2021 sees the Hood Jeans brand enter its 23rd year; the style, quality and protection of their award-winning motorcycle jeans is widely known, as is their friendly customer service. Below is the story of how this small family company became one of the world’s leading names in the CE Approved Protective Motorcycle Jeans sector.

Chris and Julie set up the company in 1998, however the roots of Hood Jeans go back a lot further. Chris’s parents (June and Tom) first started making Jeans back in 1955 at a Jeans factory in London. The couple met at work, Tom being a mechanic and June a machinist, they married in 1957. Over the following years they helped to set up and develop a major jean brand, but by the late sixties they were ready to go it alone. They called their own company Motown Jeans and based this in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. It was around twenty years later at the Motown Jeans factory that Chris met Julie, and history repeated itself. Julie and Chris worked at the Motown Jeans factory for a number of years, before leaving to set up their own clothing company.

They spent the early years of their own business designing jeans for major high street names; during this time, they were asked by a motocross team to design their race kit. They were given fabrics such as Cordura, Ballistic Nylon and Kevlar to use within the kit, and gained much knowledge about the strengths of these hi-tech fabrics.

They continued doing work for the race team for a couple of years, before combining these hi-tech fabrics with their own knowledge and background in denim Jeans, the seed for Hood Jeans was sown. Chris and Julie worked on these ideas and designs for the next two years before launching the Hood Jeans brand of Motorcycle Jeans in 1998.

When launched, the Hood K7 Jean was the first ‘seamless’ motorcycle jean in the world, this means there was no tell-tale stitching on the outside, making the jean look just like a normal authentic denim  jean, this same design philosophy remains the same to this day. The Hood K7 has since become one of the bestselling and most respected motorcycle jeans on the market.

Over the years competitors have come and gone, but the focus and emphasis on protection for Hood Jeans has never changed, Chris says “Protection has to be top of the list of priorities; we can then develop the design, and work on the comfort from there.” This has been seen over the last few years in their response to the fashion for ‘single layer’ jeans. Chris states “We have tested many single layer denims over the years, but none have given the protection we feel is required, many failing badly during testing. We are Hood Motorcycle Jeans, people expect our products to work with regard to protection, and we just cannot risk our customer’s skin or our reputation on a product that just doesn’t work.”

2018 witnessed the biggest changes to Hood Jeans. As from the 21st April 2018 all motorcycle clothing had to be certified, as stipulated by the Personal Protective Equipment Regulation. The Hood K7 Infinity Jean was the first jean in the UK to be certified prEN 17092-3 Rated AA. 2020 saw the standard published in full, EN 17092:2020. Hood Jeans continue to lead the way in development, testing and certification. They not only test and certify to EN 17092:2020, but also run abrasion tests using the tougher EN 13595-2:2002 test method. This means they can use test data from their previous twenty-three years for the development of new products.

Whist researching and designing the new CE certified products in 2018; Hood Jeans were introduced to new partners. These partners brought huge improvements in the technology of machinery used in the manufacturing process, and in materials and components, they also added much experience in the manufacture of CE approved motorcycle garments. This new expertise added to the Hood Jeans heritage, knowledge, and experience of denim motorcycle jeans has helped to create some highly protective and award winning products. The main production now takes place at their partner’s factory in Shanghai China; however the development, design, sales, dispatch, and most importantly heart of the Hood Jeans remain in the UK, as does a small production capability and finishing workshop.

In 2020 D3O^® Ghost™ armour was released. Ghost™ is the most lightweight, flexible and breathable armour D3O^® have ever produced. Simply ‘Fit and Forget’. Ghost™ has been an amazing success within the Hood K7/AA Jean, over 70% of customers opting for this revolutionary armour.

The award winning ‘easy-fit’ Original K7/AA and K7/B Jeans remain exactly the same. However, the success of the extremely thin Ghost™ armour in 2020, added to the many enquiries for a ‘slim-fit’ jean option convinced Hood Jeans to produce a new design. They were able to use the thinness of the Ghost™ protectors, along with a new construction of stretch denim to design, CE certify and produce a narrow-leg, contemporary looking and very protective motorcycle jean.

This new product is called the SK11 Jean, it comes in three colours and two classes of CE certification:

1. SK11/AAA Jean: CE certified EN 17092-2:2020 Class AAA; the SK11/AAA comes with D3O^® Ghost™ hip and knee armour as standard.
2. SK11/B Jean: CE certified EN 17092-5:2020 Class B; the SK11/B does not come with armour.

The SK11/AAA and SK11/B Jeans will be launched in mid-April 2021.

Hood Motorcycle Jeans are renowned worldwide for protection, quality, value for money and customer care. As a family run company for over 23 years; we are just as proud of our customer service as we are of our motorcycle jeans. Trust our jeans, trust our service, and trust in our company. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Hood Motorcycle Jeans remains a family business; Chris states “We are a small family-run business; I believe this helps us give our customers a personal and friendly service.” – something that Hood Jeans are well known for. Julie finishes by saying “Our customers have given us so much support, encouragement and custom over the years; it’s this backing that’s made us the company we are today.”

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