Leadfoot
New in Town
- Messages
- 42
- Location
- The Old North State
So, you may have noticed a commonality among my jackets. I like pockets. A standard Comet has two. Mine has six. The hidden hand pockets were a brilliant way of having hand pockets without altering the vibe of the jacket. The interior pockets, however, required adding leather facings to accommodate the pocket trim. A standard Comet and Mercury both have rayon fabric interior facings. So, if you want to add interior pockets, you have to include the cost of adding the interior leather facing as well.
When you place your order, they will send you a fit jacket based on the jacket you are trying to make. This is brilliant. A LOT of information can be gleaned from just having the fit jacket in hand. I would strongly suggest taking many photos and fit pics to have for reference. And take lots of measurements! This is very beneficial to have if a question ever pops up about a particular detail.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a fit jacket when I placed my first order for the Comp Weight Mercury. I specified way too much. Back length, sleeve length, etc. But if I had the chance to try on a fit jacket, I would have realized that the standard sleeve and body length for my size were totally agreeable. There was no need to specify exact measurements. It just complicated things. Lesson learned.
My frustration with the Comp Weight Mercury is the leather itself. It was every bit as thick and stiff as I was expecting. And wanted. But now add the interior leather facings to accommodate the interior pockets using the same thick/stiff leather. It is now acting as a reinforcement to the outside leather which now makes it doubly harder to break in. Now add the pocket trim for the interior vertical pockets. That's 3 more layers. And remember, the hand pockets come standard with leather lined pockets. And so did the interior vertical pockets. So, 2 layers for each pocket. All using the same, unforgiving leather. There was a spot along the zipper where the bottom of the interior pockets overlapped the top of the hand pockets in between the front of the jacket and the interior facing. It was 6 layers thick! Throw in the wind flap (same leather) and zip it all up in a thick #10 zipper. The jacket was supposed to be simple/functional. Instead, I looked like a robot.
The question is, whose fault is that? Vanson's for wanting to accommodate the customer's requests? Or mine for trying to make a motorcycle jacket into something it wasn't meant to be?
Back to the interior pockets, if you notice the trim on the Blue Comet and Navy Mercury are different. I did not request the actual trim on these. In fact, every order after the first one, I just said 'add interior facing vertical pockets, open' and let them decide what works best. And I like them all. If it was important to me, I would have specified something exact. But it wasn't. I just wanted the pockets. I didn't care how they constructed it.
In hindsight, I would probably have been just as happy with a fabric/rayon trim for the pockets. There wasn't really any need for them to be leather or go through the hassle of adding the interior leather facing.
