Full custom Field Leathers Idaho review

[Jin431]

^^ preach

 

[Tom71]

Late in the game (had a couple of weeks Holiday and was on "digital detox"...): Marc, congrats on a stunning piece! I completely follow all you said about ordering with Greg.

Always wear the jacket in good health!

 

[Brandrea33]

Beauty jacket, congratulations, you wear it well

 

[dudewuttheheck]

There are few things I enjoy more than staring at Shinki leather with stitching that tight and perfect. Great fit as well.
Really love the jacket and thanks for all the detailed info.

 

[bn1966]

One of the nicest! And a great review

 

[Jin431]

Full aniline brown shinki 4 pocket cafe racer. It's still too hot where I love so I can't wear it out. It's so hard to capture the color of this jacket with my phone lol
The smell is amazing, kind of like badalassi but milder.

 

[Marc mndt]

Full aniline brown shinki 4 pocket cafe racer. It's still too hot where I love so I can't wear it out. It's so hard to capture the color of this jacket with my phone lol
The smell is amazing, kind of like badalassi but milder.

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Damn that's beautiful. You're making me jealous!

 

[Jin431]

Damn that's beautiful. You're making me jealous!

It is, the hide is rich but is tricky to match. Greg, wasn't happy with how mismatched the panels are as the front/collar of the jacket are darker and the sleeves and back are of a lighter shade. He offered me a deal on this one and also to remake my jacket order. I'm borrowing a lot of pages from your book lol

 

[MrProper]

hey, then I can add mine as well.

 

[Jin431]

hey, then I can add mine as well.
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Your collared jacket made me order from Greg. That jacket is great advertisement lol

 

[Marc mndt]

hey, then I can add mine as well.

You are more than welcome. Please share your pics

It is, the hide is rich but is tricky to match. Greg, wasn't happy with how mismatched the panels are as the front/collar of the jacket are darker and the sleeves and back are of a lighter shade.

Personally I don't mind the mismatched panels. I actually think it adds character. I'd rather have mismatched panels than perfectly matched heavily coated / pigment dyed leather.

 

[Jin431]

You are more than welcome. Please share your pics



Personally I don't mind the mismatched panels. I actually think it adds character. I'd rather have mismatched panels than perfectly matched heavily coated / pigment dyed leather.

Yep, goes to show how much of a perfectionist the guy is. That was his first take that he was not 100% happy and he offered a remake even before shipping me the jacket. What a guy.


I should get my remake jacket in a month looks like. Thanks to your jacket design with him I should get mine soon lol

 

[diabel]

Why did I choose Field Leathers

I was in the market for a brown halfbelt. The leather had to be full aniline, it had to be a classic design and I wanted custom sizing, no off the rack. Field Leathers simply ticked all those boxes. However, Field Leathers is not an established name so having them make the jacket felt like a bit of a gamble. A big plus was that they offer Shinki leather for a very reasonable upcharge. What made me pull the trigger were the positive reviews of fellow TFL members.

Process / design

I reached out to Greg and asked him whether he was ok to do a few design changes on his basic Idaho design. He was totally ok with that so I came up with a design. As you can see I pretty much specified every single seam. I was really impressed with Greg’s double stitching like he does on his Michigan Jacket so that’s what I wanted for my Idaho.

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Once we agreed on the design we started discussing leather. I had already set my mind on the brown full aniline Shinki so I was rather disappointed when he told me he discontinued the brown aniline (too much variation in color and grain between hides and therefore almost impossible to match). He did have brown Shinki hide which was pigment dyed, so Greg sent me a few samples in brown, black and blackened brown. The brown wasn’t to my liking. The black full aniline was nice but I really didn’t need another black jacket so I apologized to Greg and told him I couldn’t go through. Greg fully understood but he also suggested this design would look really badass in black. I said thank you but no.

The days following, the idea of a ‘badass’ black jacket started to grow on me: a jacket without the frivolous double stitching, clean and mean. Maybe a black and red buffalo plaid lining like on those vintage Buco’s would be cool for this build. Also, the black aniline Shinki sample I received from Greg was really really nice. 1.3 mm thickness, substantially heavier than the pigment dyed samples, much nicer than the leather of any of my current jackets. I pulled the trigger.


Measurements / pattern

Because I made a custom design, Greg had to make a new pattern. What you see here is the design of the back yoke. The one on the left was what I designed. However, Greg thought a more ‘dramatic’ arch would look better so he made these two other options. I chose the one on the right.

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I had trouble getting the sleeve length right. I measured the sleeve length of a couple of my current jackets but I just couldn’t get it right. Also, I couldn’t decide on the height of the front bottom hem panels. Therefore Greg suggested to make a mock-up jacket so we would be able to alter things if it wasn’t exactly to my liking. As you can see below, there were some improvements to be made.
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There was some bulging on the front shoulder parts. I pinned the extra fabric and sent the jacket back to Greg. To be honest, this issue scared me quite a bit. I was afraid altering the pattern to address the bulging might result in a huge neck opening or some other unforeseen issue. Greg assured me he knew how to address the problem because he had done it many times before. As you can see from the end result, he clearly knows what he’s doing.

I specified 18’ shoulder width, 22’ptp and 19.5 bottom hem width. He hit all of them, spot on.


Build quality

Some say the Japanese can’t be beaten in terms of attention to detail and perfection. I don’t know whether this jacket beats those Japanese -built to perfection- jackets, but this Scottish -built to perfection- jacket certainly comes close, if not on par.

As you can clearly see, the construction is flawless. Not a single wobble, the jacket has been stitched with laser like precision.

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Is there any negative

After wearing this jacket for three days, I think I have tot conclude that this jacket is perfect. Perfect fit, excellent build quality, best materials used. The jacket isn’t squeeky and doesn’t require any break-in, which of course are the perks of Shinki horsehide.

So I reached out to Greg and asked him whether he could make me another one just like this, but it had to be made out of brown aniline leather. Unfortunately for me, he explained why he probably won’t be offering brown aniline in the near future. The hides are so difficult to match that he needs several batches in order to have enough leather to maybe make three jackets, while with the same number of pigment dyed hides he might even get six jackets out of it. Therefore offering brown aniline doesn’t make sense for him as a start-up business, working with small volumes.

I hope it will make sense when he is able to order larger volumes because I definitely want another Field Leathers jacket. I’m afraid I’m spoiled now. I don’t know any other maker who offers this level of perfection at this price point, with a full custom design and pattern.

I'm curious about the stich count per inch. The stitching looks very even and is even angled like Himel's. It looks better than RMCs'.

 

[Jin431]

I'm curious about the stich count per inch. The stitching looks very even and is even angled like Himel's. It looks better than RMCs'.

The jacket that I have is either 9-10 stitch per inch depending on location, it's very tidy and straight.

Edit: what is considered a good count anyways?

 

[diabel]

The jacket that I have is either 9-10 stitch per inch depending on location, it's very tidy and straight.

Edit: what is considered a good count anyways?

More than 8 on such a heavy hide like horsehide is excellent. E.g. Brunello cucinelli has about 9 but they use very thin leather. Aero about 7 and goodwear 8.

 

[Jin431]

^^ got it, the leather on mine is I believe 1.2mm (3oz?) Id say a good ratio with the count

 

[Jin431]

Finally a cool day to wear a jacket. Love the leather and the jacket has molded To my frame really well. I made the mistake of giving shoulder measurement that's 0.5" too small, so it's a little taut on the neck/clavicle area but hoping to gently massage/pull/stretch some more.

 

[handymike]

Looks great!

 

[dudewuttheheck]

The jacket that I have is either 9-10 stitch per inch depending on location, it's very tidy and straight.

Edit: what is considered a good count anyways?

That's about equal to my FW jackets in terms of stitch count. All of mine are 9-10 with the San Mateo (horsehide) and Sunset (deerskin) being pretty much straight 10. My Mushmans is at 7.

 

[Brandrea33]

Full aniline brown shinki 4 pocket cafe racer. It's still too hot where I love so I can't wear it out. It's so hard to capture the color of this jacket with my phone lol
The smell is amazing, kind of like badalassi but milder.

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Greg certainly does very impressive work. Beauty!