I personally think the Horse hide is on par with a Gibson & Barnes spongy and with out character and to thick ( I do not like G&B ,also the arms appear to big for the arm holes causing a presentation problem when worn . The leather was probably chosen to keep the jacket within a price range ,but a better choice would of been a cowhide or steer hide . The leather should be mismatched with scars and grain . The goat skin jacket have it all going on but lack character ,its almost like they need to be washed dried to give them a 3D effect as they look now like 3rd angle drawings or single layer of leather no life in them ,flat as a pancake . Then photograph them and offer them to the public they would look so much better What about investing in some themed background WWII style this plain white background is to sterile it does not show the public the company has a pulse , show some the people out there you love the A-2 type and take it serious . When you make a jacket have someone put it on and check the cut a drape ,some are OK some are bad !
Jeff
Jeff,
I have seen the horsehide in person when I stopped by at @Thomas Koehle some weeks ago...It is much nicer than you would expect from the pictures. It's not very thick, maybe even on the thin side....the feel has its appeal, but it is definitely different from the more hefty and stiffer hides the other (higher class) makers offer.
I am absolutely with you that it lacks character, at least straight out of the box.
The surface was very smooth, the overall appearance very even throughout the complete jacket...Thomas might have done something to change that but - having seen his closet and man cave - I doubt that: Too many jackets, too little time to treat each and every one of them "ruff 'n tuff".
Maybe they could get a head start character-wise with a more jerky, grainy and mismatched horsehide selection, but my personal guess would be that FiveStar is currently still stuck in "fashion mode", and what we consider "character" they might see as "faulty".
So at the moment, I see no personal "higher value" in getting the horsehide instead of the goatskin.
Sounding like an old record on infinite loop here, but the goatskin would still be my approach to get an original contract to perfection. You see a lack of character in their goats as well, but I would not second that. The hide that was used for my Doniger is far superior to their early qualities and not below that of, for example ELC (I had their G-1 and M-422a jackets and found their leather stiff and embossed-looking....to be fair: that was 15 years ago....maybe they have significantly improved.).
View attachment 27831
I handled original G-1s that had less grain than my Doniger...
To get to next level, it is abolutely necessary to achieve an original and get a set of starter patterns from that. You can only get so far from looking at jackets and try to figure out their construction....
FiveStar needs to train people especially for the A-2s, and make sure they can perfect their skills. At the moment it seems as if they take small "liberties", like adding that inside pocket, you specifically asked them to leave out....another thing would be the loose waistbands...
Good comment on the marketing angle, Jeff!
Take the photos of the jacket on top of a khaki or camouflaged blanket, and voilà, totally different first impression. If you do not have the time or personnel to take model photos, just get a tailor bust and put the jacket on it...
@Shawn Ali : As you can see, we are still trying to make you better...in the end it's all up to you to go there...
Best regards,
Ties
Jeff,
I have seen the horsehide in person when I stopped by at @Thomas Koehle some weeks ago...It is much nicer than you would expect from the pictures. It's not very thick, maybe even on the thin side....the feel has its appeal, but it is definitely different from the more hefty and stiffer hides the other (higher class) makers offer.
I am absolutely with you that it lacks character, at least straight out of the box.
The surface was very smooth, the overall appearance very even throughout the complete jacket...Thomas might have done something to change that but - having seen his closet and man cave - I doubt that: Too many jackets, too little time to treat each and every one of them "ruff 'n tuff".
Maybe they could get a head start character-wise with a more jerky, grainy and mismatched horsehide selection, but my personal guess would be that FiveStar is currently still stuck in "fashion mode", and what we consider "character" they might see as "faulty".
So at the moment, I see no personal "higher value" in getting the horsehide instead of the goatskin.
Sounding like an old record on infinite loop here, but the goatskin would still be my approach to get an original contract to perfection. You see a lack of character in their goats as well, but I would not second that. The hide that was used for my Doniger is far superior to their early qualities and not below that of, for example ELC (I had their G-1 and M-422a jackets and found their leather stiff and embossed-looking....to be fair: that was 15 years ago....maybe they have significantly improved.).
View attachment 27831
I handled original G-1s that had less grain than my Doniger...
To get to next level, it is abolutely necessary to achieve an original and get a set of starter patterns from that. You can only get so far from looking at jackets and try to figure out their construction....
FiveStar needs to train people especially for the A-2s, and make sure they can perfect their skills. At the moment it seems as if they take small "liberties", like adding that inside pocket, you specifically asked them to leave out....another thing would be the loose waistbands...
Good comment on the marketing angle, Jeff!
Take the photos of the jacket on top of a khaki or camouflaged blanket, and voilà, totally different first impression. If you do not have the time or personnel to take model photos, just get a tailor bust and put the jacket on it...
@Shawn Ali : As you can see, we are still trying to make you better...in the end it's all up to you to go there...
Best regards,
Ties
Because they don't know the in depth facts about the different contracts.I notice that on eBay they are selling the Doniger in horsehide which is a bit odd when originals were made of goat. I think all their jackets were made in goatskin at first and they only started to use HH after picking the brains of VLJ members. So if they are trying to be accurate why make this?
I personally think the Horse hide is on par with a Gibson & Barnes spongy and with out character and to thick ( I do not like G&B ,also the arms appear to big for the arm holes causing a presentation problem when worn . The leather was probably chosen to keep the jacket within a price range ,but a better choice would of been a cowhide or steer hide . The leather should be mismatched with scars and grain . The goat skin jacket have it all going on but lack character ,its almost like they need to be washed dried to give them a 3D effect as they look now like 3rd angle drawings or single layer of leather no life in them ,flat as a pancake . Then photograph them and offer them to the public they would look so much better What about investing in some themed background WWII style this plain white background is to sterile it does not show the public the company has a pulse , show some the people out there you love the A-2 type and take it serious . When you make a jacket have someone put it on and check the cut a drape ,some are OK some are bad !
Jeff