Well, I came home last night to see this beautiful package waiting for me:
So, I quickly opened her up and took these pictures. Keep in mind, these were taken at night using the camera's flash:
There are a few issues:
1) I requested a no snap-back collar and as you can see in the pictures, it's there. It doesn't really bother me and I won't make a fuss about it but for those of you who have your order in, you might want to double-check that detail.
2) If you look at the close-up picture, look at the tops of the strips. They look almost white in the pictures. The leather is apparently dyed gold in large sheets and then cut into the stripes. The dye doesn't really make it all the way through the leather so, when it's cut you get that "white-ish" color on the tops of the stripes. It's actually more of a very pale-yellow than white in person. Again, doesn't really bother me but just pointing it out to everyone.
3) Everything on the jacket fits me perfectly... except the waist. If I was about 3 inches larger in my waist, then the jacket would fit me snug but right now, if I go outside in the NY winter, I get this blast of cold air that shoots up my front and back. I'm not sure if this is how motorcycle jackets are designed or if this is a tailoring issue. I called Vanson today but Mike is not in.
Other than that, I love this jacket. I'm glad GuntahKela convinced me to get the Walnut color, it's great. It's not as dark in person, it's a hair lighter shade. It's definately a close match to the MI-9 leather color (that you can't get anymore) that the movie version was made from. The leather is hard but not ridiculous tough. It's definately softer and more forgiving than the horsehide jackets I tried on at Vanson. It will stand up on it's own with a little convincing... where as the horsehide jackets you could just drop them on the floor and they stood up.
My waist stripes ended up being 1-1/2" in the front and 5-1/8" in the back. Looks good to me.
My wife is away for the next few weeks so, I didn't have anyone around who could take pictures of me in the jacket. Those will have to wait til later. I also wanted to try and get a picture of the jacket not using the cameras flash. So, the best I could do was use some track lighting I have installed on dimmers and take a picture without flash. I thought it might show the true color of the jacket a little better but not sure if it does... I guess you can be the judge of that.
I'll get pictures of it out in the daylight this weekend and again, the color of the jacket is not as dark as the pictures lead you to believe... it's a smudge lighter shade of brown. I really think it's dead-on in terms of color.
- J.
