A Message to ALL Indy Fans from Tony Nowak...

[Asiana Jones]

Hello all...

I am a relatively new member of COW, but peruse the boards quite frequently, and am also an avid Indy fan. Also, I have the fortune of being very good friends with Tony and try to keep him informed about the going-ons of COW and it's members. Tony and I met alot of you during the last QM summit at our vendor booth and we had a wonderful experience with all of you. It was priceless.

Tony contacted me on Thanksgiving day and asked me to relay the following message to you:

THANK YOU TO ALL INDY FANS!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FROM ALL MY HEART!
-KIND REGARDS TONY NOWAK

Tony would also like to provide his sincerest apologies for not being able to focus alot of his time to the message boards. He is quite busy with not only his Indy jacket offerings, but he also has alot of work commitments with 'other' movie studios as well. However, he plans to be dropping in from time to time in some fashion in order to do his best to be an integral contributor to this great community. He WILL be on the board as his time permits...

In the meantime, since I meet/talk with Tony pretty frequently, I'll try my best to relay relevant questions to him so that you may have some responses. He has great surprises in store for you regarding all things Indy!

Have a happy holidays and again THANK YOU!!!
-Tony and Michael.

[Asiana Jones]

Terry Leonard's Nowak-BuiltRaiders Jacket

In regards to Terry Leonard's Nowak produced Raider's jacket:

The hide that Terry is having Tony use to produce his own personal Raiders/Indy 1 jacket is a lighter shade of the Shrunken Lamb that you are all familiar with...

Terry visited Tony Nowaks shop on Nov. 12th and claimed that when he tried on one of Tony's Raiders/Indy 1 jackets that, "This is THE jacket!".

[Asiana Jones]

Original Specs are available for Nowak Raiders/Indy 1 Jacket

Tony has confirmed that if you would like a copy of the Original Indy 1 jacket that he had on hand, he can provide it to you without any modifications, however he is willing to accommodate any personal modifications that will make YOU happy.[/b]

[Indiana G]

thanks for sharing AJ.....you may be getting ALOT of questions fired your way in regards to tony's jackets......i'll be under the plymouth till the dust settles.....

[Asiana Jones]

Indiana G,

Understood my friend...

Thats why I am trying to 'funnel' specific and relevant questions to Tony on a weekly basis so that he isn't bombarded. Hopefully, I can provide you all answers from Tony himself as long as I understand the questions correctly. Tony isn't going to be able to answer every question on the boards but would like to do his best, so that is where I come in. I'll also do my best.

Please understand that Tony is NOT a gearhead, and doesn't know alot about the Indiana Jones mythos as you all do, however, what he DOES know is what happens behind the scenes and has access to his networks that were involved with the current film, hopefully that will interest you. He would like to share this with you all because he knows you love Indy!

Hope you have a great holiday weekend!

[agent5]

Thanks, AJ.

I mentioned last week that it would be nice to have a liason for Tony to filter questions and it looks like that'll be you. I hope it will create a better understanding of Tony's offerings to fans and stop him from being bombarded with some of the same questions repeatedly. I've heard nothing but good things about the man and his product and am looking very forward to what he has in store for the fans in the coming year.

As G pointed out already, best of luck fielding all the questions and welcome aboard.

[Asiana Jones]

Thanks for the warm welcome agent5.

Tony and I will do our best!!!

[agent5]

Tony and I will do our best!!!

It appears that is all Tony is accustomed to do.

[Indiana G]

here's a question........how many lbs of 'awesome-ness' does tony use to make his jackets????

{i know agent 5....i'll ease up a little ;-) ).

seriously, how close is slydini's jacket to the original that he examined? (x-box stitching, sliders, pocket shape and flaps, yoke and sleeve seam)......was it in that poor of shape that tony could not get the accurate specs off of her and just put in some interpretations of his own?

from what i can fathom out of all these TN threads, my hypothesis is that tony went after the type of hide, dimensions, and measurements to a higher degree of detail than the superficial specs (strap anchors/hardware/pocket scalloping/etc.)......but that hypothesis conflicts with the fact that tony knows how man TEETH are in the zipper.

sorry for the tough question......but they're bound to get tougher from here on in.

[Asiana Jones]

Indiana G,

Can you provide me the more specifics on Slydini's jacket in question below? Specifically, what is it that seems off to you. Is it based on actual observation of a screen used jacket, or from screen shots. Also, can you attach the screen shots for me for each question accordingly? I will need to show them to Tony to relay what the exact questions are. I will do my best in order to get you your answers.

Thank you...

Xbox Stitching:

Sliders:

Pocket Shape:

Pocket Flaps:

Yoke:

Sleeve Seam:

[Indiana G]

slydini has #001/888. he posted it here:

viewtopic.php?t=34025&start=450&postday ... highlight=

on pages 7 and 10.

i ordered #010/888 and asked for revisions to what i saw from this jacket. these revisions seem to have been adopted as the new standard as i see these changes on all of the new ones coming out.....complete with the 'K' stitching i asked for.

to me, the jacket is perfect as i have speced it. others may want what slydini had. that is the basis of my enquirry

[Indiana G]

slydini has #001/888. he posted it here:

viewtopic.php?t=34025&start=450&postday ... highlight=

on pages 7 and 10.

i ordered #010/888 and asked for revisions to what i saw from this jacket. these revisions seem to have been adopted as the new standard as i see these changes on all of the new ones coming out.....complete with the 'K' stitching i asked for.

to me, the jacket is perfect as i have speced it. others may want what slydini had. that is the basis of my enquirry

sorry......the revisions i asked for was sleeve seam below the yoke seam, modified pocket shape and scalloping c/w a roll on the top of the flap, and modified anchor stitching........oh yeah.....and the wavey zipper.

although these mods that i made were done primarily through my observations of screen grabs, some folks are wondering what the original raiders jacket really looked like....did it have sliders and x-boxes? was the yoke and sleeve seams aligned? it was posted that the roll on top of the pocket flaps were missed in transposing the design, but what else?

i'm sure these questions are on alot of people's minds, but with the posting of new TN 1 jackets, it seems to have blown away in the wind. since you're offering to liase, i thought i'd give you a tough assignment ;-)

i'm sure alot of people want to know........i would like to know, but i'm already happy as a pig in #### with my jacket ;-)

[agent5]

i'm already happy as a pig in #### with my jacket

Bad analogy right there.

[Kt Templar]

G you forgot the buckles... nice buckles... not exactly like the ones I have... but nice buckles all the same....

[Indiana G]

G you forgot the buckles... nice buckles... not exactly like the ones I have... but nice buckles all the same....

nope.....the pronged buckles are on my second iteration of #010 and are a customer request. the items i listed above were for my first jacket.

i wanted some unique hardware on my TN1 so those are officially patented. tony will bump up the price by $100 if you request these buckles and $75 of that will come to me......




..........i wish

[Rundquist]

Tony called me yesterday and asked how I liked my jacket. I told him I haven't taken it off yet. He's a great guy.

[Holt]

Hi and welcome to the forum.its great to have someone like you with us.

I cant wait intil I get my Nowak raiders1


thanks for sharing this with us.

Kind regards
Holt

[SpeedRcrX]

I cant wait intil I get my Nowak raiders1
Kind regards
Holt

Hey Holt,

You finally ordered one ???

[Holt]

no.still saving ;-)

[whiskyman]

I'd like to know what the returns policy is? Can I send my jacket back for a refund even though it's a custom made jacket?

[Holt]

why dont you take this up with Tony? its just an email.

[Chris_King]

Hello Michael,

Welcome to COW and thanks for passing on Tony's message.

I'd be interested to see the lighter colored shrunken lamb that Terry Leonard has selected for his Indy 1 jacket. Is it possible to see a photo of this (preferably shown next to a piece of the darker shrunken lamb) ?

I'd also like to ask if you know why Terry Leonard selected the lighter color? Did he think it was more accurate to the jacket that he used to own, or was it just personal preference for a lighter colored jacket?

Thanks!

Chris

Terry Leonard's Nowak-BuiltRaiders Jacket

In regards to Terry Leonard's Nowak produced Raider's jacket:

The hide that Terry is having Tony use to produce his own personal Raiders/Indy 1 jacket is a lighter shade of the Shrunken Lamb that you are all familiar with...

Terry visited Tony Nowaks shop on Nov. 12th and claimed that when he tried on one of Tony's Raiders/Indy 1 jackets that, "This is THE jacket!".

[Holt]

Chris.

I thought that the hide in the middle was the flat''shrunken''lamb.

I could be wrong of course..but it really lookslike the standard shrunken lamb in texture..not only that but the hide in the middle is a lambskin too..

[ReturningSon]

the hide in the middle is flat/matte lamb...

[Holt]

yeah I know.but thats not my point.

it looks shrunken..so maby this is the hide Terry selected for his jacket..

[indyrocks]

yeah I know.but thats not my point.

it looks shrunken..so maby this is the hide Terry selected for his jacket..

It's the hide I selected for MINE

[RCSignals]

Chris.

I thought that the hide in the middle was the flat''shrunken''lamb.

I could be wrong of course..but it really lookslike the standard shrunken lamb in texture..not only that but the hide in the middle is a lambskin too..

I think you may be right Holt. I think the darker is a better colour, it's waht Tony selected as a match to the copied jacket.

I'd like to know what the source of the pocket flap shape on the left was.

[binkmeisterRick]

The one on the far right is the shrunken lamb and the middle the matte/flat lamb. When you see them in person, the two hides are worlds apart. The matte lamb is not a shrunken hide and the texture is noticeably different than the shrunken lamb. In my personal opinion, the matte lamb is my least favourite of the three shown. The jacket flap on the far left is a prototype/experimental jacket mostly for the sake of the hide and should not be considered a "legitimate" pocket design.

[Holt]

thanks for clearing this out Rick.my least favoruite hide just by looking at the pictures of course is the flat lamb too.

[Bogie1943]

Tony called me yesterday and asked how I liked my jacket. I told him I haven't taken it off yet. He's a great guy.

Rundquist, in terms of hide quality and construction, how would you compare your Nowak jacket to an Expedition?

[Rundquist]

Tony called me yesterday and asked how I liked my jacket. I told him I haven't taken it off yet. He's a great guy.

Rundquist, in terms of hide quality and construction, how would you compare your Nowak jacket to an Expedition?

There's nothing out there made "better" than an Expedition. What happened originally with Tony’s jackets is that when people got them initially (the CS jacket), most had never had an Indy jacket made of that high quality before. So the scuttlebutt was that it was the best. I would probably put a TN on pretty equal ground as far as construction goes with a G&B. Both are of very high quality. Now with regards to the shrunken lambskin itself, although it is much, much more robust than the lambskin that most of us know, it is still lambskin. You would still have to give the edge to goatskin or cowhide. But I don’t think you need to be very afraid that it will tear on you. What I’ve said about my TN Indy 1 in other threads is that it is fantastic (I love it), but I’m not getting rid of my Expeditions. Cheers

[crismans]

I'd also like to ask if you know why Terry Leonard selected the lighter color? Did he think it was more accurate to the jacket that he used to own, or was it just personal preference for a lighter colored jacket?

Thanks!

Chris

It is my understanding from what Tony says that Terry thought the lighter lamb was closer to the color of his jacket.

[RCSignals]

I'd also like to ask if you know why Terry Leonard selected the lighter color? Did he think it was more accurate to the jacket that he used to own, or was it just personal preference for a lighter colored jacket?

Thanks!

Chris

It is my understanding from what Tony says that Terry thought the lighter lamb was closer to the color of his jacket.

I didn't interpret it that way at all. But who knows.

[binkmeisterRick]

I got a Thanksgiving call from him, too. It surprised the heck out of me!

[Hatch]

Yeah, called to see how jacket was breaking in, and to express his thanks....what a guy!....

[Asiana Jones]

Hello Guys,

Thanks again to all of you for welcoming Tony and I here. I apologize for the delay in my posts. Its been quite busy for me this past week, but I promised Tony that I would get this up as soon as I could.

I met and spoke with Tony a couple of times in the past week or so and have quite a few interesting things to share with you. Hopefully I will be able to answer all of your questions with my subsequent posts in this thread. I will attempt to answer all of the posted questions in turn, and then I will add additional replies to provide you some more detailed information that you may find relevant.

If we do not answer all of your questions, please keep asking! In Tony's words: "DO NOT STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.... AND PLEASE DO NOT STOP SPECULATING! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE FACTS, THEN GIVE ME [TONY] A CALL: (310) 322-5565" - Tony is much better at talking in person than on a computer. He will leave that to me, but if you want to hear it from the horses mouth, please feel free to give him a call.

Now... onto the answers to the questions posted...

[Asiana Jones]

seriously, how close is slydini's jacket to the original that he examined? (x-box stitching, sliders, pocket shape and flaps, yoke and sleeve seam)......was it in that poor of shape that tony could not get the accurate specs off of her and just put in some interpretations of his own?

I want to try to clear up a misconception here on the message boards. Slydini's jacket #001/888, is NOT Tony's first copy attempt at the original HERO jacket that he had in hand. Its a little confusing because Tony doesn't actually make the jackets in numerical order, so its actually a little deceiving that #001 is actually the first jacket Tony made. In fact, Tony has made quite a few jackets prior to making #001/888.

The fact is that Tony made an EXACT replica of the HERO jacket that he had for one day. That jacket had everything copied completely. Tony numbered that jacket #000/888. That jacket was the first that Tony made while he had the original HERO in his hands. I will post more information about that particular jacket later...

In regards to Slydini's jacket, Tony admits he took some minor liberties in #001/888 because he didn't think that we would be make such a big deal about the details. He has since learned about how "detail-oriented" this group is, and is now paying much more detail to what is being crafted going forward.

Please let me know if this fully answers your questions Indiana G.

[Asiana Jones]

I'd like to know what the returns policy is? Can I send my jacket back for a refund even though it's a custom made jacket?

Hello whiskyman!

I apologize for your initial experience with Tony, but I believe that you have both come away from it with a mutual respect for each other.

As for a Return Policy, Tony will do his best to try to satisfy any of his current/past/potential customers in the highest regard. In the realm of custom jackets, it doesn't make business sense to provide the opportunity to return a custom made garment. There are many reasons for this, and I believe that everyone understands this and will not need an ind-depth post. However, fitment/sizing/craftsmanship issues are definitely an area that Tony will be glad to help out with to his best ability. Also during the ordering process, please be diligent with your orders and call Tony personally to get everything as accurate as possible for you to avoid any custom sizing issues before you place the order. That is what "Custom" is all about.

[Asiana Jones]

I'd be interested to see the lighter colored shrunken lamb that Terry Leonard has selected for his Indy 1 jacket. Is it possible to see a photo of this (preferably shown next to a piece of the darker shrunken lamb) ?

I'd also like to ask if you know why Terry Leonard selected the lighter color? Did he think it was more accurate to the jacket that he used to own, or was it just personal preference for a lighter colored jacket?
-Chris

Hello Chris, Tony is actually still working on getting the RIGHT color for the lighter colored lambskin that is to be made for Terry's jacket. Terry actually did NOT request Tony to give him a lighter shade of lamb. Terry mentioned that when he tried on Tony's jacket, that it was "THE Jacket", but that the one he wore was a slightly lighter shade in color.

As many of you are well aware, leather colors come in many shades. That is evident in the Indy IV jackets that were made for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull chapter. If you look at all 30 jackets, there are slight shade differences in all of the hides that were produced. That is why Tony offers a darker and a lighter shade cowhide for his Indy IV jackets.

This is also the reason why we believe that we see slight variations in the Raiders jackets in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark as well. We believe that all of the lambskin hides were slightly different shades in that production as well due to the nature of leather. Because of this, Tony would like to offer a slightly lighter shade for his Raiders jacket as well.

For Terry Leonard, Tony is actually making his Raiders jacket in a lighter shade because HE feels that it may be a closer match to what Terry Leonard's personal jacket looked like. Plus, it will give us all an opportunity to have a more personalized choice in shade.

[Asiana Jones]

Chris.

I thought that the hide in the middle was the flat''shrunken''lamb.

I could be wrong of course..but it really lookslike the standard shrunken lamb in texture..not only that but the hide in the middle is a lambskin too..

The hide in the middle is indeed Flat/Matte Lamb. This is NOT the hide that will be used for Terry Leonard's jacket. That hide is still being worked on by Tony to get the right color...

[Indiana G]

thank you for following up AJ. i just got off the phone with tony tonite and he did go into some detail of what you just wrote.......i was wondering why he wanted to talk about that subject as i called for something else ;-)

my questions were partly answered by my own speculations.....which were pretty much confirmed by my conversation with tony and your post.

thanks for getting back to me.

[RCSignals]

thank you for following up AJ. i just got off the phone with tony tonite and he did go into some detail of what you just wrote.......i was wondering why he wanted to talk about that subject as i called for something else ;-)

my questions were partly answered by my own speculations.....which were pretty much confirmed by my conversation with tony and your post.

thanks for getting back to me.

Are you trying to say tony is just using your specs for everyone?

[Indiana G]

thank you for following up AJ. i just got off the phone with tony tonite and he did go into some detail of what you just wrote.......i was wondering why he wanted to talk about that subject as i called for something else ;-)

my questions were partly answered by my own speculations.....which were pretty much confirmed by my conversation with tony and your post.

thanks for getting back to me.

Are you trying to say tony is just using your specs for everyone?

i will reiterate my conversation with him: tony tells me that my jacket is "very close" to the one he had. he said that if he replicated the actual jacket EXACTLY, it would be such a piece of junk that no one would want it.....poorly made, poorly preserved, and hard to pull many of the details he needed to replicate it (this is what i understand).....for example....i believe (this is my speculation now)...that what he had did have sliders on it, hence slydini's sliders. the straps had penetrations on it (that is not my speculation, that was relayed to me by tony)......so would people want sliders on their jackets with holes in the straps that don't do anything? would the holes need to be in the same configuration that shows on the original...and that we can't see on the film? even an SA nut like me would say no. i believe big tony was massaging the design to be a real world jacket which is why he could not copy it verbatim.....he needed to take some liberties on it.

the detailed changes that i made from slydini's to mine, probably just confirmed some items that big tony did not pay much attention to in the first place and thought we wouldn't really care about.

the golden question is: if you are a jacket manufacturer, would you offer a 1:1 replica of the jacket that is uneven, poorly constructed, and will likely fall apart in under a year of casual wear?....and charge a premium for it? it sounds like business suicide to me ;-)

[binkmeisterRick]

To be fair, based on comments in the other thread, Peter's ToD jacket seems to be suffering from minor inconsistencies from the original he had (by what folks are saying in comparison to the pictures) and others are already trying to ask for custom variances to suit their own definition of "SA." It doesn't matter which vendor you are, or which jacket you had to work from, there will always be minute differences based on the manufacturer's construction practices and design preferences. That, and there will always be folks who are at both extremes of sheer joy and pure disappointment, regardless of how much a carbon copy it may be. Heck, several members have publicly admitted they wouldn't be satisfied with a 1:1 jacket! It is easier to catch water in a net than it is to truly define "SA" or to make every single person happy with a given product. At the end of the day, I'm 100% happy with my Indy1 as some will be with their ToD, and that's all that really matters.

[RCSignals]

thank you for following up AJ. i just got off the phone with tony tonite and he did go into some detail of what you just wrote.......i was wondering why he wanted to talk about that subject as i called for something else ;-)

my questions were partly answered by my own speculations.....which were pretty much confirmed by my conversation with tony and your post.

thanks for getting back to me.

Are you trying to say tony is just using your specs for everyone?

i will reiterate my conversation with him: tony tells me that my jacket is "very close" to the one he had. he said that if he replicated the actual jacket EXACTLY, it would be such a piece of junk that no one would want it.....poorly made, poorly preserved, and hard to pull many of the details he needed to replicate it (this is what i understand).....for example....i believe (this is my speculation now)...that what he had did have sliders on it, hence slydini's sliders. the straps had penetrations on it (that is not my speculation, that was relayed to me by tony)......so would people want sliders on their jackets with holes in the straps that don't do anything? would the holes need to be in the same configuration that shows on the original...and that we can't see on the film? even an SA nut like me would say no. i believe big tony was massaging the design to be a real world jacket which is why he could not copy it verbatim.....he needed to take some liberties on it.

the detailed changes that i made from slydini's to mine, probably just confirmed some items that big tony did not pay much attention to in the first place and thought we wouldn't really care about.

the golden question is: if you are a jacket manufacturer, would you offer a 1:1 replica of the jacket that is uneven, poorly constructed, and will likely fall apart in under a year of casual wear?....and charge a premium for it? it sounds like business suicide to me ;-)

I doubt Tony would make an 'exact' copy of the jacket as it is now. I suspect that is the message he was trying to relay to you. I also suspect that he was being kind telling you that some of your observations from the screen, which you asked for, in fact matched what he saw on the jacket.
Tony has replica of the jacket for reference, I'd be surprised if was an exact copy as it is now with warts and all, but rather a copy of what he could see the jacket was from new. He has that ability.

This also what Peter did with the ToD jacket, create a reference copy.

The strap configurations supports other information of how these straps were reconfigured during the movie because of breakage etc. It may also indicate this copied jacket saw more use than just the few scenes Tony has identified.

[Asiana Jones]

Are you trying to say tony is just using your specs for everyone?

Sorry for the delay folks... I accidentally booted myself off of the Message Boards by accident updating my email address info...

To reiterate... Tony is NOT using Indiana G's specs for everyone. If you order a jacket to the original specs of the HERO jacket, Tony will make it in your size based off of his #000/888 jacket which is actually based on Harrison Ford's specs from the 80s...

It just happens to be coincidental that some of Indiana G's specs are very similar.

Regards...

[RCSignals]

Are you trying to say tony is just using your specs for everyone?

Sorry for the delay folks... I accidentally booted myself off of the Message Boards by accident updating my email address info...

To reiterate... Tony is NOT using Indiana G's specs for everyone. If you order a jacket to the original specs of the HERO jacket, Tony will make it in your size based off of his #000/888 jacket which is actually based on Harrison Ford's specs from the 80s...

It just happens to be coincidental that some of Indiana G's specs are very similar.

Regards...

Thanks, you confirm my post above.

[Indiana G]

Are you trying to say tony is just using your specs for everyone?

Sorry for the delay folks... I accidentally booted myself off of the Message Boards by accident updating my email address info...

To reiterate... Tony is NOT using Indiana G's specs for everyone. If you order a jacket to the original specs of the HERO jacket, Tony will make it in your size based off of his #000/888 jacket which is actually based on Harrison Ford's specs from the 80s...

It just happens to be coincidental that some of Indiana G's specs are very similar.

Regards...

you gotta be joking.......i did the EXACT same thing......now that is just twilight zone freaky.

ask dalexs.....he just got me back on

i joke around here alot, but when i read your message i thought, "did i just post that i booted myself out????"

[Asiana Jones]

Just wanted to also mention that there will be a GOAT hide jacket offering pricing TBD based upon material selection. It is what Tony and I call the "RAIDER'S FULL METAL JACKET"

It will not wear out, stretch out, fade out... it will basically survive a Nuclear Blast! (as long as its within a lead lined icebox)

In all seriousness. In the process of coming out with an alternate jacket that will also be more affordable, Tony does not want to produce an offering that will be any less in quality, durability, and craftsmanship. His #1 GOAL is to have the look, quality, and durability regardless of price. He is going to put his own personal name on it, so it better perform.

[Holt]

THIS is interresting..

if this happens forget about the cowhide I talked about earlier Michael.


how much will this be????