The world's best pants in their best color yet

Plus new Spyplane shoes, Japanese hard-sole excellence, Autumnal bucket hats, Y2K wasn't a monolith & more

Welcome to Blackbird Spyplane.

The B.L.I.S.S. List — a comprehensive index of Beautiful Life-Improving Spyplane Staples — is here.

Mach 3+ city intel for traveling the entire planet is here.

Check our list of the world’s 35 slappiest shops, where Spyfriends have added a ton of favorites in the comments.

— Jonah & Erin

First up —

ICYMI, the other day in the New York Times we unveiled the extremely sick shoe we’ve cooked up with the deep-cut GORP-footwear experts at Montana’s Obōz. It’s above: Our all-gender take on their fantastic Sawtooth II Low Waterproof hiker, in a dark-shale oiled suede with loamy-brown recycled-mesh inserts. Obōz have never done a “fashion” collab before, and we’re stoked to be the first. We call our version the Swagtooth. The colorway? “Purple Earth” baby.

On Thursday, October 3rd these will go live online at 5 of our favorite shops, where you can find them on the floors earlier that week: Colbo in NYC, Neighbour in Vancouver, Nitty Gritty in Stockholm, Stand Up Comedy in Portland, and Understory in Oakland.

We’re hosting a launch party at Colbo Thursday, October 3, from 6pm to 9pm.

On Friday, October 4th they hit the Obōz site. More soon ☯️

In today’s Plane we’ve got —

• Earth’s best pants (as scientifically determined via a combination of math & swagology) just dropped in their best color yet.

• Ill Japanese-made boots & derbies

• “Y2K” design was not a monolith

• & more

Let’s get to it —

When the modern history of Pants Excellence is told, Blackbird Spyplane will be celebrated for our pivotal role in the discourse. For instance, this past winter we published an essential survey of the Best Pants Out, featuring my (Jonah’s) and Erin’s favorites along with picks from an illustrious consortium of Spyfriends.

And get this: One pair of pants in particular got 3 separate shout outs from 3 of earth’s swaggiest people. They were the only pair of pants in the mix to earn multiple appearances. When you crunch the numbers, it’s clear that they are mathematically and swagologically speaking Earth’s best pants.

I own them in black, and I love them. They have the everyday rockability of jeans, and as with jeans they only get better with time. But they are not jeans. And when I saw them finally drop the other day in a new color — and not just any color, but their best-looking color yet — I knew I had to bring ‘em into the Spyplane Stable promptly.