dudewuttheheck
I'll Lock Up
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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:
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:
