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"Old" Real McCoys x Harley Davidson Horsehide Jacket ID Help

d4nimal

Familiar Face
Messages
61
Location
Philadelphia
Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for a while now. I've been looking at picking up a repro black horsehide rider for a while now. I own a Schott Hand Oiled Perfecto I bought a few years ago on sale that I love, but I really wanted to add a black jacket single or double rider, preferably with a D pocket, to that.

Over the weekend, I bid on and won a Yahoo Japan auction on an old Real McCoy collaboration with Harley Davidson. There's a lot of information about the Real McCoy Buco era jackets out there, but not as much about what I learned is called ""Old Real McCoys," before the Nylon takeover. From what I've read here in other threads and translated poorly by Google, Real McCoy's was run by a different company up through 2001. I'm guessing this jacket was made in the 1990s based on that, though I also don't know when they acquired the Buco license and stopped making Harley jackets. Do you guys have any more history you might be able to enlighten me with in regards to the McCoy x Harley timeline or details? Harley McCoy models tend to run cheaper than the Buco ones, but I'd love to get some more information about the line (experience, rumors, complaints? etc). FWIW, I breathlessly bid on a size 36, which seemed to be more along the lines of a 38 in the Buco lines and roughly matched the size measurements of my small Schott, so hopefully that works out.

Harley Real McCoy2.gif

Real McCoy x Harley.jpg

My second question is in regards to the design reference. I've been looking for other examples, but I can't tell if this is anything Harley ever made (though I know their history goes back very far). From what I've been able to find, it's design is a pre-Golden era (1930s?) Aviator horsehide rider with a slightly different D pocket design, center back pleat and half-belt back. I've only been able to find one other example - one made by Bill Kelso called the Wild Boy.
Bill Kelso Wild Boy 1.jpg

Otherwise, Freewheelers makes/made a single rider with a similar back as well called the Caboose jacket.
Freewheelers Caboose 1.jpg

I was wondering if the Kelso and McCoy's x Harley jackets reference a specific vintage model that any of you know of. It's been hard finding an exact vintage match (I've also scoured The Art of Vintage Leather Jackets blog, which I think is written by a FL member here), and searching vintage Harley jackets or "Old McCoys" in English and Japanese has only yielded a flood of Cycle Champs. I've also got my Rin Tanaka Century of Leather Design on the way, but I figured this was the best place to ask.

Thanks a lot for reading and taking the time to look this over, as well as give any insights you might have. I really appreciate it and glad to become a part of the community here.
 

Mark

Practically Family
Messages
638
Location
UK
I'm afraid I cannot help at all with your questions (it's some what over my head:confused:) but just to say I love the jacket, beautiful. Particularly like the back design. Great score.
My size too;) just in case!
 
Messages
17,150
Location
Chicago
Wow what a stunning jacket!! The design is based off the Original Trojan M/C jacket of which many makers have put out some sort of take on. I particularly like your example. It's interesting to see the H-D label as they never built anything like it (to my knowledge).
As far as the history of the collab goes, I have no idea but I'd be super curious to know more. The current in house offerings are a far cry from the caliber of jacket you have here.
Welcome to the TFL!
 

d4nimal

Familiar Face
Messages
61
Location
Philadelphia
Wow what a stunning jacket!! The design is based off the Original Trojan M/C jacket of which many makers have put out some sort of take on. I particularly like your example. It's interesting to see the H-D label as they never built anything like it (to my knowledge).
As far as the history of the collab goes, I have no idea but I'd be super curious to know more. The current in house offerings are a far cry from the caliber of jacket you have here.
Welcome to the TFL!

Thanks everyone for the compliments, and thanks so much ton312 for the information. That makes a whole lot of sense - I have a to say I'm a little embarrassed I didn't notice the pocket design similarities from the Lost World's 40-50s Trojan model, which has the same basic bones and swaps out the side adjusters for a full belt and slightly different pleating. This is exactly the sort of stuff I was looking to find out. Using your info I was able to find a few more jackets posted on Carlos840's custom Aero Bootlegger jacket post.

talon1_zps46nkwbw2.jpg

Welcome to the Lounge...and Congratulations!
What a killer jacket, and being from Real McCoys It's gonna be awesome.

I'm afraid I cannot help at all with your questions (it's some what over my head:confused:) but just to say I love the jacket, beautiful. Particularly like the back design. Great score.
My size too;) just in case!

Ha, thanks guys. I'm crossing my fingers on the sizing, but I saw in another FQHH post that if it's a little tight it shooouuuuuld get better w/ wear. If the fits off, I'll be sure to try and pass it forward on the forum here. Always comforting to see the Real McCoy's name on a tag, though it's strangely hard to find any information on the "old" Real McCoys out there.
 
Messages
17,150
Location
Chicago
I had no idea that RMC collaborated/ licensed with HD. This jacket really looks phenomenal, unique and frankly quite rare. Please do us the honor of a dedicated thread with lots of pics when it arrives.
The joy of this forum, for me, is seeing something like this (which I never knew even existed) documented and reviewed. Look forward to your thoughts and (of course) some fit pics! From the looks of things you've got an ear to ear grin inbound.
 

d4nimal

Familiar Face
Messages
61
Location
Philadelphia
I'll be sure to post a first impressions of it and a ton of pictures when it gets here (maybe a week or so, depending on transit time in country and international shipping), regardless if it fits or not. I always just assumed RMC made Buco jackets from the get go, but apparently that's not the case. I'm guessing the licensing changed under the Nylon ownership, but it's incredibly hard to come up with almost any history at all for the "old" Real McCoys aside from when it was started and when it went bankrupt. The only time I've ever seen RMC x HD even mentioned in English was on this forum by @Blackadder on a post about The Few and some of the other companies that split off from the old Real McCoy's back in the day. From the looks of it, Buco sizing seems to be smaller than their older Harley sizing as well, at least by the dozen or so size charts I've found online for used items, but I guess we'll see if I guessed right.

I'm trying to come up with a way to tell my wife when it arrives.

I agree, this is really interesting stuff which I'd like to know more about myself, being an admitted menswear nerd. I've been searching some Japanese translated terms on RMC history and trying to make sense of whatever Google translate spits out at me on Japanese sites, but it's been surprisingly tough to get very far - coming from someone who prides himself on digging up information on the internet. I'll def share what I find (which I'm hoping is more than I know now). FWIW, the vintage jacket pictured above from Carlos' post was actually found at the Art of Vintage Leather Jackets site once I reverse-searched the picture - I just missed it. Guess I'm getting old.

On an unrelated note, I didn't realize you can't edit your posts here after a short time. My first real post on this forum and I end the first two sentences with "for a while now." o_O Well, I've definitely become used to embarrassing myself slightly for a while now.

Second unrelated note, but really enjoying the camaraderie here, and learning to spell camaraderie.
 

ace12

New in Town
Messages
42
Location
Tokyo & Hong Kong
Welcome to the lounge mate. Currently I own 3 rmc x hd jacket. Each jacket is based on an original model from the HD Archive. Apparently HD is producing their own heritage clothing so there is no point of having other makers sharing their successes. For repro wise, a lot of details went into the jackets but if I had to nitpick I would go for the hardware, like the zipper pulls and studspots - they are far from accurate! The leather for all three jackets has a glossy top coating. I guess they're all produced in the mid to late 90's by the RMC. Oh, some of the jackets bearing the HD label on jp yahoo are only for "aesthetic reasons" - I've seen buco J-24 with an HD label or in your case, a Trojan - again, they're far from historical accuracy. No matter what, enjoy it with great health!
 

d4nimal

Familiar Face
Messages
61
Location
Philadelphia
Welcome to the lounge mate. Currently I own 3 rmc x hd jacket. Each jacket is based on an original model from the HD Archive. Apparently HD is producing their own heritage clothing so there is no point of having other makers sharing their successes. For repro wise, a lot of details went into the jackets but if I had to nitpick I would go for the hardware, like the zipper pulls and studspots - they are far from accurate! The leather for all three jackets has a glossy top coating. I guess they're all produced in the mid to late 90's by the RMC. Oh, some of the jackets bearing the HD label on jp yahoo are only for "aesthetic reasons" - I've seen buco J-24 with an HD label or in your case, a Trojan - again, they're far from historical accuracy. No matter what, enjoy it with great health!

Thanks for sharing your experience. From what I hear, the earlier RM pieces weren't as focused on historical accuracy, at least based on what I read about the A-2's they were making in the 90s. I'm admittedly not at a knowledge level at the moment to judge the points of the studspots and that sort of thing, though. I've seen the J-24 "Harley" jacket you've mentioned before - there's one on eBay right now actually, if my eyes aren't deceiving me. Now that I've got more to go off of and talking with some of the other guys here, I've seen quite a few makers with their own versions as well. Block Bilt still makes a very similar jacket they were making in the 30s in Rin Tanaka's book, Levi's Japan (not LVC) made their own version, and The Few produce an especially nice one to my eyes. I was never able to find any type of gallery for old Harley jackets to tell if HD ever made this style themselves in the 30s, but I can't seem to find a Trojan model that matches as some of the other jacket pics I've come across of online snaps of Tanaka's book yet (still waiting for my copy to come in the mail).

tumblr_inline_n1w3gjbyuc1qfex1b.jpg
tumblr_inline_n1w3gwrgiL1qfex1b.jpg
tumblr_inline_n1w3m8TUUE1qfex1b.jpg
Vintage Block Bilt.jpg


In terms of the leather, it sounds like you may be describing a semi-aniline dye finish, if I'm not mistaken. The description for my jacket noted that there wasn't much of the tea core showing through, so that makes sense with there being a light protective coat, though semi aniline isn't my favorite thing. I was hoping it was more an effect of the flash used to take pictures, but we'll see when it gets here. The upside, I suppose, is that it may not weather as fast as some of the other HH jackets that tend to have accelerated distressing, though that's all personal preference now.

Do you have any pics of your RM x HD jackets, by the way? I'd love to see some.
 

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