Carhartt’s signature heavy-duty duck canvas is famously hard-wearing and designed to protect blue-collar workers since the brand’s founding in 1889. But what about its leather? Turns out, that is buttery soft.

Carhartt WIP, the label’s European streetwear division tasked with elevating Carhartt’s heritage into contemporary wearables, has been increasingly bringing leather into play. In fact, this year, the brand created its first true leather jacket that stands apart from its many collaborations. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Active Jacket, Carhartt WIP remade the boxy-fitting work coat in grainy black calf leather. It’s a one-off piece of truly luxurious outerwear, and priced accordingly at €1,490 (around $1,755). 

But you needn’t spend that much money if you just want the look of a Carhartt work coat in premium leather.

This year has seen faux-leather Carhartt jackets aplenty: Some are, rather confusingly, made for the summer, others are exclusively for the Japanese market, but they all take crinkly soft leather where it’s rarely been seen before, on classic rugged Carhartt attire. 

The Spring/Summer 2026 season sees the plot thicken.

The latest in a growingly vast selection of Carhartt WIP leather jackets is more military-wear than workwear (similar to its camo-centric FW25 collection). The all-new Shepton jacket, available for $438, is a nod to B-6 flight jackets, a hard-to-find piece of archival American Air Force uniform, which can be clearly seen in the artificial hairy fleece lining that spills out onto the collar. However, the shape of the pockets and the ribbing are more aligned with Carhartt’s Active Jacket. 

And what a boon it’s been for jacket-watchers everywhere, to begin to expect that another season means another Carhartt WIP leather jacket. What used to be rare, playful twists on the brand’s humble origins brought to life in odd high-fashion collaborations have become a category staple of its own. 

Clearly, Carhartt WIP saw everyone from Louis Vuitton to Bottega Veneta making carpenter pants and chore coats out of leather; wisely, the brand has responded by making the most of its own peerless workwear archive.

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