How much do you spent ...

[Thomas Koehle]

Well watching all those nice new jackets you guys get and having the pricing of most of the pieces in mind I'm wondering how much do you guys spend in average per month for garment ...

thinking about those which own even whole collections of jackets must be a remarkable amount????

will not tell yer wifes / girlfriends or whatever but would be really interested ...

so if you don`t mind ...

i normally have to wear suits (or at least formal jackets with tie and jeans during work) so for me I think in average I spend about 350 Euros a month all summed up (bizz and leisure) - or even more? Have to ask my wife coz she is the "master of piggy bank"

meanwhile feel free to share your "budget" ...

 

[CBI]

pretty easy to tell by what we have and choking on line in re pricing. Then, the deals we get via forum members, eBay etc.

Over the years I have owned 16 Good Wear jackets..........................

 

[Silver Surfer]

i dont wanna go there, as im getting a little old and i dont think my heart could take the shock if i summed it up.

 

[Thomas Koehle]

i dont wanna go there, as im getting a little old and i dont think my heart could take the shock if i summed it up.

honest answer ... : )

if I additional to that also count in what amount I'm spending for my other hobbies (WW2 stuff, old motorbikes, ...) I'd get a heartstroke too ...

 

[B-Man2]

Over the years I've spent and lost more money buying cheap reproduction jackets that were not high end repros.
I would buy one and then sell it, once I realized that it wasn't what I really wanted. In the end I should have just bit the bullet, spent the money and purchased the high end jacket, and not tried to save money by going cheap. I would be further ahead financially.

 

[Thomas Koehle]

Over the years I've spent and lost more money buying cheap reproduction jackets that were not high end repros.
I would buy one and then sell it, once I realized that it wasn't what I really wanted. In the end I should have just bit the bullet, spent the money and purchased the high end jacket, and not tried to save money by going cheap. I would be further ahead financially.

see your point ...

my question was not to offend someone but off pure interest

 

[Roughwear]

These days if I buy another jacket I cover the cost by selling a jacket/jackets or duplicate piece of flight kit.

 

[Smithy]

I actually don't spend much now. Last one I bought was an ATF B-10 which I got in January. But I've had periods where by my standards I've gone a bit nuts, I went through a phase for B-15s in 2013 and bought 6 which looking back on it was silly.

Now all I've got my sights on is a new A-2, and a tanker from ATF.

Another factor for me is that I think that the prices for repro jackets from all the high end makers now are downright bloody ridiculous. I've spoken about this before but the way prices have risen over the last decade are frankly crazy. I bought an ELC 1940 Pattern Irvin in August 2007. The price increase from then to today is around 83%. An ELC house HH A-2 has in that period has gone from 387 quid to 750 which is a 94% increase. And not to pick on ELC but show this is across the board, an Aero Real Deal A-2 has gone from 300 quid to 580 so a 93% increase. Now it might just be me but I'd put good money on most peoples salaries not increasing by 83 to 94% over the last decade. I'm lucky and could actually afford to buy a new ELC, Aero or even a GW but being especially interested in repro jackets over the last decade and seeing these sorts of price hikes during this period they just demonstrate how over the top they have climbed in price. Added to that, for me at least, is a very large discrepancy between what you pay and what you get/what it's intrinsically worth. The new crop of repros now have reached the point for me at least where they're not worth the price, and I can't justify the outlay even though I can afford it.

I'm one of those who have shifted onto the secondhand market now and that's where my next A-2 will be coming from. A good jacket at a fair price is all I ask for.

 

[B-Man2]

my question was not to offend someone but off pure interest

Thomas
Oh no....I wasn't offended.
I was actually just saying that sometimes I thought I was saving money by not buying the GW or the Eastman and it ended up costing me more money
after I was through.
Eventually I always ended up buying the GW or the Eastman

 

[Skip]

Over the years I've spent and lost more money buying cheap reproduction jackets that were not high end repros.
I would buy one and then sell it, once I realized that it wasn't what I really wanted. In the end I should have just bit the bullet, spent the money and purchased the high end jacket, and not tried to save money by going cheap. I would be further ahead financially.

Yep, totally agree. When I begin this, no way in the world would I have paid that amount for a top end Repro, and to think for the price I could have bought a couple of originals if only I could find one that would fit

Not related but kinda same line, we just finished restoring our Corvette over 2 years. Didn't realise it was going to cost the price of a small house. Hobbies can be expensive

 

[B-Man2]

I'm one of those who have shifted onto the secondhand market now and that's where my next A-2 will be coming from. A good jacket at a fair price is all I ask for

Couldn't agree with you more. Some of the time secondhand GW's or Eastmans' are in like new condition. Great value for the money and broken in.
It takes about 4 or 5 years of hardy wear to break a new one in, and some of us don't want to wait that long.

 

[Smithy]

What gets me about a lot of the high end makers if we take for example A-2s, have material and labour costs really shot up nearly 100% in the space of a decade whilst still being able to carry a sustainable margin? If so, perhaps I should have asked my broker to invest in tanneries!

 

[Thomas Koehle]

i actually pulled the trigger for a new ELC B3 two days ago as I was also looking for a used one but the deal with Peter (TIBOR) unfortunately didn`t work out - THX Peter for the splendid communication and for your patience

anyway for me spending such an amount for 1 jacket is a "once in a lifetime" investment and I do not even think about reselling it ...

I actually also already "burned" a lot of money with buying and lateron much cheaper reselling stuff I collect - and with some pieces I deeply regret to have ever sold `em

 

[unclegrumpy]

"Spending such an amount for 1 jacket is a "once in a lifetime" investment and I do not even think about reselling it ..."

Hmmm...you would be a very rare bird in this group if you think there is such a thing as a "one and done" jacket....

 

[Smithy]

And just for comparison...

...a standard Bentley Continental GT in September 2007 cost £137,500, and whilst not completely finalised the starting price for the new forthcoming 2018 Continental GT will probably set you back somewhere £160,000.

So a Bentley has gone up in price over the last decade roughly 16% whereas a premium WWII repro leather jacket has gone up roughly 85 to 95%.

Tell me that's not cock-eyed.

 

[B-Man2]

So a Bentley has gone up in price over the last decade roughly 16% whereas a premium WWII repro leather jacket has gone up roughly 85 to 95%

At that rate, forget about the stock market, I'm buying GoodWear, Eastman, and Aero jackets, putting them away for 10 years and re-selling them. At an 85 % return on my investment it beats anything out there today!

 

[Smithy]

At that rate, forget about the stock market, I'm buying GoodWear jackets, putting them away for 10 years and re-selling them. At an 85 % return on my investment it beats anything out there today!

Don't forget leather is a major component in a Bentley's interior, in fact there's probably the equivalent of around a dozen to 15 jackets' worth in the interior of one.

Amazing how Bentley were able to keep the costs down on leather interiors whilst upgrading the rest of the car's materials (carbon fibre), alloys in the engine, and yet still only increasing the price over 10 years by 16%

Obviously the costs of making a WWII repro jacket in good quality leather have exponentially increased as an undertaking over the last 10 years when compared with redesigning a luxury motorcar

 

[unclegrumpy]

Yes Smithy, but you could probably just wear your new Eastman through Norwegian customs, though getting the Bentley past the tax man would be another story....would hate to see the duty on that!

I don't know enough about your Bentley to answer the questions, but maybe you do:

https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/pers...icles/import-car/calculate/calculator-import/

 

[Smithy]

Yes Smithy, but you could probably just wear your new Eastman through Norwegian customs, though getting the Bentley past the tax man would be another story....would hate to see the duty on that!

I don't know enough about your Bentley to answer the questions, but maybe you do:

https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/pers...icles/import-car/calculate/calculator-import/

Oh taxes here are off the chart Uncle but the point I am trying to make isn't about individual countries' tax laws, it's about the increase in price of these repros over the last 10 years. High end leather jacket repros are a very niche market and niche markets have a tendency to base price not on actual costs plus market tolerable profit margin but on perceived value in their (small) marketplaces. I was really only using the Bentley comparison to show how much an exceedingly high end luxury good has risen in price over that same period.

But the idea that somehow a leather A-2 costs nearly 100% more than it did in 2007 is quite frankly a lot of balls and I'd suggest that increase is not solely based on increased costs of production nor inflation but on what makers think they can charge. Fair enough but I'd suggest they're getting to the point where it's a simple case of overpricing, especially when you're effectively doubling the price within a 10 year period.

 

[johnwayne]

I've raised the point here before about how much profit there is in say making and selling an A2. Given the prime component is leather Smithy's Bentley comparison is a good one and I imagine with all the meat that gets consumed worldwide, there isn't a shortage of suitable hides/leather! I've read that on average it takes JC a day to make one jacket which if true suggests he has a lot of orders given the current waiting time and I certainly do not wish to isolate an artisan like JC of extortiant pricing as ultimately his client list proves he supplies what discerning people want and will pay for. But, this is a sign of the times we live in - look at the price of a car and here in the UK, how many cars of the high end makers there on the roads today - everyone's driving BM's, Mercs and Audi's and older cars say 5 years are less common. So back to a jacket, guessing the hide/s for one maybe £100(?), knits, zip etc another £100(?), plus a days labour at £100/hour (more than that at your BM/Merc service garage) then there's your£1k jacket!! Just wish I could charge £100/hour for my services!!! Ultimately we all have a choice but personally, I like most others will not go down the new route if and when I want another jacket.