Oli
Well-known member
I?ve got a lot to say about Hideout leather as have been a repeat customer of theres for several years now with both their truly bespoke leather services and other products such as boots, gloves etc. I think they?re a truly wonderful, boutique and traditional Great British business and I hope after reading this review anyone even remotely local to them might be inclined to give them a try in the future, or even just pop over a see the store 
So this review is primarily about my bespoke leather experience with them, and indeed there product support and store in general.
So I was recommended Hideout leather by Alistair Aim of Jim Aim Motorcycles (Fantastic family owned and run KTM dealership which are now based in Braintree, Essex). I?d originally wanted to purchase a set of RST leathers but what with my generously proportioned, Cumberland sausage thighs, it was a no go, so the idea was to buy a massive set of RST trousers and have them taken in by Hideout leather. As you can imagine, that?s not what I ended up doing, instead you arrive at their store in Saffron Waldon, Essex and you?re greeted by two very friendly dogs and the lovely ladies who are Hideout leather, Kate, Rachel and their mother Sandra. Kate is a co-owner and in charge of all the bespoke leather and textile work that they do, and alterations/repairs etc. Rachel is also a co-owner and in charge of products, stocks etc and is excellent on giving personalised product recommendations depending on your budget and intended use. Sandra helps out with orders and the general running of the store. Behind the scenes are all the Hideout elves who carry out the leather and textile work, and they indeed do a tremendous job.
So anyway, before I get totally sidetracked, you walk into the store, receive a very warm welcome and see all these British hand made leathers and textiles, you see all the Dayatona boots on the shelf, Rukka textiles and you get where I?m going with this don?t you, yea it feels like a first class store, because it a first class store. So, I went in with the view of having some future RST leathers altered, and by the time I left the store I?d been measure up for a bespoke 2 piece suit and talked through the design with all three of the Hideout team, in for a penny in for a pound as they say.
The process for the bespoke suit service is as follows, you get measured up in store, you discuss a design for the suit and then depending on how busy they are and what time of year it is etc you?ll go back maybe 6 weeks later for an initial fitting. At this point the leather looks like a sack of cow hide with no armour, no lining and no finished seams, it is literally a crude initial fitting for them to progress further. Then after another couple weeks they finish the suit and you go back for a second fitting with the completed suit. At this point so long as there?s no immediate fitting issue, you can take the suit away and bead it in, squats, lunges, walking around etc, anything you can think of to bed them in. Once the initial break in is done, you go back for fine tuning the fit, a little tighter hear, a little looser there, perhaps you want a slight adjustment to hump placement etc. They then correct the suit again and you collect it maybe a week later.
If there are two major benefits to Hideout leather over high end off-the-peg or bespoke products that are made/altered via Italy (or anywhere far afield), it?s the combination of genuinely fantastic personal service mixed with an entirely in house production. For example, if you ordered a similarly priced bespoke Dainese suit and needed further work done, that would be a considerably more time consuming prospect having to have the suit shipped back to Italy for amendments and or repairs, whereas with Hideout (who are maybe a 30 min ride away from me) I can just make a phone call and 30 mins later drop the suit off, explain what I want changed and then a week later it?s all done. You simply can?t get better then that.
So, as you can imagine I was very happy with my first 2 piece suit from Hideout leather, so after some years went by I fancied a change and to either modify and/or replace parts of the suit to make it ?sportier?, so they fitted metal knee sliders, changed some of the leather logos/style of the cowhide trousers, and we decided to make a new bespoke jacket. The new jacket was made from Kangaroo leather as I wanted a lighter and better ventilated jacket with a half hump. Kangaroo hide is significantly different to cow hide both in appearance and feel, cosmetically it looks far more uniform, almost synthetic in way. In terms of feel, it is both considerably thiner and also a more ridged hide than cow, in a weird way it reminds me more of a textile then a leather with that sort of hydrophobic, slightly crisp feel. Kangaroo is substantially lighter however, you?d swear it?s over 50 % lighter than an equivalent cow hide suit in the hand and when you are riding in the suit it again reminds you more of a light ish textile, which takes a little time to adjust to if you use leather all year round. I ended up having the jacket half perforated to begin with before going to full perf about a month later as wanted more ventilation to handle the majority of the summer.
This is another example of how Hideout leather work with you, the customer, to end up with a suit which both fits you perfectly and is to ?your? particular preferences, for example some of the fine tuning they made to the jacket included making the forearms a little tighter, removing excess material from the backside of the armpits, lowering the hump about an inch for helmet clearance, lowering the neckline at the back and tightening the front of the neck and last but not least shortening the front of the jacket slightly. Again, if you had to do all this via Italy you?d be waiting months, which is probably why some manufactures are so keen to encourage people to purchase a second suit lol.
I?m absolutely blown away with my kangaroo jacket/cowhide trousers from Hideout and don?t envisage changing or replacing the leathers for a very long time, if anything they might evolve ever so slightly, but I can?t see myself starting from scratch for a long time.
One massive bit of advice I?d give to anyone purchasing bespoke leathers, or anything bespoke for that matter, is to try and find something already on the market that you like which can be ?inspiration? or a base for your bespoke design going forward. At first when you go to Hideout it?s a little overwhelming almost, seeing all what they can do, which is literally anything you want, and if you have no idea where to start other to say ?a black two piece suit? lol, it?s a little tricky at times. That?s why I?d highly recommend finding a base and going from there, for example on my current suit, the jacket is based on the Dainese Super Rider modified to my liking.
There is also, one more thing that Hideout Leather are currently working on for me, but that?s a secret for now ? Will just say this, it is related to our forum and I?ll certainly post about it once it?s done
Aside from all the bespoke leather work, they also offer off the peg two and one piece leathers and cater for all riders be it racers, track day riders, the touring community and even the emergency services and Police force. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, they also offer a range of textiles at a variety of price points. They even make bespoke textile suits which can again be made to your own specifics, for example they have recently offered an over suit version similar in style to the Aerostich Roadcrafter.
I?ve also purchased my boots, gloves, waterproofs etc from Hideout leather and have always had the same first class service. I sometimes even just go for a ride over to them every now and then just to say hello. So as you can tell, and like I said at the start, I genuinely feel that Hideout leather is a fantastic company and they?ll certainly be keeping my business for the future, I can?t recommend them highly enough
Hope this review/documentation of my experiences with Hideout leather has been useful to you,
Oli
https://www.hideout-leather.co.uk
So this review is primarily about my bespoke leather experience with them, and indeed there product support and store in general.
So I was recommended Hideout leather by Alistair Aim of Jim Aim Motorcycles (Fantastic family owned and run KTM dealership which are now based in Braintree, Essex). I?d originally wanted to purchase a set of RST leathers but what with my generously proportioned, Cumberland sausage thighs, it was a no go, so the idea was to buy a massive set of RST trousers and have them taken in by Hideout leather. As you can imagine, that?s not what I ended up doing, instead you arrive at their store in Saffron Waldon, Essex and you?re greeted by two very friendly dogs and the lovely ladies who are Hideout leather, Kate, Rachel and their mother Sandra. Kate is a co-owner and in charge of all the bespoke leather and textile work that they do, and alterations/repairs etc. Rachel is also a co-owner and in charge of products, stocks etc and is excellent on giving personalised product recommendations depending on your budget and intended use. Sandra helps out with orders and the general running of the store. Behind the scenes are all the Hideout elves who carry out the leather and textile work, and they indeed do a tremendous job.
So anyway, before I get totally sidetracked, you walk into the store, receive a very warm welcome and see all these British hand made leathers and textiles, you see all the Dayatona boots on the shelf, Rukka textiles and you get where I?m going with this don?t you, yea it feels like a first class store, because it a first class store. So, I went in with the view of having some future RST leathers altered, and by the time I left the store I?d been measure up for a bespoke 2 piece suit and talked through the design with all three of the Hideout team, in for a penny in for a pound as they say.
The process for the bespoke suit service is as follows, you get measured up in store, you discuss a design for the suit and then depending on how busy they are and what time of year it is etc you?ll go back maybe 6 weeks later for an initial fitting. At this point the leather looks like a sack of cow hide with no armour, no lining and no finished seams, it is literally a crude initial fitting for them to progress further. Then after another couple weeks they finish the suit and you go back for a second fitting with the completed suit. At this point so long as there?s no immediate fitting issue, you can take the suit away and bead it in, squats, lunges, walking around etc, anything you can think of to bed them in. Once the initial break in is done, you go back for fine tuning the fit, a little tighter hear, a little looser there, perhaps you want a slight adjustment to hump placement etc. They then correct the suit again and you collect it maybe a week later.
If there are two major benefits to Hideout leather over high end off-the-peg or bespoke products that are made/altered via Italy (or anywhere far afield), it?s the combination of genuinely fantastic personal service mixed with an entirely in house production. For example, if you ordered a similarly priced bespoke Dainese suit and needed further work done, that would be a considerably more time consuming prospect having to have the suit shipped back to Italy for amendments and or repairs, whereas with Hideout (who are maybe a 30 min ride away from me) I can just make a phone call and 30 mins later drop the suit off, explain what I want changed and then a week later it?s all done. You simply can?t get better then that.
So, as you can imagine I was very happy with my first 2 piece suit from Hideout leather, so after some years went by I fancied a change and to either modify and/or replace parts of the suit to make it ?sportier?, so they fitted metal knee sliders, changed some of the leather logos/style of the cowhide trousers, and we decided to make a new bespoke jacket. The new jacket was made from Kangaroo leather as I wanted a lighter and better ventilated jacket with a half hump. Kangaroo hide is significantly different to cow hide both in appearance and feel, cosmetically it looks far more uniform, almost synthetic in way. In terms of feel, it is both considerably thiner and also a more ridged hide than cow, in a weird way it reminds me more of a textile then a leather with that sort of hydrophobic, slightly crisp feel. Kangaroo is substantially lighter however, you?d swear it?s over 50 % lighter than an equivalent cow hide suit in the hand and when you are riding in the suit it again reminds you more of a light ish textile, which takes a little time to adjust to if you use leather all year round. I ended up having the jacket half perforated to begin with before going to full perf about a month later as wanted more ventilation to handle the majority of the summer.
This is another example of how Hideout leather work with you, the customer, to end up with a suit which both fits you perfectly and is to ?your? particular preferences, for example some of the fine tuning they made to the jacket included making the forearms a little tighter, removing excess material from the backside of the armpits, lowering the hump about an inch for helmet clearance, lowering the neckline at the back and tightening the front of the neck and last but not least shortening the front of the jacket slightly. Again, if you had to do all this via Italy you?d be waiting months, which is probably why some manufactures are so keen to encourage people to purchase a second suit lol.
I?m absolutely blown away with my kangaroo jacket/cowhide trousers from Hideout and don?t envisage changing or replacing the leathers for a very long time, if anything they might evolve ever so slightly, but I can?t see myself starting from scratch for a long time.
One massive bit of advice I?d give to anyone purchasing bespoke leathers, or anything bespoke for that matter, is to try and find something already on the market that you like which can be ?inspiration? or a base for your bespoke design going forward. At first when you go to Hideout it?s a little overwhelming almost, seeing all what they can do, which is literally anything you want, and if you have no idea where to start other to say ?a black two piece suit? lol, it?s a little tricky at times. That?s why I?d highly recommend finding a base and going from there, for example on my current suit, the jacket is based on the Dainese Super Rider modified to my liking.
There is also, one more thing that Hideout Leather are currently working on for me, but that?s a secret for now ? Will just say this, it is related to our forum and I?ll certainly post about it once it?s done
Aside from all the bespoke leather work, they also offer off the peg two and one piece leathers and cater for all riders be it racers, track day riders, the touring community and even the emergency services and Police force. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, they also offer a range of textiles at a variety of price points. They even make bespoke textile suits which can again be made to your own specifics, for example they have recently offered an over suit version similar in style to the Aerostich Roadcrafter.
I?ve also purchased my boots, gloves, waterproofs etc from Hideout leather and have always had the same first class service. I sometimes even just go for a ride over to them every now and then just to say hello. So as you can tell, and like I said at the start, I genuinely feel that Hideout leather is a fantastic company and they?ll certainly be keeping my business for the future, I can?t recommend them highly enough
Hope this review/documentation of my experiences with Hideout leather has been useful to you,
Oli
https://www.hideout-leather.co.uk
