MickeyPunch
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2012
- Messages
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The irony: I make jackets -> some brands copy them -> I force the logo even for custom orders -> people can’t stand the logo -> they buy the copies (which might be better made than the originals, on top of that).
It’s an example of a terrible business decision IMO.
On the one hand I undestand LL’s frustrations. On the other hand according to Wikipedia they released their first “double rider” after the success of Schott’s Perfecto in The Wild One, so that kinda makes me think they lost the right to complain about copies. A DR is a truly unique design, if you put me in an alternate universe where DRs don’t exist, lock me up in a room and ask me to draw a thousand leather jackets designs, and I would never come up with something like it. But even Schott got their ideas somewhere, the guy in this thread who kept talking about “lancer” jackets can attest.
But the jacket at hand (Corsair) is basically a shirt made of leather and with a zip instead of buttons and a couple of details (sleeve zippers and side adjusters) that I presume were commonplace in leather jackets already at the time, it’s a simple design. I happen to not really like the most distinctive design detail (the tab at the hem). But yeah I guess being such a simple design you could argue Addict, FCL and others could have simply done their own version of a collared moto jacket (and DRs, for that matter) without being replicas, like LL did with their Perfecto version. But at least in the case of Addict the owner really loves those vintage LL jackets, he started collecting them and made a business out of it (reselling them in Japan) but of course the number of available vintage jackets is limited so he started making his own.
I’m not a leather jacket historian though and I don’t really care if a given design is one hundred or one year old, as long as it looks good and is well made, so happy to be corrected in anything I’ve said above.
It’s an example of a terrible business decision IMO.
On the one hand I undestand LL’s frustrations. On the other hand according to Wikipedia they released their first “double rider” after the success of Schott’s Perfecto in The Wild One, so that kinda makes me think they lost the right to complain about copies. A DR is a truly unique design, if you put me in an alternate universe where DRs don’t exist, lock me up in a room and ask me to draw a thousand leather jackets designs, and I would never come up with something like it. But even Schott got their ideas somewhere, the guy in this thread who kept talking about “lancer” jackets can attest.
But the jacket at hand (Corsair) is basically a shirt made of leather and with a zip instead of buttons and a couple of details (sleeve zippers and side adjusters) that I presume were commonplace in leather jackets already at the time, it’s a simple design. I happen to not really like the most distinctive design detail (the tab at the hem). But yeah I guess being such a simple design you could argue Addict, FCL and others could have simply done their own version of a collared moto jacket (and DRs, for that matter) without being replicas, like LL did with their Perfecto version. But at least in the case of Addict the owner really loves those vintage LL jackets, he started collecting them and made a business out of it (reselling them in Japan) but of course the number of available vintage jackets is limited so he started making his own.
I’m not a leather jacket historian though and I don’t really care if a given design is one hundred or one year old, as long as it looks good and is well made, so happy to be corrected in anything I’ve said above.
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