We are out of touch with mainstream jacket consumers . . . .

[Fanch]

I couldn't find a single one of those I personally could wear. The only cross-zip that I like is the Aero Bootlegger, although that's just my personal taste and realize I am showing my age here. At just under $5000 this one is in a class all by itself.

 

[itsallgood]

I think this article is in support of fashion forward merchandising. Very different market. I had a strange experience last summer. I was in my little town just east of San Francisco, had ridden a motorcycle over to the bank and was dismounting. As I was removing ear plugs and unzipping a Johnsons Leather jacket, I hear someone calling to me. Parked nearby was a huge, brand new, Mercedes SUV. A young guy, in broken English, wanted to talk leather jackets. He said he was a fashion designer and had flown in from Italy for a fashion show in San Francisco and wanted me to see his samples and wanted to know what I thought. He had about a dozen jackets in the back seat, all wrapped nicely. He insisted I inspect the quality of the stitch, the contrasting color of the thread, the softness of the leather, the design of the cut, the hang of the drape, etc. He told me the brands that his jackets would sell under (I didn't recognize nor do I remember any of them) and what the street cost would be. He cited well over $1K and even $2K. I didn't have the heart to tell him that they would tear like paper in a get-off. I wasn't exactly sure where he was going with the conversation because of the language difficulty, but he was heading back to SFO and I had some banking that needed to get done. For some reason, though, he wanted to give me a blue leather jacket that felt more like pajamas than a leather jacket. If his story was all true, I figured he just didn't want to carry them back through customs. Regardless, I declined. I had no use for it and who knows what his true story could have been. If he had just robbed a truck in Oakland, I wasn't interested. What he was showing me, though, could not have been more different from what I was wearing. Those jackets were nice, I suppose, but more for a millennial going clubbing on a Saturday night, which is not my thing.

 

[ton312]

The article actually only featured one jacket, the Schott. Everything else was an abomination

 

[Hh121]

I would rather go naked.

 

[Sloan1874]

I noticed the Schott. It was fine, but I prefer a more Indian Ranger look. The tide of fashion moves back and forth on leather jackets. Some years, cafe racers, others, Perfectos. Let's just hope they don't go back to the 80s monstrosities with ruched elasticated waists, colossal shoulders and sleeves that you can push up above the elbow.

 

[Bushman]

My problem with these jackets is they all range from mediocre to terrible except for the Schott. They all otherwise look the same to me. And furthermore, would it kill to make a moto jacket that would actually go to MY waist with arms that wouldn't make me look like a child trying on his dad's sport coat? C'mon, designers! Throw me a bone, here!

 

[navetsea]

I think this article is in support of fashion forward merchandising. Very different market. I had a strange experience last summer. I was in my little town just east of San Francisco, had ridden a motorcycle over to the bank and was dismounting. As I was removing ear plugs and unzipping a Johnsons Leather jacket, I hear someone calling to me. Parked nearby was a huge, brand new, Mercedes SUV. A young guy, in broken English, wanted to talk leather jackets. He said he was a fashion designer and had flown in from Italy for a fashion show in San Francisco and wanted me to see his samples and wanted to know what I thought. He had about a dozen jackets in the back seat, all wrapped nicely. He insisted I inspect the quality of the stitch, the contrasting color of the thread, the softness of the leather, the design of the cut, the hang of the drape, etc. He told me the brands that his jackets would sell under (I didn't recognize nor do I remember any of them) and what the street cost would be. He cited well over $1K and even $2K. I didn't have the heart to tell him that they would tear like paper in a get-off. I wasn't exactly sure where he was going with the conversation because of the language difficulty, but he was heading back to SFO and I had some banking that needed to get done. For some reason, though, he wanted to give me a blue leather jacket that felt more like pajamas than a leather jacket. If his story was all true, I figured he just didn't want to carry them back through customs. Regardless, I declined. I had no use for it and who knows what his true story could have been. If he had just robbed a truck in Oakland, I wasn't interested. What he was showing me, though, could not have been more different from what I was wearing. Those jackets were nice, I suppose, but more for a millennial going clubbing on a Saturday night, which is not my thing.

sounded like a generic leather jacket scam, surprising they still do that exact same act since it was already captured with cam in youtube and perhaps shown on TV.
in my country the scammer is not that posh in their story & choice of vehicle, but same truckload of "leather" jackets in plastic bags and how they sell direct from factory at factory price, they even run lighter on it to prove they are not plastic, even if they clearly are.

 

[Americanaaa Mark]

sometimes too out of touch. I can't stand some of these old flight jackets on here haha. find a nice mix with the japanese brands like RMC, Freewheelers, Flat Head and also American/NA brands too like Himel, Langlitz, and Schott

 

[BlueWallpaper]

It's amazing how a lot of those jackets are just a variation on the Perfecto which, although not to my taste, many people here like and respect. The main difference is the expectation of someone seriously using that GQ article to buy a leather jacket. Their expectation is to follow through the link to a beautifully presented fashion website. It's the presentation of the website and the contexts of the jackets that disqualify the companies people on this site know well (contexts meaning presented as reproduction rather than jackets to be taken at face value).

The presentation of many of the websites for companies known here is generally pretty bad. Confusing layouts, thumbnail images of jackets and all steeped in historical accuracy. Some of the Japanese sites are better but you can't really link someone to a Japanese site from GQ. Himel has a very nice site which, dates in parentheses aside, fits the bill but unfortunately custom made rules it out (crazy given the reasonable prices relative to many of the jackets on that list). The closest cross over there is in my opinion is The Real McCoys, but not being a US site I think doesn't help it's case (the site references import fees in a banner on the majority of the pages).

 

[ProteinNerd]

What this article told me was I can get an infinitely better designed and constructed jacket made with infinitely better leather for significantly less by avoiding mainstream brands....thanks GQ

 

[red devil]

What this article told me was I can get an infinitely better designed and constructed jacket made with infinitely better leather for significantly less by avoiding mainstream brands....thanks GQ

If you had any doubts, they have been completely squashed

 

[rocketeer]

10/51 Well it's a Schott so can't say it is not a bikers jacket, not me though especially with the Lewis'ish contrast zip tape.
15/51 A better shape but read the next review for more details.
21/51 Again not a bad shape and I love the lining but the fake patina puts in in the cheap Asian bike gear sellers domain.
I think 25/51 says everything about everything on this page about all these jackets.
At $8,008 27/51 looks a little over priced
29/51 I think John Varvatos needs a few weeks tied to a chair in the Aero design office.
39/51 Napper! Only the cheapest jackets were made from this and this particular example looks like the top half of a leather frogman suit.
47/51 could have been made from a heavy duty dustbin liner(garbage can).
49/51 is the only jacket that really looks up to it and even that has the dreaded centre section to cheapen manufacture between male and female styles
So thats my expert review haha(thank god its only my opinion eh)
I am not a fan of the brand as a serious motorcycle jacket for these days but even our own Lewis leathers have some better designs than all of these.
Enjoy your jackets but enjoy your motorcycling which ever style you ride in. GOGO POWER RANGERS

 

[Edward]

If anyone is looking to Schott Perfecto jackets for the broad-shoulder, narrow-waist look then one look at their measurements numbers should end that dream.

Schott have certainly changed their cuts in recent decades (though, of course, Brando, as we now know, wore a Durable; Schott's claim to have made the Brando jacket is true only in that they later bought Durable and absorbed the brand into their own. Since discovering that, I've long felt that Schott's marekting on that front is borderline dishonest.

Seems like the only people wearing cross zip MC style jackets anymore besides real bikers, are women. Women wearing really awful and cheap looking versions of this style in every possible variation is a fad that I'm surprised hasn't burned out yet

They're still very common in certain subculture here in the UK - metal kids, punks, rockabillies, rockers of all kinds.... You don't tend to see Schott being worn much by actual bikers here, but I think that's got a lot to do with them being the same price as the likes of Vanson and others that have a better reputation for bike jackets to actually ride in.

I'm hoping they'll leave cafe racer jackets off the pages for a while.

Cafe Racers were all over the fashion pages around 2015/16. By next year I expect they'll flip back to straight-zip with a shirt-style collar.

I think this article is in support of fashion forward merchandising. Very different market. I had a strange experience last summer. I was in my little town just east of San Francisco, had ridden a motorcycle over to the bank and was dismounting. As I was removing ear plugs and unzipping a Johnsons Leather jacket, I hear someone calling to me. Parked nearby was a huge, brand new, Mercedes SUV. A young guy, in broken English, wanted to talk leather jackets. He said he was a fashion designer and had flown in from Italy for a fashion show in San Francisco and wanted me to see his samples and wanted to know what I thought. He had about a dozen jackets in the back seat, all wrapped nicely. He insisted I inspect the quality of the stitch, the contrasting color of the thread, the softness of the leather, the design of the cut, the hang of the drape, etc. He told me the brands that his jackets would sell under (I didn't recognize nor do I remember any of them) and what the street cost would be. He cited well over $1K and even $2K. I didn't have the heart to tell him that they would tear like paper in a get-off. I wasn't exactly sure where he was going with the conversation because of the language difficulty, but he was heading back to SFO and I had some banking that needed to get done. For some reason, though, he wanted to give me a blue leather jacket that felt more like pajamas than a leather jacket. If his story was all true, I figured he just didn't want to carry them back through customs. Regardless, I declined. I had no use for it and who knows what his true story could have been. If he had just robbed a truck in Oakland, I wasn't interested. What he was showing me, though, could not have been more different from what I was wearing. Those jackets were nice, I suppose, but more for a millennial going clubbing on a Saturday night, which is not my thing.

It's a fairly well established con - http://gothamist.com/2014/06/05/armani_jacket_scam.php - you're lucky you turned him down. People who get taken in by it end up with a nasty pleather jacket or even a cheap and nasty "suit" or two, and out considerably more than the item is worth. It's a variation on the old thing where you used to get guys claiming to have lost their wallets and needing to get to the airport for a flight. This way, they dupe people into thinking they're coming out ahead, and so they have over more money. I've had a few people try and scam me over the years, though so far, fortunately, I've always spotted what they were up to.

It's amazing how a lot of those jackets are just a variation on the Perfecto which, although not to my taste, many people here like and respect. The main difference is the expectation of someone seriously using that GQ article to buy a leather jacket. Their expectation is to follow through the link to a beautifully presented fashion website. It's the presentation of the website and the contexts of the jackets that disqualify the companies people on this site know well (contexts meaning presented as reproduction rather than jackets to be taken at face value).

The presentation of many of the websites for companies known here is generally pretty bad. Confusing layouts, thumbnail images of jackets and all steeped in historical accuracy. Some of the Japanese sites are better but you can't really link someone to a Japanese site from GQ. Himel has a very nice site which, dates in parentheses aside, fits the bill but unfortunately custom made rules it out (crazy given the reasonable prices relative to many of the jackets on that list). The closest cross over there is in my opinion is The Real McCoys, but not being a US site I think doesn't help it's case (the site references import fees in a banner on the majority of the pages).

Website quality aside - and not all of those in our niche are as well presented as they could be - there's also the issue of how they're sold. Thing is, people interested in mainstream fashion, as a rule, want the reassurance of something being an approved brand. This is the mindset that says an Armani suit is worth two grand because that's what an Armani costs, and it's been in GQ and so it's "ok". Folks who buy obscure stuff that doesn't appear in the fashion press tend, in my experience, to trust their own judgement more. Of course, the same ting can happen in any organised group, but...

 

[Bullitt]

In lists like this, they usually show luxury goods and mix in some high-street products. The average reader wants the big label jacket but can’t afford it and then buys a “similar” one from Nudie h&m or AllSaints.

People who wear a Balmain leather jacket for 5k or the Gucci for 10k will probably not think about wearing it for years. I believe jackets like this are bought as conversation pieces, to be worn at a few events over the season. Usually by people who have a “style” consultant and enough money to spend.

Most labels in the list are mainstream (=boring) fashion. Probably aimed at people who want to go to a shop and “pick up” a jacket, without spending time for research or travelling to Scotland ;-) Some of the jackets look nice though and might even be good quality.

Proper niche labels, like Carol Christian Poell, Devoa, ma+ or Layer-0, wouldn’t make it into a GQ list.

What surprised me is that high-street brands I perceive as cheap charge quite a lot for a leather jacket; one could get an Aero from the special-offers page for this

 

[Peacoat]

@Edward got it right in his comment about Schott's "borderline" dishonesty in marketing their jackets as being the one worn by Brando in The Wild One. It was a Durable brand jacket, and not a Schott. In fact Schott was also making motorcycle jackets at the time. They were in direct competition with Durable. While both jackets appear to be the same to me, others with a better eye for detail have concluded that it was in fact a Durable brand, which was later bought by Schott and allowed to fade into obscurity.

This quote is taken from the Schott history page: "In 1954, the now cult classic "The Wild Ones" [sic] featured the hot young actor, Marlon Brando, perched on his motorcycle wearing his Schott Perfecto®" I think that goes beyond "borderline" dishonesty.

 

[Sloan1874]

I saw somebody wearing a Perfecto knock-off when I was driving home last night. The cut was way off and leather too soft. How did I know? It was too large and draped into a bell shape.

 

[red devil]

I saw somebody wearing a Perfecto knock-off when I was driving home last night. The cut was way off and leather too soft. How did I know? It was too large and draped into a bell shape.

I very rarely see good leather jackets being worn.

 

[Superfluous]

I very rarely see good leather jackets being worn.

So true. 99% of the jackets I see in the wild are mall crap.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I very rarely see good leather jackets being worn.

I know one person with a leather overcoat but no one else I know wears a leather jacket. I don't think leather jackets are particularly popular in Melbourne I rarely ever see a guy wearing one.

 

[Sloan1874]

I'm always surprised that so many from here who live in warm climates are serial leather jacket owners! To me it's a predominantly northern European/American pursuit.