For a change, here's a photo of a German lady in fairly classic motorcycle clothing, somewhat old-fashioned, somewhat modern, a very good mix.
This is typical "German leather", handcrafted, a feast for the eyes. Not a single centimeter of it comes from Asia, Bangladesh, etc.
This is pure European craftsmanship that lasts for decades and certainly isn't cheap to buy.
Such quality still exists today, but unfortunately not under an HD label, and that's very regrettable; those days are gone...

Mike

 

Saddle soap for cleaning and Mink oil for preservation. I have chaps that are 50 years old and a Harley Jacket that was bought in 2004. still looks new.

 

I disagree. Some of the high end leather You find under the Harley name is as high a quality as you can get anywhere. I’ve seen plenty of European leather jackets that are not as good. Just because a cow died in Europe and a guy over there sews it doesn’t mean it’s better. I’m sure there are highly skilled leather workers all over the world. Just as I’m sure there are breeds of cow, aux, goat that ate well and have good healthy skin.

‘’It might be great marketing to say our leather products are made from Italian leather……. Like it’s somehow better quality because the cow was from Italy.. sure there are breeds that generally have better hides for making leather goods, might be regions known for taking great care in raising them… but that can be true all over the world. There are good climates and safer environments for cattle in pockets all over the world.

Sure there is crap leather out there sold to meet a price point. And sure Harley uses some of that. But their high end jackets are much better quality.

MyHein Gericke leather jacket is no better or worse than my us made, us cow Hot Leathers jacket… but both are inferior to some of my high end Harley Jackets. Maybe the leather itself is just of equal quality.. but the stitching, fit and design is by far far far better. Even the well thought out zippers, the pocket placement for the armor, the vent system is all better designed.

 

Hi Rains,
The traditional black leather motorcycle jacket from Erdmann in Hamburg looked something like this:


It was the jacket that was already highly sought after in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
That was the simplest version; all other variations were possible, depending on the type of leather, the extras, and, for example, the desired decorations, etc.
Al the leather stuff was always handmade in Germany from high quality German leather.
This also applies to leather jeans – straight, bell bottom, tight, skin tight – and of course to the S&M scene; all of these things blended together. A two-piece leather biker outfit, custom-made, could once cost 2,000,- Deutsche Marks, with a waiting period of several months for the customer...

The company "Hein Gericke" jumped on this bandwagon in the 1970s, and their black "Police" leather jacket was very successful at a low price. But absolutely nothing about this Gericke leather clothing was "Made in Germany" anymore. EVERYTHING was produced in low-wage countries, by slave laborers, and especially slave female workers, etc.
The typical german traditionalist didn't buy Gericke's rubbish, nor the company's parts and accessories.

Tradesmen, bikers, and the old-fashioned bought "Veddel," "Erdmann," and other traditional German brands for simple reasons. Buy something expensive once, wear it for a lifetime—that was all there was to it.
It wasn't uncommon for younger fans to continue wearing their fathers' and grandfathers' leather clothing; the stuff was indestructible.
Fashion didn't matter to the fans; quality was what mattered.
In my stores I sold a lot of pure black German used motorcycle leather, in all colors as long as the color was black,(Henry Ford?) I don't need to remember anything more.

Mike
PS I deliberately didn't write about German leather clothing from the World Wars. This stuff is tainted by the years of history we all know.
For example, German "Luftwaffe" leather jackets are nowadays extremly pricy, very hard to find at all, depending on the "heritage" of the former owner, but this is another topic, maybe the next time...
However, it is interesting to see that the classic "style" has hardly changed in the last almost 100 years...

 

I like that obenoffs. Bought half gallon of it few years ago , cheaper but I got a lot

I suspect most are good enough

 

Wife and I were in Morocco last year, craftsmen there are well known all over the world for quality leather. Saw some great hand made jackets, bags, wallets and lots of other misc leather goods that would rival professional versions.

 

Thanks to all for a very interesting thread. I bought a leather jacket at the local dealer when I bought my first brand new Ultra in '08. It was on sale for just under $500 then. It's heavy as all get-out and ended up in the back of the closet, as I prefer to layer up- I'll have to take a look and see what it is.

 

Hi Guys.

Ok I am the original poster of this thread and while I was trying to get some information from others there is a lot that is personal opinion without any real experience or examples to back it up.

So then I went and search you tube, concentrating on companies that manufacture leather gear. Schott Jackets for example, they make top of the line leather coats so they should have some good insights as to what works best with their leather.

Anyways, after reviewing online I came up with a number of recommendations and looked in my cupboard. I have some Leather Honey, Weiman Leather Conditioner which is recommended for leather car interiors, Fellove Mink Oil, and Neatsfoot Oil.

the Leather Honey and Mink oil come from the Leather Coat Manufactures, Weiman is for Car interiors and leather furniture, and the Neatsfoot oil is what I use on my baseball gloves which really helps breaking them in. Leather boot manufacturers recommend Leather Honey, Mink Oil, Neatsfoot, or other similar products.

Then went to the goodwill store and got a couple of leather jackets, cheap ones with lousy quality. I also have a number of leather scraps from other projects in the basement. From this I took five leather samples from each source of leather and treated them with each product with the fifth as the control sample. Treated them a second time. How I treated them was that I would put them out in the garage where it was 10 degrees and then treat them while cold, brining them inside to heat them up to expand and as such, let the treatment penetrate and let them dry inside at 70 degrees. After the second treatment I set them back out in the garage and each sample expelled a bit of the conditioner as the sample cooled down which tells me that I have enough conditioner in each sample.

Conclusions:

Leather Honey, Mink Oil, and the Weimans all condition the leather similarly, may require some wipe down after application but the leather was basically in the same condition with respect to stiffness as to when I started.

The neatsfoot oil I noticed that it had a very different result. First off it seemed to penetrate deeper, make the leather less dry, and also removed some of the stiffness of the leather, especially in the cheaper leather from the 2nd hand coats.

This pretty much reinforces what I thought and as such, when I get a new pair of boots, I have treated them with neatsfoot to soften them up and when they are broken in switched to mink oil or other conditioner.

I hope this helps some of my fellow riders!

I also want to give a shout out to the guy that questioned a 2022 Harley Leather jacket made in USA. You are correct, it was made in Pakestan. Thank you!

Regards,
Crankster

 

Thanks for your results page.....all good to know for future reference.