The Real McCoys '30s Cooper Jacket in "Black" Horsehide

[handymike]

It fits you really well, congratulations!

 

[Monitor]

The fit is really great dude! No doubt about it. For the life of me though, I cannot understand the embossed grain! It is not historically accurate to anything I’ve ever seen in years of collecting vintage jackets. I just don’t get it. That process is designed to cover up flaws in inferior hides, which clearly this jacket is not made from. Just can’t wrap my brain around why that was done.

Anyway, jacket is absolutely spot on fit wise, shame they didn’t replicate this in a hide more befitting the original, which is not embossed.

I wanted to ask you or @tmitchell59 if you guys have ever seen a proof of RMC's claim of "...printing of other hide patterns which was frequently seen on leather jackets made in the west coast of America at the time" because I've never heard of this being a thing until I dunno, 70's.

 

[ton312]

I wanted to ask you or @tmitchell59 if you guys have ever seen a proof of RMC's claim of "...printing of other hide patterns which was frequently seen on leather jackets made in the west coast of America at the time" because I've never heard of this being a thing until I dunno, 70's.

To the best of my knowledge printed leather would’ve only been seen on sporting goods and sporting equipment. Not on garment grade leather.

 

[Blackadder]

To the best of my knowledge printed leather would’ve only been seen on sporting goods and sporting equipment. Not on garment grade leather.

You can also find them on both high end and low end leather accessories. As for jackets, I have seen some high end fashion imitation snakeskin leather jackets use printed leather.

 

[AeroFan_07]

Dude - very nice fit and as always, great review and photographic work there. The first set of photos, shown on the floor & with the boots, I was almost thinking this is a greyish-brown leather, instead of a deeper brown. Your first set of fit photos at least suggests the idea of "black" however again clearly brown, and varies due to the light considerably.

I also really like the details and the "non-motorcycle" cross zip idea. Kind of takes the concept of the Aero Bootlegger and kicks it up a notch. The stiching, the fine-ness of the details, and the fit all work together to make this a briliant jacket on you. Given your dimensions, I can certainly see how the fit aspect is a tricky one indeed.

As to the leather itself, I'll quote a famous Iowa saying - "it is what it is." If it's something you like - indeed go for it. There are several other brands using "printed" or corrected leathers and they are just fine. If that's not your cup of tea there are plenty of other vendors offering un-corrected Horsehide, etc to choose from. From 10 feet back you would never notice. Up close the "grain" looks a bit like goatskin that I have owned in the past. Since it fits you so well, wear it and enjoy it, and hopefully you can post some break-in photos. It will be interesting to see how it develops as you add character and useage to this jacket.

 

[Blackadder]

Dude - very nice fit and as always, great review and photographic work there. The first set of photos, shown on the floor & with the boots, I was almost thinking this is a greyish-brown leather, instead of a deeper brown. Your first set of fit photos at least suggests the idea of "black" however again clearly brown, and varies due to the light considerably.

I also really like the details and the "non-motorcycle" cross zip idea. Kind of takes the concept of the Aero Bootlegger and kicks it up a notch. The stiching, the fine-ness of the details, and the fit all work together to make this a briliant jacket on you. Given your dimensions, I can certainly see how the fit aspect is a tricky one indeed.

As to the leather itself, I'll quote a famous Iowa saying - "it is what it is." If it's something you like - indeed go for it. There are several other brands using "printed" or corrected leathers and they are just fine. If that's not your cup of tea there are plenty of other vendors offering un-corrected Horsehide, etc to choose from. From 10 feet back you would never notice. Up close the "grain" looks a bit like goatskin that I have owned in the past. Since it fits you so well, wear it and enjoy it, and hopefully you can post some break-in photos. It will be interesting to see how it develops as you add character and useage to this jacket.

I think this printed leather is a bit different from corrected grains. My understandings is corrected grain such as scotch grain does not have the criss-cross you see here because the "correction" though fake is still to imitate real grain so will never have that criss-cross pattern.
I have seen it on imitation snakeskin leather though because it makes the leather scale like.

 

[Marc mndt]

I think this printed leather is a bit different from corrected grains. My understandings is corrected grain such as scotch grain does not have the criss-cross you see here because the "correction" though fake is still to imitate real grain so will never have that criss-cross pattern.
I have seen it on imitation snakeskin leather though because it makes the leather scale like.

I think this is called scotch grain. Isn't this printed as well?

 

[Blackadder]

I think this is called scotch grain. Isn't this printed as well? View attachment 285846

Yes that is scotch grain a corrected leather but did you see the criss-cross on the RM besides the grain creating the diamond shapes? That is like the printing on a basket ball and not on a garment.

 

[Marc mndt]

I don't think I have. What do you mean by 'criss-cross'?

 

[diabel]

Fit pictures:

Nice jacket and fits you very well! And clearly it is not black but nice dark brown. The printing is only visible close by. Maybe rmc tried to make it look like a goatskin?

 

[Marc mndt]

@dudewutthehecks how does the leather feel, how is its temper?
I'm curious because I once had a billfold made from printed leather like this, but that was really hard to the touch.

 

[Harris HTM]

This is a new model for this year from RMC and as soon as I saw it on Standard and Strange, I fell in love with it. However, I did not buy it immediately for a couple of reasons. At the time, I still had my Freewheelers San Mateo and did not need another black leather jacket and I didn't like the printed horsehide they used for this jacket. The jacket sold out and I thought I had gotten it out of my system even though I loved the design.

A little while later, I ended up selling the San Mateo because it was starting to feel too long on me and I didn't like how it looked unzipped. What I realized is that my favorite jacket style was the 1930s-40s style cross zip sports jackets. I'm not super into motorcycle jackets and as of now. I love cross zips though with my Sunset being my all time favorite jacket. After selling the San Mateo, I talked to Neil, the owner of Standard and Strange about this jacket and he told me that it was more of a dark brown than a black. Sure, he owns the store and I guess by definition he needs to sell product, but he's always been honest with me so I trusted him and requested a special order for this jacket in size 38.

Better yet, the measurements are perfect for me with a fairly wide chest and a short body and short sleeves. At 5'7" with a 41.5" chest and now a 31.5" waist, I like a slim fitting jacket that is wide in the chest, but short. This isn't exactly easy for me to find. My Freewheelers Sunset is beautiful, but it's a little bit long and not quite as slim as I would prefer for a perfect look (though it's deerskin, so a slouchy, comfortable look works for it.) The Caboose fits me well and is nice and slim, but is kind of long even though I like it a lot. The new Mulholland is fantastic, but sleeves and body are slightly longer than I would want. Technically, this jacket is undersized, but I do think this is probably the new best fitting jacket that I have ever owned. Losing weight helps so I think it's just that this jacket fits me the best AFTER losing weight.

Construction is excellent, but definitely not at the level of Freewheelers. They really do distinguish themselves from the rest. The printed horsehide is interesting. Probably not something you should go for as a first leather. Obviously, it is corrected grain because of the printing, but it looks nicer up close than I thought it would. Would I prefer a "normal" Shinki leather? Absolutely. With that said, this is a period detail of the 1930s which made me more accepting of it. At this point, I have owned a total of 10 Shinki jackets before this one so doing something different is fine.

What is most interesting is that Neil was right and this jacket is definitely not black... not at all. The liner is black and the buttons are black and so you can see in contrast that this jacket is clearly a dark chocolate brown. Even the thread is dark brown and not black. The core of the leather is sort of a standard brown which is nice. I have a lot of true tea core leathers with light brown cores and it's nice to have something that will just stay dark brown, though the core is lighter than the outer surface. Why RMC labelled this jacket as black is beyond me. It works out though as I prefer to have a dark brown jacket so I'm thrilled about it - perplexed, but thrilled nonetheless.

If you read all of that rambling, then thank you. Time for the photos.

Some photos to show that the jacket is brown and not black based on the boots it goes with:

These are some darker brown boots. Still lighter than the jacket, but they go well together.

Here are some black boots. This does not work. At the very least, you can clearly tell the jacket is not black by comparison.

I think the jacket even looks better with some natural CXL boots than it does with the black:

I can't say that that's a jacket or hide I'd buy, but these Engineers... Damn! real masterpieces.

 

[Harris HTM]

I think this is called scotch grain. Isn't this printed as well? View attachment 285846

Islay?

 

[Grayland]

IMO this is by far your best-fitting jacket. The length is perfect for this type of jacket and your height.

 

[Marc mndt]

Islay?

Yep

 

[AeroFan_07]

Yes that is scotch grain a corrected leather but did you see the criss-cross on the RM besides the grain creating the diamond shapes? That is like the printing on a basket ball and not on a garment.

I think you may be reffering to this "effect" that is observed when viewing the leather up close. Again, not perhaps a deal breaker for me, but gives some unique character to the jacket:

 

[ton312]

Up close the "grain" looks a bit like goatskin

I thought this too...but then why not just use goat? I'd say it's still too uniform a pattern to replicate an actual animal...when I think of printed leather I think of these things, like these vintage basketballs/footballs:

These items being given an embossed grain to improve grip. The jacket does fit really well. I would be quite pleased with that fit myself. I wonder if it will tame and become less obviously printed with wear. Like the elbows/forearms smoothing out the way an old football does.

 

[Marc mndt]

I think you may be reffering to this "effect" that is observed when viewing the leather up close. Again, not perhaps a deal breaker for me, but gives some unique character to the jacket:

View attachment 285847

I wonder how this leather will develop. Could turn our nice. The scotch grain gets less pronounced in areas of friction.

 

[Psant25]

Looks great dude!

 

[Jin431]

Fit pictures:

That is tight, dude! Congratulations on another stunner. I don't mind the corrected grain, if it's good enough for RMC then it must be of good stock. That is so awesome to get off the rack sizing that beats a MTO fit in terms of getting to the near perfect fit we all try to achieve