Quick Himel Brothers Review

[Vito2390]

I know there's been a lot of discussion on Himel Brothers on here. It's been helpful for me, and I wanted to contribute my own experience which was overwhelmingly positive.

I ordered my jacket towards the end of last year, which was an Imperial model in medium brown Shinki. For context, I am not at all new to the world of leather jackets, having started with Aero leather >10 years ago and gradually expanding / branching out to Real McCoy's (RMC), Buzz Rickson, Rainbow Country, some vintage stuff (in particular a Schott I really like), Y-2 Leather, Lewis Leathers, etc. But I did find Himel's designs to be interesting and was intrigued by his proclamations of superior patterns and thought I would pull the trigger. The jackets are definitely on the pricier side, and I understand that, but I'm in the fortunate situation that I can prioritize fit / cut over money.

Perhaps past grievances with Himel might have been with different assistants, but working with Reilly has been utterly pleasant and efficient. She has a great dynamic with Dave and knows when to reign him in as needed. Dave himself I've found to be a great guy during our two live discussions. He is a bit quirky and very confident in himself and his products, but from what I can tell is absolutely dedicated to getting the customer the right fit and making him / her happy. He's willing to put time into it and answer any and all questions. Perhaps sometimes when things don't go perfectly, it's because people aren't putting in sufficient upfront time / work to make sure they get what they want?

Anyway, the ordering process was incredibly thorough. They have you take tons of different measurements of your body (much more than the standard chest, shoulder, sleeve length, body length for typical jacket measurements), send pictures of your body wearing a bunch of different stuff, and also request that you send in a jacket you already have that fits you well. This could be a leather jacket or even a suit jacket; I ended up sending in a bespoke suit jacket. I can't remember the exact timelines, but I thought it was super reasonable. If I remember right, it was 3 -4 months between when I placed the order and I received my jacket and that included the year-end holiday season.

When I got my jacket, the first thing I noticed was the incrediblely good fit in the chest and shoulders... I have extremely sloped shoulders, and I also work out a decent amount and so have more of a v-shape. A lot of jacket patterns are much more blocky... I have found this of Aero, which I love but honestly doesn't fit me a amazing, as well as of the Japanese makers. According to Dave, the Japanese makers are more for a blocky and tubular Japanese body type, which is definitely what I've noticed in my RMC and FW jackets - they don't really accomadate a v-shape and don't taper very well. The Himel jacket fit amazing in all the key areas.

However, there were problems with this first jacket. The most glaringly obvious was that it was (for my taste) too long. If I remember right, the back length was 25" which was too long for my 5'10" height and build. This was especially the case as I have short legs relative to my torso and consequently only ever wear high-waisted trousers. The jacket length was not good for this and interfered with my ability to get to the pockets and of course more importantly just didn't look great / proportional for my build. The other issue was that some of the stitchwork around the chest pocket simply wasn't good. I don't care too much about it, but for the price it stuck out a bit. I also did think the chest pocket by default was slightly too high which I had moved down later. One thing to note for Himel's patterns - I think by default they just make longer body length jackets, so if you don't say anything you might get a jacket that's longer than expected for a certain traditional type of jacket that one might have in mind.

I brought these issues up to Dave and Reilly, and they handled it very graciously. I was very excited, given the jacket was nearly perfect, and I've never actually worn any patterns that accomadated my sloped shoulders and athletic build so well. I mentioned to them that I wanted to this first jacket fixed, but that if that was done right I wanted to order a few more colors / leathers. They took all this in stride and offered to take the jacket back and in the event it could not be altered (99% the case) they would re-make this one. I had some personal timelines for the new jackets for logistical reasons and they were able to accomadate those timelines including making sure the re-make happened quickly so I could approve the revised jacket.

The revised jacket came, and it was spot-on perfect. Now the Shinki leather is a bit harder at first and needs some break-in, and the pictures in the thread are of the first real wear, but again the fit was simply great. I have three more jackets coming in May in various different colors / leathers that I am happy to report on then. However, for now I just wanted to share my experience given how much past threads have helped me previously. Overall, I found Dave and Reilly great to work with and they got me a great product despite the bump in the road. Pictures are of the revised first jacket. Cheers.

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Great.

 

[Brandrea33]

Thanks for all the responses and discussion, all. A few follow-up photos here.

In t-shirt, just to get a sense of my build - note heavily sloped shoulders (not sure if super clear here, as maybe I'm subconciously attempting to straighten them for the photo, but I have the most sloped shoulders of anyone I regularly see, friends, family, etc.):
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More pictures of the Himel fit:

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Now some pictures of my RMCs - this is what I mean by the different, more tubular or blocky pattern (although in fairness these are A-2's so it's a different jacket type... but there's not really a taper going on here):

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And lastly, some pictures of my new Aero 1930's Halfbelt (I'm on my 3rd one, after some changes to my body over the years). You'll see that the pattern is much more blocky and less tapered, and I have to tighten the side adjusters all the way to get the fit I want. Although, I suspect Aero forgot to follow my instructions on this one and went with a standard 42" build when I asked for the waist on down to be tapered to 38". I'll have to bring it up with them. Overall, I love Aero still.

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He really nailed the fit for you.! Congratulations on a great jacket.

 

[whitebananafarmer]

He really nailed the fit for you.! Congratulations on a great jacket.

I'll post some pics of the other three Himel made for me when I get a chance at some point. The different leathers are each pretty unique.

 

[cbez]

Congrats to everyone who snuck in before the $600 tariffs...

 

[F3Mag]

I’m looking for a fully custom option (Aero only offers limited tweaks to their patterns; shoulder width and waist width). Is Himel the best option? I haven’t found any other custom options at this level of quality. Any other makers I should look into?

 

[Aloysius]

I’m looking for a fully custom option (Aero only offers limited tweaks to their patterns; shoulder width and waist width). Is Himel the best option? I haven’t found any other custom options at this level of quality. Any other makers I should look into?

Johnson Leathers in San Francisco is the best option.

 

[F3Mag]

Johnson Leathers in San Francisco is the best option.

Is the quality as good? Price seems too low to use the same level of materials.

 

[Tom71]

Is the quality as good? Price seems too low to use the same level of materials.

Query what you mean with "as good".

Craftmanship at JL is excellent. They are a somewaht bigger shop than Himel Bros., so they make use of economies of scale to some extent..
Himel can produce excellent jackets, but TFL has some examples of sloppy stitching unfortunate sizing errors etc. Up to you if you are willing to takes your bets on jackets THAT expensive.

In terms of leather used, Himel does have some exceölöent hides that are hard to find elsewhere. The dark-brown oiltanned horsehide or the moosehide come to mind.
Other leathers are what you can also sorurce yourself and ship to JL or get there directly.

If you want one of the "Himel-exclusives", you are indeed best served, going to him (I know they are not really "exclusive" in the literal sens, but I wouldn´t know where else to go.).

 

[El Marro]

Is the quality as good? Price seems too low to use the same level of materials.

Objectively the quality is every bit as good. Himel has just been much better at creating the cult of personality and the “bespoke” mystique.

 

[cbez]

Objectively the quality is every bit as good. Himel has just been much better at creating the cult of personality and the “bespoke” mystique.

himel has done a lot with developing/adapting interesting patterns, sourcing unique leathers, marketing his product.

johnson makes good jackets but has been content to basically just run their business as usual, and fly under the radar.

i dont think it's fair to simply paint all of what he's done as 'personality' woo-woo

 

[Aloysius]

himel has done a lot with developing/adapting interesting patterns, sourcing unique leathers, marketing his product.

The thing is Alan does this stuff too, but it's usually white label for Japanese brands (going back decades).

 

[El Marro]

himel has done a lot with developing/adapting interesting patterns, sourcing unique leathers, marketing his product.

johnson makes good jackets but has been content to basically just run their business as usual, and fly under the radar.

i dont think it's fair to simply paint all of what he's done as 'personality' woo-woo

Yes, and don’t forget he is also a collector and a historian of vintage leather jackets. I did not mean to imply that Himel brings nothing to the table other than personality.
I do stand by my assertion that Johnson makes a jacket that is every bit as good as Himel and without all the woo-woo too.

 

[F3Mag]

Nice, sounds like I’ll go with Johnson leathers. Anyone know if he (or anyone else) can source the blackened brown Vicenza leather that Aero uses?

 

[Hide'n'seek]

Nice, sounds like I’ll go with Johnson leathers. Anyone know if he (or anyone else) can source the blackened brown Vicenza leather that Aero uses?

no they can't , it's exclusive to Aero

 

[Brandrea33]

no they can't , it's exclusive to Aero

John Chapman uses it too … but he is quite fully booked at the moment

 

[Hide'n'seek]

John Chapman uses it too … but he is quite fully booked at the moment

It's a different article, Aero's Blackened Brown is exclusive to Aero .

 

[Brandrea33]

It's a different article, Aero's Blackened Brown is exclusive to Aero .

He buys it from the same tannery but yes, John’s last batch he dyes by hand. At least my jacket was.

 

[El Marro]

I owned an Aero Type 3 made from blackened brown Vicenza. The fit was magnificent and it was a very easy wearing leather right out of the box. Having said that, I don’t see any reason you won’t be just as happy with another teacore horsehide if that’s your desire.

 

[red devil]

Nice, sounds like I’ll go with Johnson leathers. Anyone know if he (or anyone else) can source the blackened brown Vicenza leather that Aero uses?

If I can offer a bit of advice, don’t fixate on a specific brand or whatever leather is being marketed to you. If you’re going with JL, just tell them what you want from the leather and they’ll advise you on the best match. The leather you’re currently chasing might not even be what you actually want — it takes time to figure out what you like. Ask me how I know, lol

 

[Bfd70]

Looking for a Canuck to fit a 40” chest