The BEST Indy Jacket?

[davidishida]

These days we have a wealth of options for the Indy coat (for specificity, in my case I am interested in the LC version). What are peoples opinions of the various options? Wested, Steele and Jones, Magnoli, etc. What is most accurate, what is best made, etc. Love to hear the communities thoughts!

[Indiana Jeff]

The BEST Indy jacket is the one on your back.
If you ask 100 members here for their best jacket you'll get 100 different answers. What I look for to decide what makes a particular jacket the BEST is very different than what another member will look for.

At the end of the day, it's a balancing act. Leather type, screen accuracy, your body type/build, wait time, and cost are just a few factors to consider. All of the great vendors here have at least one thread discussing their jacket options in depth. Dive in and do the research. The BEST jacket for you will become apparent.

The great thing is having all the options available.

The worst thing is having all the options available.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[Chewbacca Jones]

I've had a few different Indy jackets, including Wested and a mountain of US Wings. I have also had the chance to examine a few others. But if I could pick only one, it would be a Magnoli. If you communicate what you want you can get it. And nothing else has ever fully satisfied me the way a Magnoli did.

[Glenville86]

Indiana Jeff nailed it in his response....lol

I have many jackets from various makers. BK and S&J are my favorites but like the others as well.

[Forrest For the Trees]

S&J currently has the most accurate repro of the LC jacket to date. The new Kelso offering looks good too.

[davidishida]

The BEST Indy jacket is the one on your back.
If you ask 100 members here for their best jacket you'll get 100 different answers. What I look for to decide what makes a particular jacket the BEST is very different than what another member will look for.

At the end of the day, it's a balancing act. Leather type, screen accuracy, your body type/build, wait time, and cost are just a few factors to consider. All of the great vendors here have at least one thread discussing their jacket options in depth. Dive in and do the research. The BEST jacket for you will become apparent.

The great thing is having all the options available.

The worst thing is having all the options available.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

Absolutley right. Allow me to refine. What have members individual experiences been with their various jackets? What have people liked or not liked about theirs?

[Indiana Jeff]

While running the risk of sounding crabby, my answer holds. All of the current jacket makers have threads where your questions have already been answered in great detail.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[Charybdis]

yeah, what you're going to get pretty much is everyone saying they like their jackets because we have to justify spending so much on one article of clothing!! Ha!

I have a Wested goat that I love for slightly colder weather and then my S&J Raiders which I also love for being much more authentic. I have heard that the gold standards are BK and S&J, so take that for whatever it's worth...

Fact is, they're all pretty good and whichever one you purchase, unless the fit is off or something, you will love!

[Mulceber]

I agree with what’s been said above. If you’re looking to narrow down your search, the Bill Kelso Relic Hunter and the Steel & Jones Cazadora are the most popular. I’d look in the threads for both of them. For my part, the Relic Hunter completed my quest for “the jacket,” but I’ve seen enough thrilled reviews of S&J to know that you can’t go wrong with them either.

[Texan Scott]

Interesting this because of trends and novelty offerings in the past. If you asked before, your options would have been Flight Suits, Wested or USW. Ask around the time of CS and members would have said TN. Overlapping the two periods, Todd's jackets were popular and cost effective. Used to, you could get a Wested in just about any skin you wanted, including washed goat, which was similar to lamb, soft and pliable. G&B has fallen by the wayside, TN unfortunately passed as did Peter and Todd no longer offers jackets. Now the front men are BK and S&J. Just about the time you come to depend on vendors being around, and are 'staples' in this forum, things change. Get the jacket that you most want before it is too late or is discontinued.

[Michaelson]

The only constant in the above is USWings, and even with Peter gone, Wested is still out there swinging away.

You also forgot Magnoli as one of the front men in today's market.

Regard! Michaelson

[Texan Scott]

after all was said and done, I wound up keeping the Expedition. It was tough to get rid of some of them. They sorta' grown on you.

[whipwarrior]

Let me reaffirm what Michaelson said. Wested's quality and craftsmanship have not wavered since the passing of Mr. Botwright, God rest his soul. They saw his last jacket project to completion with the LC Hero in December, and it is a magnificent tribute to the man who consistently went above and beyond for us Indy fans and our nitpicky specs. If anything, Wested is better than ever. Today I received a custom Raiders jacket in washed lambskin, and it is absolutely perfect down to the last detail. Peter would be proud of the work by Sally, Mick, and the crew at The Barn, who have amended the jacket COAs to read: A dedication from Peter A. Botwright's family from the designs he created.

[Michaelson]

An excellent dedication!

Regards! M