New Eastman Leather Clothing "Escape" A-2

[pawineguy]

Announced on IG today that they will also make the same re-dye jacket without patches.

 

[ButteMT61]

Announced on IG today that they will also make the same re-dye jacket without patches.

Seems like a better move if your'e trying to sell them...

 

[HPA Rep]

Announced on IG today that they will also make the same re-dye jacket without patches.

This is very good news for those who want something unadorned, but, as past history has indicated, there will definitely be some who want the "Escape" version. HPA will stock both versions.

 

[pak]

Is there any published data which indicates the number of A-2 jackets sold annually worldwide? It seems to me there are many manufacturers for the number of these jackets I've seen worn out and about. Granted, I'm not in an area where the weather permits wearing A-2s much of the year.

 

[Edward]

Pretty cool. I'd stick my neck out and say that - at least here in Europe - Steve Macqueen in The Great Escape is 90% of why anyone under 60 ever bought an A2... I'm sure this is a response to people wanting the Hilts jackets over the years. Also a nice showcase for what is possible for ELC. (And to prove it works as marketing, this is the first ELC thread I've seen round here in a while, and look how quickly it's grown...).

 

[Stand By]

It's a very nice and cool looking jacket to me! It seems to exhibit a really perfect finish. And I think it will sell and is a great jacket to put in a product range as it's perhaps the most iconic of all A2 jackets.
Would I buy one? No, as personally I like to have something that is unique in the world to me - but I don't think most people think that way, nor that it's any different to all the A2s out there that have certain iconic nose/jacket art adorning them; they were all unique to a single fighter or bomber - so unique to either just one pilot or single crew only - but certain aircraft/aircrew have played unique roles in history and, for whatever reason, people identify with them and wish to own a piece of that nostalgia somehow - so ELC has already sought to capitalize on that by making some A2s with that memorable jacket art that originally belonged to other people.
I don't think this is any different - and Steve McQueen is the established King of Cool and his Hiltz character and A2 became admirable, heroic and iconic to us all in that A2 - and people will want one, I'm sure. It certainly looks the part to me and the quality is obvious. I'd be interested to know what it costs though ...
I don't recall Hiltz's A2 having Captain rank in the film, but this is perhaps the only instance that I would allow myself to wear rank on a jacket - as the jacket isn't assigned to me with my name on the leather tag - but a fictitious character.

 

[rocketeer]

Pretty cool. I'd stick my neck out and say that - at least here in Europe - Steve Macqueen in The Great Escape is 90% of why anyone under 60 ever bought an A2... I'm sure this is a response to people wanting the Hilts jackets over the years. Also a nice showcase for what is possible for ELC. (And to prove it works as marketing, this is the first ELC thread I've seen round here in a while, and look how quickly it's grown...).

Yes Steve McQueen was cool...sometimes, but I am in that 10% who saw the A2 in other things.
With me it was good old Frank in Von Ryans Express running amok on Caminito del Rey(Spain)
As for Eastman jacket posts, there have been a few, just that their products pricing has got a bit out of hand for my pockets these days.

 

[rocketeer]

One of our supervisors dressed as some character out of Star Trek, he resigned when someone spotted a photo in a newspaper of him at a convention and posted it on the works notice board.

 

[ButteMT61]

Not sure if it's good or bad that Hogan's Heroes and Jimmy Stewart were my introductions to the A-2. But there you have it.

 

[bentusian]

It'd be interesting to compare with Toys McCoy's version once ELC's is out. Both are based on a same movie, but I sense their approaches are different somehow - TMC's traces back TO the movie while ELC's traces FROM the movie, so to speak? I am really looking forward to this one anyway.

 

[HPA Rep]

I think the overall concept of offering a depot re-dyed A-2 is really quite fitting, seeing as how many of these ended up in the postwar surplus market and onto the silver screen, stage, and TV. It is this and the abundance of B&W WWII images, where all A-2's look dark, that spawned the decades-long dynamic of A-2's in the repro market almost entirely being made in dark shades of brown that often neared black. A re-dyed A-2 done correctly, which I believe this Eastman effort will be, is a nice homage to the entire legacy of the A-2 and how it was perceived and fell into favor with the buying public and fashion/garment industry for the last 70 years. This is what it looked like and how it got started, and in this sense, this is the most iconic A-2 type of all, with the Hilts A-2 surely being just a step down from this nucleic pinnacle.

 

[HPA Rep]

Not sure if it's good or bad that Hogan's Heroes and Jimmy Stewart were my introductions to the A-2. But there you have it.

Nothing bad about your introduction at all. Jimmy Stewart was about as genuine as it gets, and "Hogan's Heroes" was wildly popular and watched by millions and millions during its run, and it still is loved, so you had good motivation.

My introduction likely was the TV series "12 O'Clock High" and my father, then everything else just continued to swell up around me, with Hogan clearly being part of that.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Pretty cool. I'd stick my neck out and say that - at least here in Europe - Steve Macqueen in The Great Escape is 90% of why anyone under 60 ever bought an A2... I'm sure this is a response to people wanting the Hilts jackets over the years. Also a nice showcase for what is possible for ELC. (And to prove it works as marketing, this is the first ELC thread I've seen round here in a while, and look how quickly it's grown...).

Well it was Biggles in the Eagle strip for me. He used to fly around the Pacific islands in a Sunderland flying boat wearing an A2 in one story. God knows what he was doing. Ginger was never into leather though...

 

[aswatland]

Where is the evidence that it was a 16159 RW as opposed to a RW 27752?

I do have concerns about the re-dye process. Gary Eastman is very critical of the process in his A2 Flight Jacket book as it often leads to skinning the surface of the leather. I hope this does not happen with the new ELC Hilts A2.

 

[HPA Rep]

Where is the evidence that it was a 16159 RW as opposed to a RW 27752?

I do have concerns about the re-dye process. Gary Eastman is very critical of the process in his A2 Flight Jacket book as it often leads to skinning the surface of the leather. I hope this does not happen with the new ELC Hilts A2.

The evidence is in the details of the film jacket: Many years ago, Gary was introduced to Chad McQueen by friends we shared from attending The Great Western Show and Rough Wear was made widely known as the maker at that time. The specific contract can be pinpointed by a study of the pocket flaps, collar, etc., and it all points to 16159. The current owner of this famous A-2 is not known by me, though Gary may be aware of this individual and may have seen the jacket.

I must believe the re-dye process will be benign, much as it was for the "Cooler King" A-2 HPA offered via Buzz Rickson's a few years back and much as Eastman sheepskin doesn't fall victim to the perils plaguing most wartime sheepskin; the older methods (and attendant mistakes and problems in hide selection) for tanning and dying leather that proved disastrous in the vintage examples will not be employed, some of which cannot be legally used today due to its harmful impact on humans and the environment.

 

[Edward]

Is there any historical record of the jacket McQueen wore before McQueen? I.e. it sounds as if it was the Genuine Article rather than a costume repro (even more likely, given when the film was made, that it was the real thing if it looked right.... especially given the inaccuracies elsewhere in his costume).

Well it was Biggles in the Eagle strip for me. He used to fly around the Pacific islands in a Sunderland flying boat wearing an A2 in one story. God knows what he was doing. Ginger was never into leather though...

He got around, that Biggles. I liked his Barnstormer. Was he on loan to the USAAF in those days? By the time the A2 was being issued, he'd have been quite the veteran!

 

[Stand By]

It was either Steve McQueen's/Hilt's A2 that was my very first exposure to the jacket as a very young kid - or the A2s in Sole Survivor (too early to be precise) and I admired them all even then. It's funny how these things "imprint" on you at such an early age.

 

[kojax]

nice jacket

 

[Capesofwrath]

I

He got around, that Biggles. I liked his Barnstormer. Was he on loan to the USAAF in those days? By the time the A2 was being issued, he'd have been quite the veteran!

He never got old, he just stayed young and kept flying. A true Peter Pan figure. He wore the A2 when he was an 'air detective' post war if memory serves...

http://www.wejohns.com/The Eagle/Blue05.jpg

 

[Edward]

He never got old, he just stayed young and kept flying. A true Peter Pan figure. He wore the A2 when he was an 'air detective' post war if memory serves...

http://www.wejohns.com/The Eagle/Blue05.jpg

Ah. My era of the Eagle was the 83 relaunch; we had Dan Dare, grandson of the original (and later, reprints of the original stories), but I don't recall Biggles making the jump. The Biggles I encountered was the one from the books - and the time-travel film that came out around 1985, which I remember as quite entertaining, but I've not seen it since the eighties...