I ordered a Cazadora 36 Raider's style jacket from Steele and Jones (S&J) last fall and received it right before New Years. While I don't have many opportunities to wear it here in Florida, I wanted to offer a review of the jacket and ordering process.
Background: Eight years ago I purchased a Gibson and Barnes (G&B) Raider's jacket while I lived in Maryland. There were lots more opportunities to wear a leather jacket there. I chose the goatskin leather because, at the time, I wanted a rugged, durable, nearly indestructible jacket that would last several lifetimes. It was the leather jacket I thought Indy himself would buy if he had the choice. And I wasn't wrong. Eight years later it's quite broken in but still looks like I just picked it off the rack yesterday. There is only one small spot that shows any real signs of wear. And while it's a sharp jacket to wear out matched with nice jeans, it wasn't really the Raider's jacket I was hoping for. About a year ago I started thinking about getting another jacket. I was hesitant to manually distress my goatskin jacket for fear of damaging it, but like many I fell in love with the look of distressed leather jackets many vendors are now selling. G&B no longer make their Raider's style jacket, which is a shame as it is built like a tank and still feels very solid. So I started looking at other jacket makers. I was really torn between Wested and S&J but ultimately the customer experience everyone talks about with Diego at S&J won me over. And they weren't wrong. Diego is awesome to work with.
Ordering: I reached out to Diego at the end of September, and after a short discussion where I basically said "I want to buy a jacket but I'm not sure what leather I want" I placed a deposit down to hold my place in line. I continued looking online at other leather jackets and read countless reviews of lambskin, cowhide, goatskin, and even horsehide jackets. As we entered November I sent Diego my measurements following the detailed instructions he provided. Still unsure of the leather I wanted, he sent me several samples so I could see the differences myself. This was not only helpful, but the courtesy of it all blew my mind. Now I could really compare horsehide to lambskin and how it looked against my current goatskin and how coarse or rough they all were. I initially was looking into horsehide, but after comparing it to cowhide (regular, not thin cowhide) I knew I wanted cowhide for this jacket. I also opted for the mock up try on jacket he offers built to my measurements. This arrived in late November and from the mock up we both agreed to add a little length to the sleeves. So getting that mock up went a long way to making me very comfortable with the entire custom sized jacket process. With my G&B, they only used my suit jacket size (42L) and I never realized how much better a jacket could fit until I tried on my Cazadora 36. But more on that later. After we confirmed the measurements, he went to work, Argentina won the World Cup, and shortly after that I received my jacket. All in all, it took almost exactly 3 months from initial contact to putting on my S&J jacket for the first time.
The Jacket: It's an amazing jacket. But I think me saying "it's an amazing jacket" doesn't really help, so I'm going to compare it to my G&B where I can as a way of highlighting differences between the leathers and makers themselves.
Weight: I was quite surprised to see the S&J weighs as much as my G&B. Both come in at just over 3 pounds. I was certain the G&B would weigh more as it "feels" heavier, but I think it may just be due to how broken in the G&B is after 9 years. It drapes beautifully. I suspect the drape makes me think its heavier...? Anyway, it makes me excited to see how the cowhide drapes in a year or too when it's more worn in.
Color: The G&B is dark brown. Really dark. Depending on lighting conditions, it can go anywhere from a medium brown in bright light, to almost black in low/no light. On the other hand, the S&J is a perfect Raider's brown to me. I could not be happier with the color. This is the leather color I've always wanted. In fact, it makes my G&B seem much more darker in comparison now. Based on color alone, I feel I will be wearing my S&J much more than my G&B now...
Picture: Color differences between G&B goatskin (left) and S&J Cowhide (right)
Ruggedness: Probably not a fair comparison as I expect goatskin (G&B) to be more rugged and durable than cowhide (S&J). That said, if you are looking for a jacket that takes centuries to show signs of distressing then you can't go wrong with goatskin. It will last several lifetimes. That's not to say that cowhide isn't durable either. One of the main reasons I went with cowhide was because many biker jackets use cowhide to protect riders during spills. If it can take dragging across asphalt, I'm sure it can get dragged behind a 1940's truck on a dirt road outside Cairo too. So I think they will have comparable durability, but I suspect goatskin will fair better in a sudden rainstorm from all the research I did.
Sizing: Hand down you have to go with S&J. I mean, it's a custom tailored jacket to your exact size. Part of this is taking advantage of the "try on" mock up jacket you can option with Diego. I highly recommend that as it showed me I needed just a tiny more length on my sleeves. The G&B, on the other hand, is more like an off the rack jacket where all I can choose is a chest size and sleeve length as short, regular, and long. It's mostly a good fit on me, but now that I can compare it to a custom sized jacket from S&J the differences really stand out. I won't ever buy a jacket that can only be sized by chest size and short, regular, or long sleeves again after this experience.
Distressing: Initially I was against the idea of pre-distressed leather until I looked at my G&B and realized in 8 years it still looks virtually brand new. I think getting a jacket and letting time and adventures distress it naturally is a noble idea, but in practice I don't have 100 years to wait for my goatskin to start to wear in. That said, the G&B has it's moments. If I'm wearing nice jeans and a button shirt with it, the G&B can "dress up" for the occasion. On the other hand, sometimes you just want a well worn jacket for life's adventures. I was more than hesitant to distress my goatskin myself, mostly because it seems like a good way to break the stitching and ruin a jacket if not done carefully. And that's what's awesome about S&J's distressing. They distress the leather BEFORE they stitch it together. That way it looks like it's already been on a hundred adventures, but it's still ready for a hundred more. I opted for "light distressing" and even sent Diego some pictures of the the work he's done with other member's jackets to highlight the distressing level I was looking for. To me, the distressing looks very natural, and I'm very happy with how it looks.
Picture: S&J Light Distressing
Sleeves: Okay, here's my only real disappointment. I get that leathers often have different grains even from the same animal. I get that. In this specific case, the two sleeves have very different grains from the elbow down. So one sleeve has a very pebbly texture, and the other is very smooth. When I'm driving my car or otherwise have both arms up, it looks to me like I'm wearing two very different jackets. I'm hoping in time, with wear, the appearances of the two grains grow closer to each other. I'm not sure if it will though. Its a small detail for sure, but once you notice it, you can't help but see it all the time.
Picture: Sleeve Grains
Overall: Sleeve leather grain aside, it's still an amazing jacket and I'm very happy with my Cazadora 36. It's a near perfect jacket, a 9/10, and would have been a perfect 10 if the cow hide had been more consistent on the sleeves. I blame the cow. Compared to my G&B, it already looks more lived in with a hundred stories to tell. I can't imagine ever needing another jacket between the goatskin and cowhide, but if I do, I would certainly go back to Diego at Steel & Jones. If you are sitting on the fence between vendors, just keep in mind that a custom tailored jacket will always look better on you, and the ability to try on a mock up to ensure the measurements are correct takes a lot of worry out of the process. However, I think the leather samples Diego was happy to send me really sets S&J above the rest. Videos and pictures only go so far. Holding a variety of different leathers in your hand, feeling their weight and texture, it really helps you figure out what kind of jacket you want.
Thanks everyone, and keep the miles coming.
John
