Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand

Posted on by admin

Table of contents

Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand
Harro

clothing

Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand

Harro products reissued
Racing vest, relocation and own brand

Harro has been back since 2016, also with the legendary racing vest. Harro has now moved back to its headquarters in Rohrdorf and has launched its own brand, Bocast.

Michael Orth, Uli Baumann

02/20/2018

2016 is the motorcycle clothing manufacturer Harro restarted with the new edition of some Harro classics. In 2018, the comeback story will write another chapter: The Bocast team behind Harro has decided to expand the range of high-quality motorcycle leather clothing. In addition, Harro moves back to Rohrdorf, where Harro was originally based.

Buy complete article

Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand

Harro products reissued
Racing vest, relocation and own brand

4 pages) as PDF

€ 2.00

Buy now

Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand

Station wagons, jackets & pants


Leather suits and textile suits

Crash test in all classes

read more

New long jacket

The previous small showroom in Nagold was bursting at the seams and was not really ideal for receiving customers. After a long search, a historic industrial hall in the immediate vicinity of the old Harro production facility in Rohrdorf was acquired. “Back to the roots” so.


Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand


Bocast

The Bocast touring jacket is available in different versions, here in the picture: black armalith fabric with leather attachments.

On April 21, 2018, a 150 square meter shop for clothing, accessories and technology will be opened there with a large party.

With the reopening, the new own brand Bocast will also be launched. The first product is a long, classic touring jacket with protectors on the shoulders, elbows and back. The jacket is available either in cowhide in antique brown or in black nappa. Another version consists of armalith fabric in black (picture) or blue with leather attachments on the shoulders and elbows. Armalith looks like denim, but is supposed to have the mechanical qualities of leather, but is much more comfortable to wear.

The legend returns

A quick look back at 2016: Sometimes resurrections, even those of legends, owe some things to chance. Or, to stay in the picture, lucky coincidence. Where the resurrection is actually a crooked picture. The Harro racing vest, one of the first original motorcycle leather jackets, was not really dead. It survived, often too small for the previous porter, in many cupboards and in many memories. But it no longer existed. She was away from the window. The window had been taped up with wrapping paper, and had been for a while. A sign hung in front of the wrapping paper. It said: “We’re renovating.” They often passed the sign. Nothing ever happened. That made her curious. What happened? When Daniela Talmann and Alex Bodamer inquire, it is said that Harro has ceased business operations.

“We have been Harro customers since we started riding motorcycles,” says Alex, clearly ignoring the truth. Because Alex already had a racing vest when he wasn’t riding a motorcycle at the end of the 80s, but an MTX 80. And Daniela wore a Harro leather jacket with a flutter collar in blue and white for the PX 80. “There was nothing else for us. Everyone around here drove it. With the racing vest on the MTX it wasn’t stylish, but I still liked it that way. “

“We do it, we buy the stocks”

The racing vest, tailored by Harro since the early 1950s and only changed in detail over the decades, was soon an original, no different from the elephant boy from the same house. The two buckles in front of the stomach, the cross on the arm, the diagonal zipper and the latch with the three press studs on the neck, the soft leather, the teddy or the quilted lining, the body-hugging fit, the simple look, the two inside pockets, big enough for a bottle of beer on the right and one on the left on the way to the party or to the campfire in the meadow somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The racing vest was everywhere. Many had one, many more wanted one, and they all knew them.


Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand


Michael Orth

“Chic” or what people thought of it in the 80s.

The only problem is: you knew them from before. She had fond memories. For many it is legendary. But the legendary, as timeless as it may actually be, is stuck with yesterday and often glorified thinking back. And what does it mean to say: The thing made history? It means that the part is no longer up-to-date, that it no longer takes part in current chapters of a story. What happens when legends want to move with the times? Do you stumble? Or stumble if they don’t keep up with the times?

You can certainly think about something like that for a long time and theorize cleverly. Or you act. “We met with Hermann Harr, the son of the company founder and the last managing director,” says Alex Bodamer, “a day later we were standing in Rohrdorf in the huge rod store between the rest of the Harro production, masses of station wagons, jackets and trousers and accessories, and one day later our decision was made: We’ll do it, we’ll buy the stocks. “

Two years ago, in the summer of two years ago, Alex and Daniela weren’t even thinking about a new edition of the racing vest and the classic touring suit called “Assen”. “Our original idea was just to sell off the inventory,” says Daniela and then admits: “But we quickly realized that it wasn’t that easy.” It was less about special sizes and combinations with bad patterns in even worse pastel shades. No one is surprised that these are difficult to get rid of, including Daniela and Alex. They had expected that.


Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand


Michael Orth

As in the past, the racing vest does without protectors.

But not with the enormous response to the racing vest and the Assen station wagon. “We got calls every day from people who wanted to order, and soon we only had marginal sizes.” But people didn’t just order. They also told: How they had worn the racing vest, where they were with it and on what occasions it was with them. They told how the jacket was getting too small for them, how they had passed it on to the boy and therefore wanted a new one. “When people came here to try them on, you saw immediately from their movements that they were wearing them before.”

All that, the demand, the stories of the people, plus a bit of sentimentality, leads Daniela and Alex to the decision to reissue the racing vest and the two-part Assen. Hermann Harr, the last managing director, was very open to this, if the quality was right and the name and logo were only used on products that corresponded to the tradition and reputation of Harro. Daniela and Alex weren’t interested in anything else anyway. It was about the resurrection of the two classics, not their updating or modernization.

Teddy food from the cuddly toy producer


Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand


Michael Orth

As in the past, the feed now comes from a cuddly toy producer.

“There we stood with a roll of sturdy paper, like wrapping paper like that, maybe 1.20 high and certainly 30 meters long, the blueprint of all the original cuts,” explains Daniela. Place a piece of tracing paper on top of it and use a serrated roller to remove cut edges, seam runs and registration marks in order to make templates for cutting leather. They buy the hides mainly from German tanneries and, depending on the color, from tanneries in Europe. You can find a supplier for zippers in Belgium, for buttons in Japan and have the buckles delivered by the same manufacturer who produced them for the old racing vests.

You want to hire one or two leather tailors to produce in small series directly in Nagold. You won’t find anyone. Finally, they get in touch with a Romanian producer, who has their jacket and suit cut and sewn by hand. “At the beginning you have no idea,” says Alex. “There are 1,000 small steps that you have to take. Which thread do you use to topstitch the lining, who do you get a label from? Things you don’t even think about at first. Where do you get a suitable teddy bear from? ”As in the past, they purchase the teddy bear from a cuddly toy manufacturer, receive the first samples of the new old racing vest in February of this year and the first small series delivered the following month.

Daniela and Alex sell one of the first copies to East Frisia. The customer receives his racing vest and sends a package and a letter back – his old racing vest, it is too small for him. “Maybe someone who likes it,” he writes, thanks him for “letting me build such an excellent new racing vest.”

“You get to know such nice and weird people,” says Daniela. “They come here to Nagold to try on them, and the fitting is usually over quickly. But telling the story often takes longer. We can adapt the orders to measure based on the sample sizes that we have there. Many colors or changes in detail can also be made on request. ”Alex, for example, had his personal racing vest made in red. But he is not entirely satisfied with her. “It’s just too new,” he says. We still have to experience a little bit more together. Then it becomes really beautiful. My wish is that our racing vests in 30 or 40 years will be exactly like the 30 or 40 years old today. “

info


Harro racing vest, relocation and own brand


Michael Orth

More than just a leather jacket.

Daniela Talmon and Alex Bodamer are selling remaining Harro stocks and have reissued the racing vest and the two-part touring suit Assen at the beginning of 2016. It is hand-made in small series and after individual adaptation to the sample to order. The waiting time is around four to six weeks. The standard racing vest costs 400 euros, the Assen-Kombi 800. Modifications (fit) and special requests (color, leather type, applications) come at a moderate surcharge. The extension of the Assen jacket is also available for 80 euros and the foam pad for the Elefantenboy tank bag for 19.90 euros.

Further information and contact: rennweste.de, Kammerle 12, 72229 Rohrdorf, phone 0 74 52/9 29 99 76

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *