Iowa-based Raygun launches new jeans line

Buying the all-American blue jean - finding the perfect fit, fabric and style all at the right price - can be a challenge.

It turns out shopping for jeans is equally difficult for boutiques, which have to find quality, stylish jeans at a price that keeps customers coming back.

“It's really hard to find jeans that are not overly styled. It's hard to find a good pair of simple jeans that doesn't have too much going on, something that has good denim, clean lines, simple and unmarked,” says Raygun's Merchandise Manager Ryan Looysen,

So Iowa-based Raygun decided to create its own line of jeans. The jeans will be available in both the Des Moines and Iowa City Raygun stores today.

There is the traditional straight leg for men and women - the girls' style being traditionally known as a “boyfriend jean,” a looser-fitting boot cut for both, and a skinny, slim fitting jean for women.

“It's pretty exciting, I don't know of any other stores our size that have their own line of denim that they can offer for this price point,” Looysen says.

WATCH: Raygun leaders on their new line of jeans (article continues below video)

The price - $55 - was important to Looysen from the beginning. Designing jeans in the spirit of the rest of Raygun's apparel and accessories was equally vital, he says.

Raygun, which opened in Des Moines in 2005 and Iowa City in 2010, is known for its quirky, amusing T-shirts, often with slogans and artwork affectionately teasing Iowa and its various cities.

“If you look at our website or come into our stores, there are clean lines, really simple aesthetics that I took forward to in the jeans,” Looysen says. “Nothing overdone, very understated.”

For instance, each back pocket of the jeans has just two lines across it.

“Like the shirts, we wanted to keep basic colors; we didn't want any strange washes,” says owner Mark Draper.

That doesn't mean, though, that the jeans don't have the Raygun mark.

“My favorite part of our jeans is the small details,” Looysen says. “For example, the Raygun rivets. On the rivets it says ‘Raygun' and then on the inside it says ‘DSM' for Des Moines. Those small details kind of help make our jeans what they are and show that we paid attention to every little thing when we were producing them.”

Want the jeans? Here's where you can get them

Once Looysen and Draper had decided on a look for the jeans - what color and weight denim they wanted, whether the jeans would be distressed, have rivets and tags and how deep to make the pockets - they requested samples from various factories. Looysen was vigilant in double checking denims, number of stitches per inch and other quality issues as they searched for a factory.

He also traveled to China “to make sure that the factory was not a sweatshop, didn't use what's called “bonded labor” where they are basically forced to work there and that the working conditions were something that we would be OK with our products being produced there,” he says.

In the future, Draper and Looysen would like to see the jeans produced in the United States.

“This is just the beginning of the process. First is making jeans and having those in our store that have our name on them and are made and designed by us, and then it's bringing them to the U.S. and then, hopefully, bring them to Iowa and make them in Iowa,” Looysen says. “There's no reason why we can't produce the things we sell in our store in Iowa. So long term, we really want to bring it home.”

This could be the beginning of more for Raygun, too, they say.

“This is the first step in seeing if stuff we produce ourselves does well with the customer base and then we'll kind of go from there,” Draper says.

Looysen is more forthcoming.

“If the jeans go well, we hope to go forward with shoes. That would be the next step, and then knits - being anything from dresses to sweaters, things like that,” he says. “We have a lot of things in the future; jeans are just the first step.”

[imagebrowser id=540]