JacketAddict
One of the Regulars
- Messages
- 188
Good thing you didn't have Ryan Howard do it - he would have missed and beat up the mattress.
More effective though if you are a similar size to @Big J or @casechopper.I leave new jackets on the floor of the living room and just trample on it whenever I'm passing. Helps to start the process.
I have watched YouTube vis from Japan showing them breaking in a leather baseball glove. They soak the glove in water and then beat the crap out of it with a rubber or wooden mallet. Watching them do it to this fine quality leather glove is painful. But apparently there is no better way to quickly "break-in" a baseball glove. No reason why it would not work with a fine leather jacket.....although I am not going to try it!I bought a nice jacket from Johnson Leathers that I posted about previously. When I posted a pic, someone said it would be better all around when the leather "relaxed." It hasn't been that cold lately, so I didn't have that many occasions to wear it and the leather (CXL cow) never *did* relax.
Anyway, I used to work in box offices and along the way I received a Christmas gift from a baseball team consisting of an authentic major league baseball bat (with my name burned in). I put the jacket on the bed and keeping away from seams, I gave it a good working over. The the result is "relaxed leather. It is sooooo much more supple now, like a well broken in leather jacket should feel like when you wear it. Ive been wearing it *a lot* recently and it definitely is way different.
I've never seen this technique posted so do other people do it sometime on a stiff leather jacket?? I can't believe I discovered a new thing.
Ouch!Good thing you didn't have Ryan Howard do it - he would have missed and beat up the mattress.
Actually why not leave the jacket hanged on the punching bag for a while? That could actually work. Thousands of punches in the leather, that sure softens the leather.
Sure, but what about the lining?Can I wrap my ex-wife in the jacket before commencing the bat treatment?
Sure, but what about the lining?
It will develop a nice patina.
Not really. To be honest I feel much more like a poser wearing a stiff shiny jacket whose only wrinkles came from the box it was shipped in. I understand your point about breaking them in naturally though. I am an electrical contractor and I try to wear my leather jackets at work whenever possible. I have definitely gotten some strange looks from other tradesman I know, but the jackets break in and become comfortable much faster this way.Didn't anyone feel some sort of remorse about all this fake distressing? The day I got my Aero I sat on it a few times, but I felt like I was cheating (not to mention like an idiot) and that the jacket wouldn't reflect honest experience. Then, a few days later, I wore it when I went up to my brother's place to help him move furniture. After that, the front of the jacket was all marked up and it was pretty well broken in, but I figured that that was what leather jackets were for. Anybody feel just a teensy bit like a poser?
One question aluminum vs. wood...