The Schott Perfecto leather motorcycle jacket is the king of cool.
The legend of the ‘Perfecto’ jacket started in 1953 when Marlon Brando wore it in the movie “The Wild One”. It quickly gained iconic status as the uniform of the teen rebel when it became banned from schools. Since then the Perfecto jacket has been adopted by modern heroes like Bruce Springsteen and Jay Z proving it is still the jacket of choice for cool. This is family affair – For just over 100 years the Schott company has been making coats. In the early days The Schott brothers were making raincoats in the basement of their lower east side tenement, but by WWII they were making bomber jackets for the US Air Force. Later the military style spread to all branches of the military and law enforcement. So by the time Marlon Brando need a jacket for The Wild One there was no other choice but the Perfecto. To this day, Schott NYC is still owned and run by the 3rd and 4th generation of the Schott family. And the manufacturing hasn’t gone far either – now being made in Union, New Jersey, just across the river from Schott’s main business office in New York City. We went there to see how a Schott Motorcycle Jacket is made!