Leathers Day 2026 in Tokyo: Notes from Sean

Sean here. Last weekend I spent both days at Leathers Day in Tokyo, the two-day show that puts seventy-odd leather makers under one roof at TOC Gotanda. Going twice turned out to be the right call. The second time around I noticed booths I had walked straight past, and the booths I had already seen showed me things I had missed.

The floor

The first thing you see walking in is the biggest booth of the show, Schott NYC. From what I could tell it was dressed with pieces from the American parent company rather than Schott Japan. The leather and the fit were pure American, and it hit hard.

This is roughly what the hall felt like. Buzz Rickson's, The Flat Head, racks of flight jackets with decades on them, and Real Simons tucked in among the Japanese names.

One note for anyone planning a trip. Japan does not run the air conditioning the way Korea does, so the hall was warm, and I was in a heavy horsehide jacket the whole time. Two days of honest sweat.

Below are the booths that caught my attention. This is a personal list, so the booth you were hoping to read about may not be here.

Real Simons

Real Simons was the only Chinese maker at the show. Production stays in China, but Simon, the director, opened a Tokyo office two years ago and now does the planning and design from there.

Alongside Leathers Day they were featured in Lightning magazine this month, and I was told that has started turning into meaningful sales in Japan.

After a long lap of the hall, the thing that jumped out at the Real Simons booth was the pricing. Most of the jackets around the floor start in the high hundreds of thousands of yen, and Real Simons sat well under that. By the second day they told me everything had sold except the samples they had brought for display.

The catalogue on the table even had pages on the overseas exclusive editions, which are the jackets we carry at Brake House. The J-24 with the detachable mouton collar, the Archetype D-Pocket, and the Motorist. If you want the background on how that came about, it is in the story of our partnership with Real Simons.

Beyond the exclusive editions we sell, the sample that drew my eye most was the J-100. It is the cleanest design on the table and the most classic, pared-down construction, and that is exactly why it is one of the best pieces for feeling what this horsehide does on the body, soft and firm at the same time. Marcus wore a lare-size jacket and it was just like custom-made jacket. The friend I went with, a Korean YouTuber who covers leather and American casual wear, was disappointed that nothing above a Large was on hand to try.

While we were there we did a short interview with Simon. He walked us through how Japanese customers had responded and what they liked. Between Leathers Day and the Lightning feature, a lot of them had arrived curious about the jackets and carrying a fair number of doubts, and he said those doubts tended to dissolve once people had the jackets in their hands. What you can judge in person is different from what a photo shows, and Japanese customers put real weight on that.

Separately, after Leathers Day we filmed a long interview with Simon at his Tokyo studio. We plan to add English subtitles and post it here on the blog so Brake House customers can watch it directly. Keep an eye out for it.

Allevole

The discovery of the show for me. Allevole is UK based, something like the house brand of Clutch Cafe in London. I had not come across it before, though apparently it was officially imported into Korea for a while. Tomo Kurata, who was minding the booth, was very, very cool. We swapped messages on Instagram afterwards and he invited me to an Allevole pop-up at Clutch Cafe Tokyo over the next two days. I could not make the time, which still stings.

Leather is not actually the brand's main business, which makes it stranger that they came to Leathers Day with a leather jacket about to launch. And that jacket is the real thing. A single rider that buttons instead of zips, in a western cut with a pointed collar, and the mood is very, very good. What I liked most is that it does not follow the usual repro grammar at all.

The booth was too cool for its own good. Nothing is officially out yet, so the only pieces on hand were samples that Tomo, who is also the brand's model, had worn and aged for three months each. The natural leather version had broken in just enough and looked fantastic.

Pre-orders were taken during Leathers Day only, with the proper release next year. The pre-order price was 1,000 pounds, roughly 1,300 dollars. I would happily wait for the regular release on this one.

White's Boots

A booth I had bookmarked before I arrived, and they had put real effort into it. What stood out was the pre-distressed engineer boot that seemed to be this season's lead. From a distance I assumed they had put a worn sample on display. Up close it was factory finishing. It made me curious what happens when you buy a boot already roughed up like this and then layer your own years of wear on top of it.

Engineer boots, everywhere

I wear engineer boots about three hundred days a year and cowboy boots on the rest, so getting to see so many engineer boots from so many makers in one place was a joy.

This pair had a strap that was heavier than usual and some playful stitching details.

Below is the engineer boot line from a shoemaker called Unique On. Remarkably, every single boot on those shelves was shell cordovan. Most of it came from Japanese tanneries, with some Horween in the mix. The price was around 270,000 yen, roughly 1,800 dollars. For cordovan that is not outrageous. I did not say it was cheap for me. Either way, a serious statement of intent.

Double Helix

Not a big booth, but it was packed the entire time. You could feel that this is a brand getting a lot of attention right now. They had jackets on mannequins, and the model drawing the most interest was the Falconer. The leather has an enormous amount of grain showing across the whole jacket. Impressive. I asked the director about it. Italian horsehide, and the tannery stays undisclosed. He would rather nobody else found out.

I tried a 42. The body runs a little long. I like a cropped fit that just covers the belt line, so it was not quite for me, but walking the hall it was clear that many Japanese customers wear these jackets without an inner layer and prefer a roomier fit overall. It felt like a cut aimed squarely at the Japanese market.

And the rest

The Herz bags were on a different level the moment you saw them. I know very little about leather bags and have no real reference point, and even so they glowed from across the aisle. Fortunately, or not, there was no cross-body bag that would fit the laptop I have been looking to carry. That was a close one.

Two days in engineer boots and a leather jacket, sweating through all of it and burning far too much energy. It was a lot of fun.