Just when you thought you had seen it all . . . (Warning: Not for the fainthearted)

[barnabus]

It's the mindbogglingly craziest thing ever and one of the best examples of the power of social media - Instagram, in this case - that I have ever witnessed.

Ship John started off as... Nothing. Web-page selling a couple of leather wallets, the most basic, folded kind & some beanies, story of which you can read here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/aj9s70
Anyway, it was one amongst dozens of such stores that popped up at the time (and arguably, one of the shittier ones) that woulda faded into obscurity within a year had the guy who runs it - Mike I think his name is? - not been a marketing genius. He began posting photos, stories of that hipster wannabe back-to-the-land lifestyle (aesthetic, as kids would call it nowadays), y'know, sunsets, forest, axes, jeans, choir-coats, baseball hats, dogs, dirty old motorcycles with taped head-light, "simpler times"... You know the drill. And he was good at it. Also, making himself the main character of these stories was a good call, too because of his personal style that's just right at the edge of being edgy, while never truly crossing it thus sitting right with either crowd.

Right around that time, they began introducing clothes. Hard to say why, though. As you can see, they've got a couple of the most basic, uninspired shirts & T-shirts, a pair of jeans and one canvas jacket - The Wills.

The Wills is in no way special. It is a simplified version of Carhartt's & Key Imperial's 1960's chore-coat that would've had the same fate as the beanies, had it not been for Mike's raw, natural talent at Instagram.

Guy spent a few weeks rolling around the dirt in this jacket, posted a few photos and next thing you know, hordes of bearded guys in flannel shirts and baseball caps wanted in on it. Not the jacket. Nobody in the world buys this jacket because they want a boring-ass, mustard chore-coat. Nobody wants to do any actual labor wearing a $600 jacket. No. They buy it because they want to be Mike.

And the most ironic thing is that Mike, the owner of Ship John, is a pure businessman. White-collar, a tie and a suit, "Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark..." business card businessman.
He's got Wesco, Good Art HLYWD, $300+ axes that are actually sold-out) and he even has Langlitz making the leather version of the jacket for him... And people are buying into it, paying hundreds for their place in a years-long imaginary, gimmick waiting list so that they can get the most basic, boring, unflattering canvas jacket that shouldn't cost more than $59.99.

So there you have it. Ship John is a tale of the American dream and the power of social media. And nothing more. And nothing less...

My goodness.

I can understand the appeal of "simpler times" though. I even have a dirty old motorcycle.

But ironically I think I moved much closer to a simpler, less stressful existence by deleting all my social media profiles a few years back. Which means I don't have much of a clue about any of the things that people get all excited about.

Now I'm oblivious but happy.

 

[MrProper]

It's the mindbogglingly craziest thing ever and one of the best examples of the power of social media - Instagram, in this case - that I have ever witnessed.

Ship John started off as... Nothing. Web-page selling a couple of leather wallets, the most basic, folded kind & some beanies, story of which you can read here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/aj9s70
Anyway, it was one amongst dozens of such stores that popped up at the time (and arguably, one of the shittier ones) that woulda faded into obscurity within a year had the guy who runs it - Mike I think his name is? - not been a marketing genius. He began posting photos, stories of that hipster wannabe back-to-the-land lifestyle (aesthetic, as kids would call it nowadays), y'know, sunsets, forest, axes, jeans, choir-coats, baseball hats, dogs, dirty old motorcycles with taped head-light, "simpler times"... You know the drill. And he was good at it. Also, making himself the main character of these stories was a good call, too because of his personal style that's just right at the edge of being edgy, while never truly crossing it thus sitting right with either crowd.

Right around that time, they began introducing clothes. Hard to say why, though. As you can see, they've got a couple of the most basic, uninspired shirts & T-shirts, a pair of jeans and one canvas jacket - The Wills.

The Wills is in no way special. It is a simplified version of Carhartt's & Key Imperial's 1960's chore-coat that would've had the same fate as the beanies, had it not been for Mike's raw, natural talent at Instagram.

Guy spent a few weeks rolling around the dirt in this jacket, posted a few photos and next thing you know, hordes of bearded guys in flannel shirts and baseball caps wanted in on it. Not the jacket. Nobody in the world buys this jacket because they want a boring-ass, mustard chore-coat. Nobody wants to do any actual labor wearing a $600 jacket. No. They buy it because they want to be Mike.

And the most ironic thing is that Mike, the owner of Ship John, is a pure businessman. White-collar, a tie and a suit, "Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark..." business card businessman.
He's got Wesco, Good Art HLYWD, $300+ axes that are actually sold-out) and he even has Langlitz making the leather version of the jacket for him... And people are buying into it, paying hundreds for their place in a years-long imaginary, gimmick waiting list so that they can get the most basic, boring, unflattering canvas jacket that shouldn't cost more than $59.99.

So there you have it. Ship John is a tale of the American dream and the power of social media. And nothing more. And nothing less...

Perfect. Now I just have to make everyone want to be like me and I have to become a businessman too. Easy. lol

In any case, an interesting story. He is to be congratulated on his success.

 

[Monitor]

Perfect. Now I just have to make everyone want to be like me and I have to become a businessman too. Easy. lol

In any case, an interesting story. He is to be congratulated on his success.

Absolutely! I may not like the jacket and especially not the waiting list business model which I believe is utter bs but I'm really happy for their success.

 

[jadub]

Wow, this is a safety first kinda guy. It’s a Harley jacket for sale on Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1405835147/

 

[Brutus]

Absolutely! I may not like the jacket and especially not the waiting list business model which I believe is utter bs but I'm really happy for their success.

Having finally found a SJ V1 Wills I can say the jacket has exceeded my expectations. The workmanship is truly first rate and there's just no denying they make one helluva jacket. Now having said that the whole Instagram pseudo workingman vibe is cringe. Yeah I get it marketing and all but could they please tone it down a bit, lol...maybe not try to check all the "cool" boxes.

 

[Jasonissm]

Real Japan Blues (The Flat Head) quilted leather jacket... very nice construction but the design is uhhh...

 

[ton312]

Real Japan Blues (The Flat Head) quilted leather jacket... very nice construction but the design is uhhh...

View attachment 492879

If they had not quilted the body I’d actually really like that. Reminds me of some old Brimaco CR’s. But yeah they went too far.

 

[red devil]

If they had not quilted the body I’d actually really like that. Reminds me of some old Brimaco CR’s. But yeah they went too far.

Agreed

 

[MrProper]

Finally found a jacket that is long enough for me out of the box. Ok, the sleeves seem short, but what won't you do for a cool shearling jacket? Ok, possibly be mistaken for a pig, but otherwise?

 

[GHT]

Finally found a jacket that is long enough for me out of the box. Ok, the sleeves seem short, but what won't you do for a cool shearling jacket? Ok, possibly be mistaken for a pig, but otherwise?
View attachment 496760 View attachment 496761

I know whose wardrobe that came out of.

 

[Canuck Panda]

The jacket is actually a very decent copy of the model B. But the place of origin is questionable...

 

[Marc mndt]

Fine creek leather tracksuit. I feel bad for the cow who had to give her life for this.

 

[torfjord]

Fine creek leather tracksuit. I feel bad for the cow who had to give her life for this.

View attachment 500037 View attachment 500038 View attachment 500039

To be fair though, as hideous as this is, the cow likely gave her life to become food and the leather is just a by product. But this really is an abomination.

 

[Jasonissm]

Absolute hack job to convert this Langlitz Cascade to a vest... just why?! Even the hem is messed up...

 

[Canuck Panda]

High Mywayman

 

[Aloysius]

View attachment 500965
View attachment 500966
High Mywayman

@Edward needs to see this.

 

[Jasonissm]

View attachment 500965
View attachment 500966
High Mywayman

I remember seeing so many of these on the Japanese sites, and being utterly confused at them. They company (?) who makes them is called 666 as well you can see it a bit on this tag, adding even more to the confusion

 

[Canuck Panda]

@Edward needs to see this.

I remember seeing so many of these on the Japanese sites, and being utterly confused at them. They company (?) who makes them is called 666 as well you can see it a bit on this tag, adding even more to the confusion

666 first made them in UK, I wonder who did the contract work for them. Now they're made in Japan, I suspect it's one of those Y2 leather's workshops.
All jokes aside, the UK made Mywaymans has all the original details right, except the label. Even their red quilt is the UK (Lewis) nylon type not the Japanese orange red rayon type. There is a mint original one on Auction now for over ¥300k ridiculous price gougers.

 

[Edward]

@Edward needs to see this.

Great, aren't they? It's such a cute touch, with a lovely little touch of humour.

 

[Rugby]

Talking about exotics. For just only $20000 you could have both. The alligator coat is priced $18000. The snake just 2k