Wise Sportswear Co. Of Toronto

[Billyboy]

Hello All
This is my first post on this esteemed site. I do own a few vintage civilian jackets as well as some retro’s.
Has any of the members heard of the Wise Soortswear Co? They made an A2 out of horsehide labelled Ponywise.
was there any involvement in having military contracts during WWII? Any info would be appreciated.

 

[mulceber]

Definitely a civilian jacket. Wise didn’t have any government A-2 contracts, and I don’t think they would have been eligible for them since they weren’t based in the U.S. (I think it’s true that the U.S. has a long-standing policy that defense contractors have to be American?)

 

[B-Man2]

Jan is spot on regarding contractors based in the USA … at least that was the case during WWII … Today there may be exceptions, I’m not sure l, but if there are they would be very limited to non essential items.
BTW … I’ve never seen an A2 made by the Wise Company so please post a few photos for us .
Thanks

 

[mulceber]

Yeah, the most involvement I’ve seen by a Canadian company in U.S. contracting was the Werber G-1 contract, which had a zipper that was made in Canada, but the company that made it was still an American company. There’s probably other similar examples, including the Aussie A-2 clone which was made in-theater, I think for AAF pilots? Not sure. But that would have been an exigency to ease supply lines.