Mornin Everyone,
I realize this subject is a bit touchy to some but Im not an expert in flight jackets and dont know all the lingo that goes with it. To be perfectly honest, Im rather overwhelmed with all the imported ' knock offs ' of our beloved leather military style flight jackets in stores and on the web.
You really have to do your homework these days to figure out where this unique apparel is being manufactured. When that TOP GUN film was introduced, Holy Smoke , everybody thought that pilot and aircrew appearance was the coolest.
However, the Chinese who watches nearly every market trend, quickly discovered untapped wealth in cranking out these flight jackets and have saturated the market especially in the US.
I know that the LANDING LEATHERS brand is Chinese made and I suspect that AIRBORNE brand is a Chinese mark as well. However, I wanted to mention that this past summer I purchased 2 new flight jackets from US WINGS ( G1 and A2 ) and their very nice but I did notice that during the summer months that US WINGS was selling a very nice looking ( web site picture ) of a US NAVY G1 type jacket for 195 dollars in Goatskin but it wasnt available in a tall size. Huh ? How was that jacket sold so cheaply ? Could that be an import as well ? Perhaps not from China but I have noticed that many jackets are also manufactured in Pakistan.
Yes, I realize theres a few outstanding flight jacket manufacturers in Britain and most are excellent. I love those WW2 RAF flight jackets that Spitfire pilots wore. Beautiful !
Another thing, when a manufacturer or retailer advertises a jacket in FAUX leather, is that simply a clever name to describe artificial or fake leather ? Is Vinyl perhaps a better description ? You gotta admit, they keep improving the artificial stuff all the time !
Any stories or opinions ?
I realize this subject is a bit touchy to some but Im not an expert in flight jackets and dont know all the lingo that goes with it. To be perfectly honest, Im rather overwhelmed with all the imported ' knock offs ' of our beloved leather military style flight jackets in stores and on the web.
You really have to do your homework these days to figure out where this unique apparel is being manufactured. When that TOP GUN film was introduced, Holy Smoke , everybody thought that pilot and aircrew appearance was the coolest.
However, the Chinese who watches nearly every market trend, quickly discovered untapped wealth in cranking out these flight jackets and have saturated the market especially in the US.
I know that the LANDING LEATHERS brand is Chinese made and I suspect that AIRBORNE brand is a Chinese mark as well. However, I wanted to mention that this past summer I purchased 2 new flight jackets from US WINGS ( G1 and A2 ) and their very nice but I did notice that during the summer months that US WINGS was selling a very nice looking ( web site picture ) of a US NAVY G1 type jacket for 195 dollars in Goatskin but it wasnt available in a tall size. Huh ? How was that jacket sold so cheaply ? Could that be an import as well ? Perhaps not from China but I have noticed that many jackets are also manufactured in Pakistan.
Yes, I realize theres a few outstanding flight jacket manufacturers in Britain and most are excellent. I love those WW2 RAF flight jackets that Spitfire pilots wore. Beautiful !
Another thing, when a manufacturer or retailer advertises a jacket in FAUX leather, is that simply a clever name to describe artificial or fake leather ? Is Vinyl perhaps a better description ? You gotta admit, they keep improving the artificial stuff all the time !
Any stories or opinions ?