Cheap Monday Story
So the story goes, Orjan Andersson began working with jeans 15 years ago, it all started in a Swedish denim store where he sold jeans for about ten years. Branded as a denim expert, he was sought out by the biggest denim brands out there to share his vast knowledge of denim. It was during this time that Orjan set up his own business, a vintage store, with friend Adam Friberg. The store, appropriately named Weekend, was open only Saturdays and Sundays and situated in a suburb of Sweden, off the beaten path that took a true jean fanatic to find.
In April 2002, Orjan and Adam opened a new store in a more centralized location in Stockholm, in addition to vintage they also carried jeans. This time they named the store Weekday -- you guessed it, open 7 days! In the beginning of 2004, Orjan was struck with the idea to create his own denim line as a gift to all Weekday's loyal customers. The result was a pair of dark blue tight unwashed stretch denim jeans. Orjan felt this was something desperately missing in the market - especially for his customers. And it was a jean style that Orjan himself longed for, something to fit his own skinny legs.
Cheap Monday was born and named after the cheapest day of the week when all your money is spent on weekend fun. It also reflects the price tag - Cheap Monday retails for just $65 a pair.
Then the idea of Cheap Monday was introduced to Bjorn Atldax and Karl Grandin who created the skull-logotype, fashioned after a Mexican death mask. Bjorn and Karl were inspired by the book "The October Country" by Ray Bradbury for its mix of medieval Satan worshipping, fishing trips and spooning. They aspire to create a world that is bizarre and strange, but nice. At the same time and perhaps most importantly, Cheap Monday to them is about playing and doing what's fun. Their philosophy for Cheap Monday is that it should be fun to create and fun to wear.
In the beginning of March 2004, the first delivery of 800 pairs of jeans came to Weekday in Stockholm. Orjan couldn't afford the minimum order of 1000 pairs, but he fast-talked the factory into producing 800, way below their requirements. Word spread quickly about the jeans that were tight and cheap, and a month later all jeans were sold out. Then there was a new order for 5000 pairs which should have been delivered in late August, but the delivery was delayed and didn't reach the store until October. Despite the rough start, by the end of fall, there were tons of new orders and the line started to really blow up.
In February 2005, Sanna Atldax joined the team as a designer for Cheap Monday. Prior to this, Sanna designed at H&M for seven years.
At the end of 2004, Cheap Monday decided to sell abroad to other stores similar to Weekday. So the crew got in touch with their friend Mats Andersson who at the time was sales manager of Levi's Red and Vintage for Europe. Mats instantly loved the idea, but also wanted to open Cheap distribution to other stores in Sweden. This was not what they originally intended, but after a very long night of discussions Mats luckily succeeded to persuade them all. Shortly after, Mats contacted the first stores in Sweden. France and Denmark were the next countries to have Cheap Monday in April 2005. The jeans are now found in hundreds of stores all over the world. Fall of 2006, marked Cheap Monday’s arrival to the US market, it’s available at Maxfield, Odin, Ron Herman, Opening Ceremony, Barneys New York, Riccardi, and UP AGAINST THE WALL.
