FIVESTAR LEATHER A2 JACKET

[usafchappyt]

John
The jacket and the fit look real nice . I wouldn’t be too concerned about the slim fit, as you said , once it relaxes it will give you a bit more room and mold to your body. Great selection .

Yeah, it's not even that it's too small, the fit is spot on, it feels like it's fighting me when I move. Looking forward to breaking it in! Unfortunately, summer is nearly upon us in the midwest, it shouldn't see much wear for the next 4-6 months.

 

[Walts]

Hi guys, I just found this forum this morning whilst trying to research A2 Bronco's. I read the first couple of pages of this thread, but it will take me some time to get through it all! I guess all it will tell me anyway is that Five star have gone from their very humble beginnings offering a house pattern A2, to the fantastic affordable manufacture of many different style A2's (and other style jackets) they are today! I'm actually glad to have found Five Star later rather than earlier, with their amazing lines they now offer.

I have so far bought three Five star Bronco A2's in my quest to get the perfect fit and look. My first Bronco was an XS off the peg, as I didn't know any better. This jacket I found was restrictive in the upper body and shoulders, whilst being way too long in the body and sleeve for me at 5'8" tall and 13st. After coming across their Facebook page and realising they could make any jacket to any size requirements, I set about ordering my second Bronco. Here I fell in to the common notion that A2's should be waist length jackets, so ordered this second one 3" shorter in the body, and 1" shorter in the sleeve. This only served to result in a jacket that was now not only tight in the upper body (for my body shape) but now looked like it was two sizes two small all over too.
I'm certainly no authority on A2's, until very recently an A2 was an A2 to me! But you don't need to be an expert to be able to look at war time photos and realise that this waist length notion appears to have been misinterpreted, at least in my view anyway. I think a lot of guys, myself included with my second jacket, were trying to get the bottom of the waist band to sit at the bottom of our belts, when in fact if you look at any war time picture of an undone A2, the waist band is actually a good couple of inches below the belt line. Then when done up the waist band sits on the waist allowing some over hang of the leather round the back and sides. War time photos also appear to show that A2's had a generous amount of slackness in the leather fit, again something we appear to have tried to get too close, compounding the feeling of restrictive movement.
So with my third Bronco I decided to order the body length in between the previous two, so 1.5" shorter than the XS off the peg measurement, with sleeves 1" shorter than the standard XS sizing, but with an extra inch added across the shoulders. I was a bit paranoid about adding the extra shoulder width, and comments on the fb page about the shoulders looking boxy added to this paranoia initially, hence my initial search for original Bronco's this morning. But I'm actually comfortable now that this is the best fit for my body shape so far. The jacket sits nicely done up and isn't riding above my belt, and also feels much more comfortable and less restrictive in the upper body. It is literally in it's 3rd day of wear, so still has some way to go on the braking in, so hopefully the shoulders might relax a bit too in the future.
As I said, I am no authority what so ever on A2's. The single purpose of this post is to maybe try and help other novices facing a similar dilemma when faced with the options to change so many aspects when ordering, and maybe help prevent them having to do it three times like me

 

[blackrat2]

Looks ok to me now
Welcome to the forum and the start or an obsession

 

[Walts]

Thanks Blackrat2

 

[B-Man2]

Walt’s
Welcome to VLJ !
The fit looks good on you .
As you wear it, it will conform to your body more and feel better.
Now wear the piss out of it and it will turn into that cool looking A2 you want .

 

[leper-colony]

Welcome, been loving your jacket pics!

 

[Walts]

Thanks guys. Yep! with the weather having taken a sudden plunge lately here in the south of England, I'm wearing the hell out of it at the moment!......and the dog is getting fitter too!

 

[blackrat2]

Whereabouts are you Walt, Surrey area??

 

[Walts]

Whereabouts are you Walt, Surrey area??

No mate, I should say south West. I'm in South Devon

 

[mulceber]

I'm in South Devon

For the sake of your sanity and your wallet, don't ever google "Eastman Leather Clothing..."

 

[Walts]

Ha! Believe it or not, I actually owned an Eastman around 20 years ago. I loved the look of the A2, but knew very little about them. I bought it at an airshow from their trade tent for £325 and sold it around 7 years ago for £300. I really should have hung on to it as Eastman now sell their jackets for £1,000 minimum!
I recently found out that Eastman had relocated to literally a few miles down the road to where I'm now living. So I popped in there a few months back for a snoop around. They have an amazing business unit, with an American jeep in the foyer! Up stairs is rows and rows of jackets, plus a wall to wall glass partition, behind which is a double tier of all original A2 flight jackets! The guy claimed it to be the largest collection of originals in the world. Very impressive!
My old Eastman wouldn't have a chance in hell of still fitting me I believe it was a 38" chest at the time, I'm now a 42"

 

[Sabo]

Have you seen the new Pull-Up Brown Horsehide with which five stars are doing the Star Sportswear?
it looks really nice.

Repro A2 STAR SPORTSWEAR MFG.CO. Order No W535ac 28557 Horsehide Pull Up Brown Leather Flight Jacket

FiveStar Leather Reproduced STAR SPORTSWEAR MFG.CO. A2 Leather Flight Jacket made from our Special Pull-Up Brown Horsehide Leather, This Leather is Semi Veg. Tanned and with a leather thickness as 1.2mm, We use 100% Real wool Knitting's In Mid Brown color made in USA in this jacket, however...

www.fivestarleather.us

 

[daw]

I think that's the nicest horsehide FiveStar offers. I'm tempted to order this one. Anyone know how this "pull-up" horsehide wears? Just a little concerned about the potential for weird wear patterns given the flaking of finish on some of the other leathers they've offered.

 

[leper-colony]

On the FL, someone commented on shrinkage when getting wet. But it really looks great!

Five Star Leather Jackets

I find a vintage style jacket is only too long if it goes past your cuff .If above like pictured no worries

www.thefedoralounge.com

 

[LeatherDenimDude]

Hopped on the bandwagon and got one of 5*'s Dubow 27798. What do ya'll think about the fit? I like the fit better than my previous Aero. Could I still have gone slimmer without looking like a sausage?

Also, highly recommend any new buyers to first chat with Shawn to get his recommendation on size and specs before buying.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

It looks good, zipped or unzipped.

 

[B-Man2]

Hopped on the bandwagon and got one of 5*'s Dubow 27798. What do ya'll think about the fit? I like the fit better than my previous Aero. Could I still have gone slimmer without looking like a sausage?

Also, highly recommend any new buyers to first chat with Shawn to get his recommendation on size and specs before buying.




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Now that’s a good fit . I’m not a fan of form fitting A2 jackets . Wear it a while and you’ll find that it will start to mold to your body and the sleeves will crease up and shorten up a little . Looks fine …Congrats!

 

[Micawber]

The fit looks good to me.

 

[YoungMedic]

Looks great , wear it as much as possible and it will just get better and better

 

[johnwayne]

Think you need to give that collar a good beating!