Held Cosmo 3.0 leather jacket

As a company, we spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of textile clothing; how it confers advantages in the extreme heat, in the extreme cold, and when it’s extremely wet. And obviously this is true, but there are some people who simply prefer leather. They have been brought up believing in the benefits of leather and, frankly, they don’t trust anything else. And we concede that there is something about leather that cannot be matched by textile fabrics. There are times when leather is what you want to wear. It is reassuring. And it is is incredibly comfortable. Whereas textile garments wear out over time, leather ones simply seem to become more comfortable the more you wear them.
 
The Held Cosmo 3.0 jacket can easily be worn on its own over, say, a pair of jeans, but it has actually been designed as the upper half of a two-piece, leather suit; the matching trouser going under the name of the Avolo 3.0. Some years ago, the leather, touring suit was a popular concept. But leather suits were kind of kidnapped by the sportsbike market, and they all became ‘racey’, with humps on the back and sliders on the knees. Suits like the Cosmo/Avolo combination are few and far between these days, but for some riders a suit like this represents the perfect form of riding attire. 
 
The leather on this jacket is super soft. It has also been TFL Cool treated to reflect the sun’s heat; something that works really well on black garments. For added comfort, you get stretch panels behind the shoulders and in the elbows. The jacket has perforated panels and zipped vents on the upper arms and in the back. The two upper pockets also operate as vents. There are also two, lower, zip pockets and two more inside the jacket. As well as an internal phone pocket. The jacket is mesh lined, but you also get a removable, zip-in thermal inner jacket. At the sleeve ends, you get a zip and a poppered fastener, and there’s a poppered belt at the waist for further adjustment.
 
The jacket comes with CE armour in the elbows and shoulders. It’s okay, but could easily be upgraded for something softer or something Level 2 if you wanted to increase the level of protection. There’s a pocket for a back protector, and what is good is that a D3O Viper protector will fit perfectly in to that pocket.
 
So that’s the top half of the Cosmo 3.0/Avolo 3.0 leather suit from Held. This is a suit with a bit of a classic vibe; not retro, that is different. This is going to be a superb suit to ride in, provided that you are not commuting in the winter, touring near the equator or riding though a torrential storm. It’s not going to be for everybody, but if this is the kind of suit you want to ride in, there aren’t many around as nice as this one. The jacket also comes in a wider array of sizes than you’ll find from any other manufacturer. There’s what Held calls a ‘tummy’ fit. And there’s also a fit for those who have no tummy at all. We won’t necessarily be holding all these extra sizes all the time, but we will always be able to get hold of them quickly.