Reviews – ROCKTRANSFORMED

Review: Wesco 7500 Engineer Boot

In menswear, boots seem to exist on either end of two extremes. On one, you have sleek, elegant-looking boots exemplified by brands like Saint Laurent Paris, with narrow, aggressive profiles and a rock n’ roll aesthetic. On the other, you have rugged, utilitarian boots descended from the practical, sturdy footwear favored by blue-collar workers – loggers, firemen, factory workers, and the like. Personally, I like a balance between the rugged and sophisticated, but it usually demands a compromise at some point or another.

Today’s item under review, the Wesco 7500 engineer boot, aims to solve that problem. These boots are both elegant and rugged, a take on the classic engineer boot that ticks all the right boxes for me.

Design

The 7500 is quite different from the standard Wesco Boss, aesthetically speaking. It has a sleeker, almond-shaped toe profile, and a Vibram 700 sole rather than the heavy tread of the Boss. It’s accented by a light brown midsole, vintage-style triple stitched uppers, understated copper buckles, and a British Tan leather upper. This makes the 7500 look much less like a typical motorcycle boot than the usual black Boss boot.

The boots after a couple weeks of wear time.

I don’t ride a motorcycle or have particular interest in them, but I enjoy some elements of the look. Much of the Amekaji look we admire from Japan is descended from biker style, so to some extent it’s all intertwined. But I try to avoid going overboard. The 7500 re-envisions the engineer boot as a more neutral casual shoe that doesn’t stick too closely to any particular Amekaji sub-genre, and works just as well with biker style, workwear, or western-influenced looks. This versatility is likely to make these boots a cornerstone of my everyday style for a long time to come.

Clean, double stitching around the vamp gives the boots a rugged, yet classy look.

Stitchdown construction is a Wesco hallmark, and they’re one of two bootmakers I know (the other being fellow Pacific Northwest maker Viberg) who utilize this construction for their engineer boots. It definitely gives a different vibe from the typical Goodyear welt or hand-welted construction of engineers. What’s great about the stitchdown construction is how it balances out the somewhat almond-shaped design of Wesco’s Motorcycle Patrol toe and 1339 last. The combination of these two features emphasizes the elegant and rugged aspects.

The midsole and outsole have a similar effect. I love light brown midsoles and heel stacks, which give boots a warmer, earthier look than the more ubiquitous black sole on your average boot. The Vibram 700 sole is nice and thick, but with a subtle tread pattern that’s not too aggressive. All of this contrasts nicely with the upper leathers, as well.

Finally, the shaft of these engineers is slimmed compared to a standard Boss boot, which lets it fit comfortably under jeans with a hem as small as 7.5”. I have slim legs, so I still feel plenty of room around my calves. The back of the shaft has some nice V-shaped stitching that lends the boots a unique appearance.

Construction and Materials

The 7500 is nicely constructed. The boots have a hefty gravitas about them, lacking from less expensive boots like Red Wing’s, even if they’re not quite as obsessively perfect as engineers from the likes of Flat Head, John Lofgren, Role Club, or Clinch. Quality is comparable to Viberg’s, and better in at least some respects from the Vibergs I’ve handled.

The stitchdown construction is incredibly neat. The stitches are well spaced and symmetrical, much nicer than the stitchdown Viberg service boots I previously owned. The ecru color of the stitches offers a pleasant contrast with the uppers and midsoles. The sewing of the uppers is also very well done, using vintage-style triple-stitching rather than the double stitch standard on most Wesco Boss boots. Something about the straps doesn’t seem quite as refined as John Lofgren or Flat Head, but it adds a bit of ruggedness to the boots so I don’t really mind.

Triple stitching and brass buckles. The color here is very accurate.

The materials are impressive. The uppers are a leather Wesco calls British Tan Domane. It is a rich golden-brown hue with tons of pull-up, and a supple, oily feel. Its color and pull-up resembles Horween’s Natural Dublin leather, but without the unattractive irregularities common to that leather. The visual characteristics and feel are most similar to Chromexcel, but in a color that is in my opinion more attractive than any offering in Chromexcel. I’ve seen aged examples of boots made from this leather, and it offers impressive patina possibilities over time. After a couple weeks of wear time, there’s no sign of unattractive creasing like you’d see on some boots made from lower-quality Chromexcel.

The boots also feature brass buckles with a scuffed appearance. They’re hefty and attractive, though I prefer the ones used on the similar 7400 model.

There’s a little bit of cracking on the finish (?) on top of the midsole.

There are a few imperfections – the stitchdown runoff could’ve been a little cleaner, and there’s a bit more excess leather around the edge of the stitchdown vamp on the right boot than the other. The stitching around where the pull strap is sewn could also have been a little bit neater. However, the stitching of the uppers and double rows of stitchdown thread are very neatly done. I’d give the stitching neatness of this boot 8.5/10.

Fit

Fit has always been the most challenging part for me, on boots in general but especially engineers. I wear a 11.5 in most athletic sneakers, but went down to 10.5 E in these. My foot is long, but with a relatively low profile and not much girth. The width is just right in the forefoot, neither too narrow or wide. I have just enough toe space in the right boot (my right foot being about half a size bigger than the left.) After tightening the instep strap, the boots are a snug, comfortable fit on my feet.

As is the case with most boots that fit me properly, it doesn’t feel like there’s much break-in involved. At first, the right boot was a little uncomfortable to get off, but that quickly went away.

I feel like I could get a slightly more perfect fit with a custom pair, the left foot based around 10 E and the right foot 10.5 E, with just a little bit of extra length added at the toe, perhaps – my right foot is almost exactly a half size bigger than the left, and I’m definitely better off sizing for the larger foot rather than the smaller one (there’s no way my right foot would have enough toe room in size 10.) But fortunately, these are quite comfortable. I wore these boots during a trip to Chattanooga this fall, and walked over ten thousand steps a day in them on several occasions, with no soreness or discomfort anywhere in my foot, besides general light fatigue from being on my feet all day. Who says engineer boots aren’t suited for lots of walking?

Conclusion

The Wesco 7500 is a great pair of boots that does exactly what I want – bridge the gap between rugged, work-inspired boots and something a bit more elegant. They have the over-engineered toughness of all Wesco boots, in a versatile package that can work with many styles, and don’t scream “biker boots.”

It’s also worth noting that these are a great value – at $575, they’re reasonable priced for a boot that’s well made from high-quality leather. You can buy better boots from Lofgren, Flat Head, Role Club, or Clinch, but I don’t think anybody offers a better engineer boot for the money, especially when you consider how well designed and spec’d these boots are.

Review: The Real McCoy’s A-2 MJ18101

Even though I’ve been into Amekaji style for close to a decade now, I’ve spent the vast majority of that time without a leather jacket. This is a bit baffling, considering that such jackets are a core element of the style – for many Japanese enthusiasts a nice jacket is more of a style focal point than a pair of jeans. A great leather jacket can last you a lifetime and acquire substantially more beauty with wear, not to mention that they’re surprisingly versatile and great for varied weather conditions. But I was a bit late to the party.

The first leather jacket I ever wore was bought in 2011. The little town in northern Japan where I taught English did not, of course, have its own Amekaji store, but it was about forty minutes away from a big-box store called Mandai Shoten that sold used goods of all sorts – CDs, DVDs, video games, musical equipment, electronics, and of course, clothing. I filtered through the racks of leather jackets looking for something that would fit me. I chose a nondescript, black cafe racer style jacket that was pretty well beat up, and can’t even remember the brand. It cost about $70, and wasn’t made in Japan. I didn’t know anything about how a leather jacket should fit, and eventually sold it back since it never really looked right on me.

Years passed before I decided to try doing it right. In 2016, hot on the heels of having a decent-paying job for the first time in my life, I ordered a custom-fit 1930s-style jacket from Aero Leather. Made in Scotland from Italian veg-tanned horsehide, this was a great jacket, but I still didn’t really know what I was doing and made a few mistakes in how I designed it. First, it was too long (a motorcycle-style jacket should end at the bottom of your belt), but the collar and cuff style were not at all the sort that I liked. It took forever to sell this jacket and I lost a lot of money. I wasn’t eager to look for another one.

This year, I was finally ready to try again. I bought a Real McCoy’s A-2.

The Real McCoy’s is one of the most celebrated Amekaji brands, renowned for crafting meticulous reproductions of historical garments. Their A-2 jackets are arguably the brand’s signature product, and a great entry point to The Real McCoy’s, if you can stomach the steep price. Amazingly, this is the first Real McCoy’s garment I’ve purchased (and, as far as I can remember, the first I’ve even handled.)

Design

The A-2 is one of the most recognizable leather jacket styles. It’s universal, maybe even generic, and much less edgy looking than motorcycle-influenced jackets. This is one of the reasons I chose an A-2 for my jacket. I don’t ride a motorcycle, nor have much interest in them; they’re cool, but I would probably get myself killed trying to ride one. As a result, wearing a badass motorcycle jacket sort of makes me feel like a poser.

Wool ribbing, found on the cuffs and hem.

This jacket solves that problem because the A-2 doesn’t have such hyper-specific connotations. It can fit in with a range of styles, from the Mitt-Romneycore that dresses it with mom jeans, white socks, and loafers, to an erudite Japanese bohemian who wears it with roper boots, wabash pants, and a raglan sleeve T-shirt. The more neutral aesthetic of the A-2 makes it ideal for my style: one which evokes elements of various types of heritage styles without looking like a costume. I can’t entirely say that I’ve eluded poser-dom, but close enough.

The Real McCoy’s painstakingly reproduced the nitty-gritty aspects of the A-2, but they also made a few improvements, mainly with the fit. The original A-2 was often a boxy, loose jacket, and while this one isn’t exactly slim, it doesn’t look sloppy. The brand clearly took care to tweak the historical style while maintaining the spirit of the original. This works especially well for me because I’m tall and thin to begin with, so the final effect doesn’t look too trim anyway.

The only knock I have against the design would be areas where I wish there were a few modern improvements. The biggest gripe I have is a lack of an interior pocket, where I could keep my phone. The front pockets can hold it, but my iPhone 6S still sticks out from the short pocket. I value modern usability more than historical accuracy when it comes to such things, but it’s hardly a dealbreaker. Also, if I’m honest, I would probably prefer that the cuffing was made of rayon or something similar – but the wool doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it might, and gives the jacket an earthier vibe.

A design detail I love is the collar. I am very particular about collars; a good shape can make or break a jacket. This collar is perfectly shaped, and looks good with or without the buttons snapped.

Construction and Materials

My expectations were very high for this jacket based on what I’d previously heard about the quality of The Real McCoy’s jackets. They’ve been called one of the top jacket makers in the whole world; high praise, indeed. I’m glad to say that the jacket lives up to that reputation.

The quality of the sewing is quite impressive. It is very precise and beautiful. The construction of my Aero jacket was pretty good, but the McCoy’s construction is measurably better. Some areas stand out as particularly impressive: the front pockets, and the shoulder epaulets. The stitching here is simply perfect, and the cutting of the leather – a great way to gauge garment quality – is flawless.

When viewed from the top of the collar downward, the stitching down the front of the placket doesn’t appear *perfectly* straight, but when viewed from the front it’s fine. This may be due to the natural variation of the leather’s surface texture. Other than this, I can’t find any flaws.

Speaking of the leather, it’s arguably the most important part of the whole thing. This jacket is made from vegetable tanned horsehide from Japan’s Shinki Hikaku tannery. In my opinion, Shinki’s horsehide is the finest outerwear leather on the face of the planet; the scent is heavenly. The feel is tough, but supple, and with wear the leather becomes softer and glove-like, with an increase in texture, sheen, and touch. The weight is just right, neither light nor heavy. The color is a rich seal brown, which contrasts nicely with a wide range of colors, and of course looks wonderful with denim.

The Shinki horsehide is richly textured, with a nice shine to it.

As a fan of cotton sewing, I was thrilled to find out that the jacket is sewn with 100% cotton thread. Even better, the thread is a custom gauge that is in between modern thread sizes. This kind of obsessive detail is the sort of thing that impresses me, even though I’m not specifically after exact historical accuracy. The A-2 features a Talon zipper, seriously heavy duty snap buttons at the pockets and collar, wool ribbing at the cuffs and hem, and a very sturdy neck hook that’s handy for keeping the collar closed when I hang up the jacket. The jacket is lined with a heavyweight, comfortable cotton twill that feels great.

There’s nothing to criticize with the materials chosen; everything is top notch. A cutter meticulously clicks the leather to find the best part for each area of the jacket, similar to the way high-end shoes and boots are constructed. To top it all off, each jacket is completely constructed by a single artisan at The Real McCoy’s Kobe workshop. This old-world, inefficient method of production adds to the mystique of this McCoy’s jacket and further differentiates it from cheaper, mass-produced jackets – and, for that matter, from the mass-produced wartime jackets which inspired it.

Although there has been some talk of declining quality at Real McCoy’s since founder Tsujita-san stepped down and his son took over, it hasn’t reached RMC jackets. Perhaps not surprising, considering that this is their signature product; I doubt the manufacture of these jackets has changed in quite some time. There are more fanatical jacket enthusiasts out there who might find something to nitpick, but I’m a satisfied customer.

Fit

With this A-2, I finally found a leather jacket that fits me. As a tall, skinny guy, something or another is usually either too short or too long on most jackets. It feels great to finally get one that feels natural.

This A-2 is just right in the arms, which tend to be either too loose or too tight on other jackets. I can wear my jacket with either a T-shirt or long-sleeved shirt, and the sleeves are comfortable and look good either way. Some folks would prefer a slimmer sleeve, but I like having some extra room. The sleeve length is just right, and helped out by the wool ribbing at the cuffs, which add some extra length. My long arms appreciate that. The shoulders have just the slightest bit of hang.

The chest allows a full range of motion when zipped, and feels like the correct width. I worried it might be too big before purchasing, but in fact it feels just right. The jacket’s length is also correct: the ribbing falls just below belt level. All of these aspects let me wear the A-2 and get a classic-looking fit that works for my body type. This jacket has a very versatile fit that should work for many different body types.

Conclusion

After spending some time with this jacket, the foremost question on my mind was: why did I wait so long to check out this brand? This A-2 nails all of my needs for a leather jacket, from the materials to the aesthetics and fit. I might have an insatiable appetite for flannel shirts, but all I really needed was one leather jacket, and this one is it. For those interested in motorcycle jackets and other military reproduction outerwear, the Real McCoy’s has those, too.

If you can handle the steep price point, The Real McCoy’s A-2 is about as good as it gets.

Strike Gold SGJ50S “Optical Ice” Jacket: Initial Impressions And Review

I have been trying to find a denim jacket that works for me for years now. I have the weird proportions of 6’3” / 165 lbs, so a lot of tops are too wide in the shoulders and/or too short in the sleeves. On top of that, I like a classic looking fit for jackets, where the hem of the jacket hits at the bottom of my belt. Many raw denim brands modify their jackets to make them quite a bit longer, and I don’t really like this.

I tried a TCB 50s jacket a few years ago. This had a great fabric, but it was very tight (particularly in the sleeves) and too long in the hem, so I wouldn’t have liked the look if I sized up. Some time later, I scored a 3Sixteen Caustic Wave jacket, and while it fit a bit better, it was still too tight, particularly in the sleeves. (A size L might’ve fit, but these were sold out by then.)

I went a while without looking for a denim jacket and sort of gave up. I kept wearing my Flat Head 7002w denim shirt like a jacket instead. But this year, I resumed the search. I needed something with long sleeves, not too much body length, and enough room in the chest and sleeves to comfortably accommodate a heavyweight flannel underneath, sweater, or sweatshirt underneath. Hand warmer pockets would be nice, but as long as I can fit my phone into a pocket somewhere, that would be enough. This Strike Gold jacket ticked all the boxes, aside from lacking hand warmer pockets.

Then it (fortuitously) went on sale at Self Edge, so I bought one in size 42.

The Setup

When I got the jacket, I tried it on and found that it was a bit big – which was perfect, because it’s unsanforized and would shrink a lot. I did my usual routine for unsanforized denim. I turned the jacket inside out, buttoned it, and hot-washed in my top loading washer with Woolite Dark detergent. After the wash, I hung the jacket up to dry. This seemed to get rid of all the shrinkage at once.

By the next morning, my jacket had finished drying and was ready to wear.

Design

The Optical Ice jacket is based on a 1950s Levis Type II jacket. Many Japanese denim brands offer something similar to this, but there are a number of thoughtful design details that stand out. First and foremost, the front pockets are big enough to easily hold my iPhone 6s. Tiny, unusable pockets are a big issue I have with many repro-style denim jackets, so I’m pleased that these are useful, while maintaining the classic look.

The jacket features the double-pleated placket of all Type IIs, and it looks great. I like the contrast of the natural colored button holes against the rest of the denim. The jacket also features adjustable buttons on the back near the hem, a feature some makers omit from their jackets. It’s slim enough at the waist as is, so I left them alone.

Copper/Iron Rivet, reinforcing the cuff opening.

One cool detail worth noting is Strike Gold’s rivets – found near the sleeve opening. The flat round part is copper, and the prong/point is iron. This is a design detail unique (as far as I know) to Strike Gold, which over time will offer contrast with how the two metals age. On the other hand, the jacket’s buttons are steel – this is the one design detail I’m no crazy about, as I’d have preferred iron buttons due to their greater aging potential. But perhaps the buttons will surprise me with some wear, and they don’t look bad as is.

Finally, the jacket has a deerskin leather patch below the collar. It’s soft and supple like deerskin usually is, but is a light, almost veg tan cowhide sort of color, which you don’t usually see with deerskin patches. I’m curious how it’ll age. By the way, I much prefer this type of patch to the super-thick chunk of veg tan cowhide many denim brands use for patches.

The Denim

Alright, here we go. This denim is seriously wild. Probably the craziest I’ve ever owned.

I’ve never been into the really wild fabrics made by companies like Oni, Pure Blue Japan, and others. I tend to prefer the middle ground between those fabrics and vintage-style ones – represented by companies like Flat Head. I primarily bought this jacket for the fit and design, but I have to say the denim is quite impressive.

This is the same denim Strike Gold uses on the 5109 and 5104 jeans. The cotton is an extremely short staple, very rough and abrasive, but I wouldn’t describe it as slubby, as it’s not made with slub threads.

The warp is dyed extremely dark, though not quite as dark as Eternal or Flat Head, and the weft is gray, similar to Strike Gold’s 3109 denim and Pure Blue Japan’s XX-011 denim. In fact, the colors remind me more of the latter than any other fabric I’ve handled, though this denim is right-hand twill. This resemblance is a good thing, as PBJ’s XX-011 denim is one of my favorites.

You’ve got to have some pins on your denim jacket.

The weave is quite different, however. In a word, it’s crazy. The fabric was woven under extremely low tension on a very creaky loom, leading to a wildly uneven fabric with thick horizontal irregularities. Kiya’s description of the denim as having a feel reminiscent of an old Persian rug seems apt. It reminds me a bit of a very high-quality burlap sack. The texture comes from the short-staple cotton and the weave. The weave is extremely loose as well – once this jacket is broken in, it should be comfortable in warmer weather, and it’s already clear that it’s exceptionally breathable (though it does add warmth as a layering piece.)

The fabric is, of course, unsanforized and completely loomstate. It’s described as 15 oz, though the extreme texture of the fabric makes it feel maybe a bit heavier than that.

There have been many faded examples of the 5109 jeans featured on Reddit and elsewhere, so I have a pretty good idea how this denim will fade, but I’ve never seen any faded samples in jacket form. Due to the nature of the denim, I think it will age quite a bit faster than the average jacket. With only a few wears, I see hints of electric blue fading on the arms.

Construction

I can’t speak for sure about the machines used in constructing the jacket, but it’s safe to say that vintage Union Special and Singer machines probably did much of the sewing. It is made with 100% cotton thread, which as you might know by now, is one of my favorite nitpicky points of denim construction. These yellow threads ought to fade to a nice lemony color over time.

There is a lot of heavy-duty chain stitching in the jacket, as is normal for Type II jackets. I have to say, I’m really impressed by the quality of Strike Gold’s construction. The sewing is very neat and regular, definitely on the same level as Flat Head at their best.

The only other thing I have to say about the construction is that I wish the pleats were pressed a little bit more. I haven’t had much success trying to iron it to be a bit more flat, but this isn’t necessarily the fault of Strike Gold; more likely just a side effect of shrinking the jacket inside-out with a machine wash.

The Fit

Success! I finally found a denim jacket that fits just how I want. In fact, I’d say that in each dimension, it fits ideally. It has an overall vintage appearance, but with a few thoughtful additions (like slightly narrower shoulders) that make it a bit more wearable than a more vintage Type II jacket.

The sleeves are the perfect width and will easily accommodate any of my shirts, and the sleeve length is just right, as well. Often denim jackets taper a lot in the forearm; thankfully, this one does not.

The length is also correct. I hate it when denim jackets end far below the belt, so I like that this one ends right around the bottom of my belt.

Conclusion

Strike Gold’s jeans have always intrigued me, but their fits don’t really work on my body. Fortunately, this jacket fits just how I wanted, and will be a wardrobe staple for years to come. Even though I wasn’t necessarily seeking out a jacket made from a really non-traditional denim, I really like the fabric and how different it is from my other jeans. It’s easy to recommend this jacket to anybody who wants a slightly-modernized Type II with some unique attributes. I might still want a more traditional denim jacket at some point, but this one will see a lot of usage, and is easy to recommend.