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The State of the Art in Japanese Outerwear: Freewheelers and Co 2012-13 Collection!

Sloan1874

Sloan1874

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,427
Location
Glasgow
Yeah, I think they're all great, though would probably go with either #1 or #3, #2's just a bit busy for me. And maybe a size up. Denim, I'll wear fitted, but it looks as though he needs a shoe horn to get in and out of those jackets.
 
Ishmael

Ishmael

Practically Family
Messages
546
Location
Tokyo, Japan
Nice take on a Cafe Racer. LEATHER TOGS EARLY 40's MOTORCYCLE JK SINGLE TYPE ”SPEED MASTER”.


img58867635_zps512f4d73.jpg



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http://item.rakuten.co.jp/beatstyle/fw-ljk-1231009/
 
A

ashejk

New in Town
Messages
2
Location
Asheville, NC
Love the Japanese leather jackets style. Unfortunately for me, the sleeves seem to be a tad too short. Does anyone know if its possible to get a jacket made with longer sleeves and overall length. Basically, it would be great if I could get a 36 long. Do any of the main Japanese manufactures take custom orders like Aero?
 

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Big J

Big J

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,961
Location
Japan
indigoeagle said:
I just wanted to kind of compare apples with apples. The two jackets you bought at the end of the sixties were probably both high quality items (selvedge denim, produced in the US perhaps).
The 'cheap' denim trucker jacket is not produced with selvedge and neither in the US or EU, while the leather one is.
So, yes, the multiple seems to have come down from 12.5 to not even 4 between denim and leather. The reason for this is probably that relatively speaking hardly any denim is produced anymore in the US/EU and hardly any jackets are made there. So the price of such a denim jacket has risen overproportionately, while the leather and leather jacket industry is still comparatively active.

And IMHO the reason for the high prices in Japan besides the high quality materials and the high standard/costs of living/wages is that the Japanese market is very homogeneous and then relatively huge. That's why so many items are sold out so quickly.
While in the US and Europe only a very small subset of consumers is interested and willing to pay for these kind of items (perhaps 0.2%- just a guess), in Japan there are many more (more like 5%; also guessed).
And then there's the phenomenon that people often will perceive an item to have a higher value if it's more expensive. We know this from the French and Italian brands.
Click to expand...

I think with all this Japanese stuff, you have to account for the fact that prices are really high because Japan has extremely inefficient employment laws (google 'mado zoku', and you'll get the idea). Add to that the fact that Japanese have total cash asests equal to the country's national debt, and manufacturers know that even if they are overstaffed, even if all the materials are imported with huge tariffs added on, and even if demand is low, all they have to do is cater to the tiny percentage of Japanese customers who have the interest and thousands of dollars in the bank (and there are millions of those- no one lives on credit here), and you can see that Japanese manufacturers know they can charge what they like- there are enough over paid people. On top of that, they probably aren't even paying tax themselves (70% of Japanese companies don't pay tax in Japan because they fiddle their tax returns- Toyota doesn't pay any tax in Japan). The Japanese are, unfortunately, a case study waiting to happen in 'more money than sense'.

And bear this in mind; the summer humidity here can destroy leather in less than a week. You'd be surprised at how many of these 'high quality' repros and vintage jackets go in the bin in September, to get replaced by the latest in must have 'heritage' or 'authentic' or 'vintage' work wear.

Why don't they cater to western markets? For the same reason western companies are excluded from helping at the Fukushima disaster; dealing with foreigners is a hassle (that's a quote BTW).
 
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