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Leather Jacket on ebay/etsy?

Joe45

New in Town
Messages
29
Howdy.
I have been looking for a leather jacket in the style of the German U-Boat captains or similar. Prefer brown, but black is cool as well.
I have seen some one ebay and etsy, and the prices are very good. Choice of real or fake leather. I would get real.
Reviews are good.
Anyone dealt with this?
Also, I measured around my chest and I got 49". The charts on these sites say a 3Xl, but I wear an XL in shirts. Confused.



 

bigmanbigtruck

A-List Customer
Messages
360
Idk much about uboat jackets.
But the fact that they offer fake leather, to me, makes it very likely that their real leather is garbage split leather and I would avoid. The product descriptions don't say much about it either. It might look good at first, but before long, you'll start seeing the leather crack, flake and so on.

I remember seeing this thread which may help:

And unless you're wearing vanity-sized shirts, XL suggests chest size of around 44-46". I'm skeptical that your chest size is 49" unless you gulp in enough air to resemble a puffer fish ;)
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,084
Location
London, UK
The links put me very much in mind of an operation that may have the business notionally based in the US, but which is manufacturing in, and shipping from, SE Asia, usually but not exclusively China - or possibly also South Asia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India. The sizing certainly suggests China: I'm a UK XXL in most things. Depending on cut, I usually vary between a 46 and 48 chest in a jacket nowadays. In the US, I vary between an L and XL; in China, where I am as I type this, I'm very occasionally an XXXL, more commonly an XXXXL. 3xl for a 48 very much suggests these are being produced in SE Asia to SE Asian sizings. Which is not to say that they can't make a quality product, however the combination of a previously unknown brand, selling on eBay particularly as a main outlet (though we're seeing a rapid rise in this sort of stuff on Etsy too), and offering pleather alongside an unspecified "real leather" would suggest to me a budget product built down to a price. It probably won't be that great and it may not even particularly resemble the one in the picture - which may or may not have been "borrowed" from another brand. "Real leather" could be anything - composite leather, or quite likely a light lambskin. Lambskin is very popular in the fast-fashion world because it's cheap, light, and very easy to sew compared to heavy leathers. It can also be fragile and lacking in durability. If you want a substantial leather, it's not the one for you.

This is not to say that there's no chance at all you'll receive something half-decent and wearable if you do order, but it's a major gamble and the odds are stacked against it. I did years ago have a Perfecto style jacket that I paid GBP72 for which was really very decent and I wore hard for a long time. A jacket like that, I'd buy again - but only with the chance to handle it in person first and be sure it was one of the decent ones. I wouldn't take a punt on something I couldn't easily return - if you were going to buy here, make certain in advance you can return to the local address the business is registered from, not the address of the point of manufacture from which it is drop-shipped. I've seen this happen increasingly on eBay - I suppose a lot of sellers realise people are wary of buying from overseas and so the auctions are designed to make it look like it's coming from UK, USA, Europe, but the reality.... Of course, at this price, if it's being sold by a US retail business and not directly from a Far East point of manufacture, I'd be even more dubious about what price point it has been built down to.

For this sort of U-boat style jacket, if you don't feel able to /don't want to stretch to the spend an Aero or some of the other popular brands around here cost, I'd consider looking at Wested. Wested are best known for their Indy jackets (having made the original, screen-worn jackets for Raiders of the Lost Ark), but they do a wide range of other designs. Not all of them are resounding successes (something looks very odd to my eye about their take on the Captain America jacket (the original was, of course, a modified Aero Bootlegger), but they do do a Uboat style jacket that reviews well. Originally sold as a U-boat / das Boot model, now also connected to Doctor Who as Christopher Eccleston wore one as the ninth Doctor when the show was rebooted in 2005. Wested actually made the screen-worn originals for both of those; imo, their better jackets tend to come from their own screen work rather than approximating someone else's. https://wested.com/products/custom-...-in-dr-who-4500-p?_pos=1&_sid=ee3665363&_ss=r GBP365, so it's markedly more expensive than the ones in the auctions you link to, but it is a very decent, reliable product and a much better option than those.

The History Bunker in the UK also do a version of this. Less attractive to my eye (and much more overtly militaristic) than the Wested, but also markedly cheaper if that makes a difference - https://www.historybunker.com/product/ww2-german-kriegsmarine-deck-jacket-black-leather/ Still about three times the price of the one in the OP links, but likely to be nicer and vastly less of a gamble.
 
Messages
16,855
Howdy.
I have been looking for a leather jacket in the style of the German U-Boat captains or similar. Prefer brown, but black is cool as well.
I have seen some one ebay and etsy, and the prices are very good. Choice of real or fake leather. I would get real.
Reviews are good.
Anyone dealt with this?
Also, I measured around my chest and I got 49". The charts on these sites say a 3Xl, but I wear an XL in shirts. Confused.

[/URL]


[/URL]

Scam. Avoid.
 

Joe45

New in Town
Messages
29
Idk much about uboat jackets.
But the fact that they offer fake leather, to me, makes it very likely that their real leather is garbage split leather and I would avoid. The product descriptions don't say much about it either. It might look good at first, but before long, you'll start seeing the leather crack, flake and so on.

I remember seeing this thread which may help:

And unless you're wearing vanity-sized shirts, XL suggests chest size of around 44-46". I'm skeptical that your chest size is 49" unless you gulp in enough air to resemble a puffer fish ;)
Good points.
I bought a real leather jacket years ago that I really liked: some guy on the street "desperate" for money and sold it for $100. It was brand new, with tags... it fit well and was indeed real leather.
It wasn't really a "bad" purchase, as it lasted me about three years, but then the leather started to deteriorate. That's when I noticed it was paper thin.
So I'll pass this up. Rather wait and spend more to get something that will last.
Thanks.
 

Joe45

New in Town
Messages
29
The links put me very much in mind of an operation that may have the business notionally based in the US, but which is manufacturing in, and shipping from, SE Asia, usually but not exclusively China - or possibly also South Asia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India. The sizing certainly suggests China: I'm a UK XXL in most things. Depending on cut, I usually vary between a 46 and 48 chest in a jacket nowadays. In the US, I vary between an L and XL; in China, where I am as I type this, I'm very occasionally an XXXL, more commonly an XXXXL. 3xl for a 48 very much suggests these are being produced in SE Asia to SE Asian sizings. Which is not to say that they can't make a quality product, however the combination of a previously unknown brand, selling on eBay particularly as a main outlet (though we're seeing a rapid rise in this sort of stuff on Etsy too), and offering pleather alongside an unspecified "real leather" would suggest to me a budget product built down to a price. It probably won't be that great and it may not even particularly resemble the one in the picture - which may or may not have been "borrowed" from another brand. "Real leather" could be anything - composite leather, or quite likely a light lambskin. Lambskin is very popular in the fast-fashion world because it's cheap, light, and very easy to sew compared to heavy leathers. It can also be fragile and lacking in durability. If you want a substantial leather, it's not the one for you.

This is not to say that there's no chance at all you'll receive something half-decent and wearable if you do order, but it's a major gamble and the odds are stacked against it. I did years ago have a Perfecto style jacket that I paid GBP72 for which was really very decent and I wore hard for a long time. A jacket like that, I'd buy again - but only with the chance to handle it in person first and be sure it was one of the decent ones. I wouldn't take a punt on something I couldn't easily return - if you were going to buy here, make certain in advance you can return to the local address the business is registered from, not the address of the point of manufacture from which it is drop-shipped. I've seen this happen increasingly on eBay - I suppose a lot of sellers realise people are wary of buying from overseas and so the auctions are designed to make it look like it's coming from UK, USA, Europe, but the reality.... Of course, at this price, if it's being sold by a US retail business and not directly from a Far East point of manufacture, I'd be even more dubious about what price point it has been built down to.

For this sort of U-boat style jacket, if you don't feel able to /don't want to stretch to the spend an Aero or some of the other popular brands around here cost, I'd consider looking at Wested. Wested are best known for their Indy jackets (having made the original, screen-worn jackets for Raiders of the Lost Ark), but they do a wide range of other designs. Not all of them are resounding successes (something looks very odd to my eye about their take on the Captain America jacket (the original was, of course, a modified Aero Bootlegger), but they do do a Uboat style jacket that reviews well. Originally sold as a U-boat / das Boot model, now also connected to Doctor Who as Christopher Eccleston wore one as the ninth Doctor when the show was rebooted in 2005. Wested actually made the screen-worn originals for both of those; imo, their better jackets tend to come from their own screen work rather than approximating someone else's. https://wested.com/products/custom-...-in-dr-who-4500-p?_pos=1&_sid=ee3665363&_ss=r GBP365, so it's markedly more expensive than the ones in the auctions you link to, but it is a very decent, reliable product and a much better option than those.

The History Bunker in the UK also do a version of this. Less attractive to my eye (and much more overtly militaristic) than the Wested, but also markedly cheaper if that makes a difference - https://www.historybunker.com/product/ww2-german-kriegsmarine-deck-jacket-black-leather/ Still about three times the price of the one in the OP links, but likely to be nicer and vastly less of a gamble.
Good points. I will pass.
Great information! I will certainly look those up! I'd rather spend a good deal more and have something that will last, and stand up to actual wear.

Thanks!
 

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