Gibson and Barnes doing ok?

[Dracorex]

They're fabulous jackets for the price, minus some hit or miss fit/cut issues I've had. They seemed to be big conversation pieces in ancient Lounge days if one goes back to the back threads. I would die for one of their discontinued Toko-Ri Brubaker G-1s. They had some neat goatskin colors too...blue and grey! I've complained about them before but at the end of the day, they had a pretty amazing jacket line.
G-1:
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I owned one of their Toko-Ri jackets and it was absolutely beautiful! Only problem was the fit! It was too tight in the shoulders and too big and baggy in the body. I really wanted to like it but I just couldn't get past the fit. I finally sold it. You can buy Toko-Ri patches on ebay that are virtually identical to G&B's. I bought some and compared it to the ones on my jacket before I sold it. I couldn't tell the difference. I planned on having them put on a G-1 that fits me perfectly but I still haven't got around to doing it.

 

[nick123]

It's silly wanting a jacket when patches are to be found elsewhere. But I've always really liked it!

 

[Hypoxic]

Just ordered a G-1 from them the other night! G&B makes some really nice jackets in my opinion. I've owned one of their Armeé de l'air jackets for a few years now and it's holding up nicely, actually, it's just starting to get broke-in! It's a very well made jacket and I get a lot of compliments in it. Toured the factory last time I was in San Diego and can say that the G&B team is a very friendly bunch of people. It was nice to meet the craftsmen and women who made my jacket, and watch the build process in person.

nick123, your G-1 looks really nice on you.

 

[Edward]

At the G&B end of the market demand has dropped. Certainly leather jacket aficionados are not buying them as there are too many well made, customizable handcrafted alternatives.

That's always gonig to be the difficulty with any middle-range jackets; the real jacket-heads don't mind paying more, and won't be satisfied with the compromises to certain things (e.g. zip type) that have to be made at that middle-price level, while the fashion-oriented crowd, as a rule, will always want to buy cheaper. It's a shame, really.... I liked the mid-price stuff like Wested, great for when you want something half-decent but know that you won't wear it so often as to justify the high-end prices....

There's something interesting about leather down here. Almost no man under 50 I have ever met owns a leather jacket. And those that do generally wear a Tony Soprano style black lamb blouson. A young women I was talking to at work recently described leather as an 'older guy thing'. The only leather styles I have ever occasionally seen on a male under 30 is a shiny, skinny A2 inspired bomber. I wonder if this holds elsewhere.

Climate thing, maybe? Leather jackets aren't as popular in mainstream fashion here as they were a year or two ago, but almost every off-mainstream youth tribe has embraced them in one for or another, plus there are plenty enough older guys wearing them around. Still, aside from the May-September Hell, you can wear leather up here very esily the other seven months of the year...

It's silly wanting a jacket when patches are to be found elsewhere. But I've always really liked it!

I don't know, once the novelty of speccing out your first few jackets wears off, there's something ot be said for the ease of buying off the rack...

 

[Justhandguns]

Just a quick question here, anyone knows if G&B has/had any government contract for supplying A-2/G-1 alike of jackets? (apart from their Nomex stuffs)