Disclaimer: Independance Brothers was kind enough to send The Peak Lapel this leather jacket for free for the purposes of this review.
We truly live in a new world of online custom clothing. Suits? No kidding. But you can get custom shirts, pants, shoes, and now, even leather jackets. Independence Brothers is offering fully custom leather jackets, ordered and designed online, from just $525. We were able to test the whole process out, and here is what we thought.
We went with a pretty classic leather jacket in a nice, rich, deep brown and a standard “shirt” collar. There are zip cuffs, but other than that, there is nothing super crazy on this jacket. As a first leather jacket, that is likely wise. The final outcome was exactly what I had in mind. The color brown is absolutely perfect, and I love the overall detailing and look and feel of the jacket. I find the collar a bit too large / floppy for my ideal taste, but there is also an element of “training” a leather collar to, over time, mold to how you would like to wear it. Overall, it’s a beautiful jacket that is well designed and crafted. Perfect to throw on over everything from a tee and denim to an OCBD and chinos.
Of course, you can pick whatever color you would like. They offer a ton of options, and can do just about anything under the sun as far as both colors of leather, and the design of the jacket. This is so much so the case that you can email them a picture of a jacket you see online that you like and they will be able to replicate it for you. Overall, the fact that they do leather jackets and only leather jackets means that they can really focus on expertly making the best possible product here. There are some other companies online that offer several different kinds of outerwear, but none are the best quality as they are trying to do too many things at once. With Independence Brothers, their sole focus is on leather jackets, and so their abilities and expertise runs quite deep.
Being honest, their website needs work. It’s a bit primitive, and not the sleekest or cleanest thing to navigate. It’s easy enough once you get the hang of it, but it’s not, say, Proper Cloth. This is a “tech” problem, though, and doesn’t really have much to do with the final product. I communicated directly with them over email to design what I wanted, and so that is always an option if you need as well. You input your measurements based both on your body and other jackets you own that you like the fit of, and they pretty much do the rest.
Once the order is placed, it’s a few weeks’ wait until it arrives. I was nervous about how the measurements would come out as, while I have measured for suits and shirts before, outerwear is a whole other beast. But I was actually pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The initial fit was quite good, and just needed a bit of trimming in the waist and sleeves, and shortening of the sleeves. In my case, Independence Brothers’ tailors took care of this for me, and a few weeks later the “edited” version of the jacket arrived back to my home.
The final results were pretty damn good! They left a bit too much lining in the sleeves which now sticks out, but this is nothing my local tailor can’t fix quickly and easily. Beyond that, the fit is WAY better than anything I could hope to achieve off the rack, and best of all, it’s customized to look how I wanted.
Independence Brothers leather jacket — $525: At more than half a grand this is by no means a “cheap” jacket. But any decent leather jacket normally costs many, many times this. And in this case, you get to customize it to your style and fit, making buying “off the rack” seem downright dumb in comparison. The quality is here, the fit is here, and the final product is something you’ll enjoy wearing and breaking in for a long time to come. We approve!