Antique Indian Motocycles
One of the Regulars
- Messages
- 129
As a collector of vintage Indian Motorcycles and antique riding gear I want to put some light onto motorcycle jackets tagged with "Indian Sportswear for Motorcyclists".
This was the mercandise company to the famous Indian Motocycle Co. in Springfield Mass. They offered riding gear from 1946 to 1960. Including the well known "Indian Ranger" leather jacket.
This thread focusses on the motorcycle leather jackets tailored in 1957 and 1958.
The budget for marketing and merch was always small and therefore only two designs of motorcycle jackets were launched.
In the accessoires catalog of 1957 a black steerhide jacket was pictured. It had a detachable black fur collar , a simple leather belt and the back section was one piece and 29 inches long with a "duck tail" for wind protection. Zippers were all alloy Talon. Typical throat latch and no gussets on the sleeves. The lining was red Curon fabric. There were 2 labels, a red one saying "Indian Sportswear for Motorcyclists" and a small white one right underneath telling that that its made of steer hide. A female model was also available with mirrored design elements. Here are some pics.
Next thread is on the jackets made in 1959 and 1960.They were lightly different.
My opinion:
These jackets were only made for 2 years only and with the Indian motorcycles not beeing popular, only a handful of jackets were sold. If you come over one example, look at the "Steer hide" label. Most of them are sewn to the upper label with the steer´s head cut. I think this was a joke of the tailor. Maybe all were made by the same person? The jackets surely were produced in the Boston area according to the steer hide labels, that were the very same on other brands, too.
This was the mercandise company to the famous Indian Motocycle Co. in Springfield Mass. They offered riding gear from 1946 to 1960. Including the well known "Indian Ranger" leather jacket.
This thread focusses on the motorcycle leather jackets tailored in 1957 and 1958.
The budget for marketing and merch was always small and therefore only two designs of motorcycle jackets were launched.
In the accessoires catalog of 1957 a black steerhide jacket was pictured. It had a detachable black fur collar , a simple leather belt and the back section was one piece and 29 inches long with a "duck tail" for wind protection. Zippers were all alloy Talon. Typical throat latch and no gussets on the sleeves. The lining was red Curon fabric. There were 2 labels, a red one saying "Indian Sportswear for Motorcyclists" and a small white one right underneath telling that that its made of steer hide. A female model was also available with mirrored design elements. Here are some pics.
Next thread is on the jackets made in 1959 and 1960.They were lightly different.
My opinion:
These jackets were only made for 2 years only and with the Indian motorcycles not beeing popular, only a handful of jackets were sold. If you come over one example, look at the "Steer hide" label. Most of them are sewn to the upper label with the steer´s head cut. I think this was a joke of the tailor. Maybe all were made by the same person? The jackets surely were produced in the Boston area according to the steer hide labels, that were the very same on other brands, too.
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1957 Indian Accessoires Catalog Jacke.jpg94.4 KB · Views: 591
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1957 Ranger jacket 1.jpg499.8 KB · Views: 661
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1957 Ranger jacket 3.jpg441.3 KB · Views: 543
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1957 Ranger jacket 4.jpg424.3 KB · Views: 516
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F775557F-7062-46F4-AE36-181EFABF6F55.JPG1.5 MB · Views: 547