Story by Abhi Eswarappa
Vanson Leathers is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know enough about their legendary company. But earlier this month, Adam and I were excited to have the owners of Vanson (the wonderful Mike and Kim van der Sleesen) come by Iconic’s east coast place for a July 4th party that we threw, and they invited us to come check out their shop.
Vanson’s first motorcycle jacket was offered up in 1974, and they are hand-built in Massachusetts. “There are 49 steps involved in putting together our simplest jacket…and up to 126 steps in the construction of our most complicated pieces. Each is done by hand.” Their guiding principles are: “Hand Built. Made to last. An insistence on highest quality materials, starting with our secret proprietary tanning and leather finishing. Designed, engineered, cut, and produced in the U.S.A. of imported and domestic materials, sewn by hand in our workshop in Fall River, MA, USA.” So let’s start with the building in Fall Rivah. Sorry, that’s my MA upbringing coming out a little bit:
Say hello to the Iconic gang – we were well represented for this visit!
I’ll split this into a few sections. First, the SIGNS.
The folks at Vanson clearly have a great sense of humor and they don’t take themselves too seriously. Here’s some wall art that made me chuckle:
Now I want some popcorn:
This one’s also educational:
That sign seems fitting to transition into the next section of…SUITS.
There are some great historical suits all over the workshop from some names you’d recognize and some names you may not:
Speaking of “Jays”, our buddy Jay B. saw me taking a photo of an iconic Dave Aldana bones leather suit…
…so he helped by flipping it over.
Adam tries on a former “Statie” (State Trooper) overcoat.
Vanson does a lot of police/military jackets, many of which include specific leather-lined pockets for concealed carry (both right hand and left hand draw)
Adam’s wife and daughter try on some jackets:
These are for fans of the Anchorman series – Vince Vaughn’s Channel 9 News Team wore them in Anchorman 2.
Looks like I need to get a matching suit for my Tesi 3D…
If you also wanted to get some custom work done, you’ll find that Vanson has options ranging from pre-set templates to nearly full custom designs.
THE INTERIOR
The Vanson workshop is a large space – there’s plenty to see and plenty to buy.
If your ambitions are bigger than your wallet, there’s a clearance rack with some used pieces that you can snag instead.
Jay gets measured up for a custom suit by Kim van der Sleesen, one of the owners of Vanson.
In addition to their impressive presence in the US, Vanson also has a subsidiary of sorts in Japan and they’re allowed to come up with some of their own designs. The Japanese side sends samples of potential new designs over for the US to approve, and one jacket really caught my eye. But it’s never going to be sold in the US.
I spoke with Kim for a bit and mentioned that it the sample would ever become available to buy, I’d be highly interested…a few days later she reached out saying it could happen and I now have a Japanese exclusive back at home. I’ll wrap things up by noting that Vanson says thank you for visiting – I say thank you for reading!
