dude,
when looking at leather remember it it bunches up in places when new it is not the right size!
Get a 2 piece full circumfrence zip together suit as A) it is more practicle B) you can still do trackdays in it.
If you wanna race it has to be 1piece!
get a suit that is comfortable, if it bunches up around the back of the neck the top half is to tight and you will need to go up atleast 1 size. Get trousers with knee sliders as you will eventually start to want to get your knee down and realise you need to shell out on another pair of trs. just make sure the suit is a snug fit without being uncomfortable.
Construction, Make sure you get a suit with as few panels as possible, the more panels it has the more likly it is to burst a seam. inspect the stitching, you don't want to purchase a garment with exposed seams as these will obviously wear and brust as soon as they make contact with tarmac. You ideally want to have tripple stitching, not just rolled over stitching.
Materials, leather is cheaper than roo hide and has some benefits that roo does not! The reason roo is used is that you can have the 'same' strength hide with thinner panels, therefore more comfortable and cooler. The downside is that it does not havve the same thermal protrection so you can actually still get friction burn through the hide.
In my opinion I would look for a suit that has cow hide in the main impact areas(elbows, knees, hips shoulders and ****) and if it has roo hide anywhere else great, tho not really that fussed. look for a nice quality leather, not a fasion leather! If it feels as thin and as soft as Hannah's jacket stay away! There are some fasionable leathers out on the market that are utter poo. I have seen the same style of suit burst on 3 occasions. Don't go by a name brand go by the quality of the build and materials used. If it feels like it could tear easily, it probably could!
HTH
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