Club Obi Wan

I picked this dark seal goatskin Expedition up for a song from my good friend Indiana Jun. It’s a Gibson & Barnes (Flight Suits) Expedition prototype that he bought 5 or 6 years ago. The tag says “46 Tall”. Since it fits like all of my Indy jackets, I assume that it’s a 46 Tall body with 46 regular sleeves. I like my Indy jackets long. Anyway, Indiana Jun did one helluva job on the artificial distress job. Bravo. Cheers


PS- The unevenness in the cuff distressing is because Jun used to turn in the sleeve because he’s a bit short for the jacket.

NIce looking Jacket. I've always liked Baphy's distressing jobs. I hope you and Baphy are going to make it to the QM in November. Tell him he needs to get off of gollumgear.com and get his butt back at Indygear. He probably has no clue I'm getting married in October, so tell him he's missing out on all the juicy news.

Awesome pics, looks great, thanks for sharing! I think this is the first time I've ever seen a "distressed" G&B jacket .

That's a great looking jacket!, distressing is some of the best I,ve seen

Great jacket...I would however pull the side straps in a bit...the back end looks a bit like it want to take off...just my two cents...love the vertical distress lines.

Wow, those pocket flaps are huge.

I have one of those as well. I bought it used, and got it for 100 bucks!! A steal as these were quite pricey at the time. These were made prior to the change of hands at Flight Suits and supposedly were created with the help of some fans, one of which was _ who had seen an original from a collector. You new guys missed some heated arguments way back then. Fedora

Ah, yes 'The Jacket Wars' Good times, they were Thanks for posting the pics! That's an amzing distress job. Seeing what can be done with a G&B goat, now I'm REALLY glad I got one!! Actually, Rundquist, I think it used to be yours.

Fedora wrote:I have one of those as well. I bought it used, and got it for 100 bucks!! A steal as these were quite pricey at the time. These were made prior to the change of hands at Flight Suits and supposedly were created with the help of some fans, one of which was _ who had seen an original from a collector. You new guys missed some heated arguments way back then. Fedora

There’s no supposedly about it. The Flightsuits Expedition was copied directly from stuntman Terry Leonard’s jacket (Terry’s the guy that went under the Nazi Truck). Now this is all ancient history to a lot of guys here, but I’ll repeat the story just because there are a lot of new guys around here who don’t seem to know jack about the evolution of the jackets that are on the market today.

So back in 1998 or 99, _ got a chance to examine the Terry Leonard “Raiders of the Lost Ark” jacket. He took along his tape measure and took very detailed measurements. He also noted the jacket configuration and the hide. At the same time Lee Keppler was trying to develop an Indiana Jones jacket with Flightsuits. Lee is generally regarded as the “Grand Poobah” of Indy gear. Anyway Lee and _ became aware of each other and _ was brought on board the project. I believe MK might have been involved at some point as well.

Flightsuits started producing prototype jackets under the direction of Lee and _. They also brought their own years of jacket manufacturing expertise to the project. They brought the pleated lining and the elastic pleat band to the table for instance (the idea was that any improvement/design changes were ok as long as they were invisible to what was on screen and in pictures). After these first prototypes were made it was realized that _ had not taken a few measurements. He went back and examined the jacket again. It is said that by the time _ was done, he had taken every measurement that there was to take. His notes were complete.

Flightsuits had their pattern for the Expedition, which they then expanded for every size. The jacket became available for purchase in early 2000, I believe. The jacket then had to go through an almost immediate revision. The reason? The jacket was originally copied from Terry Leonard’s jacket, not Harrison Ford’s. The pockets were moved forward and a seam or two was changed to make the Expedition more in line with what people wanted. Every now and again people have questioned the Expedition’s pedigree, which is a mistake in my opinion. The Expedition “is” the screen used Terry Leonard jacket. There are probably a few things that are different than the Harrison Ford jacket. For one, Terry was a lot more muscular than Ford was when Raiders was made. That may or may not be reflected in the jacket's cut. Whether or not the sidestrap configuration is the same as Ford’s is up for debate. There’s no debate that the sidestrap configuration on the Expedition is the same as the Terry Leonard jacket that _ examined however. When somebody can examine Harrison Ford’s “Raiders” jacket to copy (don’t hold your breath), you might be able to get a Raiders jacket made that has had more screen time perhaps. But it would be no more “authentic”.

There are things about the Expedition though, that in my opinion are unmatched by any jacket maker out there. The collarstand/collar/windflap configuration is the best “Raiders” representation out there. The collar folds in all the right places. The materials and the manufacturing techniques used for the Expedition are fantastic. It’s a great product.

Shawnkara wrote:Ah, yes 'The Jacket Wars' Good times, they were Thanks for posting the pics! That's an amzing distress job. Seeing what can be done with a G&B goat, now I'm REALLY glad I got one!! Actually, Rundquist, I think it used to be yours.

You got my jacket all right. You gave a real even keeled review on it too. It was one of the first “production” Expeditions. You can see that the pockets are farther back (they’ve also gotten rid of the extra leather pocket layer since then). The only thing that I’ll add is that the leather used in that particular jacket was never used in any other Expedition that I’ve seen. It has more red in it than what they’ve been using for years now as their light seal goatskin. It is also as you pointed out, shiny. Their current skin is also much more dull. I personally really liked the skin on that particular jacket. I liked the red in the hide. I guess that’s why I eventually went for a russet colored jacket. Cheers









PS- Here’s a trivial fact. _ even got death threats for daring to carry on with such a project.

Adam, did you ever wonder how Lee and Todd 'became aware of each other' that summer, or why?

Regard! Michaelson

It's not all there at Indyfan Forum archives.

Not all. A lot took place behind the scenes, and was never posted at Indyfan.

Regards! Michaelson

Death threats? Dang, that's crazy over a jacket....

The Expedition is well worth the money. I have two. One is a dark-brown goat and the other is the lighter/authentic color. The authentic color is a size 40 S. The person I bought it from said that it belonged to Lee Keppler himself. Lee must have been a guy with shorter arms. When I bought it, I was hoping that it wouldn't be quite as short in the sleeves, but it is. The previous owner must have thought so as well. He let out the sleeves. The body fits well, but I wish the sleeves were a tad longer....

Michaelson wrote:Adam, did you ever wonder how Lee and Todd 'became aware of each other' that summer, or why?

Regard! Michaelson

I didn't mean to leave your name out. I'm sure I left out other important details as well. Due credit for sure! Cheers

Not fishing for credit, old friend. Just wanted folks to know that there was a LOT of stuff going on during these 'projects', and so much dust flying when they WERE in process, it was tough to keep track of who was doing what!

HIGH regards! Michaelson

Thanks Runquist. I had forgotten much of that story, and that accounts for my "supposed" remark. Plus, at the time, I was not into the jacket that much, but once I did get interested, the efforts by all mentioned was appreciated greatly. What you guys are wearing now from Wested actually benefited from the efforts of those guys. But that is another story. What I did get out of these efforts was _'s cowhide Wested that came to me via Michaelson. I still have the jacket, and due to the heaviness of the hide, it is still my favorite Wested. It is like wearing a suit of armor, and personally, being the durability fan that I am, it suits me greatly. I think _ ordered that one from Peter to be pre-distressed, but Peter forgot to run it through, so _ either distressed it with chemicals or got drug behind a truck. Regardless, it was perfect for me. That one was a keeper. I have owned several Westeds since then, but the old cowhide one is the only one that I still have from those early purchases.

The death threats were indicative of just how nasty the debate got as _ was bulldogging the accuracy of the Holy Grail of jackets. But, I look fondly back to those days. Much of the fun and excitement lies in the journey. Fedora

Hey Adam, I can make those cuffs look like they've always been the correct length with a dremel wood sanding drumb and a little acetone.lol. I wish someone would go back to the original Raiders color with a little burgundy and not so dark a brown overall colour. Todd's looks promising compared with my pre-wested LConn from the '80's. And speaking of "jacket"wars, there was a similar debate with the costume designer with us old "gearhead knights"(41+) about the brand of shoes,brownvs.grey fedoras for HF,etc.I still think it's a fashion faux paux to wear brown accessories with a blue suit. If I,m wrong I'll apoligize, again. I would really like to know what should be worn with a dark blue suit. At least the hat should match, and a costume designer of her calibur should know this. As far as I know, no death threats were involved (I hope).But there were some misleading statements made to us,possibley to save company secrets. A 'none of your business would have been enough for me', because we knew where most of the gear was from and who made it. Brown doesn't go with blue,except Cordovan, does it anyone?thanks and apologies ,hanson,

You know, you have to take color comparison with a grain of salt. I say if it’s close enough, it’s close enough. Right before Raiders was released on dvd, there was a widescreen vhs boxed set that was available. The color in that particular release was different than the previous vhs release and the subsequent dvd release. The color correction of that particular release had more cool blues and grays in the overall color.

I don’t have any doubt that the current “authentic brown” that Wested offers is what was on screen or at least is the closest available to what was on screen. Flightsuits “light seal” is a very close second (the non distressed seal jacket above is not what they currently sell). But you know what? Check out how close this “dark seal” distressed jacket matches in color to this pic of HF. Perhaps there aren’t enough red highlights in the dark seal, but it’s close enough.




As far as a brown hat going with a blue suit goes, I’m in total agreement. In fact to show you how much I could care less about trying to copy a “screen accurate” color, I don’t even have an “authentic brown” or “seal brown” Indiana Jones jacket these days. I like red so much, that my brown Indiana Jones jacket of choice is “russet” colored. Cheers

Rundquist,
How can we take you seriously anymore... you don't even own an Indy hat (cap) anymore! ) <ducking behind the bar...>

Sergei wrote:Rundquist,
How can we take you seriously anymore... you don't even own an Indy hat (cap) anymore! ) <ducking behind the bar...>

Even I have to draw the line somewhere at looking ridicules. The junk that comes out of my mouth does that job well enough already without my wardrobe helping. Hey I’m just kidding. You guys knock yourselves out. I’m just not a tall crown guy anymore. I don’t particularly like brown for a fedora either. My fedora color of choice these days is blue. At least I was able to draw Sergei out of exile for a brief moment.

Rundquist wrote:

Fedora wrote: PS- Here’s a trivial fact. _ even got death threats for daring to carry on with such a project.

From Whom and Why?

Can you tell me why the pockets on that lovely first jacket seem different to the pockets on the later jackets? If they all looked like that first one (big flaps/smaller pocket) I'd order one in a second. But I've been worried that the GB jacket pockets look a bit too much like the Westeds for my liking.

Cheers - CM