Fashion brands leather jackets: Is it worth the price tag?

[dudewuttheheck]

I've gone back to malls and tried on some ' fashion' jackets since getting into the stuff we like on this forum.

They've all felt like garbage even if they were expensive. The patterns are horrid because they're meant to fit tall skinny models and even then, they don't fit those people correctly either. The leathers on the expensive ones might be objectively nice, but they're flimsy and feel like they would rip easily.

 

[Bluechel]

This is the motor officer jacket from Golden Bear.

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These are my all-time personal favorites. I see they omitted the belt loops custom on this?

 

[Fifty150]

I do not wear my gun belt over my jacket. My gun belt is attached to my pants belt. There is no need for me to have belt keepers on my jacket.

 

[Bluechel]

I do not wear my gun belt over my jacket. My gun belt is attached to my pants belt. There is no need for me to have belt keepers on my jacket.

I have a few both ways, and of course I’d never use those either

 

[bgrant570]

Are you Street Pimping? A pimp has to stay warm all night, while corralling his stable. The long pimp coat should have an insulated lining and arms need to vigorously swing a pimp cane.

*******. Now that is funny!

 

[Clint78]

While on assignment on The East Coast, I rode. I bought a used bike, and figured I would ride it until I got sent home. Minimal mods, minimal maintenance, sell it back to the dealership in less than a year.

Once you start riding around on a bike, and parking your bike in bike parking spots, you eventually run into other bikers. I quickly met other riders. I was riding in a MA-1. Which was okay for keeping the wind off and insulating body heat. One of the other bikers said that his cousin worked at a factory where jackets were made. He offered to take me over there.

A sweatshop. Typical old-school NYC Garment District style. Immigrants on sewing machines were probably not union, got underpaid, got no benefits. Busy. People moving racks of clothes, forklifts moving pallets, trucks being loaded on the dock. We went into the office area, which was just as frenetic. Phones ringing, desks piled with disorganized paperwork, a fan in the corner circulating cigarette smoke. People all talking at the same time with raised voices.

An old guy with a tape measure around his neck measured my chest, back, neck, arms, belly. He went out into the warehouse, and returned with a black, cross-zip jacket. The cheap kind you see being sold at department stores like Kohls and Sears. A cheap looking Schott Perfecto knock-off, which looked cheap. I try it on. He pulls and tightens the laces on the side. Pulls the sleeve down, tells me to raise my arms, and makes a chalk mark right about where my wrist was. Tells me sit on a chair. Makes a few chalk marks around the hem, and the body. He tells me $150, cash. My new friend says no way. $75. As you can guess, I paid $100 cash. It's a BS haggle game. I'll bet he tells everyone $150, and then grudgingly accepts $100, with a look of disappointment on his face. The old guy tells us to go get some beers and come back later.

As typical in NYC, we go to some hole-in-the-wall place which supposedly had "da best" of whatever they were selling. Usually, it is the best. The best in that neighborhood. Then the next neighborhood had the best in that neighborhood. This place had huge sausages, grilled, with peppers and onions, stuffed into a roll. We go to a bodega, pick up a bottle of Johnny Walker and a case of cheap beer. One of the dock workers brought the bottle into the office for the old man. We drank the beer with the guys on the loading dock. They were drinking, and driving forklifts and box trucks. Finally, the old man sent someone to tell us to go back inside.

The bottle of Johnny Walker was now 3/4 empty. Everyone in that office had a couple of shots in their coffee cups. The blue, paper, Greek diner coffee cups that you see on TV. The jacket I tried, with all the chalk marks, was still there. He gives me another jacket to try on. He tells me that they just cut a couple of pieces down to size, based on the chalk mark fitting, and then pieced it together. No problem making 1 jacket. They ship hundreds of jackets every day. I could see pre-cut pieces of leather at different work stations. It was obvious that whichever company who placed an order with them, would order pre-cut pattern pieces from overseas. They simply performed the final assembly. Sew the front of the jacket to the back of the jacket, and sew on the sleeves.

Keep in mind, that this was just a contract factory. The spray paint stencil on the factory door said something like "ABC LLC" or something like that. Larger companies, fashion labels, would send them manufacturing orders. They make the jacket, shirt, pants, or whatever, sew on whichever label, then ship it out in their own trucks to whatever stores' distribution warehouses. So they would fill an order, send a truck full of clothes to Macy's warehouse, and that warehouse would send it to different Macy's stores.

My jacket had the label of Excelled. In all fairness, I didn't expect much from a jacket they pieced together from cut down scrap pieces. It's not the best. But here it is, 2 decades later, and it has survived. I still ride motorcycles with it to this day.


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Awesome story.

 

[Fifty150]

Awesome story.

In an ideal world, everything would be top quality, and we would all be able to afford it.

In the real world, I don't have the $$$$ of disposable income to buy a custom made leather jacket. That kind of money, for me, is better spent ...... how about on groceries? I need to eat, and feed my family, more than I need to buy a great jacket.

But don't let that dissuade you from getting the perfect leather jacket.

And don't turn into one of those guys who believes that even an inexpensive jacket serves a purpose. This forum already has one cheapskate, me, who wears inexpensive motor jackets as a functional safety item. Nobody needs to hear an echo of how you don't have to spend a fortune, to get a jacket which protects you from wind, rain, snow, and pavement.


Live the dream. Get the best leather jacket that you can find, even if you can't afford it. Buy it on credit. Make payments. You won't regret it.

 

[Clint78]

Hi Fifty,

I totally agree. I save up and research before getting anything. I normally just went with Harley-Davidson stuff because I worked at dealerships. I have 1 solid and warm leather jacket I bought in 2003 and it still looks brand new. I've hardly used it because I've been in hot countries. So I mainly wore vented, perforated mesh jackets with armor. Now I want to up my game when I start working again I'm going to do black ironheart jeans. Merz b black tshirtz. I like a schott 626, like the cotton lining, for everyday wear, then save for a real mccoy d pocket.

What do u ride?

 

[Fifty150]

What do u ride?

An old, carbureted 883. Just enough for city commuting.

 

[Trouser Bark]

Whenever you see a special interest car or truck come up for sale that was previously owned by Steve McQueen or Batman, etc. you know that's going to be sold at a premium. Some see value and will pay extra for that and some do not.

If something about the origin of the jacket or its brand has meaning to you and would make you feel better about buying or owning then spend your money in whatever way you like. Note that the provenance you paid extra for is likely not to be recognized by others so that buying choice will have to be one that you recognize and don't give a rip if anyone else does or not.

My choice would be to purchase quality and not marketing and definitely not whatever some celebrity might wear (I haven't owned a TV for 30 years and don't care what that box has to say). I also think that marketing in general is legalized lying. A predatory practice intended to influence the buying decision of those least capable of making an informed choice on their own. You've been conditioned to it since you were a little kid. Remember the cereal boxes? "Some settling may occur in transit", "product enlarged to show detail", "secret decoder ring inside because our product tastes like your dog's butt", etc. We're all conditioned from an early age to be susceptible to marketing trends to varying degrees and we all weigh provenance and pedigree with our own scale.

You can see it w/ some of the posters on this site that post a pic of their pride and joy and one of the other members will say something like 'I'm not cool enough to rock that' or similar. What they really mean is that to their eye that looks a little ridiculous and they'd never buy it. Doesn't matter though as the person that spent the money digs it and the same applies to your jacket choice. Buy what makes you happy and try not to be too concerned about what others think of how you spent your money; you earned it and they did not.

Somebody is buying Duane Johnson's Jumanji jacket knock offs. Are they wrong?

Not if they like it.