AVI LTHR BRONCO A-2 Jacket Review & Pics

[Technonut2112]

This is all the discussion was and is about.

No, the discussion was the OP's personal review of a reasonably priced A-2, patterned from an original Bronco.... NOT a treatise of AVI's environmental / worker's policies... It was then run off of the rails, and thread-crapped..

I refuse to be some sort of sanctimonious global champion of the environment, when I have many, many, items in my home which more than likely come from dubious sources / conditions. I'll leave all of that to the respective environmental and policing agencies involved. I do not need to concern myself with such matters as a lower-income consumer. I wouldn't lose any sleep over a quite nice, but inexpensive jacket purchased from a legitimate store , and would consider myself fortunate to have found it.

As for working conditions.... Who's to say that those jobs, no matter what the working conditions, may very well be the ONLY source of food or income for these folks and their families.. Who are we, or anyone else to take food or income from anyone, no matter how seemingly meager to us?? If it's 'the only game in town', and these folks culture to live this lifestyle sometimes for centuries, it sure beats the hell out of the other alternatives, such as say, total starvation..........

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

SNIP

As for working conditions.... Who's to say that those jobs, no matter what the working conditions, may very well be the ONLY source of food or income for these folks and their families.. Who are we, or anyone else to take food or income from anyone, no matter how seemingly meager to us?? If it's 'the only game in town', and these folks culture to live this lifestyle sometimes for centuries, it sure beats the hell out of the other alternatives, such as say, total starvation..........

And doesn't the consumer deserve to know whether this is the case or not?

 

[CBI]

OMG - is this STILL being discussed...............

 

[Technonut2112]

And doesn't the consumer deserve to know whether this is the case or not?

Only if the consumer is concerned with such things.... In that case, these inquires are beyond the scope of the OP's PERSONAL review here, and if one is concerned with such things, AND is actually interested in purchasing a jacket, should feel free to directly contact the company... If one does not receive a satisfactory reply, simply do not purchase the jacket..

 

[Persimmon]

OMG - is this STILL being discussed...............

Welcome to VintageleatherFedorahatjackets !!

 

[Pilot]

No, the discussion was the OP's personal review of a reasonably priced A-2, patterned from an original Bronco.... NOT a treatise of AVI's environmental / worker's policies... It was then run off of the rails, and thread-crapped..

I refuse to be some sort of sanctimonious global champion of the environment, when I have many, many, items in my home which more than likely come from dubious sources / conditions. I'll leave all of that to the respective environmental and policing agencies involved. I do not need to concern myself with such matters as a lower-income consumer. I wouldn't lose any sleep over a quite nice, but inexpensive jacket purchased from a legitimate store , and would consider myself fortunate to have found it.

As for working conditions.... Who's to say that those jobs, no matter what the working conditions, may very well be the ONLY source of food or income for these folks and their families.. Who are we, or anyone else to take food or income from anyone, no matter how seemingly meager to us?? If it's 'the only game in town', and these folks culture to live this lifestyle sometimes for centuries, it sure beats the hell out of the other alternatives, such as say, total starvation..........

fully agree with “it started with a review” but and then the discussion started about the where-abouts.
Dont agree with the...”and the thread crapped” otherwise it would not have dragged on, and/or would have been stopped by the moderators ...moderators who also gave their comments and contribution..to the “ crapped thread”.
Finally, I can live with your other points, which are your opinion and I respect them as such.

 

[Southoftheborder]

There is a trend of companies returning to the UK to manufacture high end or shall we say expensive clothing. In Wales which was mentioned above for instance, in one town which once had a factory making clothing for a major British brand where the main customer pulled out ten years ago, a new high end jeans business set up in the factory. They sell them for a couple of hundred quid or so each and have a lot of orders. They're employing many of the people who lost their jobs before too.

This links to a piece in the Guardian from six years ago which is interesting on the subject of Burberry and other brands.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/16/burberry-china-british-carole-cadwalladr

Others are returning too. Grenfell is weaving its iconic cloth again and is manufacturing coats in East London. While there are many other small cottage manufacturers like Claymore in Yorkshire who make jackets to order in ventile. But the thing all these companies have in common is the high price of their products. There is a demand for clothing and other products made in the western countries which the brands were traditionally associated with but they don't come cheap.

 

[Teddy]

Guys, Morten at AVI has replied me that they are working on the provenance issue and "[n]ext week [AVI] will be publishing information regarding manufactoring and CSR". I am sincerely happy that AVI listens to customer feedback!

 

[Pilot]

Great news...

 

[Smithy]

I’ve no beef with AVI’s product or pricing and we really don’t see them as competition or a threat but I do have a problem generally with underhand advertising (which they blatantly do), shady business practices and exploitation which they might be hiding, not that AVI are even in The Conference League when compared with some of the (non Leather Jacket) Premier Leaguers

Galashiels is a town with a population of 13,000. Fifty years ago virtually all the working population would have been employed in the clothing or weaving industry. Today there are only four manufacturers left plus a cloth finishers but no Mills whatsoever, these few firms are employing less that 100 workers in total. So many skills handed down through the generations have been lost, for instance at Aero only approx. a third if our staff are “local, born and bred” we’ve as many Heriot Watt Graduates as we’ve got locals. This skill loss is happening all over Britain, when we tried to find a waistcoat maker in The UK we found there are none left and had to go to Portugal. Once we’ve lost our manufacturing industry what have we got as a nation? Tourist? Have you ever been behind a line of caravans on The A82 in the summer?

Burberry’s closed their factory in Wales a few years ago because “It was too expensive to manufacture in Wales”…….too expensive to make an £800 Raincoat that couldn’t have cost over £100 to produce in The UK?

Scottish Enterprise, a Government Body, advised Aero in 1994 that we were “wasting our time trying to manufacture in Scotland, we should be designing here and making in China” You couldn’t make it up!

Everyone needs to be aware of what they are buying, and where it comes from and why it’s being made there. Then they are free to make an informed choice. Using clever text to suggest a garment is being made somewhere in The EU when it’s obviously not and allowing their retailers to advertise the said garment as being made in that particular EU country really is not on. Sharp practices damage the whole industry.

Ken, the disappearance of certain skills and trades is sad but inevitable, it's also happened since time immemorial.

You're also one of the lucky ones (along with some of us here) who can choose to have everything you wear made in a first world country and to a high luxury standard. Not many actually have that luxury, they have to buy based purely on pricing. A working class family with 3 or 4 kids cannot afford to clothe everyone in the family with UK made shoes, jackets, undies or whatever. Price is and always will be the dominant factor for a vast majority of the populace in all countries. That's why so much manufacturing has moved to countries which have lower production costs. Is that wrong? Some such as yourself would probably argue yes but then you have a choice and are able to afford the best. A struggling family would say no, as they wouldn't be able to clothe their family if they couldn't buy clothing manufactured in third world countries.

But this is a silly argument because even in your house and work Ken you'll be surrounded by and be using things made in these countries and in conditions which would not pass muster in the UK so it's slightly hypocritical to get the vapours about a jacket made on the Subcontinent when you'll have dozen of things (probably hundreds of things from light fittings to batteries to tea towels to plastic containers) which are made in the same places. And aren't some of the zippers used on Aero jackets manufactured in Asia?

The fact remains that AVI LTHR have provided a product which fits a gap in the market. Whilst you (and others) were doubling the price of an A-2 in under a decade you were unsuspectingly creating a demand for more reasonably priced repros by those who thought your price increases too much. If it wasn't AVI LTHR then is would have been someone else, and there will probably be more crowds popping up down the line to offer similar especially as the top tier repro companies keep increasing their prices at astronomical rates.

 

[Smithy]

Guys, Morten at AVI has replied me that they are working on the provenance issue and "[n]ext week [AVI] will be publishing information regarding manufactoring and CSR". I am sincerely happy that AVI listens to customer feedback!

Bloody good news.

 

[johnwayne]

Well, everything said and done I'll take an Aero over an AVL any say of the week! Now, can we end this diatribe and get back to what this forum is about please!!

 

[Brettafett]

Actually, I have to agree with Smithy and Technonut, that some are having a 'crack'... "...but I do have a problem generally with underhand advertising (which they blatantly do), shady business practices and exploitation which they might be hiding, not that AVI are even in The Conference League when compared with some of the (non Leather Jacket) Premier Leaguers..."

Really....

You could easily just have said, right at the start, that "it would be good to have a 'made in' label and also some more information on the website about production and best practice".
Leave it there. Everyone would have 'liked' it.
But some have pushed the issue for over 4 pages now, and "crapped" the thread.

This became no longer about a jacket, but about the sad state of the world, distrust, scepticism and cynicism and certain views about all that, projected onto this company.
...underhand, blatantly, shady, exploitation... might... That is all pure speculation and 'bully talk', unnecessary and... not nice.
The fact that AVI has no presence here, is not 'fair playing field' either.

AVI is Danish-based, English being a second language... and of course marketing copy has to be exciting to incite interest... How about you try translating...
How much can be lost or missed in translation?
I would have hoped that folk on these lounges, with all their knowledge and experience, would 'encourage' a company like this.
Offer 'suggestions on how to improve, both product and presence', what information may have been omitted (in error, not premeditated), that should be included and/or ask for clarification on valid concerns... directly to the company... instead of throwing accusations at them on some random online chat group.

In fact, how many involved in this thread actually emailed AVI about all this?
I did and I know of one other.

Also, they have only recently come onto the scene and are probably still fine-tuning, both their product and their website. Those of you in business, of all people should know how much work, time and expenses goes into creating, building and maintaining a commercial website... Let alone having someone come up with 'exciting' copy and translating it. To tweak or amend these things once 'live' takes time and again, more money. In this respect, again... I take my hat off to AVI for the effort (esp their History page... maybe not 100% accurate, but A for effort).

YES. I am 'assuming' here, but I doubt that they purposefully omitted or hid any details, nor were being blatant about anything, but their confidence and enthusiasm in their product.
They have a cracking jacket, a lot closer to your 'Conference League' than you may realise... And deserving of their marketing blurb.
Their Bronco pattern is one of the better repro 'Bronco' patterns out there, include the M-39 Talon zipper, Carr snaps, pretty decent and comparable goatskin... add some fine-tuning and look out 'Conference League'.
Plus, they abide by Danish consumer laws (That IS on the website), have a 14 day return policy, 24 month manufacture guarantee... Not to mention free worldwide postage etc... A lot to be excited about.
Certainly not underhanded or shady!
The issues some of you have, likely did not even crop into their minds until it was brought to their attention, hence the omission of those details.

And... Besides being busy with more important things... why should they comment here? I think they would be smart leaving it be, not getting involved. They could make a statement and some clown would dissect it, pull it apart and throw it back at them. None of this would be constructive in the the long run, nor is it the 'Danish' way.
I am not their spokesman, but I do hope they satisfy everyone's genuine concerns, by 'action' over words... Put that 'made in Pakistan' label in the jackets, add some Best Practice info on the website (which will probably not satisfy everyone anyway), and then continue to produce great jackets at a fraction of the price of the 'competition'...

p.s. I also just received a response from Morten at AVI. He apologised for not getting back to me sooner. He said they have been very busy with current production and the 'new' A-1 arriving in the next week or two, that and also trying to enjoy the Sun that they are having.
(This I can understand, having lived there... In Denmark when the Sun comes out, everyone goes out to enjoy it, its a part of what they call 'hugge'... and thats a priority to them. So there a backlog of emails to get through).
Anyway, they will endeavour to reply to all the emails and will be be posting details regarding manufactor information and CSR, hopefully also next week.
I also learned that besides the 'new' A-1, they have acquired another original WW2 A-2 jacket, that they intend to reproduce along with the Bronco.

Clearly AVI is not too concerned about the 'cracks & jabs', fantasies and speculations of some... If anything the 'concerns' may help them fine-tune their website and the information contained therein.
Personally, when I get some time, I intend to offer some copy suggestions, that they may or may not consider using in the future.
If any lounger has any suggestions, please email them directly to Morten at AVI LTHR, I'm sure he would appreciate the constructive feedback.

Thanks for the entertainment.

Apologies... I was writing this book and posted, missing the last few posts. So, as Johnwayne says...

 

[Smithy]

Brett, thank you for a great review 5 pages ago and also apologies for adding to taking this thread down the path of issues other than your review. I didn't start it but certainly got involved with taking this thread into avenues other than just comments on your jacket and into more controversial realms.

Good to hear that AVI LTHR are going to give some details about how and where their jackets are made. I'm after a new A-2 and am seriously interested in one from them.

 

[Smithy]

Well, everything said and done I'll take an Aero over an AVL any say of the week! Now, can we end this diatribe and get back to what this forum is about please!!

It's pretty easy, if a thread doesn't interest you or bores the living daylights out of you, don't read it. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

 

[Brettafett]

Its all good ... We're all passionate about this stuff or we wouldn't bother to be here.

I've never really been a massive A-1 fan, but now I'm curious... I've just emailed AVI again for more info on this jacket.
(I read someone review their first A-1 somewhere, and gave it the thumbs up... Anyone here have one?)

 

[Smithy]

Do you know what the next A-2 contract they'll be copying Brett? I really hope they do well and go from strength to strength. The repro market has been crying out for an accurate mid priced A-2 offering after Aero decided to go stratospheric with their pricing. Very exciting and good to see. I'm definitely going to pick one of these up, just want to see what the other contract they're bringing out is first so I can choose.

 

[Brettafett]

I asked... But I don't expect to be told haha I'll let you guys know if I get anything... Feel free to ask them also. Hope its something a bit different, there are enough Roughwears and Aero repros out there...

 

[Teddy]

Its all good ... We're all passionate about this stuff or we wouldn't bother to be here.

I've never really been a massive A-1 fan, but now I'm curious... I've just emailed AVI again for more info on this jacket.
(I read someone review their first A-1 somewhere, and gave it the thumbs up... Anyone here have one?)

Gamma on TFL reviewed his A1 jacket from AVI. I think he quite likes it but replaced all the buttons. I'd be very curious about an upgraded AVI A1.

On another note, Headwind also makes a stunning A1 but is slightly more expensive.

 

[Greg Gale]

Can't wait to hear what their new choice of A-2 contract will be. Perhaps a horsehide jacket this time?