Mad Max MFP uniform: South Beach Leather pants review

[MFP 2020]

I purchased South Beach Leather’s Mad Max replica pants in cowhide to use as part of my full MFP uniform, and after wearing them to the Road Warrior Weekend Event 2009, I have to say that I’m very pleased with my purchase. I provided my waist and inseam measurements with my online order and they arrived, about a week later, in what seemed to be a too-small envelope, folded too flat and weighing too little. “Couldn’t possibly be my pants,” I thought, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The leather is supple with a very smooth grain and uniform color. (Try them on and see if you don’t keep running your hands over them. Probably best to do this at home.) They are lined with a light polyester down to the knee. The fit around my hips/butt is perfect, and although the waist (belt line) is maybe a half inch too big for me, it’s not an issue once I put a belt on. They were also too long, but I was probably too generous with my inseam measurement. No big deal; I made a quick “adjustment” with scissors.

The belt loops will take a 1 3/4" belt (the accepted width of Max’s movie belt), but it’s a tight fit. I've noticed that the belt loops on Max's pants in the movie are at least a half inch wide, much wider than the standard jeans belt loop on these pants. For screen accuracy, I hope SBL will consider offering the wider belt loops.

Before I actually wore them with my boots I was considering putting an elastic stirrup on the legs to keep them tucked, but I found that unnecessary. The pants fit well inside my boots and don’t ride up. They are "hemmed" using fusible web, not stitched. (Again, I cut mine off with scissors and probably won’t bother to hem them, as they will always be tucked into my boots.) The lack of a seam at the knees and the absence of pockets (front or back) make for a very clean look.

These pants are simply a pleasure to wear, with enough flex in them that you can walk around normally. (When it got really cold, I put a pair of thermal pants on underneath, and they stretched to accommodate me.) If you’re looking for pants for your MM1 MFP uniform (or just a pair of leather pants with clean lines) you can’t go wrong with these. I’m already planning my next purchase from SBL. (I'm considering buying their Mad Max jacket as well, because for the price, why not get one?)

Shown here with the AbbyShot jacket, etc.

 

[Cythusly]

Thanks for the review! I've wanted to do a Mad Max costume for a long time. South Beach Leather looks like a great site for other things too... now to find out how their U-Boat 9th Doc jacket is!

-Tyler

 

[MFP 2020]

I don't know about their jacket quality. Their Max jacket isn't as SA as the AbbyShot, and the shoulder caps they use are made of leather (not plastic). Another board member (jwrites) bought one without shoulder caps and riveted on his own; his main zipper broke almost immediately. However, the jacket is correctly tapered to the waist (unlike the AbbyShot) and they seem more amenable to modifications. So there's that.

 

[Max Replica]

I don't know about their jacket quality. Their Max jacket isn't as SA as the AbbyShot, and the shoulder caps they use are made of leather (not plastic). Another board member (jwrites) bought one without shoulder caps and riveted on his own; his main zipper broke almost immediately. However, the jacket is correctly tapered to the waist (unlike the AbbyShot) and they seem more amenable to modifications. So there's that.

Well, since you started this up I guess I should pile one. As you said, Southbeach is very open to custom orders. In fact, they started selling the Mad Max leather pants at my suggestion after I had them do a couple of special orders for me. The quality on their pants is very good, but both pairs I bought had to be taken in by a local tailor since the thighs were way too roomy for some reason. Still, very happy with them and the price is great.

NOTE: Be specific about what you want for pockets on your Mad Max pants. In the first movie, he had no pockets, in the second movie he had front pockets only. There are no back pockets on his leather pants in either movie.
And make sure you get cowhide leather with no seam above the knee (I believe their Max come this way standard now by I'm not positive).

As for the jacket, the zippers have been known to break (mine did and you can see it in the picture, but I was able to fix it pretty easily later) and the leather is not as soft and supple as the Abbyshot version. Then again, the jackets in the first movie were all vinyl anyway so leather is never truly screen accurate (as a side note, there is misinformation out there that Max's jacket was real leather and the rest were vinyl. In reality, only Goose's jacket was leather - which makes sense for safety reasons since he was the only MFP guy riding a motorcycle).

My jacket did come with the bad leather shoulder caps actually. I removed them myself. In the future, I would have ordered it without them.

I'll post a much longer detailed thread about the making of my MFP costume, but that will have to wait until another day when I have more time. You can find lots of my posts about where to find items for your MFP costumes on the madmaxmovies forum under the costumes section.

Here's a quick preview pic. This is the southbeach jacket with my own plastic shoulder caps riveted on. You'll see I'm also wearing my screen accurate replica Rossiter boots.

Sadly, the interceptor is not mine. It belongs to a friend.

 

[framed]

Hello,

I also have a MFP officer in the works,only thing i need are some cuffs and baton stick.
Last week I ordered the southbeach pants and i have the same problem on the waist and thighs were way too roomy for me also!
I have them for sale on a auction site now,SB is willing to make another slim fit version.
The jacket i have from SB has a shine on the leather does someone knows how to get it less shiny?
The jacket i ordered some years ago without the shouldercaps and made accurate plastic version on it,it looks great!

 

[MFP 2020]

Sorry it took me a year to reply; I'm not subscribed to my own post, evidently. For the cuffs, I recommend these: http://amzn.to/1Lxwl9w

Based on my extensive research (which I still haven't written up as a post), I believe they are "novelty" cuffs. (Three-link chain and external locking lever.)

For dulling down a leather jacket's shine, acetone should do the trick. But test a small patch first. Hope that helps.

 

[Lvbolts]

Just wanted to give my experience with Southbeach leather...I ordered the jacket...not for costume but having it framed up with all my autographs from all three movies. They state that the jacket is made in 3-7 days then it ships. Well after 2 weeks I emailed, no response, emailed again, no response. I called their # (NY area code) all it was was beeps over the phone. Called back a 2nd time left a message, no reply. I called a 3rd time and just beeps. Escalated to paypal claim, then the got ahold of me. I called the other # that is listed on their paypal account, bogus #. As for the shipping when they finally sent it was two days, pretty good. The jacket over all is ok, perfect for what I want to do but if I was putting together a costume I would not go with it. Very thin leather and sleeves are very very long. Again perfect for what I want to do but I would not be happy with it if I was going to wear it.