Mike Rowe Slams Nordstrom for Selling Mud-Caked Jeans for $425

Over the years we’ve seen fashion designers turn regular old blue jeans into expensive abominations. First they acid washed them to make them appear more worn out. Then they started selling them riddled with holes. Now Nordstrom is selling a pair of jeans that appears to be caked with mud, and it costs $425. According to the description of the jeans, which are called “Barracuda Straight Leg Jeans”:

“These heavily distressed medium-blue denim jeans embody rugged, Americana workwear that’s seen some hard-working action with a crackled, caked-on muddy coating that shows you’re not afraid to get down and dirty.”

Common sense would dictate however, that wearing overpriced faux muddy jeans suggests that you are certainly afraid to “get down and dirty.”

Mike Rowe, the former host of the now defunct Dirty Jobs show, slammed Nordstrom for selling the jeans in a blog post yesterday. He wrote “Finally – a pair of jeans that look like they have been worn by someone with a dirty job…made for people who don’t,” before adding adding “The Barracuda Straight Leg Jeans aren’t pants. They’re not even fashion. They’re a costume for wealthy people who see work as ironic – not iconic.”

Nordstrom has since been inundated with critical comments on their website, many of which have been deleted:

“This is a joke, right?…Do you also sell jeans covered in cow manure? Oh, that must be the deluxe model.”

“Gotta love being able to look like I have fed the pigs, helped deliver a calf, and get the tractor unstuck without ever having to leave my BMW.”

“These jeans are built Ford tough for the hipster who is built Prius-weak. Look like you are a self-reliant, capable man rather than the sniveling lady boy you truly are. Two thumbs up for down-home authenticity.”