UPDATE:  JUNE 2014

Sadly, I have bad news about Levis 501 Shrink To Fit jeans.  They are no longer of the quality we've come to expect and know.  I've ordered 8 pairs over the past 5-6 years through amazon and the last 3 pairs I've ordered have all gone back.  The first pair I thought was just a fluke.  Really just didn't fit right like every pair I'd ordered in the past.  HUGE thighs and the waist was disproportionately small and tight compared to past purchases.  I gave up on those.  Ordered another pair and the material was thin.  They were the Rigid STF's and the material was not the traditional heavy denim I'd come to expect.  I'd read some other reviews, that depending on where they were made you'd get different fit/cut/materials.  That shouldn't be the case, but ok.  I sent them back (thanks amazon) and ordered one more pair.  This pair was made in Mexico.  There is no longer double reinforced stitching.  The inseam/crotch area stitching in particular is a thin single stitch compared to stitching on pairs I'm still wearing from 5 years ago.  But the main thing is the weight of the fabric itself.  These are no longer true raw heavy denim.  It's like cheap mass produced denim.  I'd say previously they felt like 12/13 oz denim.  Now they feel like an 8/9 oz denim.  The quality has just gone down and price gone up.  Craftsmanship is no longer there, the fit is off depending on where you buy them from (I've gotten 3 completely different pairs of jeans in the last 6 months and they all feel and fit different and are of different cloth quality levels and craftsmanship) and clearly quality has suffered.  If you're looking for the real STF Rigid Raw Denim Levis 501's, well, you probably aren't going to find them anymore.  Sadly, my experience is echoed by many other reviews on here as well.

PREVIOUS REVIEW:

Luckily I have a Levis store in Seattle (as of 2013 we no longer have a Levis store in Seattle).  I bought and returned 4 other pairs of jeans before I finally found the waist and length that worked for me.  Every time at the Levis store I would get a different answer as to how to wash and shrink and dry these jeans.  I guess something will work for some and not for others.  I also was told by one sales person to NEVER wash the jeans, just buy a pair that fits and wear them till they die.  Hmm, a little unsanitary for me.  Oh well.  (the great thing about the Levis store, v.s. here online, is that Levis store will take anything back, regardless of it being washed or dried, or anything, no questions asked, so I was able to figure out what would work for me w/o wasting a ton of money).  I finally figured out after trials and tribulations that 36Wx38L is what works for me after a wash in med-hot water and air drying.  If you wash in hot, you'll go down at least 3 waist sizes.  1 too many for me.  Also the length will shrink up to 4 inches.  The store doesn't sell 38L jeans, which is why I bought them on here because you can get 38L.  36L I find after washing makes them slightly shorter than a classic 34L would be.  Right above the tips of my shoes.  Not a look I like, but if you're a hipster, ok.  38L leaves me some room and I can actually cuff it if I want.  36W shrinks to about a 35W.  Just perfect.  I always air dry, because it keeps the colour and rigidness of the jeans.  I made the mistake of drying the very first pair I got and not only did the 36Wx36L shrink to about a 33Wx32L they lost all of their colour and looked totally washed out.  Never will I dry a pair of Levis in the dryer again.  Hope this helps someone.  Great price here.  Just know exactly what size you need to fit you first.  I always buy the rigid also, they seem the most authentic looking Levis.

As a side not, whoever is doing the packing and shipping of these needs a lesson in packing light.  First off, I've ordered 3 pairs at various times.  Each time, they've arrived in a box that could house at least 4 pairs of jeans total.  Sometimes they arrive UPS, sometimes mail, sometimes FEDEX.  I've always chosen free shipping, so I'm not sure why they've come in different delivery forms.  The last pair I ordered were also bundled in that blowup plastic bubble wrap.  WTF?  They are a pair of jeans, not fragile or delicate.  So not only were they in a box 4 times bigger than they should have been but they were bubble wrapped?  What a waste of resources AND money.  That was material that DID NOT IN ANY WAY NEED TO BE USED and packaging that was too large.  It's just a waste of environmental resources and money.  Boo on amazon.com for not monitoring this better.