Jeans for Over $1,200, Shredded by Zoo Animals [Video]

Mineko Club are throwing tires wrapped with denim to lions, tigers and bears at the Kamine Zoo in Hitachi City in Japan to raise money for conservation. This is a brilliant strategy by the Japanese volunteer group. Japan always seems to be coming with something new and this time, they've combined fashion with a cause, animal conservation.

When the tires wrapped in denim are thrown at the animals, the animals first move and natural instinct is to immediately attack the denim with their claws and teeth. The fabric is retrieved by the Mineko Club, which they then sew and make into a pair of designer jeans called Zoo Jeans, so-called custom made by these great animals.

Three models of the 'Zoo Jeans' are made available: the lion model named L1 and L2, the tiger model named T1 and the bear model called B1. The tiger model seems to be the most popular one as when the jeans were auctioned with a starting price of $492, the tiger model got over 15 bids with the highest bid being made at $1,200. The auction went online on July 7 at Yahoo Japan's auction site.

The starting price of the lion jeans, L1 and L2, and bear jeans are at $420 but seems like there are not too many takers for it as they are still waiting for their first bid.

Described as a volunteer group of local residents, the Mineko Club is working towards "revivifying the Makine Zoo" by constantly organising events and selling "animal-themed" products by which they mean the denims attacked by the wild animals.

The English translation of Mineko Club's Web site reads the following:

"Zoo Jeans are the only jeans on earth designed by dangerous animals."

"We first take their favourite playthings - old tires and giant rubber balls - and wrap them in sheets of denim.

"Then we return them to the animals and let nature run its course.

"The animals roar, gnaw and claw at their toys, and when they're done we gather up what's left of the damaged denim. It is from this unique fabric that we make the jeans."