Halvarssons Skalltorp leather jacket in cognac

The first thing we need to say about the Skalltorp is that it is made from goat’s leather.  Now goat hide makes for great bike jackets and great bike gloves. It is super soft and supple. It is thinner than cowhide, but stronger than cowhide for its thickness. The result is usually very wearable, yet extremely protective.

Over the years, there have been some lovely goat hide jackets from Halvarssons, but none that is nicer than this one.
 
Goat hide has a natural texture to it, but the Skalltorp jacket has been heavily tumbled to give it even more of a beaten-up and aged appearance. If you saw this jacket hanging up in a cloakroom somewhere, you would assume that it was owned by an old-school biker who had been riding in it for years. The ageing effect really is that authentic.

The decoration is quite subtle. You get an understated roundel on the right arm and a couple of stripes on both shoulders; that’s it. There’s a popper at the neck, and some belt and buckle straps at the waist. On the front of the jacket, there are a couple of zipped slash pockets. Zips are also used at the ends of the sleeves to make getting the jacket on and off a bit easier. All the zips, including the main one up the front of the jacket, are by YKK. There’s one small, internal pocket. Somewhat unusually for a leather jacket you get a permanently open exhaust vent beneath a deep back yoke across the shoulders. And this is there for a cooling effect in hot weather. The bottom of the jacket at the rear is padded and a little lowered.

In terms of protection, you get Halvarssons’ latest, super soft and pliable, Level 2 armour. This armour is some of the nicest to wear Level 2 armour we have come across, and it makes the Skalltorp even more comfortable to wear than Halvarssons’ other leather jackets. In fact, you will barely know there’s any armour in the jacket. There’s a pocket for a back protector, but it is not included within the cost. We don’t really like Halvarssons’ own back protector, so we would always recommend fitting a D3O protector instead. The size T8 works perfectly. Inside the jacket are what look like two Napoleon pockets, but actually these are there to house the optional chest protectors.

If you’re looking for a leather jacket that makes you look as though you’re a hard-livin’, hard-ridin’ biker who has been racing around on two wheels since the seventies, you might like the look of this jacket.

It is one of the nicest, most comfortable leather jackets you will ever try on. It is the opposite of flash. This is a jacket that oozes ‘biker cred’. And at just £339 we don’t think it’s particularly expensive. It comes in black and a colour that Halvarssons calls cognac. The black version runs from a 46 (36” chest) to a 62 (52” chest),  which is an impressive spread of sizes: but for some reason the pooh-coloured version only runs from 48 to 58.