A Comeback Story: The New Flat Head Takes Flight

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Streamlined and Heritage-Focused, The Flat Head Is Back in a Big Way

Once one of the most revered names in Japanese denim, The Flat Head all but vanished from the scene after filing for bankruptcy in 2019. 

Known for their meticulous construction, sharp vertical fades, and unmistakable vintage styling, the brand had become a benchmark for raw denim obsessives around the world.

Now they’re back—streamlined, refocused, and still committed to the obsessive detail that earned them cult status.

I recently caught up with the new leadership in Japan to hear the story behind the relaunch. But first, let me tell you how I first encountered The Flat Head—on a rain-soaked honeymoon in Tokyo.

TL;DR – Quick Summary

• This is a behind-the-scenes look at The Flat Head’s quiet relaunch after years of near-silence.
• We spoke with the brand’s new leadership in Japan to understand what’s changed—and what hasn’t.
• The article explores how TFH has streamlined its operations and refocused on core strengths like denim, loopwheeled knits, and leather.

Honeymoon to Heartbreak

In 2018, I honeymooned in Japan. I was in the market for a new pair of selvedge, but my blushing bride didn’t want to spend too much of our honeymoon denim shopping.

We compromised by cramming all of it into one day, starting with Kapital in Ebisu and ending the day, drenched in rain, at the Flat Head boutique in Harajuku. 

The name was a familiar one to me. I knew that The Flat Head jeans were prized for their nearly unbeatable fades. I wasn’t deeply immersed in fade culture yet, but the faded examples I had seen online, with their trademark sharp contrasts and vertical texture, had captured my attention.

The Tokyo boutique was my first up-close-and-personal look at The Flat Head jeans, but, drenched to the bone, I was hardly in the mood to play the patient shopper. I left the shop with a gorgeous vest but no jeans (something I still regret).

A few days later, I visited the brand’s webshop. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

The boutique had featured only a few dozen items, but The Flat Head’s output could’ve filled a warehouse. The webshop sprawled across pages and pages of thumbnail-sized listings.

Not long after this, news started to break that The Flat Head had run into financial difficulties.

They had flown too high and too close to the sun, expanding their lines beyond their breaking point and pushing the business into unprofitable avenues, including, among other things, a restaurant.

The Flat Head filed for bankruptcy in August of 2019. During the bankruptcy process that followed, production slowed down to a crawl.

Flat Head pieces almost entirely disappeared from shelves, especially outside of Japan.

The brand never shut things down entirely, but, for those watching from outside of Japan, it looked as though the sun had set on a legendary Japanese brand. 

Dawn of The New Flat Head

With questions swirling about what had happened to The Flat Head and whether it had a future, Sirius Partners stepped in.

The Japanese private equity firm took over the apparel side of the business. Founder Masayoshi Kobayashi stepped aside, but the rest of the Flat Head team remained in place.

By keeping the original Flat Head team in their roles, the investors were making it clear that they recognized the importance, not just of the brand’s employees, but of Kobayashi-san’s vision—something shared by those who worked under him.  

There was no hard reset, no dramatic change in direction—just a streamlining and a renewed focus on the rugged wearables that made The Flat Head a household name in the selvedge scene.

With the financials sorted, the wheels of production started turning more quickly. Thanks to bottlenecks caused by the COVID-19 slowdown, it took a bit of time to get things back up to speed, but The Flat Head’s pairs are now, once again, stocked and re-stocked at the brand’s retailers. 

The brand’s legendary leather jackets, many of them still adhering to Kobayashi’s designs, also made a triumphant return to shelves—very good news for those who have been waiting for their chance to get into one of Japan’s best leather jackets. 

Stockburg, Flat Head’s in-house leather shop, which used to be responsible for the brand’s leather wallets and accessories, has now taken over production of Flat Head leather jackets. These used to be outsourced to partner factories, but they are now handled in-house. 

Representatives for the brand say that this allows The Flat Head to better express its creative vision, shortening the distance between inspiration and execution. It also gives them more control over delivery timelines.

The first jackets that rolled off the Stockburg line made a very strong impression. It was immediately clear that The Flat Head hadn’t lost a step. If anything, they’d improved. Orders from retailers poured in. 

Wait times for stockists are now in excess of a year, so, if you see a Flat Head jacket hanging in your local stockist, it might not be there for long. Strike while the iron is hot.  

A True-Blue Trail Blazer: Pioneer Denim

Back in 1996, when Flat Head was founded, Japan was in the midst of a selvedge explosion. Japanese consumers and brands were still largely focused on the past (particularly the 501), but innovators were beginning to experiment with heavier and more-textured denims.

Flat Head was on the vanguard of this movement. They used twentieth-century machinery to form a bridge into the twenty-first century, respecting denim’s heritage while nudging it in new directions.

Their Pioneer Denim, first introduced in 2001, came at the tail-end of a years-long iterative process. Kobayashi, inspired by a mid-century pair of jeans that had caught his eye when he was a vintage dealer, worked with a mill in Kojima to create a slubby denim with a pronounced vertical texture. 

Pioneer Denim was an instant classic—one of the denims that fuelled the explosive rise of the selvedge scene and fade culture in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Now, more than two decades later, it has a long track record of impressive fades.

It’s easy to see why, for years, Pioneer Denim was heralded as the absolute best starting point for a serious fade project. It’s less easy to see why we don’t see more of it in the competitive fade circuit. 

The denim has not changed in more than two decades. It’s as good as it ever was, fading quickly and beautifully. For those looking for a competition pair, you can’t do much better than this.   

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Other Denims to Consider

Since The Flat Head’s reemergence, they’ve slowly introduced other denims into the mix.

Their left-hand twill (a version of the Zimbabwe-cotton selvedge formerly used for their now-shelved sub-label Real Japan Blues) has been a welcome addition to the line-up, particularly for those looking for a soft and easy-going selvedge that still fades beautifully.

They’ve also introduced a new 18 oz. selvedge that may, in time, challenge Pioneer Denim for the flagship position.

Without losing an ounce of Flat Head’s trademark vertical texture, this crisp and beefy heavyweight selvedge is primed for serious high-contrast fades.

If you prefer lightweight denims, they’ve got that covered as well with a 12 oz. selvedge that’s designed to mimic WWII-era selvedge.

With its donut top button, u-shaped back pockets, and plaid pocket bags, it’s a pair that stands out from the rest of the line-up. 

The Flat Head is sold at Redcast Heritage (ES) and Franklin & Poe (US)

The Fits: Something Old or Something New

Flat Head may be dramatically more streamlined than they were in 2018, but they haven’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

Well-worn and much-loved icons like the slim-tapered 3002, the regular-straight 3005, and the regular-tapered 3009 (all made from Pioneer Denim) are back and as good as ever. 

Given my choice of pairs to review for this article, I went with one of their newer cuts, the 3004. They introduced the cut in 2021, but it references other popular high-rise tapered fits that had rolled through The Flat Head lines for decades. 

All three fits are available at Franklin & Poe.

A generously cut high-rise straight-tapered fit, it will leave guys with slim legs (myself included) plenty of room. For those with larger or more muscular thighs, it should fit more like a slim straight.  

Thanks to its high rise (something I’ve learned to appreciate more as I’ve grown older), the fit is highly adaptable. If you like to alternate between tucked-in and untucked looks, the 3004 or the 18 oz. 8004 should definitely be on your radar.

If you’ve struggled at all with the short bodies on most Japanese tees (like the Warehouse one pictured below), the higher rise will be a game changer. It works with even my shortest tees, allowing me to pull those underused basics out of the bottom of the drawer and into heavy rotation.

The taper isn’t dramatic, but, especially for gents with larger feet, it won’t work particularly well with slip-on boots. Of all the footwear in my collection, I found the fit worked well with all my lace-up boots and, best of all, my penny loafers.

The denim is extremely hairy (something I always appreciate), and it is slightly rough to the touch. The roughness and crispness of the denim disappear quickly, though, and the trademark rainfall pattern (there if you look for it when the denim is new) begins to rise to the surface.

The details you look for in a great pair are all there. There’s peekaboo selvedge at the fifth pocket, chain-stitching at the hems and on the yoke, a goat leather patch, cotton threads, substantially raised loops, branded iron buttons that will rust as the pair ages, and concealed rivets on the back pockets. 

The arcuates are bold, especially when executed with contrasting lemon-coloured thread.

I asked them about the arcs, and they told me that they are meant to look like ribbons. Each pair is intended as a gift from the brand to its customers, and, for as long as it lasts, the ribbons tie the two of them together.

Overall, I’m deeply impressed with the pair and the brand that produced it.

Under Kobayashi’s leadership, The Flat Head built themselves a stellar reputation among selvedge and leather enthusiasts. Now, under new management, they’ve taken flight once again. 

Back to Basics

What seems most promising about The Flat Head’s return is that they’re not trying to whizz-bang it. They’ve simplified things, distilling the brand down to its essence.

They’re adding new pieces to the line-up very slowly, and popular sub-labels like Real Japan Blues have been shelved for the time being while they focus on strengthening the brand’s core.

The streamlined line-up is better aligned with the values they espouse. They say that their products are not meant to be collected or stacked up on groaning shelves. They’re meant to be worn hundreds or even thousands of times. 

This buy-less, wear-more philosophy only makes sense if the brand is making each piece slowly and passionately, and if they’re not flooding the zone with mountains of product. They seem to have rediscovered this and brought it back to the core of what they’re doing. 

Flat Head is back to doing the kinds of things that made them a household name in the selvedge scene. They’re living their values, which means they’re at their best—and this brand at its best is a force to be reckoned with. 

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