The bike-aficionado vests are an icon from biker style. In fact, in the custom motorcycle’s world, leather waistcoats are clothing with a lot of symbology and big part of biker’s identity. We talked you about the biker patches in a past article. Biker patches and vests join to create the typical biker image. But the question is: why a vest? We can understand the need of patches to represent an identity. But whyto put them over the leather waistcoats?. It could have been other piece of clothing or, simply, it doesn’t have a reason why to exist this kind of uniform. If the biker vests have gained that relevance is because there is a reason and a history behind. Today we will tell you.
The first bikers
The biker movement is born in the United States and the end of last Century’s years 20’s. It’s then when the first motorcycles are popularized and, exactly in 1929 the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) was created. The AMA organized meetings and championships of all types. Among them, they gave a lot of importance to the best dressed motor club. And at that time the biker was considered a true gentleman that should respect that period’s elegance canons. They used to dress sweaters over the shirt with their respective ties and some worn their university jackets.
In some motor clubs started showing club’s name in the back part of their jackets. And the elegance championships encouraged sign’s customization.
After World War II
At the end of the World War II the country filled with young veterans excited with adrenaline rush. And they found an exit with the motorcycles. Also brought two habits from the war: the useful pilot uniform jackets and the habit to the decorate them with pop culture icons. They did it during the war on his planes and continued doing it with their jackets.
Then, in 1947 Hollister incidents took place and the AMA stated to 1% of American bikers as outlaw bikers, the ones that didn’t respect the law. And were precisely those outlaw bikers who discovered that was much more practical show their rebel patches over leather vests.
The outlaw bikers not only choose the 1% patch as identification of their rebel position. They also decided to divide the back patch in three and complement their attire with front patches that show owner’s rank. The problem is that not always wanted to show their colors. Because the presence of either police or rival gangs. However, wearing a waistcoat is much easier to hide it when necessary. So biker vests were born.
British influence
Leather vests quickly popularized, expanding to other cultural movements. In the music world, like the heavy or punk they also adopted them. But there is still one question. Where the habit of filling the vest with signs comes from? The MC place in their biker vests only the corresponding patches no more no less. However, the trend of filling our leather vests with all kind of souvenirs has spread.
This trend comes from United Kingdom’s 60’s, the rocker and mods era. There the habit of decorating the clothing was popularized, and even the motorcycle, with all kind of signs and souvenirs. With the time, many bikers showed in their waistcoats diverse souvenirs or simply customized them at their taste.
Men’s leather vests at Corbeto’s Boots
At Corbeto’s Boots we carry an interesting collection of men’s leather vests. We have from the genuine biker vests with snaps and conchos to cowboy vests with fringes, crafted with the best materials. Will find all of them at our retail store in Las Ramblas of Barcelona and our online shop, at leather vests section.
