Fitcheck Fine creek leon 44 or 42. Which one should i choose.

[BloodEagle]

I had a FC Leon for a short period and one of the problems with it was that in order to create a slim what I'm going to call 'Ramonesy' unzipped style look from the front it hung at a weird angle on the shoulders, pushed all the material behind and flared out at the back - creating what we see in the photos earlier. The leather itself was extremely underwhelming - when it first arrived and I was unpacking it I honestly thought I'd been scammed and sent some mall leather horror - it did gain some character over time, but nothing compared to other makers

 

[NamoAmituofo]

I heard their 2mm HH is to be taken with pinch of marketing salt. There are other choices of thick hides and they do few amazing. This is a heavy goat JL jacket I recently got from a fellow lounger - very thick and pliable at the same time.

 

[Aloysius]

The leather itself was extremely underwhelming - when it first arrived and I was unpacking it I honestly thought I'd been scammed and sent some mall leather horror - it did gain some character over time, but nothing compared to other makers

Yeah I first saw it in person before knowing of its online fanbase or notoriety. (Well, I assumed the big fanbase because the shop kept talking about it as the best leather jackets in the world.) And yet I thought the leather looked noticeably worse (not just the surface texture but the whole thing was sort of limp and lifeless) than the Schotts 1/3 the price I had seen the same day. I figured I must have been missing something, but looking back my first impression was correct.

 

[Marc mndt]

And yet I thought the leather looked noticeably worse (not just the surface texture but the whole thing was sort of limp and lifeless) than the Schotts 1/3 the price I had seen the same day. I figured I must have been missing something

Instagram / advertising vs reality

 

[Canuck Panda]

Instagram photos have filters. Rakuten photo does not.

This jacket wasn't expensive by comparison when it first came out in 2019 or earlier. By comparison most other Japanese xzips then were already above the ¥220,000 mark, and Fine creek was only in the ¥160,000 range, both tax in figures.

I will assume this is why it was popular in Japan, because it undercut in pricing. And the lower prices also gave western dealers more incentives to push the jacket because they made more margin doing so. Imo this jacket was underpriced in Japan then, but is overpriced now. I think ¥220,000 is a fair price for a jacket like this, but they all want north of ¥300,000 now... This seems like the new pricing bench mark in Japan for fancy xzips which I don't quite agree with, and this also pushes up the used prices... sigh...

And they measure the sleeve around the curve! RMC does this too. Except the Leon is even shorter than RMC,

with wear it became even shorter at 59cm, for size 42, from Classifieds, that's 23.25"...

The horsehide looks fine to me though. I am not a fan of the current pricing nor the stock sleeve length. But I am looking for one of these in 44 maybe 46 in heavy deer and preferably under ¥100,000 used...

 

[dudewuttheheck]

Instagram / advertising vs reality

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At least those ice cream bars still tasted good. The jacket has nothing redeeming about it.

 

[Hoanglong]

That's a business trick.
They set the price of the Leon (japan price) very low to make it popular and famous.
Now everyone knows about FC. Currently They focus on making Fine creek and co jacket (lower quality than FCL), so buying a new Leon is super difficult because you have to wait nearly 2 years to order.

 

[Tom71]

To add a little measure to the general consensus: I first handled FCL when I visited VMC in Zurich. They had the Leon and the Eric.
I told them, I didn’t like the leather as it appeared papery to me and had no graining whatsoever. A bit like LL standard horse in 1/3 thickness.
They assured me, FCL was a firm shop favourite and would age spectacularly.

Theye guys stock (i.e.) Freewheelers, RMC, Vanson, Schott and Aero. They really know their stuff.

I guess it’s fair to say that liking FCL is within a contemporary concept of “personal taste“ despite the consensus that it is „clearly a scam“.