This Just In: The Latest Union Special

Meet the new Union Garage Venturi, an American-made motorcycle jacket that blends classic styling with modern tech.

While it appears to be old-school, short-waisted motorcycle jacket, look closer to fine a bevy of patented ventilation features, courtesy of Vanson Leathers; as well as the latest and greatest armor spec, by way of D3O.

Styling-wise, we kept it as simple as possible, with no exterior branding, and black-on-black hardware and trim, to hide the jacket’s farious features in clean design. 

Reimagining 'Leather Weather'

Unlike most traditional leather motorcycle jackets, the Venturi stands out for its excellent ventilation properties.

And unlike most perforated leather jackets, the Venturi’s considerable intake and exhaust functionality can be completely muted by closing a few simple and relatively covert zippers—leaving a weather-proof leather jacket that’s as happy charging through spring and fall riding temps as it is on swampy summer rides.

There’s an in-between setting, too, as the various vents can be independently modulated from wide-open to closed tight, making this the most versatile leather jacket we’ve ever had in our collection.

Venturi Anatomy

At the heart of this jacket are two fully perforated chest panels, the airflow through which is controlled by a patented twin-zipper, drop-down internal “air curtain” feature—one on either side of the jacket.

When the curtains are closed, airflow that would otherwise enter through the perforated panels is blocked by a wind- and water-resistant Nylon shield. When the curtains are dropped (either partly, or all the way) the perforated panels allow cooling air to pass through and evacuate moisture as you ride.

*Fun fact: this jacket is 99% manufactured by Vanson Leathers in Massachusetts. The only outside process is the perforating of the leather, a task performed by a massive, medieval looking machine located north of Albany, New York. 

Supplementing the Venturi's central A/C are two generous zippered vents at the inner arms, and two complementary exhaust vents tied into the rear side seams at the back of the jacket.

Crank open all the windows at once, and enjoy as much ventilation as is possible in a full leather jacket. Or zip everything back up for wind-proof, all-season performance.

The arm vents may even out-perform the chest panels, especially if you’re running a bike with a windshield or fairing. As with any vented jacket, the Venturi performs best on a naked bike. But even on bikes with windshields or fairings, the arm scoops are well positioned and help pull in airflow.

The intake from the chest panels and/or sleeve vents is always aided by the namesake Venturi effect, as wind rushing past the open exhaust vents helps pull air through the jacket.

Armor Up

The Venturi comes with a full 5-piece D3O armor set, and shares the same orbitally adjustable armor system as our other Union jackets—the Robinson, made from leather-reinforced waxed cotton; and the traditional V7 jacket, crafted from heavy competition weight leather.

We use custom Cordura envelope pouches to house the respective shoulder and elbow armor pieces. Each pouch is equipped with Velcro to hold and precisely position the armor  in place, matching up with corresponding Velcro built into the shell of the jacket, in this case under the two-ply leather shoulder and elbow caps.

The only difference with the armor in the Venturi is that we’ve upgraded the spec to the all-new Diablo Level 2, which we feel is a real game changer in that it’s lighter, thinner, and more protective than the standard D3O Level 1 we’ve used for years.

*Note: As of this late-summer 2025 launch, the level-2 D3O Diablo is in scarce supply thanks to the tariff  situation, so we don’t currently have it available a la carte, but we do have enough stock squirreled away to supply the opening run of this new jacket.

American Made

"Made in the USA” seems too impersonal in this context. It’s an important bona fide, but the sentiment seems diluted by how blatantly it’s often used as a marketing cudgel.

Instead, “Made by Vanson Leathers, at 951 Broadway in Fall River, MA” seems more appropriate, if less catchy.

But that’s the address of the company that over the years we’ve shipped and received countless packages of production products, as well as prototypes; and whose big yellow door we’ve walked through many times over the years.

And to get even more granular: The Venturi jacket is Made by Alan, David, Gerry, Luciana, Yara, Louis, Alex, Carlos, and Luisa. From David’s initial cutting station, to Gerry’s sharp-eyed markup, to Luisa’s gatekeeping work in the Quality Control Department, these are the folks whose hands are responsible for these jackets existence.

The different departments change staff as the years roll on, but more than a few of these names belong to familiar faces who have had a hand in making scores of other Union Garage jackets over that last decade of working with Vanson.

A True Collaboration

The credit for the basic premise of the Venturi jacket goes to Mr. Michael van der Slessen, the  founder and patriarch of Vanson Leathers, and the patent holder for both the Venturi’s dual air-curtain ventilation design, and for the construction of the sleeve vent, which is backed with a stiff mesh, so even when open the vents don’t sacrifice the structural integrity of the jacket.

While we based this jacket directly off a piece from the Vanson archives, we put our own stamp on the design, starting with implementing our original adjustable D3O armor system (also found in the Robinson and V7), and making some small but important pattern modifications to help accommodate said armor, and also to fine-tune the overall fit and rider mobility.

We added our own embossed Union logo, but we made sure to leave it inside the jacket, out of view, as is our MO. We also de-badged the famous Vanson oval patches from the sleeves, but still proudly display the Vanson makers mark, along with the jacket’s serial number, front-and-center as you open the jacket.

Besides the armor accommodations and branding/lack thereof, we spec’d black-on-black water-resistant YKK zippers at the exterior vents, and added discrete leather zipper garages for each vent zipper head—a small detail that helps keep the jacket streamlined at speed.

The jacket has indelibly cool DNA, and while it looks great off the bike, it’s optimized to work on the bike, and is purpose-built for riding.

We’re happy with how the collaboration effort turned out, and after having put hundreds of miles on prototypes over the last couple summers, we’re glad to finally add the Venturi to our jacket catalog, and exited to start seeing it out in the world. 

The Venturi is available now both in-store and online.