PhilR
New in Town
- Messages
- 37
- Location
- SF Bay Area CA
After pouring through MANY great posts here on FL, I took a simple thought of needing a new leather jacket and turned it into an awesome custom piece tailored to my measurements and specifications. I thought long and hard about Aero, but my need for a jacket in time for winter (two months) and also wanting to support a local business led me to Johnson Leather in San Francisco. Of course it helps that I live 30 minutes away from the store.
I showed up and browsed their great selection and tried on a few rack jackets. Those reinforced what I already knew - nothing off the rack ever fits me. I have a 44" chest and 33" waist which makes most jackets that fit my upper body look like tents on me. I already had an idea of what I wanted in mind and went through it with the tailor on site. I wanted a jacket based loosely on the horse hide Aero Hercules, with its longer length and a very fitted style. I also wanted a simpler look with only two pockets and no side straps. A few other details taken from posts I have read here on FL were used too. The guys at Johnson said they don't do nearly as much horse leather as they used to, but they happened to have a great hide exactly the color I wanted that was ready to go when I came in.
Extensive measurements were taken and I came back in a couple of weeks to try on the test fit mock-up jacket. A couple more fit modifications were made from that, and then the wait began. In a little over four weeks the jacket was ready. It looked amazing, really heavy and stiff, and I could tell the quality was there. Unfortunately the fit was not nailed out of the gate. It came out many inches larger around the waist and back. I was disappointed, but they gladly kept the jacket to be trimmed up. Another week and I went in for round two. Again another misfire, the waist fit perfectly but there was still too much leather in the back and the jacket had a five inch ripple down the middle of it. Again it was gladly received for one more round of tailoring. Third time was a charm, the fit was perfect. It could probably use another inch or so from the back, but with break in I'm sure it will look better. I can also add thicker sweaters underneath if necessary with the extra space.
The value of this jacket is what really amazed me. It blows my mind that high end clothing stores can sell jackets for thousands of dollars and they have a fraction of the quality and none of the fit of this great jacket. This jacket came in around 20% less than what Aero would have charged me for something similar. While I don't have a spare Areo handy to compare stitch to stitch and grain to grain quality, I'm really happy with this one and know I will have MANY years of great use from it. I also know that this is probably the start of a very expensive habit, and the Langlitz butterscotch goat is now on my short list.
The guys at Johnson are great to work with, however I know my experience would not have been quite as good if I didn't live close by. Shipping back & forth a few times to get the right fit would have been frustrating.
On to some photos. The shots of the jacket being worn were backlit, so I had to make some brightness adjustments to see details better. Unfortunately that took out all the color, but the closeup shots show the details of the color and grain much better. These were taken after about a week of break in. I've been wearing it as much as possible, and sitting on it at work to help loosen it up even faster. A rain session is next when the clouds come back.
Thanks to everyone here who has taken the time to post reviews and photos of their jackets! All of that information is gold and really helped me get to this point!
I showed up and browsed their great selection and tried on a few rack jackets. Those reinforced what I already knew - nothing off the rack ever fits me. I have a 44" chest and 33" waist which makes most jackets that fit my upper body look like tents on me. I already had an idea of what I wanted in mind and went through it with the tailor on site. I wanted a jacket based loosely on the horse hide Aero Hercules, with its longer length and a very fitted style. I also wanted a simpler look with only two pockets and no side straps. A few other details taken from posts I have read here on FL were used too. The guys at Johnson said they don't do nearly as much horse leather as they used to, but they happened to have a great hide exactly the color I wanted that was ready to go when I came in.
Extensive measurements were taken and I came back in a couple of weeks to try on the test fit mock-up jacket. A couple more fit modifications were made from that, and then the wait began. In a little over four weeks the jacket was ready. It looked amazing, really heavy and stiff, and I could tell the quality was there. Unfortunately the fit was not nailed out of the gate. It came out many inches larger around the waist and back. I was disappointed, but they gladly kept the jacket to be trimmed up. Another week and I went in for round two. Again another misfire, the waist fit perfectly but there was still too much leather in the back and the jacket had a five inch ripple down the middle of it. Again it was gladly received for one more round of tailoring. Third time was a charm, the fit was perfect. It could probably use another inch or so from the back, but with break in I'm sure it will look better. I can also add thicker sweaters underneath if necessary with the extra space.
The value of this jacket is what really amazed me. It blows my mind that high end clothing stores can sell jackets for thousands of dollars and they have a fraction of the quality and none of the fit of this great jacket. This jacket came in around 20% less than what Aero would have charged me for something similar. While I don't have a spare Areo handy to compare stitch to stitch and grain to grain quality, I'm really happy with this one and know I will have MANY years of great use from it. I also know that this is probably the start of a very expensive habit, and the Langlitz butterscotch goat is now on my short list.
The guys at Johnson are great to work with, however I know my experience would not have been quite as good if I didn't live close by. Shipping back & forth a few times to get the right fit would have been frustrating.
On to some photos. The shots of the jacket being worn were backlit, so I had to make some brightness adjustments to see details better. Unfortunately that took out all the color, but the closeup shots show the details of the color and grain much better. These were taken after about a week of break in. I've been wearing it as much as possible, and sitting on it at work to help loosen it up even faster. A rain session is next when the clouds come back.
Thanks to everyone here who has taken the time to post reviews and photos of their jackets! All of that information is gold and really helped me get to this point!
