Freewheelers LaBrea

[Kuro]

The shipping costs were not my experience. I recently had my Flat Head jacket sent to me via FedEx and the shipping cost ~$40 USD.


International Shipping Fee
(From Buyee to your Address)
4,356 yen
Shipping Insurance Fee
0 yen
Package Consolidation Fee
0 yen
Protective Packaging Fee
0 yen
Photo Service Fee
0 yen
Customs Clearance Commission Fee
0 yen
Domestic Shipping Fee
(From seller to Buyee)
880 yen
Shipping Cost Total
US $ 51.32 (5,236 yen)

I am not buying from Buyee though. I am going from the quote provided me by Watanabe-san of Genco Clothing. Perhaps the seller misquote the weight, and Buyee absorbed the cost?

 

[dwilson]

I am not buying from Buyee though. I am going from the quote provided me by Watanabe-san of Genco Clothing.

Sure but I doubt Buyee has some international shipping deal worked out with FedEx (they might?) and if they do see if Genco would be open to using Buyee as the proxy to leverage their shipping contracts?

 

[Kuro]

Sure but I doubt Buyee has some international shipping deal worked out with FedEx (they might?) and if they do see if Genco would be open to using Buyee as the proxy to leverage their shipping contracts?

I would have to do some research first.

Let me ask you this. I assume fedex international was one or two day trackable delivery right?

Do you think FedEx international of a let's say six pound package, that is larger than their standard size large package, is realistically $40 or $50 in shipping?

It sounds too good to be true, but I will take a look.

 

[Superfluous]

I send photos to Watanabe-san of Genco Clothing of a jacket that fits me with measurements.

He looks at those photos and measures the jackets he has in stock the same way as the photos I sent, and sends them back to me.

That way we can compare measurements and come to a conclusion together.

He had three 42 La Breas when I bought one from him, he measured all three so I could compare them all and I chose the one I like the most out of the three measurement wise, as there are tolerances in construction.

Two things to consider.

1. No you can not return the jacket. Be sure you know what you are buying.
2. EMS is NOT shipping anything this large or heavy to the USA due to Covid. Only DHL or FedEx. What does this mean? EMS would normally be a $70 shipping charge. FedEx is over $300.

Because of that I have been patiently waiting for my LaBrea, since April or May of last year. It is already a $2500 jacket. I don't want to pay hundreds more to ship it, unfortunately. So if you want it now shipping is expensive.

Thats a great way to obtain a more accurate set of measurements. I scour the internet, aggregate the various, often divergent measurements, and try to make heads or tails regarding which measurements are most accurate. Your method is much better and I may do this in the future. Thanks for the advice.

Ps: I hope Big J is doing well.

 

[dwilson]

I would have to do some research first.

Let me ask you this. I assume fedex international was one or two day trackable delivery right?

Do you think FedEx international of a let's say six pound package, that is larger than their standard size large package, is realistically $40 or $50 in shipping?

It sounds too good to be true, but I will take a look.

Buyee has a shipping cost estimator you can check out. Buyee didn't say exactly how much my jackage weighed but it came in a pretty standard jacket box. The estimater says a 3kg package costing 200k yen costs ~$200 though so Genco may be pretty close to their quote. Though they also said shipping for my jacket was going to be ~$100 on the estimater.

And yeah you get a FedEx link. I think from the time it actually left Japan it was at my doorstep in 2 days.

 

[dudewuttheheck]

I've actually had a very high success rate buying directly Japan, site unseen. I've bought at least 7 jackets from Japan and only one of them did not work out. Even that one technically did fit, but it just looked longer on me than I wanted it to. So even then you could argue it was not a complete failure.

It is certainly a risk due to the inability to exchange, but for me, I never worry about the risk in terms of sizing. It's not a guarantee, of course.

 

[jfan]

I am not buying from Buyee though. I am going from the quote provided me by Watanabe-san of Genco Clothing. Perhaps the seller misquote the weight, and Buyee absorbed the cost?

I purchased a flat head jacket with original box through buyee and dhl was ~50 usd to California.
I'm sure buyee gets a discount since all they do is international shipping.

 

[Kuro]

I've actually had a very high success rate buying directly Japan, site unseen. I've bought at least 7 jackets from Japan and only one of them did not work out. Even that one technically did fit, but it just looked longer on me than I wanted it to. So even then you could argue it was not a complete failure.

It is certainly a risk due to the inability to exchange, but for me, I never worry about the risk in terms of sizing. It's not a guarantee, of course.

I just recently noticed that the Wild One does have a size exchange policy. They are the only one I have seen. However of course ask first to verify as that may apply to only Japan sales?

It shocks me to the core that they still have a Brown La Brea in stock. Scroll all the way down to the bottom to see their exchange policy.

https://www.thewildone.jp/item/freewheelers-labrea-leathertogs-auburn-horsehide/

 

[dudewuttheheck]

I just recently noticed that the Wild One does have a size exchange policy. They are the only one I have seen. However of course ask first to verify as that may apply to only Japan sales?

It shocks me to the core that they still have a Brown La Brea in stock. Scroll all the way down to the bottom to see their exchange policy.

https://www.thewildone.jp/item/freewheelers-labrea-leathertogs-auburn-horsehide/

It's certainly possible. I got my Sunset from him and he is a really nice guy. If that's the policy, it's possible. I would suggest you confirm that with him. He basically runs the store on his own so he is not quick to respond, but he is very gracious when he does.

 

[tenerific]

Would you all say the LaBrea runs large? I'm looking at the measurements provided by Genco and trying to make sense of whether I'd be a 44 or a 46 (6'4", 43-44 chest, like to layer, ha). For comparison, I'm a 46 in FCL and can only do a t-shirt with that.

As an aside, I find $200-$300 in FedEx from Japan to be excessive and hard to believe shipping can't be done cheaper.

 

[Kuro]

Well... I have no reason to make up the shipping quote from Genco. Why don't you ask all the Japanese dealers who are willing to ship overseas yourself since you don't believe the cost. The wild one is not even offering different shipping at this time so no shipping to the USA at all for example.

https://www.thewildone.jp/page3.html

If these small dealers had a less expensive way to ship leather jackets to the US I am sure in the almost year now they would have figured it out.

As for size I will let others who own one answer that.

 

[red devil]

It might be worthwhile fo you to arrange for shipping through a comparison site

 

[willyto]

The shipping costs were not my experience. I recently had my Flat Head jacket sent to me via FedEx and the shipping cost ~$40 USD.


International Shipping Fee
(From Buyee to your Address)
4,356 yen
Shipping Insurance Fee
0 yen
Package Consolidation Fee
0 yen
Protective Packaging Fee
0 yen
Photo Service Fee
0 yen
Customs Clearance Commission Fee
0 yen
Domestic Shipping Fee
(From seller to Buyee)
880 yen
Shipping Cost Total
US $ 51.32 (5,236 yen)

Would you all say the LaBrea runs large? I'm looking at the measurements provided by Genco and trying to make sense of whether I'd be a 44 or a 46 (6'4", 43-44 chest, like to layer, ha). For comparison, I'm a 46 in FCL and can only do a t-shirt with that.

As an aside, I find $200-$300 in FedEx from Japan to be excessive and hard to believe shipping can't be done cheaper.

These big business have discounts for volume.

When I asked Belafonte to ship the boots to me by DHL or FedEx they also quoted me like 200-300€ of shipping. So I used EMS instead and it was a lot slower but boots arrived in the end and saved a lot of money that went into paying custom duties.

That's how it works. Small business don't have that advantage.

 

[Kuro]

I wanted to update my La Brea purchase from Japan.

Watanabe-san from Genco reached out to me to let me know EMS shipping to the United States (of heavy large items like a leather jacket) MAY be resuming June 1st. He also said there is an increase in cost for EMS shipping to 11600 yen.

I will update again if anything changes or I get my jacket!

P.S.

Mind Blown this is still in stock, La Brea in deerskin yellow ochre. I don't know if they have an overseas shipping policy. But wow.

https://avenuewebstore.com/freewheelers/?page_id=29165

 

[red devil]

I wanted to update my La Brea purchase from Japan.

Watanabe-san from Genco reached out to me to let me know EMS shipping to the United States (of heavy large items like a leather jacket) MAY be resuming June 1st. He also said there is an increase in cost for EMS shipping to 11600 yen.

I will update again if anything changes or I get my jacket!

P.S.

Mind Blown this is still in stock, La Brea in deerskin yellow ochre. I don't know if they have an overseas shipping policy. But wow.

https://avenuewebstore.com/freewheelers/?page_id=29165

That one looks nice!

 

[Carlos840]

That one looks nice!

Agreed, that deerskin is amazing!
I wonder if it tans much.
@willyto and @dudewuttheheck you guys have that hide no? Does it darken much with use?

Edit: just answered my own question, i really like the LaBrea in that hide.

https://www.denimbro.com/freewheelers-bootleggers_topic189_page459.html

 

[Jayread]

If

I wanted to update my La Brea purchase from Japan.

Watanabe-san from Genco reached out to me to let me know EMS shipping to the United States (of heavy large items like a leather jacket) MAY be resuming June 1st. He also said there is an increase in cost for EMS shipping to 11600 yen.

I will update again if anything changes or I get my jacket!

P.S.

Mind Blown this is still in stock, La Brea in deerskin yellow ochre. I don't know if they have an overseas shipping policy. But wow.

https://avenuewebstore.com/freewheelers/?page_id=29165

If that was in size 36 I would purchase it immediately, having just purchased the blackjack La Brea the jacket has made be want to get one in another colour

 

[dudewuttheheck]

Agreed, that deerskin is amazing!
I wonder if it tans much.
@willyto and @dudewuttheheck you guys have that hide no? Does it darken much with use?

Edit: just answered my own question, i really like the LaBrea in that hide.

https://www.denimbro.com/freewheelers-bootleggers_topic189_page459.html

His darkened way more than mine has. Maybe I haven't worn it enough, but mine hasn't really darkened all that much. I'm sure it will eventually, but look at the Japanese examples of worn jackets... theirs haven't darkened as much as ASee's either. Would be interested to know how he got his to darken that much.

 

[Carlos840]

His darkened way more than mine has. Maybe I haven't worn it enough, but mine hasn't really darkened all that much. I'm sure it will eventually, but look at the Japanese examples of worn jackets... theirs haven't darkened as much as ASee's either. Would be interested to know how he got his to darken that much.

Did you do any sun tanning or oiling? or just worn it?

 

[Jin431]

If

If that was in size 36 I would purchase it immediately, having just purchased the blackjack La Brea the jacket has made be want to get one in another colour

Can you pls share fit photos?