Anyone owns a buckskin jacket by Uber Glove Company?

[shadowrider]

Uber Glove Company is a tannery in Owatonna, Minnesota that's been tanning hides and making leather garments since the 40s. I'm thinking about having them sew me up a deerskin jacket (I don't hunt, so I'm not sending in hides, they'll use their own).
Any folk here have a jacket or other leather product made by them, and could give a little opinion?

 

[jlanderson]

Some nice looking jackets, especially the Colorado men's jacket.

http://clpuber.com/

 

[Dinerman]

Here's what the "Scout" jacket looks like with about 50 years of wear on it.
I've had a number of deerskin jackets from various Wisconsin tanneries/jacket makers. Vintage Ubers seem to hold up well, but the jackets of many other makers have nasty flaking problems later on down the line from bad tanning.

 

[Highwaymanman]

I notice the Clark and Coats zipper on this jacket. Are these considered good quality? My wife has a Langlitz which has the biggest zipper I've ever seen on a jacket on it and it's a C+C with all this cool embossing on the tab. I've never seen one like it but the one pictured above is the closest, although the Langlitz is bigger again.

 

[Dinerman]

They're well made. The one on that particular jacket had some rot to the zipper tape, but as you can tell from the lumps at the shoulders from wire hangers, the jacket wasn't particularly well cared for.

 

[shadowrider]

Wow Dinerman, that jacket had its share of use for sure.
The one I'm thinking of getting is similar to that, but without fringes on the sleeves or on the pockets.
I've always wanted a jacket like this. I remeber, as a child, every time my parents would stop at this clothing store on our way to our mountain house, I would go and look at the fringed leather "cowboy" jackets, asking if I could have one (which never happened).
The problem with most of them, though, is that the risk of looking like you're stepping out of Midnight Cowboy is very high. This should be fine, I think, and the child in me will be very happy.
About the hardware Highwayman mentioned, most of the Uber jackets I saw on ebay have the cool Clark and Coat zippers, but I doubt they still have those. I actually really like the little chain&ring pullers on the pictured jacket's pockets, but now they use standard zipper tabs. I'm a sucker for details like that.
Dinerman, may I ask you if the pockets are lined with fabric, or is there a leather patch between the front panel and the jacket liner, forming the pocket?

 

[Highwaymanman]

Thanks for the info, the zip I mentioned looks somewhat like this one except bigger again and it has C+C on each side rather than the full name.

http://www.monstervintage.com/merchandise/images/80/f/31581f.jpg

Apologies for the threadjack btw.

 

[Dinerman]

I'm going to hijack this just a little bit more, with some other vintage deerskin jackets. I like deerskin/buckskin and feel it's a shame it's become so pigeonholed for western jackets.

Mid-Western Sport Togs. Made in Berlin, Wisconsin.



WB Place. Made in Hartford, Wisconsin
When not done properly, deer has a nasty tendency towards flakiness, and of the ones I've had, this was the worst.




But when it's good, it's great. Tough, thick, yet soft and supple
Gransfors Garments - made in Superior, Wisconsin



Not a style that worked for me, but another example of great leather. No tags, but you can bet it was made in Wisconsin


That flakiness again. Distributed by "New Jersey Frozen Foods" (!), but I've seen this pattern with a number of different labels. Still a bit western, with the horseshoe belt buckle and the back yoke, but leaning more toward a standard surcoat length half-belt leather jacket design.



And my personal jacket- AT Hendrick. Made in Denver, Colorado. A bit fancier in detailing than the standard half-belt of the time, but it goes to show that the hide works just as well in a non-western style.

 

[HDRnR]

The Scout looks like the jacket Owen Wilson wore in The Royal Tenenbaums.

 

[fishmeok]

Uber was sold a few years back and subsequently went out of business. The original family bought the company back and have re-started the tannery. They are sitting on about 2 years backlog of hides from hunters, etc. As far as I know they are the last deerhide tannery left out of the dozens that used to operate in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

 

[tropicalbob]

That AT Hendrick is superb -- clean and really smart. It's a wonder that the jacket-makers haven't picked up the design. Question though: what's the skin like in terms of durability? Is it closer to horse/cow or to lamb?

 

[shadowrider]

Do you fellas reckon a deerskin jacket would work unlined? Many really old ones I've seen are like that.
And if so, would it be more bearable smooth side out or rough out?