For more than forty years, a workshop in a village in Shandong, China has been making leather goods. For more than a decade of that, its jackets have sold under some of the most respected names in American heritage menswear. The labels inside were not its own. Real Simons is what happened when the workshop started putting its own name on the jacket.
This is Post 1 of a three-part series. It covers who built Real Simons, why it exists, and where it sits in the market. Post 2 goes inside the workshop and the leather. Post 3 covers the brand's partnership with Brake House.
A trader who wanted to make his own jackets
Real Simons was founded by Xijie — legal name Shuai Hongyun (帅鸿运), English name Simon. For more than twenty years he has worked inside Amekaji, American casual, and motorcycle wear: trading, sourcing, and selling leather goods to a serious customer base. That twenty-plus years spans his trader years, his decade-plus producing for other brands, and the seven-plus years he has spent on Real Simons.
After years of moving other people's jackets, he decided to make his own. He went looking for a workshop that could meet his standards.
(One aside on his name: in Mandarin, "Simon" sounds like Ximen (西门). Xijie wears his hair long and is often mistaken for a woman from behind, so friends started calling him Big Sister Ximen (大姐西门). It contracted to Xijie (西姐, "Sister Xi") and stuck. He prefers it in English content because it carries cleanly across languages.)
A village workshop in Shandong
His search eventually led him to Huangjia Village (黄家村), near Laizhou in Shandong Province, and to a workshop called Shuangyang Leather Goods Factory (双羊皮件厂). Founded in 1981, Shuangyang began with tanning and leatherwork under Director Huang’s family, then grew into a village-based leather workshop rooted in the local community. It is not a corporate tannery in the Western sense. It is closer to a community-run workshop.
Huangjia Village translates as "Huang Family Village." Most residents share the Huang (黄) surname, and most of the workshop's artisans do as well. The craft is the village's collective trade.
At Shuangyang, Xijie met Director Huang (黄厂长), the third-generation factory head. Shuangyang had been doing international OEM work since the 1990s, though across a varied mix of clients rather than a single major label. They decided to work together.
A decade of OEM, and a brand of their own
For more than ten years, Xijie and Director Huang have run Shuangyang as the OEM producer for several top-tier American heritage menswear brands — names anyone serious about the category would recognize. Contractual terms prevent us from naming them. That OEM business continues today, alongside Real Simons, as a separate line of work.
That decade-plus of OEM calibrated Shuangyang to international heritage-menswear standards on materials, pattern, stitch density, and finishing. It gave the workshop the experience and the capability to produce, at scale, a jacket Xijie and Director Huang would be willing to put their own name on.
More than seven years ago, they launched the consumer-facing brand: Real Simons.
Why the name is "Real Simons"
The name is not a marketing construct. It is the founder's name and his philosophy.
Simons is the founder's English name, Simon, with an added "s" — read it as Simon's. The label is his name on the jacket. Real is the standard he holds himself to: 做真实的事情 — doing real, authentic things. Putting Real in front of Simons was a public commitment: real things, made by Simon.
What the brand stands for
Real Simons is built on three principles. Post 2 covers how each works in practice. Stated as values:
- Leather direct from the tannery. Shuangyang is inside the brand, not a supplier to it. No intermediaries.
- Specialized division of labor. Cutters cut, sewers sew. Most artisans have more than thirty years in the operation they own.
- Strict leather rejection standards. Hides that pass general industry QC routinely fail Real Simons' internal grade.
The founding thesis behind all three: good leather should not have to be a luxury good. Horsehide is the brand's proudest material — covered in detail in Post 2.
Where the brand sits
Real Simons respects the bar set by Japanese and American repro houses and does not try to out-purist them. The goal is different: take that technical bar and engineer a path for ordinary buyers to reach it — the same level of leather and finishing, at a price a working customer can live with.
Xijie describes the long-term vision in one line: the Uniqlo of Amekaji. Heritage-grade leather jackets at honest prices, at scale.
Where to buy
Real Simons' official retailer and wholesale partner outside China is Brake House. The relationship is not standard distribution — it includes joint product development and sizing work for international markets. The two brands also share the same vision: the Uniqlo of Amekaji. A dedicated post on that partnership lives in Post 3.
Post 2 goes inside Shuangyang: the leather, the artisans, and the standard behind the brand.
FAQ
Who founded Real Simons?
Real Simons was founded by Xijie (legal name Shuai Hongyun, English name Simon), a longtime trader in Amekaji and American casual, together with Director Huang, third-generation head of the Shuangyang Leather Goods Factory in Huangjia Village, Shandong, China. The factory has been making leather goods since 1981.
Where is Real Simons made?
Real Simons jackets are made at the Shuangyang Leather Goods Factory (双羊皮件厂) in Huangjia Village (黄家村), near Laizhou in Shandong Province, China. The workshop is a village-run enterprise — collectively owned by the village, with most artisans sharing the Huang surname.
What does the name "Real Simons" mean?
Simons comes from the founder's English name, Simon, read as Simon's. Real is the founder's personal philosophy: 做真实的事情, doing real and authentic things. The brand is the founder's name and his standard, on the jacket.
What is Real Simons' position in the market?
Real Simons sits between collector-priced Japanese and American repro houses and disposable fashion leather. It respects the technical bar set by the top repro workshops and engineers a path for ordinary buyers to reach it — the long-term goal Xijie describes as "the Uniqlo of Amekaji."
Where can I buy Real Simons outside China?
Brake House is Real Simons' official retailer and wholesale partner. Brake House handles international sales, sizing guidance, and aftercare.
Is Real Simons related to any American heritage brands?
The Shuangyang workshop has been doing international OEM since the 1990s — more than thirty years — and for the last decade-plus of that, it has produced for several top-tier American heritage menswear brands whose names anyone serious about the category would recognize. Contractual terms prevent Real Simons from naming those clients. The OEM work is a separate business that runs in parallel with Real Simons — but the same workshop, hands, and standards that produce for those labels also produce Real Simons.