Vanson! Vanson! Vanson!

[JonS1967]

Greetings! This is my first post on the Lounge and I apologize if it’s a bit long winded. My name is Jon and I’ve been lurking on the forum for a few months as I delve back into the leather jacket world. Where was the Lounge 20 years ago?

When I quit riding motorcycles after my first child was born in 2007, I held onto all my leathers. Unfortunately some of them, like my Vansons (Cobra and Pro Perf), weren’t suitable for casual wear and my remaining jackets (a LL Dominator, a LL Bronx, and a custom Langlitz) are a little too edgy to wear to work. And when I do wear them to work, they rarely fail to elicit “where’s your motorcycle?” questions. I realized that I wanted to get something that didn’t look like I just got off a motorcycle and I decided to sell the Cobra and Pro Perf to fund a new jacket! And that’s what brought me here.

I was curious to see who is still making good quality stuff and I was happy to see many of the players I was aware of back in the early 2000s were not only still in business but still making fantastic quality jackets.

My research led me back to Vanson. Since this jacket is strictly for casual wear, I didn’t want anything quite as heavy as their competition weight, although I got to handle several of their jackets in comp weight and it’s still impressive leather in my opinion. I’ve also wanted a horse hide jacket for over 20 years and never got one. So, I decided to have Vanson make me a custom Ike jacket from Horween‘s new Pinnacle horse hide. After months of planning and the incredible insight I gleaned from this forum, coupled with the help from the good folks at Vanson, my new jacket arrived today. I’m thrilled with how it turned out and it’s very comfortable.
Cheers,
Jon

 

[El Marro]

Hi Jon, welcome to the lounge and congratulations on a great new Vanson!

 

[TartuWolf]

Welcome to the lounge Jon! Great entrance I would say!
Your jacket looks fantastic and fits you very well.
I'm surprised Vanson directly does jackets out of Horween leather!
Did you supply the leather yourself or they suggested it to you as one of the options?
First time we are seeing Horween pinnacle in black (in the wild) I think.

 

[jacketjunkie]

Greetings! This is my first post on the Lounge and I apologize if it’s a bit long winded. My name is Jon and I’ve been lurking on the forum for a few months as I delve back into the leather jacket world. Where was the Lounge 20 years ago?

When I quit riding motorcycles after my first child was born in 2007, I held onto all my leathers. Unfortunately some of them, like my Vansons (Cobra and Pro Perf), weren’t suitable for casual wear and my remaining jackets (a LL Dominator, a LL Bronx, and a custom Langlitz) are a little too edgy to wear to work. And when I do wear them to work, they rarely fail to elicit “where’s your motorcycle?” questions. I realized that I wanted to get something that didn’t look like I just got off a motorcycle and I decided to sell the Cobra and Pro Perf to fund a new jacket! And that’s what brought me here.

I was curious to see who is still making good quality stuff and I was happy to see many of the players I was aware of back in the early 2000s were not only still in business but still making fantastic quality jackets.

My research led me back to Vanson. Since this jacket is strictly for casual wear, I didn’t want anything quite as heavy as their competition weight, although I got to handle several of their jackets in comp weight and it’s still impressive leather in my opinion. I’ve also wanted a horse hide jacket for over 20 years and never got one. So, I decided to have Vanson make me a custom Ike jacket from Horween‘s new Pinnacle horse hide. After months of planning and the incredible insight I gleaned from this forum, coupled with the help from the good folks at Vanson, my new jacket arrived today. I’m thrilled with how it turned out and it’s very comfortable.
Cheers,
Jon

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Looking great! Is this an Ike with different pocket set up?

 

[JonS1967]

Hi Jon, welcome to the lounge and congratulations on a great new Vanson!

Thank you!!

Welcome to the lounge Jon! Great entrance I would say!
Your jacket looks fantastic and fits you very well.
I'm surprised Vanson directly does jackets out of Horween leather!
Did you supply the leather yourself or they suggested it to you as one of the options?
First time we are seeing Horween pinnacle in black (in the wild) I think.

Thank you! Vanson said they may or may not be receiving a batch of Horween horse hide in CXL, but they weren’t sure exactly if or when it was going to arrive. Even though I had wanted a jacket in CXL horse hide for ages, I didn’t really wanna wait for an undetermined period of time for my jacket to be made.

So, after doing some research, I sourced the leather directly from The Tannery Row in Chicago and they sent it to Vanson for me. They are Horween’s retail distributor. I initially planned to use CXL, but after receiving samples of the different horse hide options, the Pinnacle intrigued me. Kyle Gerber from The Tannery Row, and the Pinnacle thread here on the Lounge, were extremely helpful answering my questions so after some back-and-forth with Kyle, I decided to go with the Pinnacle. I think you’re right that this may be the first black jacket the forum. I’m planning to post pictures to the Pinnacle thread as well.
Cheers,
Jon

 

[JonS1967]

Looking great! Is this an Ike with different pocket set up?

Thank you. Yes, it’s an Ike with the flap pockets removed, and a chest pocket added. I also had the zippers removed from the sleeves.

I also tried on an Oxford and in Enfield, but the Ike fit me the best.

 

[JonS1967]

A few more pictures in the daylight.

 

[IrishStu]

A few more pictures in the daylight. View attachment 651154
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Spectacular jacket and the pinnacle leather works really well.
I had a black pinnacle leather college jacket and the leather was buttery soft. Unfortunately the fit didn't work for me and it had to go back. Yours appears to fit you very well. Enjoy.

 

[photo2u]

Jon, you did very well. That is a nice Vanson. Welcome to the forum!

 

[JonS1967]

Spectacular jacket and the pinnacle leather works really well.
I had a black pinnacle leather college jacket and the leather was buttery soft. Unfortunately the fit didn't work for me and it had to go back. Yours appears to fit you very well. Enjoy.

Jon, you did very well. That is a nice Vanson. Welcome to the forum!

Thank you for your kind words!

 

[Canuck Panda]

Thank you! It’s the most comfortable leather jacket I’ve ever worn. The leather is just so easy to wear right out of the box.

Unfortunately, Vanson does not stock Pinnacle and I don’t think they feel it suitable for motorcycle jackets so I doubt they’ll stock it. I ordered it on my own through The Tannery Row, which is Horween’s retail outlet, and they shipped it directly to Vanson.

I just called Nick. Trying to do one of their wax cotton jackets in leather. Fingers crossed!

 

[Viking752]

Thank you!!

Thank you! Vanson said they may or may not be receiving a batch of Horween horse hide in CXL, but they weren’t sure exactly if or when it was going to arrive. Even though I had wanted a jacket in CXL horse hide for ages, I didn’t really wanna wait for an undetermined period of time for my jacket to be made.

So, after doing some research, I sourced the leather directly from The Tannery Row in Chicago and they sent it to Vanson for me. They are Horween’s retail distributor. I initially planned to use CXL, but after receiving samples of the different horse hide options, the Pinnacle intrigued me. Kyle Gerber from The Tannery Row, and the Pinnacle thread here on the Lounge, were extremely helpful answering my questions so after some back-and-forth with Kyle, I decided to go with the Pinnacle. I think you’re right that this may be the first black jacket the forum. I’m planning to post pictures to the Pinnacle thread as well.
Cheers,
Jon

Beautiful jacket and HH choice. I was looking on the Tannery Row site and you have me curious, how many sq. Ft. did it take to build your jacket?

 

[JonS1967]

I just called Nick. Trying to do one of their wax cotton jackets in leather. Fingers crossed!

When I picked up my jacket from the shop yesterday, they had a few waxed jackets hanging on the rack. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they were. They were never on my radar until I saw one yesterday. Good luck with your order!

 

[JonS1967]

Beautiful jacket and HH choice. I was looking on the Tannery Row site and you have me curious, how many sq. Ft. did it take to build your jacket?

Thank you for the kind words. I ordered 48 ft.² for my size 42 jacket based on recommendations from Kim at Vanson. I have a couple of square feet or so left over for future repairs if needed.
It wasn’t cheap, but well worth it.

 

[VansonRider]

Thank you for the kind words. I ordered 48 ft.² for my size 42 jacket based on recommendations from Kim at Vanson. I have a couple of square feet or so left over for future repairs if needed.
It wasn’t cheap, but well worth it.

One of the best entrances into the Lounge, a custom horsehide Vanson right out of the gate! Can I ask what drew you to the pinnacle over the other horse hide options? I’ve never had or even handled horse hide, how did they compare to each other?

 

[floater]

Anyone have some pictures of the olive, granite or merlot roma, other than the swatches or stock pics?

And what kind of leather is roma?

I’ve only read it’s lighter than cw and minimal to no break-in needed but I don’t know what type of hide it is or thickness.

 

[JonS1967]

One of the best entrances into the Lounge, a custom horsehide Vanson right out of the gate! Can I ask what drew you to the pinnacle over the other horse hide options? I’ve never had or even handled horse hide, how did they compare to each other?

Oh geez, what a nice compliment… thank you.!

I’m far from a HH expert as this is my first HH jacket. But from everything I read on the Lounge, combined with trying on a CXL HH single rider at The Flathead shop on a recent trip to Tokyo, I knew CXL was going to be stiff.

I actually knew nothing about Pinnacle until a sample of it was included with the CXL sample I requested Horween’s retail distributor, The Tannery Row. I was curious about using their CXL HH instead of Vanson’s CW, not that I don’t like Vanson CW but because I’ve always wanted a HH jacket. In fact, I tried on five or six Vanson CW jackets (and one Brandy Rona) at my local shop when I started this process and it is really nice hide which will no doubt be incredible once broken in, but it’s heavy and I didn’t want or need a heavy jacket. After reading a lot of posts here on the Lounge about CXL HH, as well as speaking with Kim at Vanson about it, coupled with trying on The Flathead jacket… all of which reminded me of my old CW Cobra and CW Comet that I bought new around 20 years ago. Although I loved both of those CW jackets, they were “a labor of love” to break in and I only wore the Cobra on the bike and subconsciously didn’t want to deal with the Comet for casual wear off the bike.

What really swayed me from CXL to Pinnacle was a conversation I had with Kyle at The Tannery Row. He said Pinnacle would be his first choice for a casual jacket. I was surprised by that, but when he told me the hand was buttery soft and that it draped beautifully without any break in, he had my attention. From what he described, it sounded like it would be somewhat similar to my early 2000s Lewis Leathers Dominator and Bronx, which are softer and more comfortable than my Vansons and Langlitz. There’s also a Pinnacle thread here on the Lounge, which I read up on as best I could and decided to go for it… and I’m glad I did. The hardest part is that the Aero jackets other forum members bought were brown so I couldn’t see any examples in black.

It’s kind of funny how I ended up looking for a new jacket after all these years. I have been very content with my LL Dominator over the years but for some odd reason my watches (I’m also a watch nerd) always get caught up on the inside of the cuff, which is aggravating and I often end up hanging the jacket back up in the closet and opting for something else despite it being my favorite jacket.

 

[JonS1967]

Anyone have some pictures of the olive, granite or merlot roma, other than the swatches or stock pics?

And what kind of leather is roma?

I’ve only read it’s lighter than cw and minimal to no break-in needed but I don’t know what type of hide it is or thickness.

I’ve only seen the Enfield in Brandy Roma. It’s a very nice cowhide and it feels broken in from the get-go. It drapes nicely and is very soft. I would say it’s actually very comparable in feel to the Pinnacle leather I had my jacket made in. I think it’s about 1.2 or 1.3 mm thick, but I don’t remember exactly. I would check with Vanson to confirm the thickness. Here are some photos of the jacket I tried on.

 

[TartuWolf]

Ooh, that brandy Roma looks lovely!