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Ideal location/climate for leather jackets

TartuWolf

One Too Many
Messages
1,233
Location
Tartu, Estonia
This is another interesting idea that I had for a thread recently (sorry that I keep making these).
Similar idea has been discussed in many "one jacket for the rest of my life" type threads.

Imagine that you're choosing where to live based on your leather jacket hobby/addiction/obsession.
You need a certain climate to maximize wear time.
Right now I'll stick to leather jackets and exclude shearling for the sake of argument. Otherwise the low temperatures become a lot more flexible.
From my experience leather jackets thrive in temperatures between -5 and +15 Celsius.
You can push that up or down a bit, but that seems to be the sweet spot between t-shirt only and serious layering.

So you want a place with several attributes:
- Rather low average temperature.
- Temperature variation / range as low as possible.

Tried to search for a bit of information related to this topic and found these 2 pages:
https://listfist.com/list-of-countries-by-average-temperature (most useful, has both range and average)
https://listfist.com/list-of-countries-by-temperature-range

From looking at the data for a while I came to the conclusions that these are the best places to live in the worlds if you love (wearing) leather jackets:
- UK
- Ireland
- New Zealand
- Chile
- Faroe Islands
- Iceland

I think living on the coast would be ideal as well for even smaller temperature fluctuations.
Certain coastal locations around Norway and Sweden would probably work extremely well too.

So yeah, you UK folks have it as good as it gets.

Thoughts and discussions welcome!
 

Aloysius

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,993
San Francisco Bay Area- I live in LA, but have been working up in Marin, just North of the Golden Gate Bridge. Last week the temps were still below 60 in the mornings. Even in June, I was wearing my puffer outside.

This is promising because there's been a chance of my moving to the Bay and I have been absolutely dreading the thought of abandoning my outerwear.
 

Canuck Panda

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,723
Leather enthusiasts will wear leather anywhere, hot, cold, wet, dry. No matter. All you need is air conditioning or patio heater.

But yeah, coastal climates are easier, one can easily get three season wear out of leather jackets.
 

Aloysius

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,993
I didn't own leather jackets at the time, just a couple of well-worn Barbours, but the best climate I've ever lived for leather jackets was in Scotland. Not overly cold nor overly hot (which England sometimes gets).
 

jadub

A-List Customer
Messages
339
Location
Saco, Maine
I live in Maine, US and we tend to have what I concider a pitiful non shearling season. We often go from 30-60 in a few short weeks. On the other end of summer we can have a little more time. I like like my b-6 but would much rather wear leather. Unfortunately it’s the b-6 3-4 months a year. Leather maybe 1-2 months split between spring and fall. I’m even under 1.5 miles from the Atlantic.
 

El Marro

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,603
Location
California
San Francisco Bay Area- I live in LA, but have been working up in Marin, just North of the Golden Gate Bridge. Last week the temps were still below 60 in the mornings. Even in June, I was wearing my puffer outside.
Yep. I have lived in the Bay Area for most of my life and it is great leather jacket weather most of the year. There are only a couple of really cold days during the winter (low 30s I mean) where I would reach for a wool jacket instead of a leather one. And our summers are pretty mild. I almost always leave the house wearing a leather jacket and then I strip it off once the sun comes out.
 

El Marro

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,603
Location
California
This is promising because there's been a chance of my moving to the Bay and I have been absolutely dreading the thought of abandoning my outerwear.
I can confidently say that you can put most of your collection to good use here. You might want to leave the B-3 at home though, it’s almost never cold enough to warrant one.
 

dudewuttheheck

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,422
You're missing by far the beat location in the planet- San Francisco, CA. It's leather jacket weather nearly the entire year. You're forgetting that those other places get too cold for leather jackets. San Francisco is rarely too warm for leather and never too cold.

Scotland seems like a close second.
 

itsallgood

One of the Regulars
Messages
179
This is promising because there's been a chance of my moving to the Bay and I have been absolutely dreading the thought of abandoning my outerwear.

The San Francisco Bay Area has many micro climates. During the summer and within The City itself, the fog will come in and stop at the same block day after day after day. Inside the fog, it's cold and windy. Just outside the fog, it's sunny and breezy. In the greater Bay Area during spring, summer and fall, a five mile change can be the difference from chilly wind and water dripping from the tree leaves, to stifling hot. Winter time, the weather is pretty much the same everywhere in the Bay Area.
 

Nacho

Practically Family
Messages
598
Van(Rain)couver when it’s not raining. The weather is cold yet warm enough for leather jacket with t-shirt only or a medium thickness sweater.

But similar to San Fran, this place is getting too expensive!
 

zebedee

One Too Many
Messages
1,906
Location
Shanghai
Somewhere cool to cold. If I were choosing where to live based on leather jackets, though, I'd check myself in for a serious talking-to :)

I'm in Hong Kong. It's jacket weather for about three months a year, but I'd not be anywhere else for, as they say, all the rice in China.
 

attack_decay

One of the Regulars
Messages
128
From the U.S. side, I agree with what had been said here, Northern California and the Pacific Northwest - if you live reasonably near the water, the Pacific keeps the temperature in leather jacket range just about year round.
 

nattevagten

A-List Customer
Messages
326
Any country in the Baltic Sea region. It’s mid-July and only +17-18 °C (c. 66 °F). Perfect weather for a leather jacket.
 
Last edited:

Franko13

New in Town
Messages
41
If anyone from the list has a sister looking for US citizenship please let me know. It‘s summer in NYC and I’m dying to wear my leather jacket! :)
 

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