MA-1 Flight jacket

[SilverFox1]

There's no question to it being genuine, USAF didn't issue anything else, and it has been in my possession since issued to me in '79. Here are some pics:

Label...



Stitching...



Outside...



Inside...



As mentioned yesterday, other than putting it on maybe 3 times since I opened the original sealed plastic bag, this jacket is mint and "as new".

 

[SilverFox1]

Here are the cuffs and collar:

 

[Blackadder]

Reminds me of the days when you could pick up a 70s Fender Stratocaster for buttons, because everyone knew that the CBS years in general, and the 70s in particular, were "bad" years. Then the price of pre-CBS, and immediate post-CBS buyout models skyrocketed beyond what anyone mortal could afford, and suddenly those 70s guitars looked more interesting. People noticed more and more of them being snapped up by the Japanese, and now those 70s guitars are worth ten times what they sold for in the mid 90s. It'll be the smae in due course with a lot of these nylon jackets.

It certainly is base on availability. The 70s simply are not rare enough yet for the price to go up. The 70s issued still have much better value than the late 70s civilian version.
Your story also reminds me of the rise of the N-4 deck jacket over the past 5 years. I think buyers only started looking at the N-4 when N-1 and M-41 became out of their budget due to increased demand.

 

[bn1966]

I had a ‘76 Greenbrier in XL a couple of years back, it was patched by original owner & I sold it on due to not being comfortable wearing anything with someone else’s history attached & wouldn’t have dreamt of separating the two

The Greenbrier ‘76 I seem to recollect was thought to have been the model worn by Steve McQueen in ‘The Hunter’ (might be wrong on that). If you had a NOS XL, I’d pay a lot of ££££££ to take it off your hands

 

[Fifty150]

not being comfortable wearing anything with someone else’s history

some people don't want any kind of used clothing

 

[bn1966]

Only mistake I made with used clothing was a 60’s Tonic suit that smelt of the original owners Body odours when warm

 

[Doctor Damage]

It certainly is base on availability. The 70s simply are not rare enough yet for the price to go up. The 70s issued still have much better value than the late 70s civilian version.

The Greenbrier ‘76 I seem to recollect was thought to have been the model worn by Steve McQueen in ‘The Hunter’ (might be wrong on that). If you had a NOS XL, I’d pay a lot of ££££££ to take it off your hands

Well that's just it, this jacket is NOS. Even though it's not one of the over-hyped 1950s and 60s jackets, it's still a full-on military jacket in new condition, with wool/cotton insulation. There's not many like that left. Plus a seller could remind everyone that it's the jacket that McQueen wore in his last film.

 

[Edward]

It certainly is base on availability. The 70s simply are not rare enough yet for the price to go up. The 70s issued still have much better value than the late 70s civilian version.
Your story also reminds me of the rise of the N-4 deck jacket over the past 5 years. I think buyers only started looking at the N-4 when N-1 and M-41 became out of their budget due to increased demand.

I recall being fifteen and the Army Surplus place that I haunted as soon as I was old enough to a] start buying my own clothes and b] fit what they had to offer (I still have, somewhere, the first West German army shirts I bought, and certainly when I'm back down to my proper, adult fighting weight I can still fit in 'em comfortably - I wore 'em HUGE at first just ot get to wear them at all!) .... It had a huge rail of original M65s at £25.... now you're looking four or five times that for one that isn't always in the best of shape. I also recall racks and racks of "skinhead jackets". WAsn't interesting in those at the time, even for £25, but looking back I do wonder how many of them were the 'real thing'. I visited that business the last tiem I was in Belfast, but sadly it's gone the way of all good surplus sohps now and it's mostly repop MA1s from Rothco and new camping gear. The 'army surplus' store as we knew it in the eighties seems to have died with Camden Market...

some people don't want any kind of used clothing

I don't mind second hand, though I'm wary of some military stuff. It was one thing when I was an angry punk kid, but now I'm old enough to be misinterpreted as a Mitty / military fetishist, no thanks... I still wear a lot of military bits (I suspect that getting into army surplus in my own punk rock way was an early gateway that eventually led to "vintage"), but they are very much worn in a civilian style and I certainly have no desire to be thought a vet.

Well that's just it, this jacket is NOS. Even though it's not one of the over-hyped 1950s and 60s jackets, it's still a full-on military jacket in new condition, with wool/cotton insulation. There's not many like that left. Plus a seller could remind everyone that it's the jacket that McQueen wore in his last film.

Interesting; I always thought Macqueen's Hunter jacket was a later model, 70s / post 68ish, with the poly lining. Would be a big deal, though - RMC, I think it is, do a very expensive repro of that model not as a USAF jacket per se, but specifically as the Cooler King's last film jacket. For some it seems to be almost as iconic as his Hilts A2. It's one I'd like at a more Alpha-Replica-Series type of budget.... and I'm not even really interest in clothes, let alone military jackets, of a post-1960 style....

 

[Doctor Damage]

Interesting; I always thought Macqueen's Hunter jacket was a later model, 70s / post 68ish, with the poly lining. Would be a big deal, though - RMC, I think it is, do a very expensive repro of that model not as a USAF jacket per se, but specifically as the Cooler King's last film jacket. For some it seems to be almost as iconic as his Hilts A2. It's one I'd like at a more Alpha-Replica-Series type of budget.... and I'm not even really interest in clothes, let alone military jackets, of a post-1960 style....

Toys McCoy, a Japanese brand, was doing a repro and I posted photos of it in this thread last year or sometime.

According to wikipedia, filming started in September 1979, and his jacket looked mostly unworn, so I think it's likely he was wearing an NOS military jacket from the mid to late 1970s. The giveaway is the vertical stitching on the windflap, since only Greenbrier did that in the 1970s, and all the photos I've seen of MA-1s with vertical stitching have been military with wool insulation. I have seen in a book an Alpha (I think) with the same stitching, but that said it's clear that 99% of Alphas had the zig-zag stitching. So it's almost certainly a Greenbrier 1970s military jacket. I doubt anybody was doing reproductions at the time. There's plenty of military wool-insulated MA-1s with orange liners out there but few with the vertical stitching.

The costume designer for the film probably went to a surplus store and bought a few NOS Greenbriers, one for McQueen, the others for the stuntman (below). I don't think we'll ever really know. I'm guessing here, of course, but I think its a reasonably safe guess.

 

[SilverFox1]

Interesting. I'll have to rethink what I want to do with my jacket. Sort of wish I'd never opened the bag or at least kept it and the paper label inserted in it when I received my clothing issue. Was an odd issue, and none of my 8 other assignments in my career included an MA-1 so must have been location specific option or someone "fudged" the allowances at that particular base.

Recommendations for how and where if I decide to sell this jacket?

 

[Edward]

Toys McCoy, a Japanese brand, was doing a repro and I posted photos of it in this thread last year or sometime.

According to wikipedia, filming started in September 1979, and his jacket looked mostly unworn, so I think it's likely he was wearing an NOS military jacket from the mid to late 1970s. The giveaway is the vertical stitching on the windflap, since only Greenbrier did that in the 1970s, and all the photos I've seen of MA-1s with vertical stitching have been military with wool insulation. I have seen in a book an Alpha (I think) with the same stitching, but that said it's clear that 99% of Alphas had the zig-zag stitching. So it's almost certainly a Greenbrier 1970s military jacket. I doubt anybody was doing reproductions at the time. There's plenty of military wool-insulated MA-1s with orange liners out there but few with the vertical stitching.

The costume designer for the film probably went to a surplus store and bought a few NOS Greenbriers, one for McQueen, the others for the stuntman (below). I don't think we'll ever really know. I'm guessing here, of course, but I think its a reasonably safe guess.

View attachment 236271

Might be that Toys I was thinking of... Interestingly, I'd assumed the MA! design switched spec at a specific time, but with different producers involved, maybe not (or maybe there was an overlap between what was issued from stores, and what was being produced after that 'backlog'). I'm sure Alpha and thel ikes complicate the picture with coinciding milspec and civiianised options.

In any case, from what I've seen I thik you're right on the Greenbrier. If someone did a milspec, more affordable version I'd be into that too, much as otherwise the final flying jacket in my period of interest is the first edition, green-liner MA1. Macqueen gives the later, orange liner and pocket flaps version a cool factor that I doubt I'll ever manage, but woyuld have fun trying!

 

[Doctor Damage]

Okay, I dug through a file on my hard drive, and I found photos of two Greenbrier jackets with the vertical stitching (and wool insulation), both dated 1976. But I also found the following Alpha from 1978 with vertical stitching and wool insulation. So I guess McQueen could have been wearing either an Alpha or Greenbrier.

 

[Blackadder]

Might be that Toys I was thinking of... Interestingly, I'd assumed the MA! design switched spec at a specific time, but with different producers involved, maybe not (or maybe there was an overlap between what was issued from stores, and what was being produced after that 'backlog'). I'm sure Alpha and thel ikes complicate the picture with coinciding milspec and civiianised options.

In any case, from what I've seen I thik you're right on the Greenbrier. If someone did a milspec, more affordable version I'd be into that too, much as otherwise the final flying jacket in my period of interest is the first edition, green-liner MA1. Macqueen gives the later, orange liner and pocket flaps version a cool factor that I doubt I'll ever manage, but woyuld have fun trying!

You are not wrong about Real McCoy's. Both RM and TM reproduced the McQ jacket. RM's version is probably older and that is understandable seeing that the owner of TM was the original owner of RM.
TM
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c815709951
RM
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/q246741999]
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/s693242087

 

[Blackadder]

Another RM
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/l544116360

 

[Doctor Damage]

Here's another data point: I was looking at a Japanese book I have and it has photos of a D spec MA-1 with orange liner, wool/cotton insulation, and vertical stitching made by Sportsmasters Inc dated 1969. So McQueen might have been wearing of those, too! haha

 

[Doctor Damage]

 

[Harris HTM]

My latest acquisition - though not a MA-1 (technically).
An Alpha Industries B-15D (mod). I suspect this is the Replica series.
Heavy jacket, scovill zippers, seems a far more rigid (and probably warmer) jacket than the 90's made in the US Alpha MA-1's I've owned.

 

[bn1966]

Fantastic Fall weight jacket, I had one of these but foolishly sold it.
Mine was a slightly different run in the Replica Series, no donut on the sleeve and mine was labelled as an XL..TOP jackets...have my eye out for another..much better quality than the ‘Vintage’ Series (I have that version of the Mod in the wrong shade of blue and a green B-15D).

 

[Harris HTM]

Fantastic Fall weight jacket, I had one of these but foolishly sold it.
Mine was a slightly different run in the Replica Series, no donut on the sleeve and mine was labelled as an XL..TOP jackets...have my eye out for another..much better quality than the ‘Vintage’ Series (I have that version of the Mod in the wrong shade of blue and a green B-15D).

The seller claimed in the listing that this is an original issued one, though I doubt it - I was after a Replica series and I think I've got it!

 

[Doctor Damage]

yeah you got lucky with that jacket! it looks unused which is great
and you didn't have to spend Buzz $$$$ money to get an awesome jacket