This is our first in-house competition, and it is a pop-up: it's not a traditional competition where you start from a raw pair and wear them for a year and then submit. This is for jeans and jackets that you have already worn for at least 1 year. You can submit up to 3 entries (raw denim jeans and/or jackets).
Every piece you enter has already done the work, so all you have to do is photograph it properly and tell us its story.
A year of wear is the entry bar, not the target. There is no upper limit and no prize for scraping in at a year and a day. Two years, 3 years, 5 years deep is exactly what we want to see.
How to enter
Prefer to watch? Here's a short video showing how to enter.
Open the app and go to COMPETITIONS. On the main feed screen, tap COMPETITIONS, choose FAST FADES and tap ENTER. The competition page carries the full rules and the current entry count.
Choose the item you are entering. Pick it from the list of jeans and jackets in your wardrobe. Only raw denim jeans and denim jackets are eligible.
If it is not in your wardrobe yet, tap "Add a new item" and add it with its brand, model and at least 5 photos: full front, back, and fade details of your choice (such as whiskers, honeycombs or elbows, repairs, etc.). You can add as many photos as you like as they form part of your item in your wardrobe forever. Write its journey notes too: where the piece has been, how often you wore it, how you washed it, and what happened to it along the way. If you have owned it for years, fill in its wear history while you are there. Enter the date you started wearing it, the days you typically wore it and roughly how many wears you have put in, and DENIMHEAD fills the history in backwards from there. When you save the item you come straight back to your entry with it already chosen.
If an item you pick has fewer than 5 photos, tap "Add photos to this item".
Add your verification photo. Tap "Add a verification photo" and add a photo of the front of the unfolded jeans or jacket with a piece of paper or card on or beside them, with #FASTFADESCOMP written on it by hand. Tap "See the example" to check what it should look like. It does not count towards your 5 photos.
Accept the rules and terms and click the Enter Competition button. Tick the boxes under "Before you enter", then click Enter Competition. Your entry is posted to the main feed with the competition hashtag, and you can add a caption for it first if you like. Enter before midnight on 31 December 2026 (UTC-12). Once you have entered, you can keep updating the item (adding photos, editing its journey notes and logging wears) up until the 31st of December 2026.
Judges can see your wear history, and a documented three-year journey beats an undocumented one. Logging is not compulsory and nobody is excluded for having tracked nothing, but if the record is there it counts in your favour.
Who can enter
Open worldwide to anyone with a DENIMHEAD account.
Enter up to three items. Each item may be entered once, and three is the limit per person.
DENIMHEAD staff, competition judges, and employees of Denimio, Hiut Denim and Superunknown cannot enter.
What you can enter
Jeans and denim jackets only. No shirts, shorts or other items this time round.
Raw denim. Items entered must have started life raw and unwashed/one-washed. Sanforized or unsanforized, any weight, any mill, any brand.
Every colour, and some patterns. All colours of raw denim are welcome, and some patterned denims are too, Wabash and sashiko among them. If you are not sure whether yours qualifies, ask us before you enter.
At least twelve months of wear. Real, on-the-body wear. Older is better and there is no upper limit.
You must have put the fades in yourself. Pieces bought already faded, vintage finds, and pieces broken in by someone else are not eligible.
What is not allowed
Fades must come from natural wear alone. Any entry showing artificial distressing, factory distressing, or similar will be disqualified. That includes, but is not limited to:
Sandpaper, emery cloth, pumice, wire brushes, hand-scraping or similar
Bleach, chlorine, acid wash, any chemical stripping or similar
Enzyme wash, stone wash, sandblasting, laser finishing, or similar
Blades, razors, scissors or similar
Any factory-distressed or similar, however subtle
Repairs are welcome. Darning, patching, crotch blowouts, sashiko, etc. repairs are part of the story, not a penalty.
Photos
Every entry needs a verification photo. Photograph the front of the unfolded jeans or jacket with a piece of paper or card on or beside them, with #FASTFADESCOMP written on it by hand. Do not print or add the hashtag digitally to the photo. An entry without a genuine handwritten card is not eligible. The app shows you where to add it, and an example to copy.
At least five photos per entry: the full length front, back, fade details, repair shots, fit pics, and anything else you want the judges to see. The verification photo above is separate and does not count towards these.
Photos must be your own, of your own item, taken in natural light where possible.
Crop and basic exposure correction only. No filters, no contrast pushing, no AI generation or editing. The judges look closely and are good at spotting it.
Lighting and background do more for a fade shot than any camera. If you want the colour to come out true, Denim Hunters has a great guide worth reading: how to photograph raw denim.
How entries are judged
A panel of judges scores every entry on:
Depth of fade, how far the piece has actually travelled. This carries the most weight.
Honesty of wear, whether the fade pattern reads as genuine, lived-in wear.
Contrast and character, definition of the whiskers, honeycombs, stacks, seat and elbows.
Evenness and wear pattern, how the piece has worn as a whole.
Documented history, the wear and wash record behind it.
Story, the journey notes you write alongside your entry.
Entering several pieces does not improve the odds for any one of them. Each entry is judged on its own merits, and one entrant may win only one prize. The judging panel is subject to change. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Any entry believed to be artificially distressed or misrepresented will be removed.
Key dates
1 October 2026, entries open.
31 December 2026, entries close at midnight (UTC-12).
After 31 December, judging. Winners announced in the app, via email, and on our Instagram once it is complete.
Prize terms
Winners are notified by email. Prizes are provided directly by the sponsors and are subject to the terms of the issuing sponsor. They cannot be exchanged for cash or transferred to another person. Sponsors may ask winners to cover shipping costs on physical prizes in certain circumstances, and where applicable any country specific duties or taxes.
General
By entering you confirm the item is yours, the wear is yours, and the photos are yours.
You keep ownership of your photos. By entering you allow DENIMHEAD and the sponsors to show your entry in the app, on this website, and on our social media channels including Instagram, in connection with this competition, with credit to your Instagram handle. Add it to your DENIMHEAD profile (Edit profile) so that we can tag you.
The Terms of Use and Privacy Policy of DENIMHEAD apply throughout.
The promoter is DENIMHEAD LTD. Questions? Get in touch.