Help me ID this Vanson

[Guppy]

On ebay right now, not my size, Japanese seller, so way too expensive, and the description only talks about the terms of sale, doesn't really provide a description of hte item. It's a Vanson, but what model?

 

[Monitor]

That's the unfortunately named VAJ-3. Slightly modified one, it would seem as the standard model has two slash chest pockets instead of a single horizontal one.

 

[Guppy]

Well, I did a little detective work, found it on Yahoo! Japan auctions for about half what it was listed at on eBay, and checked the numbers carefully, and decided to take a chance on it.

DHL gets a lot of negativity for being expensive and incurring customs duties more often than other shippers, but they do delivery overseas extremely fast, and it arrived 2 days after the buyee shipped it to me, well packaged and pristine.

This seller had photos of a fit model wearing the jacket, and gave their height and weight, and it looked good on the model, who's weight was given as 7kg less than me -- not an insignificant amount. Being that this is a tagged 38, I had my doubts, but I do think this fit works for me. I would describe it as superhero costume tight, but for this style of jacket, that's just about perfect. Despite being this tight, I have great mobility thanks to the design of the shoulders, which are built in such a way that they feel just as comfortable if not more so with my arms raised into a rider's position as they feel down by my sides. I have to let out the waist adjusters completely, to zip it, but apart from that it envelops me like a second skin.

And what a second skin it is! This is the legendary comp weight leather, the nicest I've seen in person on any Vanson: thick, heavy, tight grain, shiny beautiful black, with characteristics very much like the 3.5oz HH that Lost Worlds uses, only with better looking grain. The jacket weighs 6.25 lbs.

As to the model, the seller's description says that it is a leather version of the Vanson Clubman, which was a waxed cotton textile jacket that I have little other information on. From what I see the Clubman does look like to me it uses the same pattern as the VAJ3, but has a different pocket configuration, a single vertical pocket on the wearer's left chest rather than the two symmetrical slanted pockets on the VAJ3. I like this chest pocket design a lot better than on the standard VAJ3, it just looks better to me.

Searching "vanson clubman" I found a store selling the textile Clubman, where I found the photos below, yet nothing on vansonleathers.com about this model whatsoever.



I haven't seen a VAJ3 in person, but from the information on Vanson's page, it does seem like it's more or less the same jacket, other than the chest pocket. Vanson mentions "double leather at shoulders and elbows" which this doesn't have, but given the comp weight thickness, I don't think it needed it. There's still a stitch line where I assume the double-thick panels would be attached, but feeling the material between my fingers, I can detect no second layer, and the stitching appears to be decorative, as I can see no structural function to this stitching.

Speaking of stitching, overall the stitching quality is outstanding, flawless, the best I've ever seen on a Vanson jacket, and the equal of any jacket by any other maker. Whoever built this at Vanson must have been one of their best machinists, and did an absolutely bang-up job.

Lining is lightweight, grey cotton, and not at all warm, making it a good summer jacket. There are two inside pockets. Zippers and snap hardware are chromed, Vanson-branded, I presume YKK, and robust. The double main zipper makes it a little easier to get some room at the waist if I need it.

In short, I can't say enough good things about this jacket, it is incredible, and if Vanson could still source this leather, I'd give it my highest recommendation.

 

[Monitor]

Well, I did a little detective work, found it on Yahoo! Japan auctions for about half what it was listed at on eBay, and checked the numbers carefully, and decided to take a chance on it.

DHL gets a lot of negativity for being expensive and incurring customs duties more often than other shippers, but they do delivery overseas extremely fast, and it arrived 2 days after the buyee shipped it to me, well packaged and pristine.

This seller had photos of a fit model wearing the jacket, and gave their height and weight, and it looked good on the model, who's weight was given as 7kg less than me -- not an insignificant amount. Being that this is a tagged 38, I had my doubts, but I do think this fit works for me. I would describe it as superhero costume tight, but for this style of jacket, that's just about perfect. Despite being this tight, I have great mobility thanks to the design of the shoulders, which are built in such a way that they feel just as comfortable if not more so with my arms raised into a rider's position as they feel down by my sides. I have to let out the waist adjusters completely, to zip it, but apart from that it envelops me like a second skin.

And what a second skin it is! This is the legendary comp weight leather, the nicest I've seen in person on any Vanson: thick, heavy, tight grain, shiny beautiful black, with characteristics very much like the 3.5oz HH that Lost Worlds uses, only with better looking grain. The jacket weighs 6.25 lbs.

As to the model, the seller's description says that it is a leather version of the Vanson Clubman, which was a waxed cotton textile jacket that I have little other information on. From what I see the Clubman does look like to me it uses the same pattern as the VAJ3, but has a different pocket configuration, a single vertical pocket on the wearer's left chest rather than the two symmetrical slanted pockets on the VAJ3. I like this chest pocket design a lot better than on the standard VAJ3, it just looks better to me.

Searching "vanson clubman" I found a store selling the textile Clubman, where I found the photos below, yet nothing on vansonleathers.com about this model whatsoever.

View attachment 296198 View attachment 296199 View attachment 296200 View attachment 296201

I haven't seen a VAJ3 in person, but from the information on Vanson's page, it does seem like it's more or less the same jacket, other than the chest pocket. Vanson mentions "double leather at shoulders and elbows" which this doesn't have, but given the comp weight thickness, I don't think it needed it. There's still a stitch line where I assume the double-thick panels would be attached, but feeling the material between my fingers, I can detect no second layer, and the stitching appears to be decorative, as I can see no structural function to this stitching.

Speaking of stitching, overall the stitching quality is outstanding, flawless, the best I've ever seen on a Vanson jacket, and the equal of any jacket by any other maker. Whoever built this at Vanson must have been one of their best machinists, and did an absolutely bang-up job.

Lining is lightweight, grey cotton, and not at all warm, making it a good summer jacket. There are two inside pockets. Zippers and snap hardware are chromed, Vanson-branded, I presume YKK, and robust. The double main zipper makes it a little easier to get some room at the waist if I need it.

In short, I can't say enough good things about this jacket, it is incredible, and if Vanson could still source this leather, I'd give it my highest recommendation.

Well let's see it!

 

[Guppy]

Well let's see it!

I've posted the sale photos above, but yea, I need to do some fit pics. Natural lighting has been bad here lately, as typical for this time of year. I'll try to get some at first opportunity.

I did send the serial number to Vanson, and got this information from them:

That jacket was completed back in January of 2012. It was made for Goldie Garage, a customer of ours in Japan. It was made as a batch oddity - meaning that they came up with a design based off something we already have, and had a bunch of those jackets made.

I couldn't even tell you how much it would have cost when it was made.

So, it sounds like this was a limited run, and likely very expensive considering it's an American jacket made for and sold to the Japanese market, and a limited run item. I thought I overpaid a bit for it, especially with the additional overseas costs, but it ended up about what a new Vanson costs, and considering the rarity, quality of the leather, and stitching, and the condition, I can't really complain.

I found a business registry record for Goldie Garage, it appears that their website doesn't exist anymore, so probably they went out of business, but they are listed as a dealer of Vanson, Schott, Aero, Bates, Lewis Leathers, and others. Sounds like it must have been an expensive place to walk through.

 

[TREEMAN]

Can't wait to see the fit pics.....