Levi's 501 Original Fit Men's Jeans - Classic Straight Leg Denim Pants for Casual Wear (Regular & Big & Tall Sizes) | Perfect for Everyday Style, Work & Weekend Outfits

I’ve had many many many…many many pairs of 501s over the course of about twelve years. I’ve stuck to the fabric choices that aren’t pre-distressed because artificial distressing is a waste of time and resources (from a maker who spends a lot of marketing resources on “waste less” advertising). Usually those fabrics are the Rigid series, the Rinse variant, Dark Stonewash, or Black. Never shrink-to-fit. Every once in a while I’ve had to exchange a pair for obviously improper sizing, but none of the pairs I’ve kept have ever had troubles that were related to fabric. Some of the fabrics are lighter than others, but I’ve never had one that I would consider really lightweight like some other reviewers.Well, these latest two pairs of Clean Rigid with a 2021 copyright tag on them were definitely lightweight. They lived up to the rigid name, but they did feel significantly thinner than the last Clean Rigids I bought in 2014. They are denim, but the weight is more like a thin chino-type fabric. I told myself that was fine because they fit like every pair of 501s I ever had. So I threw them in the washer and dryer like I always do, expecting a little bit of shrinkage like I always do.They started out with an inseam between 31” and 32”. After the usual one wash and dry, the inseam was 29.5”. I’ve never had a pair of jeans shrink two inches in length after one wash and dry. I made sure these were not shrink-to-fit before purchase, and nowhere on any of the tags is there any mention of STF. The same style from 2014 was not STF either. All of the Clean Rigids I’ve had were purchased and fulfilled by Amazon, not a third party seller.All this is a very long-winded way of saying that the quality of the Clean Rigid style of 501 has changed substantially sometime within the last nine years and is not worth a buy now. If, for some reason, you really want to stick with Levi’s (the 501 in particular), try the Rinse variant in 100% cotton. That fabric as recently as 2022 was still relatively thick and did not have the shrinkage issue. It’s more blue and less rigid, though.