Cheap Motorbike Leathers Made in Pakistan
Today we’re looking at some cheap motorbike leathers. This is the set here. I got it made in Pakistan by Iqaa Sports, and I’ll put a link in the description.
Before I did this, I did so much looking for reviews and information about them. There are a few comments from people saying they got them made in Pakistan. Pakistan’s a pretty big country, and when you look it up, there’s no information on where it’s from. So here it is, firsthand. You may also like our Best Suit size
Why I Chose iqaa Sports
They were really good to deal with. I was pretty worried to start with, but I messaged a whole bunch of companies over there and said: ” Are you happy for me to pay half, make my design, and then I’ll pay the other half? That way, I’d know someone was making it and wouldn’t run off with the money. These guys were happy to do that, so I’d trust them 100% to send the money over for another one now.
The Design
I pretty much just emailed them and said, ” Can you make me this, and they said yes. I sent them the picture of my design, plus all the logos separately. Read our complete guide on Best Waterproof Ski Jackets
From a looks point of view, they got it all pretty bang on. If I had to pick something, the logos were a little smaller than I drew them, but that’s not a big issue. Learn more about the Best Waterproof Men’s Ski Jacket
Why Pakistan?
You’ll see brands like Dainese and Alpinestars have all their gear made in Pakistan. Leather is one of Pakistan’s biggest exports. I think it’s their number two or number three, so they have a huge leather market. If it’s going to be made of leather, there’s a good chance the leather comes from Pakistan. There are obviously places there that know what they’re doing, but at the same time, there’ll be places that don’t. Discover everything about Best Women’s Plus-Size Jackets
It was a safe guess. There were people getting stuff like this from China, and it was fake pleather, because China can make plastic stuff cheaply. I was guessing Pakistan wouldn’t get the plastic as cheaply as they get actual leather, because that’s their thing.
Construction and Build Quality
Is It Real Leather?
It’s leather. It’s thick, and I’m not a leather expert, but it feels like full-grain leather, not the thin fashion leather. It smells like real leather, and I’m confident it is. There’s a good video on a set of cheap Amazon leathers (I’ll put the video in the description). It’s really long, but they cut it up and sent it away for abrasion testing, and the leather itself held up really well.
Stitching and Seams
The problem with a suit like this, with multiple colors, is that the red isn’t on top of the white. It’s separate pieces, so depending on how well they’ve joined these together, these could all be tear sections.
Look at this side first. They’re all double-stitched as they should be. It’s hard to see on camera, but this joint here has been folded over and stitched twice, and on the inside, I can see it’s been stitched twice. Where there’s no double row of stitching on the outside, they’ve done the double row on the inside: there’s the double-stitched piece of white where it’s folded over, and then that’s the inside of the perforated white bit. Explore our article on the detailed Best Suit Jacket as a Stylish Blazer
Anywhere there are joints, it has been double-stitched. From a stitching standpoint, it all looks good in the areas where it needs to be.
Stretch Panels
In the areas where it needs to be stretchy, it’s got a stretchy fabric. This is not abrasion-resistant at all, which is why it’s only on the inside of the armpits and the inner arms. In the areas on the outside where you need stretch but also abrasion resistance, because you’re rubbing on the road, it’s leather. The leather is pleated with elastic stitched through it, and that should all wear properly. They haven’t cheaped out and put elastic there instead of leather.
Logos
I’ve crashed twice wearing it already. These logos are just printed or stitched on, so as soon as you slide on the ground, they’ll wear off. I’m pretty sure a lot of the others would be like that anyway, and it’s not the end of the world if the logos wear off. You mainly don’t want your arms to wear off, so as far as sliding on the ground goes, it looks good.
Zips
The zips are branded as YKK. YKK is the largest zipper manufacturer in the world. Whether they’re really YKK zips or not, you could argue, but they do say YKK on them, so we’ll go with that.
There’s a little pocket on the inside. I didn’t ask for this; they just put it in there. It has its own separate lining, so it doesn’t have little holes. It’s the only pocket on the suit; there are no pockets in the pants. I’m assuming you could ask them to stitch a pocket in, because this whole thing was made exactly how I wanted it.
Custom Options When Ordering
When I bought it, he sent me a sheet, and I filled out all my dimensions. It also had options for how big you want the hump on the back (of course I said give me the biggest one) and whether I want punched leather (I said yes, give me as much of that as possible). I also had the option of a two-piece, a one-piece, just the jacket, or just the pants. You tell them what you want, and they make it all.
It’s a two-piece because I want to be able to wear just the jacket when I’m out on my scooter with my riding jeans, and the whole thing when I’m not.
Ventilation: Punched Leather in Summer
Most of the riding here is in summer, and it’s hot in Australia. I was super impressed when I took this out for a ride by how cool it was. Walking around to get some photos, I was sweating, and I thought this was going to suck once I actually went for a ride in summer. But as soon as you start moving, the air blows in through all these little holes punched through the jacket and out the big exhaust ones on the back, and it does a really good job of being nice and cool. If you hold it up to the light, you can see through all these little punched pieces.
The Armor
Shoulder, Knee, and Elbow Pads
The shoulder pieces are more for show than anything. They’re just plastic, really. I paid an extra $25 for CE-rated armor. I was pretty confident it wasn’t going to make a freaking difference, but I thought I’d gamble my $25 to see what happens.
The armor pads are stamped with the CE logo. Basically, that means they’ve been tested as a shoulder pad, a knee pad, and an elbow pad. There are two different densities of foam: the light gray stuff is stiffer, with a thicker bit in the middle, and the other gray stuff is softer.
I’ll probably keep the elbow and shoulder ones, and might ditch the others and put in some proper ones. None of them are stitched in. They’re all just in little Velcro pockets.
Back Protector
It didn’t say which protectors it came with, and it didn’t come with a back protector. However, there is a Velcro pouch for it with an interior space. I’m not worried about that in the slightest, because I want to put a D3O back protector into the half-decent one.
My advice: save your $25, ditch the ones it comes with, and put better ones in it.
The Pants
The pants have the same construction as the suit. Anywhere bits are joining together, they’ve been stitched double. If it’s a colored joint, it’s stitched double on the inside. If it’s not a colored joint, it’s on the outside. We’ve got the same stretchy fabric in non-wear areas, and in wear areas where we need stretch, they’ve put in stitched leather. I also checked that this has been double-stitched on the inside, because I thought maybe they’d skip that on the stretchy bit since it was too hard, but they didn’t.
The ends of the pants have a zip because you wouldn’t be able to fit your foot through otherwise. The zips have an inner flap, so they don’t rub against your legs. They’ve got a whole bunch of extra dye on the inside, but that doesn’t really make a difference.
The knee sliders are standard Velcro-on ones, so once you wear through the Velcro, you can stick on whatever brand you prefer. The knee pads are much bigger than the standard ones, with the same gray-and-white foam and a Velcro piece that lets them come out. The knees also have a plastic piece, like the one on the shoulders, but it’s on the inside.
Crash Testing
I crashed twice wearing these. They were little crashes; I was screwing around. The leather looks like it’s wearing normally. It’ll wear the dye off, and it’ll wear the logos off because, as I said, they’re just printed and then stitched on, but it holds up like real leather. If it were pleather, it wouldn’t look like that, so that’s good.
The pants zip to the top of the jacket, so that if you slide along, the top doesn’t lift up. That depends on whether you ask them for a two-piece or a one-piece suit.
Fit
It’s hard to pull on, which is about right. These suits are stitched in such a way that you’re sort of in the bike-sitting position. My arms, if I relax them, want to stay like this, and my legs bunch up when I stand normally. It’s comfortable in the riding position: it doesn’t all bunch up, everything stretches in the right spot, and it feels right. It’s pretty much brand new, so it will take a little bit of breaking in.
The fit is probably what I’m most impressed by. The fact that it’s pretty much 100% bang on, just going off the dimensions I gave them with no actual test fitting, is pretty awesome. If I’m in the riding position, it’s not baggy anywhere. It’s a nice tight close-in fit. All the bits where you’ll hit the ground and slide are the cracked leather, with the correct stretchy leather where necessary.
Price: Custom Leathers vs. This Suit
If you’re watching this, you’ve probably already looked at how much custom suits cost. Fully custom suits like this are three or four thousand Australian dollars. This one was 400 Australian dollars, including the $25 I spent on the extra armor and postage, which took about four days. It’s pretty awesome.
Would I Trust It for Riding?
Absolutely. I’ve already crashed with it twice, and it’s been fine. For a track bike where you’re doing 300 kilometers an hour, I probably wouldn’t trust it, or at least not until I’ve crashed it a few times. But for my scooter and my bike, which haven’t arrived yet, I’ll trust them because they’re just little bikes and not super fast. If you’re going to get the jacket, I’m very impressed with the fit.
Summary and Ratings
In summary, I would recommend it 100%.
- Fit: nine out of ten. I’m super impressed with the fit. See Also: Custom Motorcycle
- Look: probably seven out of ten. The colors are all bang on, the shades are right, the shape is right, and it all matches up when it’s zipped together. The logos all look bright and nice, but they’re a bit small, so that’s where they lose a few points.
- Armor: two or three out of ten. I’ve had plenty of stuff with proper armor, like mountain bike gear, and this isn’t great, but it’ll be all right if you’re going with something cheap. Spend the extra 100 bucks and swap it out for good stuff.
It’s all cut from scratch. The armor sucks, don’t bother, but I’m impressed with the look: the colors are bang on, and the shapes are bang on.
Hopefully,y this has given you a better idea of how these Pakistan suits are made, and some information you couldn’t find before about these cheapo suits. If you’ve got any questions, leave them in the comments.