Y'2 LeatHER

The way we do business here at Standard & Strange means that picking up new brands is a very lengthy and thoughtful process for us. We value deep partnerships with the people behind the products as much as we do the work that they do. When we first encountered Y’2 Leather, we knew we had found something very special, a brand whose work we could stand behind confidently and a brand who we could really partner with. What made it much, much harder was that we made our first couple orders without having met with the brand at all thanks to COVID.

Y’2 is a small family business making leather jackets in Osaka, Japan. More importantly, when we say ‘making’ we mean that their office, store, and factory are all tucked into one tidy little building in Higashinari Ward. They don’t have to compete with other clients at a contractor; nor pad their orders to hit minimums; and they have complete control over their production, starting with the tanning.

The Foundation of the jackets

As we’ve all learned throughout the pandemic, the tanning industry is quite vulnerable to supply chain disruptions with large tanneries simply kicking their small clients to the curb to feed the big brands. Y’2 has an intimate relationship with their tanners going back decades, allowing them to get the hides they need to make their jackets.

This relationship goes far beyond just greasing the wheels of transactions. It has allowed them to develop the most innovative tannages on the market, especially in horsehide. The three most interesting are the indigo horsehide, the kakishibu horsehide, and the eco horse. All three types of tannage are quite complex to pull off, and produce results that no other leather jacket company has access to.

There are no easy steps to producing a Y'2 Leather jacket. Tanning is hard work.

Hides midway through the tanning process.

One of the wooden tanning drums used at Y'2's tannery.

Tanned hides waiting to be dyed.

INDIGO HORSEHIDE : Only By Y'2 Leather

The most technical and challenging is the indigo horsehide, which is nearly impossible to make, as the dye will simply just fall off and not bond at all. After a decade or more of trial and error, their tanner was able to unlock the right recipe for dying the tanned hides, and the result was magical - a horsehide that fades like denim.

Shop Indigo Horsehide

ECO HORSE

Designed to look like 1930's natural horse hide, Y'2's Eco Horse is an oil-heavy tannage that has been shrunken by about 20% to become very thick and tough. The abundance of oil packed into the hide will allow it break in to the owner's body despite the thickness and weight - but it does require wear to massage the oils around the fibers to achieve that perfect broken-in looks. We always try to have a few styles on hand in this horsehide, including their engineer boots when available.

Shop Eco Horse

KAKISHIBU

Kakishibu is a traditional Japanese dying technique using astringent persimmons. It is, like indigo, very difficult to dye leather with, but Y'2 has accomplished this without the use of any additional pigments. When new, it's hard to tell apart from a natural veg-tan horsehide, but it will very quickly start to take on the distinctive persimmon color of kakishibu.

Shop Kakishibu Horsehide

FROM HIDE TO JACKET

Every jacket is made from start to finish in their workshop in Osaka. Tanned hides come in, finished jackets go out. It doesn’t take much equipment to build a leather workshop, but it does take experience and knowledge which the Y’2 team has in depth.