achee
New in Town
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Hello all,
I recently purchased a new custom leather jacket from Johnson Leathers in San Francisco and I would like to share my experiences. I've purchased jackets now from Himel leather, Aero, and now Johnson so I've had experience with working with each of these places. Each has their pros and cons and I've been very impressed with what I got from Johnson. First, here's the pics of my new jacket.
I live in San Francisco and I'd heard of Johnson Leathers. But had I simply looked at their website and their store front, I would have been very hesitant about ordering from them. I read a lot of positive reviews on this board so I thought I'd go check them out. I went into their store a little while back and Alan wasn't there so I got to talking with Johnson the owner. Most people deal with Alan. He's a great guy to deal with and is much better with customer relations than Johnson. But as it turns out, Johnson and I had similar backgrounds (We come from the same area and I do leather work on the side) so he was very accommodating with me and showed me around his store and his factory. I ended up spending three hours there just chatting.
I wasn't planning on buying anything and I didn't have anything specific in mind but I saw a jacket on the rack that had a pretty cool vintage kind of design. I decided what the heck and went for it. The jacket I ended up ordering was basically the jacket in the picture but the original had a regular collar and no button tab at the throat. Johnson measured me and we talked about how I wanted the jacket to fit. I wanted the jacket to fit trimmer than the model I tried on. I also told him that I wanted the shawl collar. He wasn't sure how good it would look but told me that he would do a mockup of it in a cheap piece of leather so I can try it. I chose the overdye CXL leather that they had there and he had some leftover Japanese wool plaid from a previous job that I chose for the liner. It's interesting and not commonly mentioned here but they also have deadstock Talon zippers and real horn buttons that you can use if you so choose (cost considerations of course).
Fast forward a few weeks and I have my new jacket. I went in for a fitting where they completed most of the shell of the jacket with the mock-up collar. I tried on the jacket and we made a few adjustments including adding the tab button collar closure. All in all, I am very pleased with the outcome.
As I mentioned above, I've ordered jackets from Himel, Aero, and now Johnson. I think of all of the jackets, this is the one that I'm happiest with.
Himel makes the most vintage correct jackets of the lot. I have the button up Heron from him. The construction techniques are vintage correct. The problem is that because of this, there are some modern conveniences that you give up. The jacket basically cannot be re-lined. The button holes are sewn through the leather and the liner making it basically impossible to change the liner. Also, other than length, there really isn't anything you can change fit wise.
Aero makes nice jackets. I had a board racer made with a single piece back and a D-Pocket put in. The work was very nice on that jacket. The thing that Aero lacks is the ability to make a truly custom jacket (in terms of fit). There are options that one can change and one can change some sizing details like length. But sizing changes that affect the pattern cannot be made (like making the shoulders narrower or wider).
Johnson is (of the three), the truly custom jacket maker. You can get any of their designs modified any way you want or just have them make up a design for you (based on a picture or whatever). They can make pretty much any design. The drawback with Johnson is that they don't have as cool a leather selection (in my opinion) as the first two. I really dig veg tan horse hide and Himel has the Shinki stuff and Aero has the Vicenza leather. Johnson has some nice leathers but they don't have those specific types of veg-tan horse hide. The other thing with Johnson is that their stock designs (at least the ones they display) aren't very nice. You really have to know exactly what you're looking for if you go with them. If you're not local, they can make cloth mockup jackets for you to try on for fit so the jacket is truly custom.
The best part is that of the three, Johnson is the most reasonable in price. Himel is by far the most expensive with Aero in the middle. Even with a full custom jacket, Johnson is still considerably cheaper than Aero.
Anyways, sorry for the long post. Just wanted to share my experience with folks here.
Andrew
I recently purchased a new custom leather jacket from Johnson Leathers in San Francisco and I would like to share my experiences. I've purchased jackets now from Himel leather, Aero, and now Johnson so I've had experience with working with each of these places. Each has their pros and cons and I've been very impressed with what I got from Johnson. First, here's the pics of my new jacket.
I live in San Francisco and I'd heard of Johnson Leathers. But had I simply looked at their website and their store front, I would have been very hesitant about ordering from them. I read a lot of positive reviews on this board so I thought I'd go check them out. I went into their store a little while back and Alan wasn't there so I got to talking with Johnson the owner. Most people deal with Alan. He's a great guy to deal with and is much better with customer relations than Johnson. But as it turns out, Johnson and I had similar backgrounds (We come from the same area and I do leather work on the side) so he was very accommodating with me and showed me around his store and his factory. I ended up spending three hours there just chatting.
I wasn't planning on buying anything and I didn't have anything specific in mind but I saw a jacket on the rack that had a pretty cool vintage kind of design. I decided what the heck and went for it. The jacket I ended up ordering was basically the jacket in the picture but the original had a regular collar and no button tab at the throat. Johnson measured me and we talked about how I wanted the jacket to fit. I wanted the jacket to fit trimmer than the model I tried on. I also told him that I wanted the shawl collar. He wasn't sure how good it would look but told me that he would do a mockup of it in a cheap piece of leather so I can try it. I chose the overdye CXL leather that they had there and he had some leftover Japanese wool plaid from a previous job that I chose for the liner. It's interesting and not commonly mentioned here but they also have deadstock Talon zippers and real horn buttons that you can use if you so choose (cost considerations of course).
Fast forward a few weeks and I have my new jacket. I went in for a fitting where they completed most of the shell of the jacket with the mock-up collar. I tried on the jacket and we made a few adjustments including adding the tab button collar closure. All in all, I am very pleased with the outcome.
As I mentioned above, I've ordered jackets from Himel, Aero, and now Johnson. I think of all of the jackets, this is the one that I'm happiest with.
Himel makes the most vintage correct jackets of the lot. I have the button up Heron from him. The construction techniques are vintage correct. The problem is that because of this, there are some modern conveniences that you give up. The jacket basically cannot be re-lined. The button holes are sewn through the leather and the liner making it basically impossible to change the liner. Also, other than length, there really isn't anything you can change fit wise.
Aero makes nice jackets. I had a board racer made with a single piece back and a D-Pocket put in. The work was very nice on that jacket. The thing that Aero lacks is the ability to make a truly custom jacket (in terms of fit). There are options that one can change and one can change some sizing details like length. But sizing changes that affect the pattern cannot be made (like making the shoulders narrower or wider).
Johnson is (of the three), the truly custom jacket maker. You can get any of their designs modified any way you want or just have them make up a design for you (based on a picture or whatever). They can make pretty much any design. The drawback with Johnson is that they don't have as cool a leather selection (in my opinion) as the first two. I really dig veg tan horse hide and Himel has the Shinki stuff and Aero has the Vicenza leather. Johnson has some nice leathers but they don't have those specific types of veg-tan horse hide. The other thing with Johnson is that their stock designs (at least the ones they display) aren't very nice. You really have to know exactly what you're looking for if you go with them. If you're not local, they can make cloth mockup jackets for you to try on for fit so the jacket is truly custom.
The best part is that of the three, Johnson is the most reasonable in price. Himel is by far the most expensive with Aero in the middle. Even with a full custom jacket, Johnson is still considerably cheaper than Aero.
Anyways, sorry for the long post. Just wanted to share my experience with folks here.
Andrew
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