For sale here is a shirt from the Westride label, one of a good number of Japanese brands that are strongly influenced by vintage Americana. Where Westride is different is that they’re primarily a motorcycle label (the name is probably a good indication), a particular subset of the “American casual” family of brands, much in the same vein as Iron Heart, Buco and Black Sign, among others. Probably the closest peer for Westride is Iron Heart actually, where both labels use very heavy fabrics, producing at an extremely high level of quality. Westride have a reasonably strong following in Japan, yet for some reason they appear to have almost no international distribution at the moment.
So what we have here is Westride’s take on the heavy weight plaid shirt. Material is a heavy cotton flannel, the sort of thing where when you look closely you can see all of the individual yarns making up the knit. Much like Iron Heart, these kinds of heavy weight pieces are West Ride’s specialty, intended to stand up to and keep you warm in the harshest of weather. This one isn’t quite in the “ultra heavy flannel” department that Iron Heart can hit, but it’s still an excellent colder weather piece.
Details are understated for the most part, although there are a few little things to note. The shirt has a peter pan style collar detail, more curved than you typically find, vegetable ivory buttons throughout, side gussets with chainstitch runoff and dual chest pockets.
Westride is one of those labels that refuses to cut corners in any sense, focusing exclusively on making super high quality products. Production runs are small, and this shirt retailed at about $200 in Japan. This model is now sold out, but get it here much more reasonably.
Size is labeled a medium, fitting well and just a hair slim. I measure the chest at 20”, shoulders at 17”, length at 26” in front and 28” in back, both from the base of the neck and sleeves at 24” from the shoulder. The shirt comes in lightly used but excellent shape with no holes, tears, stains or really any obvious signs of wear at all. Made in Japan.
Shipping from Japan to anywhere will be $24.