Aero v Eastman A2s: which leather more characterful?

[Sir Jacket]

A2 enthusiasts, wanted to pick your brains here. I have an Aero A2 in seal brown jerky horsehide. Reason for my post is that I wandered into Son of the Stag, a great retro clothing store in London, today and tried on some of their Eastman A2s. I was struck by how lovely the leather was, with really prominent grain, a nice rough texture and, in general, heaps of character. By contrast, my Aero feels rather smooth and mall-jacket-like. I'd like to know from people who've owned an Aero in seal jerky horse for a few years how it ages. Does it start to get the great character you get from, say, front quarter horsehide?

Two cents from all quarters welcome.

SJ

 

[crk]

I've had a seal jerk aero a-2 for 3 years now. In my opinion aero leather quality is poor. The jacket looks more worn out then broken in considering how little I've worn it. I would recommend eastman.

 

[zhz]

Considering Eastman is about 150-250 pounds more expensive than Aero's A2, I would say it is not a fair comparison between these two brands.

 

[thor]

Perhaps the revamped Aero A-2's that they've been tweaking will be both more authentic and more characterful...and without too large a jump in price!

 

[morrison2951]

Does Vanson have an A-2 in their line up? I'm really impressed with the character of their leather on my Enfield. Not to mention the quality of the stitching.

 

[Worf]

Vanson has a jacket called "The Mustang" but it only comes in Black and I would consider it more of a civvy A2

Worf

 

[Brettafett]

Had a recent (cicra 2010) Aero Seal jerky 15142 for a few years. No HWT or anything, but I did spend a lot of TV time working on it with my hands and wearing it around after getting wet in the rain etc. It did develop more character and the top layer did begin to rub off to reveal the reddy under-layers... Nice.
Still not anything like ELCs warehorse hide, or the samples I've received from GW and BK...

 

[Foster]

I had a 2007-2008 Aero in russet jerky horsehide (Fanch owns it now) but I never wore it enough to properly break it in.
Last summer I bought an Eastman A2 in seal brown Warhorse and it has nice grain. I like the grain of the ELC one better, but this is personal preference. The ELC one is taking much longer to begin to show edge wear than the Aero one. The Aero edge wear began to show much earlier.

 

[Edward]

Horses for courses, it seems to me. Can't comment from direct personal experience on Aero's A2s in horse (though I liked the look of those I've seen on other folks), as my Aero A2 is goat... which tbh I far and away prefer over my horse Eastman Roughwear. The latter really needs me to get around to treating it with something, as it shows a lot more wear than I like in an A2. The goat on the Aero still looks newish, which in that design of jacket I much prefer. A few areas where the seal covering has very subtly worn to a reddish hue underneath, but no spots where it has worn the colour thin, more towards the natural wear. How much of this has to do with how they are treated as opposed to the hide type I don't know.