Five Star Leather Jackets

[Aloysius]

I just took a look at other Bronco contracts they have on their websites and found these:
1st one - it seems that the shoulders on this jacket aren't square, but regular A2 shoulders
2nd - this one also has regular A2 shoulders
3rd - also has regular A2 shoulders
Are these ones a good choice for a Bronco contract? I think that they aren't house A2s, but I was wondering if they are worth watching. If not, I will contact the owner for a quote of a custom jacket. Also, I have a question about the VAT, taxes and possible shipping fees for shipping from 5* to Croatia, in the EU. Do they have a warehouse in Europe from which they could ship the jacket so there is no additional VAT and tax charges?

Don't get the Bronco; I think that model predates them having original A-2s to study.

Their Rough Wear, Dubow, and a few others are patterned on originals.

 

[Canuck Panda]

I just took a look at other Bronco contracts they have on their websites and found these:
1st one - it seems that the shoulders on this jacket aren't square, but regular A2 shoulders
2nd - this one also has regular A2 shoulders
3rd - also has regular A2 shoulders
Are these ones a good choice for a Bronco contract? I think that they aren't house A2s, but I was wondering if they are worth watching. If not, I will contact the owner for a quote of a custom jacket. Also, I have a question about the VAT, taxes and possible shipping fees for shipping from 5* to Croatia, in the EU. Do they have a warehouse in Europe from which they could ship the jacket so there is no additional VAT and tax charges?

5* has $150 Broncos and $350 Broncos. I assume the $150 jackets are from earlier timeline and $350 jackets from the later timeline. The older entries aren't doing them any favors but I am not here to tell 5* how to run their business. It makes more business sense to discard the previous patterns in favor of the updated ones and just offer different levels of leathers to hit certain price points.
If you have a budget in mind it does not hurt to tell them up front, respectfully of course. I see no cost difference of cutting a jacket out of the $350 pattern vs the $150 pattern, the difference is in the material, and to hit certain budgets you may have to sacrifice on certain material. That' for 5* to figure out for you. $150 order is not as good as $350 order but still better than $0 order.
As for VAT and shipping. If you want 5* to ship to you FOB Germany then the cost will be much higher than if you import it yourself. There is no way around that. The way EU calculates taxes is to include the shipping cost to the base figure before the taxes. The most 5* can do is to declare lesser FOB Pakistan value so the base for calculation is a less.

 

[Camel24hrs]

I just took a look at other Bronco contracts they have on their websites and found these:
1st one - it seems that the shoulders on this jacket aren't square, but regular A2 shoulders
2nd - this one also has regular A2 shoulders
3rd - also has regular A2 shoulders
Are these ones a good choice for a Bronco contract? I think that they aren't house A2s, but I was wondering if they are worth watching. If not, I will contact the owner for a quote of a custom jacket. Also, I have a question about the VAT, taxes and possible shipping fees for shipping from 5* to Croatia, in the EU. Do they have a warehouse in Europe from which they could ship the jacket so there is no additional VAT and tax charges?

The Bronco is one of five stars first A2 jackets. And they did not have an actual jacket to pattern off of. They just made up what they got.
The first one you posted I actually bought that jacket. While I love some of their other jackets this one is trash. First they put the back seam to far forward on the shoulder and that throws off where the epaulettes sit. Instead of sitting on top of the shoulder they sit forward on the shoulders and look comical. While they may have better goat skin in some of their other jackets the goat used in this one sucks. It is stiff and starts to flake off the top coat in months.
I realize people look at jackets with a price in mind, but just understand the price determines the quality you will get. My suggestion is stay away from Bronco and anything else from five star that are cheap. Promise you will regret it and will have just wasted your money. Save up your money then buy a better quality jacket you will be happy with.
Their HH Rough Wear, Dubow, Star, Monarch and a couple of others are quality reproductions that are great jackets. Just make sure you get them customized to your length. An A2 jacket is a short waisted jacket to begin with. And some of five star jacket lengths run really short.

 

[leatherp]

The Bronco is one of five stars first A2 jackets. And they did not have an actual jacket to pattern off of. They just made up what they got.
The first one you posted I actually bought that jacket. While I love some of their other jackets this one is trash. First they put the back seam to far forward on the shoulder and that throws off where the epaulettes sit. Instead of sitting on top of the shoulder they sit forward on the shoulders and look comical. While they may have better goat skin in some of their other jackets the goat used in this one sucks. It is stiff and starts to flake off the top coat in months.
I realize people look at jackets with a price in mind, but just understand the price determines the quality you will get. My suggestion is stay away from Bronco and anything else from five star that are cheap. Promise you will regret it and will have just wasted your money. Save up your money then buy a better quality jacket you will be happy with.
Their HH Rough Wear, Dubow, Star, Monarch and a couple of others are quality reproductions that are great jackets. Just make sure you get them customized to your length. An A2 jacket is a short waisted jacket to begin with. And some of five star jacket lengths run really short.

Thank you! I didn't know that the Bronco pattern was the oldest. I will check out the other contracts you've mentioned. Again, thanks for the heads up!

 

[Oystermuppet]

Hi folks,
Has anyone ordered Five* jacket to European Union? How much did You pay for shipping?
I had to pay 120 USD for shipping alone, which is over half of the price of the jacket

 

[Marc mndt]

I had to pay 120 USD for shipping alone

Is that just shipping or does it also include VAT and import duties?

$120 for just shipping seems excessive.

 

[MrProper]

Hi folks,
Has anyone ordered Five* jacket to European Union? How much did You pay for shipping?
I had to pay 120 USD for shipping alone, which is over half of the price of the jacket

$60
I say, 5* is no longer cheap. Cheap jacket + expensive shipping + VAT + customs + handling fees = a jacket that's not worth the money.

 

[Oystermuppet]

@Marc mndt just for shipping

@MrProper still, I don't think there are any other options, that come close to this price (with that kind of variety of items)

 

[ton312]

Good lord the shipping will cost you 3 times what the jacket is actually worth. I’ll concede that some jackets indeed do turn out better than others but with the laundry list of issues 5 Star still faces in terms of quality and construction….tacking on this kind of shipping fee makes the whole endeavor utterly senseless.

 

[Jon Crow]

Hi folks,
Has anyone ordered Five* jacket to European Union? How much did You pay for shipping?
I had to pay 120 USD for shipping alone, which is over half of the price of the jacket

It's shipping and vat that kills it to me in Madrid sometimes

 

[Camel24hrs]

To the USA
A2 HH jacket 310 US dollars
Shipping 60 US dollars

Total for jacket shipped 410 US dollars.

Still cheaper than any A2 HH replica you can buy here in the states. Plus it’s in the works to have a store here in New York. Once that happens the stock jackets may be lower in price because shipping should be lower.

 

[MrProper]

@Marc mndt just for shipping
View attachment 658952

@MrProper still, I don't think there are any other options, that come close to this price (with that kind of variety of items)

+19% VAT (Germany)
+4% Customs
+18 EUR handling fee

 

[Oystermuppet]

@MrProper damn, I really hope it's going to fit me well at least.

How long did You have to wait for Your Five* jackets? I'm wondering when it's going to be shipped and how long does it take to get from Pakistan to EU. From what I've read on the internet, it should be really fast, but I've been waiting for a few days now.

 

[MrProper]

If I remember correctly, it was 2-4 weeks once everything was finalised. Shipping with DHL was quite fast, about 4-6 days.

 

[Canuck Panda]

Shipping to Canada is USD $60. That is higher than what it was years ago but lower than what others are charging today.

Maybe they can adjust the declared value to offset the extra shipping cost, for custom calculations. I've had two UK makers declared less value for me before. The lowest shipping from UK to Canada is now £75 (~$100)...

 

[Oystermuppet]

@Canuck Panda yeah I tried talking to them about expected customs and taxes costs few time already, but they completely ignored it. Same as 60% of my other questions

 

[Canuck Panda]

but they completely ignored it. Same as 60% of my other questions

That's no good. They need to up their customer service efforts. It's a tough market out there now across the board. Pays to be the one offering better services now.

 

[TartuWolf]

@Canuck Panda yeah I tried talking to them about expected customs and taxes costs few time already, but they completely ignored it. Same as 60% of my other questions

Why the hell do you want to continue with them when you're getting such customer service?

 

[Oystermuppet]

@TartuWolf two reasons:

1. These were more of an additional questions about the purchase, sizing (length) of their gloves etc - I have already placed an order and the jacket is already being produced (at least I hope so). No backing down now.
2. There is not better alternative in this price point, even with additional 120USD shipping charge. There is literally no store I can get a non-lamb leather jacket for 350USD.

 

[TartuWolf]

Alright, thanks for clarifying.
I definitely can feel the point nr 2.
Absolutely nothing resembling a proper leather jacket in Estonia, apart from random 1/10000 chance 2nd hand or thrift finds. I mainly deal with this by buying stuff from JP. Lots of fantastic jackets for very decent prices in my size. Got my 2nd favorite jacket (Vanson model E) for 200eu from there. And now that I found a good proxy the deals are even better.