Modern day Lewis Leathers quality issue.

[rocketeer]

HI all, I thought I might like to highlight this issue from a guy selling on a lewis-leather-corsair-36r.92822 . No I'm not trying to promote his sale but looking at the nearly new jacket and the sellers photographs of the underarm stitching I would be most unhappy with this fault after such a short wear time.
I know a lot of things are rushed these days but I have had 40 year old bike jackets where the stitching is still solid though looking at the triangular stitches that appear to hold the inner sleeve in place, it looks to me as though it has only been tack stitched.
It is a great looking jacket, I had an original a few years back but without the sleeve pocket or name tag, unfortunately I would need another 8" on the chest

 

[Justhandguns]

It looks to me that the jacket has the gold sleeve lining. I was told that is a lot more flimsy than the standard black nylon fabric. Is this a Tight fit version of the Corsair?

 

[TREEMAN]

Looks like it was repaired ......

 

[Edward]

To be fair, this sort of seam-stitching letting go under the armpit is a classic symptom of a jacket being worn too tight, as distinct from a quality problem.

 

[Carlos840]

My girlfriends Lewis Leather developed a similar issue, the jacket started unstitching at the junction of the sleeve and the back after around a year.
I took it back, and they said they would repair it free of charge. After a month i came back and found the worst repair job i had ever seen. They had cut through the linning in the sleeve, re stitched the leather using a fabric sewing machine over the original stitching, leaving the original stitching in and not going through the original holes. They then badly handstitched the hole in the lining, not bothering to match the thread colour. It was a real hack job.
I told them that the reason i had come back to the makers was to get an invisible repair, and that if i wanted a crap fix i would have gone to my local dry ceaner and not bothered! They blamed the repair place, saying they had two different workshops and it had gone to the wrong one.
In the end they offered to remake the jacket fully, which my girlfriend didn't want as it was a birthday present and she is attached to it. They sent the jacket back to the good workshop this time, which re stitched the sleeve properly and relined the sleeve.
You can still see the extra holes done by the first bad repair job, but its as good as it can be.

I have to say that after being a big LL fan for a few years, this left a bad taste in my mouth, and they definitely tried to get away with cutting corners. I really hope they aren't lowering their quality...

 

[Justhandguns]

I have to say that after being a big LL fan for a few years, this left a bad taste in my mouth, and they definitely tried to get away with cutting corners. I really hope they aren't lowering their quality...

When did this happen? I presume it was a recent thing?

 

[ProteinNerd]

Nice to know that LL keep a known crap repair shop on file ....

 

[willyto]

Nice to know that LL keep a known crap repair shop on file ....

I find that so weird... hey we have two repair shops but one is a super crappy one and the other the best we have. Let's hope our crappy customers won't notice the crappy one when our good one is overloaded with work...

 

[Carlos840]

When did this happen? I presume it was a recent thing?

This was last summer.

Rergarding the two workshops, apparently, they have a repair shop, where the jacket was butchered, and then the shop where jackets are made in the first place. This is where they sent the jacket the second time.

In their defence, once i had complained about receiveing such poor repair they really did everything they could to make things right.

 

[Monitor]

My girlfriends Lewis Leather developed a similar issue, the jacket started unstitching at the junction of the sleeve and the back after around a year.
I took it back, and they said they would repair it free of charge. After a month i came back and found the worst repair job i had ever seen. They had cut through the linning in the sleeve, re stitched the leather using a fabric sewing machine over the original stitching, leaving the original stitching in and not going through the original holes. They then badly handstitched the hole in the lining, not bothering to match the thread colour. It was a real hack job.
I told them that the reason i had come back to the makers was to get an invisible repair, and that if i wanted a crap fix i would have gone to my local dry ceaner and not bothered! They blamed the repair place, saying they had two different workshops and it had gone to the wrong one.
In the end they offered to remake the jacket fully, which my girlfriend didn't want as it was a birthday present and she is attached to it. They sent the jacket back to the good workshop this time, which re stitched the sleeve properly and relined the sleeve.
You can still see the extra holes done by the first bad repair job, but its as good as it can be.

I have to say that after being a big LL fan for a few years, this left a bad taste in my mouth, and they definitely tried to get away with cutting corners. I really hope they aren't lowering their quality...

That does sound really bad... I don't even understand why would they even touch the stitching in the leather to make a repair in the lining. Just bad. It is fair they offered to redo the jacket but still... I hope your case made some difference. Not something you'd expect from a company that sells some of the priciest jackets on the market.

 

[Carlos840]

That does sound really bad... I don't even understand why would they even touch the stitching in the leather to make a repair in the lining. Just bad. It is fair they offered to redo the jacket but still... I hope your case made some difference. Not something you'd expect from a company that sells some of the priciest jackets on the market.

Sorry, maybe i was unclear, the stitching that was coming undone was the leather, at the triple intersection of the two sleeve panels and the back panel. (like just at the back of the armpit)
To reach it from the inside, they cut open the lining just underneath the armpit on the sleeve, they restitched the leather using a different sewing machine (a regular fabric sewing machine, not a leather one) with a super fine stitch count, different stitch pattern and super thin thread, over the previous stitch line and thread.
They then poorly re stitched the lining, using black black thread right in the middle of a gold lining.

I would have done a better job by hand in a couple hours... And i would have gone through the same stitch holes.

 

[Edward]

That's a surprising foul-up on their part. Good they made it right, but still disappointing it could happen given the cost of a Lewis.

 

[Justhandguns]

From what I have been following the Lewis post around the web, things like these are happening more often (still rare) than a few years back. I suspect there are some changes in their production lines as well as their direction. I understand that they are now selling a lot more to Asia these days even though they have already 'up-ed' their production. And the use of horsehide as standard really surprises me as I asked them about it 10years ago and the answer was definitely a NO, unless I am Ronnie Wood or Jeremy Clarkson....

 

[Edward]

I presume, re the horse, they realised that there was a whole market of people who wanted the option of a heavier jacket at a time when Lewis were only making them with lighter hides.