Made in the 1950s in the small parish of Töysä, in Finland’s South Ostrobothnia, by the leather house of Paavo Heinonen. This is a horsehide motorcycle jacket with a full zip front, shirt collar, zipped chest pockets, slanted hand pockets, buckled hem adjusters and button-tab cuffs. The woven label inside still reads Paavon Nahkapukuja, “Paavo’s leather garments”.
Heinonen started as a small-town tannery and leather works. By the 1950s his name was on leather coats, sheepskins and motorcycle crash helmets sold through Helsinki’s hobby shops, and this jacket was cut for the same men who bought those helmets. Every detail is about keeping the wind out on an open road. Each side of the hem has a short leather strap running through a pair of steel rings, so a rider could cinch the waist tight before setting off. The cuffs close with a leather tab and a single button so nothing blows up the sleeve. The chest pockets are zipped so a wallet or papers stay put when leaning over the tank. The creasing still sits where a rider’s arms bent forward to the bars.
Finland in the early fifties was a country getting back on its feet. The war debt to the Soviet Union was being paid off in trainloads of machinery and ships, and the last of it crossed the border in September 1952. That same summer Helsinki finally held the Olympic Games it had been promised in 1940, with coffee and sugar still on the ration. Small rural workshops like Heinonen’s made the everyday things a recovering country needed, and they made them to last because nobody could afford to buy twice.
The leather is heavy, full-grain horsehide, the hide riders trusted above all others because it shrugs off weather and road alike. Its dark brown finish has worn back over the decades to the russet beneath, across the shoulders, the sleeves and the fronts. The result is the mottled, two-tone surface horsehide only gives up after years of real use. The back is cut in two panels with a centre seam, a careful way to get the most from each hide. Those panels have kept more of their original colour and polished to a deep shine, while the yoke above them has faded to a soft tan. That difference maps exactly where the weather hit and where the jacket was sheltered.
The right chest pocket still closes on its Kiito zip, made by Finland’s first zip factory, founded in Helsinki in 1936. The left pocket zip is a period repair, set in by someone during the jacket’s working life when the original gave out. It shows the jacket was worth keeping going. The pockets themselves have neat arrow-ended openings that keep the leather from tearing at the corners. The hand pockets are piped in leather and cut on a slant, so a hand falls straight into them. Inside, the jacket is lined in brown cotton twill, with a welt pocket on the left and the original woven label still stitched beneath it. At the collar there is a hanging loop of twisted leather, a small flourish on a hard-working coat.
It is a quiet, honest jacket from a time and place that valued exactly that.
Condition & Restoration
The jacket is in very good vintage condition. It has been specialist cleaned and conditioned in the workshop with our own neutral blend, which feeds the horsehide and leaves it supple without darkening the colour or masking its age. There are no tears, holes or splits, and the seams are sound throughout.
The sleeves carry some darker age spotting and a few light surface marks on the outer left arm, and the collar points and cuff edges are softly rubbed from wear.
All zips run smoothly, the steel hem rings are sound with a light age tarnish, and the cuff buttons are all present. The brown cotton twill lining is flawless. The woven label has mellowed to a soft cream but is fully legible, and the twisted leather hanging loop is intact.
Key Features
- Paavo Heinonen Oy, Töysä, Finland – original woven label
- 1950s Finnish motorcycle jacket
- Heavy full-grain horsehide, worn back to russet through decades of use
- Full-length front zip with shirt collar
- Zipped chest pockets – original Kiito zip, with a period repair to the left
- Slanted, leather-piped hand pockets
- Side hem adjusters with leather straps through twin steel rings
- Button-tab cuffs
- Two-panel back with centre seam and shoulder yoke
- Brown cotton twill lining with inside welt pocket
- Twisted leather hanging loop
Size & Fit
Measurements taken laid flat:
- Chest, armpit to armpit: 24" / 61 cm
- Shoulders, seam to seam: 18.5" / 47 cm
- Sleeve, shoulder seam to cuff: 24" / 61 cm
- Underarm seam to cuff: 16" / 40.5 cm
- Back length, base of collar to hem: 26" / 66 cm
Best suited to: 44" chest / Size Large
Fit: A slim, short rider’s cut that finishes at the waist, with the side straps and rings letting you draw the hem in close. The sleeves are a touch shorter than modern sizing, which was usual for the period and suits a riding position.
For the best indication of sizing, please compare the measurements above with a similar jacket you already own. For any sizing questions, please get in touch.
