Are there any jackets you wish you had gotten in a different leather?

[SFGiant]

I’m utterly confused and not sure I want a jacket that looks clean and undistressed like the Legacy Wested, or get something more worn looking. I’m afraid of it looking lifeless.

[Dr. Jones, Jr.]

I’m utterly confused and not sure I want a jacket that looks clean and undistressed like the Legacy Wested, or get something more worn looking. I’m afraid of it looking lifeless.

I'd recommend working with Steele and Jones or another custom maker that could distress the jacket to your specifications - I don't know for sure about other makers but Steele and Jones will work with you to get the distressing level you want. I had the same fear before ordering from them, but they understood exactly what I wanted - I believe the phrase they used was "like it's been through a hundred adventures but is ready for a hundred more" - something like that. They can do no distressing, light distressing, film-accurate, etc.

[marker2037]

Distressing a jacket yourself is super easy and part of the fun, whether it's naturally distressed or with purpose. I have jackets which I left un-distressed and wore naturally and some I gave a distress job to make look more screen accurate. Both ways are fun.

[SFGiant]

Distressing a jacket yourself is super easy and part of the fun, whether it's naturally distressed or with purpose. I have jackets which I left un-distressed and wore naturally and some I gave a distress job to make look more screen accurate. Both ways are fun.

I agree. For me the problem is not wanting to ruin a jacket. I read that authentic brown is gray undertoned though? Or did they fix that.

[Illinois_Jones]

All chrome tanned leather is inherently grey. It's just how it comes out of the tanning process. Depending on the tanner and what qualities they want the leather to have, the dying process can vary. In the old days they would often have to scale up the color gradually -- think of it like trying to paint a white primered wall a dark color without putting 10 coats on. It's often better to have an intermediate color on there first so you don't get this huge color contrast shining through, especially if you won't or can't afford to spend the time or materials to have the leather dyed all the way through. Doing that would make an already expensive material even more expensive and shrink the market. Nowadays we have dyes that are more uniform and take better than the older dyes did, so the top coat is more uniform and so you can dye a light grey leather to a dark brown or black fairly quickly, but as it wears it will show the grey underneath if an undertone wasn't put down first. That's where the Legacy leather comes in; they specifically dyed it with an orange, rusty tone first then put the darker brown on top so as it wears it shows that like the film jacket did. A big thing within the Indy jacket community since the beginning was that Wested, and really most of the vendors except BK and S&J's veg tanned lamb, used exclusively chrome tanned leather that always shown grey when distressed because chrome tanning is far cheaper and easier to procure. Everybody who cared usually just went over the distressed areas with a medium or rust-brown color dye. It's really not hard.

[SFGiant]

Cool. So if I wear an authentic brown and it eventually gets wear and tear will I literally see gray? What would be a good dye to use?

[xmasters]

I’m utterly confused and not sure I want a jacket that looks clean and undistressed like the Legacy Wested, or get something more worn looking. I’m afraid of it looking lifeless.

You should get shrunken lamb.

[SFGiant]

I’m utterly confused and not sure I want a jacket that looks clean and undistressed like the Legacy Wested, or get something more worn looking. I’m afraid of it looking lifeless.

You should get shrunken lamb.

That was a close one for me but I did worry about it ripping easy? But I’ve decided on authentic brown lamb (long story). Not sure I even want to weather the first one I get, BUT I also am going to get a Legacy LC jacket next year and weather it. For some reason I turned around and really like the orange undertones seen on screen.

[xmasters]

No Shrunken lamb won't rip easily, it's been shrunken so it's quite dense. Authentic, well it's going to look shiny and brand new unless you distress it. It's much easier to distress the legacy leather since it's been designed for that purpose.

[bearbeast]

No Shrunken lamb won't rip easily, it's been shrunken so it's quite dense. Authentic, well it's going to look shiny and brand new unless you distress it. It's much easier to distress the legacy leather since it's been designed for that purpose.

I don't know, out of all four jackets I have the shrunken lamb is by far the easiest to rip. I took loads of care, but it was falling apart by normal use.

The inside pockets have ripped in a few weeks since getting it. Next was one of the snaps on the pocket flaps, it ripped a big piece of the leather with it. And the little loop to hang the coat ripped the collar.

Cheers,
Bear

[xmasters]

I never use the snaps or the hanger in these jackets, you can tell they won't last long if you do.

[SFGiant]

I never use the snaps or the hanger in these jackets, you can tell they won't last long if you do.

Ouch. Even on their basic brown lambskin? Bad to use a hanger?

Also I’ve been on these forums for years (plus time traveling by reading tons of old threads) and always saw “authentic brown lambskin” but just want to make sure that’s referring to the default “brown lambskin” on their site?

[xmasters]

Yeah the hanger will be carrying the weight of a leather jacket. That's a few pounds. It's not like hanging up a fabric jacket or coat. Eventually gravity does it's job. The Raiders jackets never originally had a hanger in them anyway.

Brown lambskin, I assume it's their authentic but I haven't ordered anything in it since 2017.

If you want a jacket that's built like a tank you should look at US Wings.

[SFGiant]

Well I have a couple of USWings. Good jackets for the most part but had issues with them every time I ordered. But I really really want a thin and light jacket. I’ll just baby it a bit.

[xmasters]

Hero jacket in lambskin will be the lightest jacket. I wouldn't say you need to baby it too much, but I find the snaps if you keep fastening them and unfastening them come loose or break after a while, so I never use them. If you really need a secure pocket, order the additonal internal pocket with a zip.

[SFGiant]

Hero jacket in lambskin will be the lightest jacket. I wouldn't say you need to baby it too much, but I find the snaps if you keep fastening them and unfastening them come loose or break after a while, so I never use them. If you really need a secure pocket, order the additonal internal pocket with a zip.

Indeed I did and I never usually would but I went for it since it’s not supposed to be my screen accurate costume. Very glad I did now!

[bearbeast]

I never use the snaps or the hanger in these jackets, you can tell they won't last long if you do.

Lesson learned I suppose and fortunately the jacket is still usable.