Ok Folks, it has been 5 months, $875.00 and probably 10 visits and 25 phone calls, but I finally got my Vanson Custom Leather jacket on tuesday. This may seem hard to believe.... but it was worth it. I have owned a few other jackets by Alpinestars and Joe Rocket, but this is one impressive piece of equipment that feels about 110% more substantial than any of them. I started the process by getting measured (I am 6'3" 180lbs, have wicked long arms and not that big a chest so no normal jackets fit). They lost my measurements and 2 weeks later I was measured again. 2 weeks later I was measured again (to be safe i guess) and got to design the look of the jacket. I took some time and made it exactly what I wanted, taking cues from all sorts of places. After another 2 weeks they were ready for me to come and explain my design and place the order (half the money down), which I did. Then I waited. I got an invoice stating it would be done June 10th. That is when I started calling. I didnt stop calling once every 4 or 5 days until last tuesday when they called to say it was done. Apparently they got mobbed and all orders got pushed off. The moral of the story is, if you want a jacket that will feel safer than any other, and look great doing it, and you have a few months to spare (I suggest starting the process in the winter) and a bit of money burning a hole in your pocket, then these people will make you an INCREDIBLE jacket. I am lucky enough to live 10 minutes from their production facility, so I could bug them and meet all the employees. They are VERY nice people, which is the only thing that kept me from going when the delays started. If there is interest, I will post some pics of the jacket. But it has vents on the inside of the elbows, panels behind perforated leather in the chest that can be folded back to let air through the perforations, vent zips in back to let air out, hard armor inside on the back (armadillo style), elbow and shoulder armor. It also has soft protruding leather armor patches on the back which look something like a sheild design on my back. Stripes on the arms, their name on the lower back, and a three-zipper system to zip pants onto it to make it a racing suit.
Sounds exactly like my experience with Vanson. I think they fire anyone who returns a phone call. My order took three months longer than promised, and about 57 million phone calls, and I don't think I'd have it yet if I hadn't called them and gone completely ballistic on the telephone, demanded manager's manager's managers, threatened to report them to my credit company for fraud, call the cops, etc etc. I think they are always busy enough that they don't feel it's necessary to start any work for anyone, unless they know for sure that this person cannot be put off any longer. I also think they don't have any hesitation to lie. At one point they promised, cross-their-heart-swear-on-mom's-grave, that I would have my leathers the first week in July. When they didn't arrive, I called and discovered that they are always closed that week, the person who made the promise had to have known they wouldn't be done then, even as they were promising it. IMHO they have no business promising delivery dates they have no intention of even attempting to make. The leathers I got from Vanson are beautiful. I'd love to order another set but there's no way I'll ever go through that ordeal again. Life is too short, and frankly any company that requires its customers to go through all that, does not deserve repeat business. This year I got new leathers, but this time I ordered them from Z Custom. My experience could not have been more different. They delivered when they said they would, they called me back to check on things whenever they had questions, they responded to my email, and they were very helpful. The leathers arrived sooner than promised. Cost was about the same. And their leathers are also beautiful.
BKS leathers in England did my custom suit, and didn't take that long! ;-) it was also quite pricey, but of outstanding quality, I had not problems with them, and the suit was delivered a few days before the date given to me at the absolute begining of the process, even though I delayed the start for a while.
