What do you wear for long walks in the summer?

[Edward]

Thanks Stand By, glad you're still enjoying that L-2A...I like mine or my L-2B on hot days. The A-1 should be interesting, I hadn't really considered one until recently and was typed into by the HPA Rep (thank you sir).

Jinkies, how do you cope in that? My Alpha Vintage Series L2A is a surprisingly warm jacket for something so light. Still got half an eye out for a Buzz L2A, though....Cracking jackets for cooler, drizzly days in Summer.

 

[Stand By]

Jinkies, how do you cope in that? My Alpha Vintage Series L2A is a surprisingly warm jacket for something so light. Still got half an eye out for a Buzz L2A, though....Cracking jackets for cooler, drizzly days in Summer.

Well, I wear mine with just a t-shirt for the early morning, pre-dawn dog walks, so it's slightly cool and fresh at that time of day, and I'd say I wear it until it gets to about 68C … above that, I like just a polo shirt or similar. After 5 months of feeling besieged and being bundled up over a relentlessly long winter, I like to savour the brief novelty of wearing one layer if possible.

 

[lthr]

In the end it all comes down to how you deal with heat!

Personally, as soon as i am in anything warmer than 20c i start feeling uncomfortable, 25c i start sweating bullets!
Some people can deal with heat, some cant!
Every summer in London i am amazed to see some people in the underground, stuck in a 30c train, with a jumper and a long coat, not looking remotely hot, when i am in a T shirt, sweat literally dripping from my forehead!
On the other hand, i am perfectly happy going outside with a thin jumper and an unlined leather jacket when it is freezing and windy!

No one can tell you what to wear, they don't live in your body...

That makes a lot of sense... All in all, I would like to just try it and see how I feel about it. Too bad I can't go to a store and tell them to give me the jacket for a week, heh.

another morning walk in the sun (every morning I help my grandma to exercise and have some morning walk in the sun) we drive by car to a quiet neighborhood (since ours is quite busy with traffic ) yesterday at my aunt's today at my mom's after we parked then we do morning walk around the neighborhood + light arm and leg exercise for about 30 minutes to 1 hrs, she walks very slow and with several rests on her rollator, so I'm standing in the sun or under some palm tree which doesn't help much.
today black thick jacket + black knits and I'm fine, without the jacket I would be sweating more.

Your grandma has the biggest hat I've ever seen someone wear outside a movie or a weird site, haha.

Well, I wear mine with just a t-shirt for the early morning, pre-dawn dog walks, so it's slightly cool and fresh at that time of day, and I'd say I wear it until it gets to about 68C … above that, I like just a polo shirt or similar. After 5 months of feeling besieged and being bundled up over a relentlessly long winter, I like to savour the brief novelty of wearing one layer if possible.

This made me thoughtful. Feels nice. Thanks.

 

[navetsea]

just trying to convince you not to give up the idea to get one and hopefully it inspires you to see beyond brands, a guy can be happy with just locally made jackets and how it looks better than a huge hat.

 

[lthr]

just trying to convince you not to give up the idea to get one and hopefully it inspires you to see beyond brands, a guy can be happy with just locally made jackets and how it looks better than a huge hat.

This guy said he's gonna have leather jackets that go for 100-250usd from various skins on Sunday or so. I will visit him and see what he has... I wonder how I could recognize a well-made jacket. Besides non-polyester lining of course. I wonder if there will be any with non-polyester lining there.

Anyway. I really don't know and it's kind of annoying me. I can probably get my hands on this sheepskin jacket for a couple days but it's 4 sizes too big. The sleeves go to my fingertips and it's more than halfway to my knees. I would look so funny in it.

 

[navetsea]

if too big then don't, no matter how much discount you get. and if you aim for thin jacket consider goat instead of sheep, more rugged & would last longer and most probably cheaper, at least here in my country goat is considerably cheaper than sheep or fullgrain cow.
-hardware should be all metal (sometime they cheat it with bronze painted plastic buttons), imo YKK zipper is my choice, widely available, dependable, cheaper.
-check the stitches, I hate when a jacket has double stitches everywhere, which is usually in poorly constructed jacket (not always, but here they do it like that) the reason because they don't sew it from inside, only from outside, while better constructed jacket is sewn from inside first and then single stitches from outside to make the seams flatter/ neater.
-thread material, see if they are fraying, if you see some fraying of the thread then probably it is cotton, while thick cotton might be durable enough, they are not flexible, and might rot someday, for flexible material like more stretchy sheepskin nylon thread is much better, it will not fray will not rot, and it is flexible and strong. both my jackets were stitched with cotton thread, on my sheep jacket I see some fraying on the elbow and back, since it was stitched with all double stitches I hate :eusa_doh: on my thick cow I forgot to specify so it was stitched again with cotton although much thicker, and I want all stitches done from inside only, no exposed stitches thus minimal fraying from abrasion, and since thick hide don't flex so much then I'm OK, but I should have asked for nylon.
-if it has biswing gusset check it if they are indeed has working gusset inside, sometime they are fake/ non functional/ just for look.
-lining material, just wear it, you will feel if its good or bad.
-leather quality, I can't say much because I'm no expert in leather, but at least when a jacket is on the cheaper side, check for skin blemishes, scratches when the animal was alive, other imperfections, if you see those at least you know the leather is real, because if the leather is too perfect for its price, then you should worry.
-cut of the jacket, if it makes you look anything other than "cooler", just forget it no matter how cheap.

 

[lthr]

if too big then don't, no matter how much discount you get. and if you aim for thin jacket consider goat instead of sheep, more rugged & would last longer and most probably cheaper, at least here in my country goat is considerably cheaper than sheep or fullgrain cow.
-hardware should be all metal (sometime they cheat it with bronze painted plastic buttons), imo YKK zipper is my choice, widely available, dependable, cheaper.
-check the stitches, I hate when a jacket has double stitches everywhere, which is usually in poorly constructed jacket (not always, but here they do it like that) the reason because they don't sew it from inside, only from outside, while better constructed jacket is sewn from inside first and then single stitches from outside to make the seams flatter/ neater.
-thread material, see if they are fraying, if you see some fraying of the thread then probably it is cotton, while thick cotton might be durable enough, they are not flexible, and might rot someday, for flexible material like more stretchy sheepskin nylon thread is much better, it will not fray will not rot, and it is flexible and strong. both my jackets were stitched with cotton thread, on my sheep jacket I see some fraying on the elbow and back, since it was stitched with all double stitches I hate :eusa_doh: on my thick cow I forgot to specify so it was stitched again with cotton although much thicker, and I want all stitches done from inside only, no exposed stitches thus minimal fraying from abrasion, and since thick hide don't flex so much then I'm OK, but I should have asked for nylon.
-if it has biswing gusset check it if they are indeed has working gusset inside, sometime they are fake/ non functional/ just for look.
-lining material, just wear it, you will feel if its good or bad.
-leather quality, I can't say much because I'm no expert in leather, but at least when a jacket is on the cheaper side, check for skin blemishes, scratches when the animal was alive, other imperfections, if you see those at least you know the leather is real, because if the leather is too perfect for its price, then you should worry.
-cut of the jacket, if it makes you look anything other than "cooler", just forget it no matter how cheap.

I don't think we have a single brand that makes leather jackets. Most of them are either Chinese or Polish, so prices are gonna be the same as European prices, I presume. Anyway, where I was checking for the jackets, it seems like there are just tens of various weird-sounding brands. I'm not sure why they have them so mixed up, there is no consistency whatsoever. It's weird and - to be honest - somewhat fishy.

That's so weird, $1-2 saved for plastic buttons? C'mon... Didn't expect that. Though speaking of bronze, I had one particular bronze zipper that just snapped in half as I was zipping my coat (or whatever it's called) up. Maybe it was poorly made? I don't see a YKK logo on it though, or any logo. Likely locally-made. But anyway, I was actually wondering about zippers in general, as some look pretty bad and some work really bad (very hard to operate). I'll keep an eye out for YKK, thanks for the advice.

Excuse me if this sounds kind of stupid, but how do I identify double stitching and single stitching? I tried searching google for that, but didn't return with good results. Most seems to be about knitting, and some dress shirt websites.

Appreciate the long and descriptive explanation about threads. That's actually really interesting and explains some jackets that I've seen in pictures and in person. However I think that's more for a really high-end ones? I mean, cheap Chinese and other manufacturers probably don't even give this any thought.

Biswing gusset seems to be something that allows you to stretch better. I want my jacket without that. It'd be nice, but not on my first jacket. Piece of personal opinion: I think it's really stupid to put stuff just for the looks. Like this or the buttons. But I'm not a cheap manufacturer trying to save money, so I guess I just don't get it...

I'm gonna have something underneath, I can wear it for 30 seconds, maybe a minute. I'm not gonna feel how it feels to walk in it. I mean, I'm not gonna ask the guy if I can walk around for an hour in his jacket and then come back to let him know if I want it or not. So I'm not sure if that's doable.

I think I'll be able to differentiate between fake and real leathers. I haven't seen a leather I wouldn't be able to distinguish yet. Still, thanks for advice.

Speaking of cuts, I think most jackets are cut straight down. But my build is not like that, so I should look for a bit of a V shape cut, if that makes sense. So yea, that is a great advice as well. The guy at who's I was checking out jackets just brings out a damaged piece of mirror with no rims or anything and holds it in front of you, which I actually found quite funny. But hey, it works.

 

[navetsea]

double stitches is like jeans stitches, they put 2 panels they want to connect all facing up , fold the sides, place the side to be connected one on top of the other panel, and hit them together with parallel twin stitches, quick, and reasonably strong, but when the whole jacket stitched that way, it looks so ugly and lazy.

manufacturer don't think how little they save from individual jacket, but how much they save for the whole batch, so plastic buttons, cheaper zipper, thinner thread, how crazily close they stitch to the edge of the fabric, fake pockets, fake gussets, all make difference for them. and if you spot one it only leads to another corner cuttings so expect the product to be bad.

from several years buying china made t-shirts, I could say Kuegou is the most decent quality brand coming out of China, and Freeknight is the only brand I trust with reasonably priced fancy cargo pants, the rest are mostly useless sweatshop mass produced stuff. [huh]

hopefully you find the right jacket price and quality wise if only you live in my country... here leather jackets are very reasonably priced, even made to measure ones. since our currency is so weak compared to euro and dollar.

 

[lthr]

double stitches is like jeans stitches, they put 2 panels they want to connect all facing up , fold the sides, place the side to be connected one on top of the other panel, and hit them together with parallel twin stitches, quick, and reasonably strong, but when the whole jacket stitched that way, it looks so ugly and lazy.

manufacturer don't think how little they save from individual jacket, but how much they save for the whole batch, so plastic buttons, cheaper zipper, thinner thread, how crazily close they stitch to the edge of the fabric, fake pockets, fake gussets, all make difference for them. and if you spot one it only leads to another corner cuttings so expect the product to be bad.

from several years buying china made t-shirts, I could say Kuegou is the most decent quality brand coming out of China, and Freeknight is the only brand I trust with reasonably priced fancy cargo pants, the rest are mostly useless sweatshop mass produced stuff. [huh]

hopefully you find the right jacket price and quality wise if only you live in my country... here leather jackets are very reasonably priced, even made to measure ones. since our currency is so weak compared to euro and dollar.

Hmm. Then, as I understand, you'd have to look inside, which you can't do due to the lining. I took some pictures of some jackets that seem single-stitched to me, but I'd like to make sure that I understood it correctly.

I guess you're right. If they're making 10,000 or 100,000 of those jackets, $2 each is gonna end up being $20,000 or $200,000. That's not so little, although personally I would sacrifice that for making a better product. Jackets cost hundreds of dollars, that's only 1%... Or even less. I guess depending on the price, it could be 2% maybe, but that's still so miniscule for such a big improvement. In other words, I understand their motivation but I see it as pretty stupid because it's based on pretty much irrational greed.

I don't think I've seen either of these brands. I could probably write them down, but I'll look really weird looking through 50 or 60 jackets with a piece of paper in my hand, so I'm not gonna do that, haha.

If we knew and trusted each other, we could arrange you ordering one for me and shipping it. From the sounds of it, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper and a hell of a lot higher quality.

Either way, I appreciate your help with this.

Forgot to post the pics!

Apologies for the quality. All of these are taken around the shoulder area. The second one is maybe a pretty bad picture as it's a design piece that's stitched there.

 

[navetsea]

from your 1st picture, you can see the black thread is the first stitching from the inside that actually connects both panels, and the brown thread is to make the left over material inside laying flat. so it is good stitching on that jacket.

 

[lthr]

from your 1st picture, you can see the black thread is the first stitching from the inside that actually connects both panels, and the brown thread is to make the left over material inside laying flat. so it is good stitching on that jacket.

I see now! I will look for stitching like this then.

 

[Uberak]

This maybe slightly tangential, but I was actually wondering about what to wear in warmer weather.

I usually wear a very dark navy-blue trenchcoat and an oilskin hat with vent-holes, and I prefer to wear longcoats. The issue is that once it gets above 70 degrees, it is too hot. However, I just find it to be really sudden to switch from my outerwear to something completely casual such as a t-shirt with cargo pants. From my experience on an especially warm day for this time of the year, most of the overheating was happening on my arms, which were lined. The second most overheated area would be my back.

So, I was wondering if you have an idea for what to wear that would keep the same style, but be much more comfortable in the summer? One idea would be a lighter color coat, preferably without a liner. Of course, there might be an improvement, but it probably won't be saving me from especially hot days. Perhaps, I can buy myself a lightly colored duster, but really the main issue is that my tall and thin size makes finding something that fits me difficult. (Not even my current coat fits on me, it just is something that at least looks like it fits on me. Most of my clothes are too large but are of the right length.)

Again, this might be very tangential to the topic of the thread, but I also take long walks due to my very pedestrian lifestyle.

I also am on a budget.

 

[lthr]

This maybe slightly tangential, but I was actually wondering about what to wear in warmer weather.

I usually wear a very dark navy-blue trenchcoat and an oilskin hat with vent-holes, and I prefer to wear longcoats. The issue is that once it gets above 70 degrees, it is too hot. However, I just find it to be really sudden to switch from my outerwear to something completely casual such as a t-shirt with cargo pants. From my experience on an especially warm day for this time of the year, most of the overheating was happening on my arms, which were lined. The second most overheated area would be my back.

So, I was wondering if you have an idea for what to wear that would keep the same style, but be much more comfortable in the summer? One idea would be a lighter color coat, preferably without a liner. Of course, there might be an improvement, but it probably won't be saving me from especially hot days. Perhaps, I can buy myself a lightly colored duster, but really the main issue is that my tall and thin size makes finding something that fits me difficult. (Not even my current coat fits on me, it just is something that at least looks like it fits on me. Most of my clothes are too large but are of the right length.)

Again, this might be very tangential to the topic of the thread, but I also take long walks due to my very pedestrian lifestyle.

I also am on a budget.

Perhaps get it custom made? I'm sure there are cheaper shops in the US.

 

[navetsea]

layer it with mesh cardigan underneath, the point is to lift the coat to not directly touching your body and let air moving underneath, make lots of difference, I personally would just wear loose-knitted sweater that gives same effect, but if you also need to wear something else, then cardigan is better, see it a liner of the jacket, don't see it as clothing item.

 

[tropicalbob]

When I was in Paris two springtimes back it had been raining for several days straight, so I went to the big dept. store on the rue de Rivoli where I found this amazing nylon, knee-length, navy-blue trenchcoat, double-breasted and with a belt. It's about as light as a windbreaker and can be folded and easily stored in my pack. I can't understand why they're not more common in stores here. It looks great and is really handy.