’s leading trend forecasters, has spent more than 20 years exploring the intersection of denim, design, and culture. Erin, a former journalist and Kingpins veteran, has built a career around storytelling, creative programming, and bringing people together. Now they’ve joined forces to create Here|After, a fresh approach to industry events in Los Angeles that combines trend forecasting, unexpected ideas, great speakers, and something the industry could probably use more of: genuine inspiration. Andrew takes them back through their unconventional careers, from Erin’s early days covering denim in Los Angeles to Amy’s introduction to the industry at Cone Mills. They talk about taking risks, finding opportunities in unexpected places, the role of AI in trend forecasting, and why the creative side of fashion sometimes gets lost in the business of making clothes. But the real excitement is what they’re building next. With Here|After Market launching in 2027, Erin and Amy are betting that Los Angeles still has plenty to offer the denim world, particularly a new generation of independent designers and brands doing things their own way. Andrew knows firsthand how difficult the LA market can be, and he’s delighted to see two people he knows and respects taking on the challenge. It’s a lively, funny, and refreshingly optimistic episode about friendship, creativity, taking chances, and remembering why we fell in love with this industry in the first place. Erin Barajas Co-Founder of Here|After, Communications & Marketing Consultant ⁠Instagram Amy Leverton Founder of Denim Dudes, Co-Founder of Here|After ⁠Instagram Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

What if some of the things we think we know about cotton aren’t quite what we’ve been told? In Episode 90, Andrew welcomes Terry Townsend into his Houston home for a rare in-person episode of Jeansland. And when you put two people with decades of experience in the cotton industry together, there’s plenty to talk about. Terry is an agricultural economist who spent 27 years with the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), including 15 years as its executive director. A former USDA cotton analyst, author, and longtime advocate for natural fibers, Terry brings an extraordinary depth of knowledge about the economics, production, and global trade of cotton. Andrew and Terry challenge some of the industry’s most persistent assumptions about organic cotton, water use, pesticides, and the way natural and synthetic fibers are compared. They examine life cycle assessments, the complicated origins of recycled polyester, and why some environmental claims deserve a closer look. There’s also a fascinating trip around the cotton-producing world, from Afghanistan and Brazil to China, Africa, and Central Asia, with plenty of surprising statistics along the way. And one particularly interesting question: Could cotton eventually follow wool’s decline? It’s an episode about agriculture, economics, technology, global trade, and the importance of understanding the numbers behind the materials we use every day. Because in an industry full of sustainability claims, sometimes the most useful thing we can do is question what we think we know. And if you think you know cotton, Terry might just give you a few reasons to think again. Terry Townsend Agricultural Economist & Cotton Industry Consultant Former Executive Director, International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) ⁠Cotton Analytics |  ⁠LinkedIn Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

What does the future of denim look like through the eyes of someone who spent a lifetime helping shape it? In this revisited episode, Andrew sits down with Adriano Goldschmied, the legendary designer, entrepreneur and innovator known throughout the industry as the “Godfather of Denim.” Their discussion moves quickly from the state of the denim business to a much bigger question: where does it go next? Adriano talks candidly about too many mills chasing too little demand, relentless pressure on prices, changing consumers, and why the industry may need to stop thinking about constant growth and start thinking about simply doing things better. Then they start imagining. Luxury denim made from silk and merino wool. Cotton created through biotechnology. Indigo derived from sugar cane. Digitally printed denim that could dramatically reduce water, inventory and waste. And a future where denim becomes less of a product category and more fully integrated into fashion. Following Adriano’s passing in April 2026, we wanted to revisit this episode and the ideas, curiosity and unmistakable passion for denim he shared with Andrew. Because even after a lifetime in the industry, Adriano wasn’t particularly interested in looking backward. He was still imagining what denim could become. Originally released as Episode 12 on March 12, 2025. Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

For decades, the fashion industry has been auditing its supply chain. So why are so many of the same problems still there? Twenty-one years ago, a jeans factory Andrew was working for faced allegations of serious labor abuses. Orders were disappearing, the accusations were mounting, and he didn’t know what to do. He reached out to Auret van Heerden at the Fair Labor Association in Geneva. That meeting changed Andrew’s life. In Episode 88, they meet again. Auret’s extraordinary career stretches from the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, where he was detained without trial for 289 days, to the International Labour Organization and thirteen years with the Fair Labor Association. Together, they cover remarkable ground across more than three decades of global sourcing. Audits and human rights. Cotton and synthetics. ESG. Forced labor. Contract sanctity. Governments and NGOs. And the increasingly complicated relationship between the people buying things and the people actually making them. Auret was there as many of the systems we now call social responsibility were being built. Some worked. Others didn’t. One important voice, he argues, was too often missing from the beginning: the supplier. Andrew and Auret look at audit fatigue, transactional sourcing, the outsourcing of risk, and why demanding better standards without giving suppliers the means or incentive to achieve them may be part of the problem. After decades of audits, standards and initiatives, maybe we don’t need another system. Maybe we need to fix the relationships inside the one we already have. Auret Van Heerden Founder & CEO at Equiception Business and Human Rights LinkedIn Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Usually, there isn’t much to laugh about in our industry. But on September 13, funny arrived at New York Fashion Week. A PETA protest disrupted the COS runway show. CFDA CEO Steven Kolb stepped in, things got physical, the video went viral, and five days later Kolb resigned. But that’s really where this episode begins. In Episode 87 of Andrew’s Take, he looks beyond the spectacle to what PETA was actually asking for. PETA was there protesting the treatment of sheep in the wool industry. There are serious questions worth asking about how animals are treated and how our materials are produced. But PETA isn’t asking for better wool. It’s asking for no wool. And once you follow that argument through, the numbers get very big, very quickly. The UN estimates livestock supports the livelihoods of approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide, while roughly 600 million people depend at least partly on aquatic food industries. Andrew takes the protest beyond the runway and asks what happens when an ethical position meets the reality of a global economy. Wool is only the beginning. Leather, food, fishing, livestock, dairy, silk, down, and other animal-derived products quickly enter the picture. Protesting is easy. What happens if you actually get what you’re asking for? Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

What actually happens when an old pair of jeans goes into a collection bin? In Episode 86, Andrew is joined by Jennifer Wright, professor and researcher at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, whose work explores what really happens to textile waste after we’re finished with it. Jennifer takes Andrew through the surprisingly complicated journey of discarded clothing, from sorting and resale to overseas markets, recycling, and the growing challenge of garments that have become increasingly difficult to take apart. They also explore some unexpected possibilities for textile waste, including Jennifer’s research into pyrolysis, a process that uses intense heat without oxygen to transform discarded textiles into char. Already used with other waste materials, Jennifer and her research partners are exploring what happens when clothing becomes the raw material. But underneath all the technology and new approaches is a much simpler question: Are we making more clothing than any recycling system could ever realistically handle? Sometimes the problem starts long before something reaches the recycling bin. Jennifer Wright Researcher, Fashion and Apparel Sustainability and Circularity Fanshawe College LinkedIn Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

My daughter introduced me to a company in New Jersey with an unusual kind of employee. It works outdoors, eats continuously, and never reads a sustainability report. It’s a goat. Across the U.S. and Europe, goats and sheep are being put to work clearing invasive plants, managing difficult terrain, and even helping create natural firebreaks. No herbicides. No heavy machinery. And what they eat comes out the other end as fertilizer. Of course, natural doesn’t automatically mean environmentally perfect. The real question is whether it works better, costs less, and produces measurable results. And that’s where the goats become a lesson for our own industry. Across cotton, denim, and sustainability, we’re constantly rediscovering old practices, renaming them, and presenting them as innovation. Sometimes that’s just marketing. Sometimes it really is a better way of doing things. Maybe innovation doesn’t always mean inventing something new. Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Angie Furlong has spent more than four decades designing clothes, building teams, traveling the world, and learning the industry from the inside out. Some things in fashion can only be learned by understanding how they’re made. In Episode 84, Andrew is joined by designer and creative director Angie Furlong, whose career has taken her from Guess and Esprit to Lucky Brand, J Brand, True Religion, Sundance, and beyond. Angie came into denim at a remarkable moment. At Guess, she learned by working directly with mills, pattern makers, sewing rooms, dye houses, and laundries. At Esprit, she entered an entirely different world, traveling to Hong Kong, developing collections internationally, and watching the industry begin its shift toward global production.  Andrew and Angie look back at the rise of premium denim in Los Angeles, the experimentation that made the city a center of the denim world, and what happened as manufacturing moved offshore and designers became increasingly separated from the people actually making their clothes. They also look at what comes next: AI, vintage and resale, repurposing, mentoring young designers, and why technology can be an extraordinary tool, but only if you understand the craft behind what you’re asking it to do. After more than 40 years, Angie says she would choose this industry all over again. Her concern is what the next generation may be losing along the way: the technical knowledge, curiosity, and understanding of how something actually gets made. Angela (Angie) Furlong Design Leader & Creative Director LinkedIn Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

I read an article about basketball this weekend that made me think about denim. Strange, I know. The argument was simple: we’re seeing more basketball and understanding less of it. Highlights, hot takes, 30-second explanations. Why understand the game when somebody can just tell you who won? I think our industry has developed the same problem. We talk constantly about sustainability, circularity, regenerative agriculture, transparency, regulations, cotton, polyester, indigo. We publish enormous reports and thousands of pages of data. But who is actually reading them? More importantly, who understands them well enough to ask the next question? It’s much easier to remember that cotton uses too much water, recycled polyester is sustainable, or an indigo process is “clean.” Two seconds. Done. Now we have an opinion. We’ve created our own version of ESPN. We like the highlights, not the game. And that worries me, because you cannot improve what you don’t understand. Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

What if sustainability wasn’t a competitive edge, but the baseline for the entire denim industry? In this revisited conversation, Andrew sits down with sustainability expert Roian Atwood to look at what real progress in denim actually requires. A former Global Sustainability Director for Wrangler and Lee Jeans, Roian spent more than 15 years in the apparel industry developing and implementing sustainable technologies. He takes Andrew inside the development of Indigood, including the work that reduced water use in indigo dyeing by more than 90%, and explains what it takes to move an innovation from an experiment to something the industry can actually use. They also dig into cotton certification, regenerative agriculture, transparency, synthetics and microplastics, and a question Andrew comes back to again and again: Are we measuring actual results, or simply getting better at marketing sustainability? Roian’s answer for where the industry goes next is surprisingly simple: stop treating sustainability as a trade secret. Share what works, measure what doesn’t, and solve the problems together. Because sustainability shouldn’t be the thing that makes one company different. It should be the standard. Originally released as Episode 22 of Jeansland. Connect with Roian Atwood Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Kingpins New York left me with a question: how many denim mills does the world actually need? Some longtime mills may be fighting for their future, while new mills keep entering an already crowded, increasingly price-driven market. Walking the show, I kept wondering what a new denim mill can offer that somebody, somewhere, isn’t already doing. My bigger takeaway goes beyond denim. With Kingpins leaving New York for its next show, I think it may be time for the textile trade shows to stop operating on separate islands and start thinking bigger. My idea: one New York Fabric Week. Denim, performance fashion fabrics, sourcing, machinery, fibers. Different shows, different identities, but one week that gives the industry a real reason to be in New York at the same time. Impossible? Maybe. But we spend enough time explaining why things can’t be done. Someone should just start. Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

A great garment begins long before it reaches a sewing machine. In Episode 80, Andrew sits down with Alessio Berto, founder of The Tailor Pattern Support and one of Italy’s most experienced pattern designers. Over nearly four decades, Alessio has worked across denim, menswear, sportswear, teaching, and product development for brands including Replay, Jean Paul Gaultier, DKNY Jeans, Diesel Denim Gallery, Sport Chanel, Katharine Hamnett, and Boy London. The conversation begins outside Venice, where Alessio grew up around the pattern-making school where his mother taught, reading fashion magazines, studying the clothes worn by his favorite musicians, and later discovering a passion for DJing that still fuels his creativity today. Andrew and Alessio get into the invisible work behind fit: fabric, shrinkage, construction, grading, manufacturing, and the countless decisions hidden inside a garment that simply feels right. They also talk about Made in Italy, globalization, technology, teaching, and why design is only one part of the process. For Alessio, pattern making began as an art, became a technique, grew into a science, and ultimately had to be engineered. After learning the rules, the real freedom comes from knowing when to break them, much like improvisation in jazz. Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim. Alessio Berto Founder of The Tailor Pattern Support The Tailor Pattern Support, Instagram, LinkedIn Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Nearly 50 million people worldwide are estimated to be living in modern slavery. When I first read that number, I was shocked. It sounded almost too large to believe, so I decided to look into where it came from, who was behind it, and what modern slavery actually includes. What I found is that this is not simply a problem of poor countries, distant factories, or one particular industry. It exists in rich countries and poor countries, democracies and dictatorships, including the United States. For those of us working in denim, textiles, and apparel, the takeaway is simple. Before we debate sustainability, circularity, or carbon emissions, perhaps the first question should be: Who made the product, and under what conditions? Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Japanese denim is admired for its quality, craftsmanship, and the extraordinary care behind how it is made. In Episode 78, Andrew sits down with Bobby Tohma, owner of Amhot Holdings and Idea Blue in Osaka. Andrew has known Bobby for more than four decades, and Bobby has spent nearly his entire career in the Japanese textile business, working across fabric export, trading, mills, weavers, and denim. The conversation begins with Japan at its economic peak, when textiles were everywhere, exports were booming, and the country produced almost everything. Andrew and Bobby look back at the role of trading companies, the way money and production moved through the system, and how that structure helped build one of the most important textile industries in the world. From there, they get into Japanese denim itself. Rope dyeing, shuttle looms, small production runs, and the network of spinners, dyers, weavers, and finishing mills that still gives the industry its character. They also talk about why some customers are already booking fabric years in advance, and why Japanese mills are often focused less on efficiency than on the product itself. They also discuss what has changed. Fewer factories. Fewer engineers. Fewer young people entering the business. Uniqlo’s impact on the domestic market. The growing interest from European luxury groups. And the slow movement toward greater sustainability and transparency. Andrew is direct about where he stands. He still wears Japanese denim because, in his words, it is better. Bobby offers a comparison that captures the future he hopes for: denim from Japan becoming like watches from Switzerland, something people recognize, value, and are willing to pay more for. It’s also a conversation about what comes next. How does Japanese denim protect the knowledge, labor, and quality that made it special while finding a way to keep moving forward? Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim. Bobby Tohma Owner, Amhot Holdings LLC Amhot Holdings, LinkedIn Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

For decades, developing new crop varieties has been slow, expensive, and full of trade-offs. Avalo believes better genetics, better data, and artificial intelligence can change that. In Episode 77, Andrew sits down with Brendan Collins, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalo, and Tricia Carey, Avalo’s Chief Commercial Officer and one of the textile industry’s most respected voices on fiber innovation and sustainable supply chains. Together, they look at how new approaches to crop development could create cotton that needs fewer inputs, gives farmers a better chance to make money, and holds up more reliably in a changing climate. The conversation starts with how new crop varieties have traditionally been developed by selecting for certain traits over many generations. Why bringing one new crop to market can take a decade and cost more than $100 million. And how better genetic data and computing tools can shorten that process dramatically. From there, they get into drought, irrigation, carbon reduction, regenerative agriculture, and why improving cotton begins long before it reaches a spinner or mill. They also talk about traceability, farmer partnerships, brand adoption, and the growing need for better information throughout the agricultural supply chain. Underneath it all is a larger idea: if crops can be developed to work better within the environments where they are grown, the future of sustainability may begin long before spinning, weaving, or manufacturing ever starts. Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim. Brendan Collins Co-Founder & CEO at Avalo Avalo, LinkedIn Tricia Carey Chief Commercial Officer at Avalo Avalo, LinkedIn Please follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.