Club Obi Wan

This was the first commercially available Indy jacket offered to the general public. It was made by Flightsuits to Lee Keppler’s specs. It’s an Interesting part of Indygear history. I’d been meaning to get this up way before now, but I’ve been a little busy. Enjoy!

I VAGUELY remember that write up, but contributed it to the NRA magazine. Man, has it been THAT LONG AGO!!!???Lordy! Wonder if Lee would sell them for the same price now? Thanks Adam!!! I've never seen this particular one. Regards. Michaelson

I have seen the prototype in person and even tried it on - it sent a little tingle down my spine. You can feel the magic flowing through it.

Ken

From what I can tell, the most noticeable, and most drastic change I notice is to the collar of course, but distressed goatskin, whatever happened to that! It’s nice to have a scanner. Thank you for NOT being too busy today. It’s definitely making my current pdf edition.

It just doesn’t SEEM “that long ago.” That’s part of the whole illusion of film, they are timeless. Somewhat OT, but, when I was a youngster I remember that I use to look at a classic film and think (in my naive way) these actors look like that today. I believe that when I first became aware of ‘AGING’ was when I’d see certain performers in a specific film and then in another film (one made much later in life) and say to myself, there’s something different about that performer and I could never quite put my finger on what it was. Of course, it was that they aged, and therefore looked different. It sounds funny now, but I do recall thinking that way and it took me a long time to figure out that concept, brilliant young mind that I was. After all, Aunt Jenny never aged that quickly just sitting in front of the television set.

Thanks Rundquist, that's great. When we revise the jacket page on IndyGear's main site, we should try to put this in as part of the "history" of "the jacket." But why $294.88? Why not simply $295.00 or $294.95?

I, too, wondered about the 'distressed goatskin', Rixter. What I also thought about was the rest of the sentence, 'abrasion resistant material'. Hummm. Distressed, yet abrasion resistant. Isn't that an oxymoron? (grins) Regards. Michaelson

What's interesting to note is that while the FS price has skyrocketed over the last 17 years, Wested still sells theirs for even less than that 1987 price... Let's give a big "thumbs-up" to Peter!

Here's to Peter:

Cordially,
Lord Clarence

Fella’s, not to take sides here, but what about Lee’s efforts as described in the initial post.

So what exactly does this prove?? I'm confused. So it was Lee who made the original Jacket for the movies, and not Peter???
Man, you learn something new everyday.

I'm gonna try to throw water on this before it gets too hot... jumping in and praising Peter in a thread about Lee's original publicly available jacket was hijacking and a little uncalled for. I should know better than egging that on.

We can all agree that Peter does a great service to us by offering an outstanding original spec jacket (he created it, after all) at a more than reasonable price.

However, credit is due to Lee Keppler and Flightsuits for being the first to spec and offer for sale to the masses a replica of Indy's leather. I don't think it's that easy in most cases to go out and purchase an accurate replica of your movie hero's garb, in your size. We can in the case of Indy thanks to Lee's and FS' pioneering. And at not a bad original price, when you consider the uncertain market for such an item, and I'm sure the quality of the jacket was up to snuff.

There are plenty of threads in which to compare Wested and Flighsuits... I'm not sure this is it.

Cordially,
Lord Clarence

And at the risk of playing the Devil's Advocate here, were it not for pioneers in the Indiana Jones costume scene like Lee and Josh Maley and others, Peter possibly never would have come into the picture. Agreed? Who made the initial contact with him?

Cassidy

Cassidy wrote:And at the risk of playing the Devil's Advocate here, were it not for pioneers in the Indiana Jones costume scene like Lee and Josh Maley and others, Peter possibly never would have come into the picture. Agreed? Who made the initial contact with him?

Cassidy

Yes, it was Lee that made first contact with Peter. That was without the aid of the internet or any article. If memory serves me right, it was just a chance call where the dots were finally connecting.

-S

So what exactly does this prove?? I'm confused. So it was Lee who made the original Jacket for the movies, and not Peter???
Man, you learn something new everyday.

No. Lee provided F.S. with some specs to have a COPY of the Indy jacket
made available to the PUBLIC. Peter made the movie jackets. Lee
gave F.S. the info to make a repro for the sale in the magazine
because Peter was not making them for sale to the public at that time.

Please re-read the first post carefully:

This was the first commercially available Indy jacket offered to the general public.

Flathead

On an entirely different note: on the cover of that same issue of "Soldier of Fortune" it shows an article entitled "Faces of the Nicaraguan War"....that brings back some almost forgotten memories....guys, that was, in many ways, a very "IJ" type environment!

Ron

Lo siento for the potential uproar Howabout this: Thumbs-up to everybody!

(whispered low into a recorder,while under cover of his desk) "This is Michaelson, reporting from the field next to COW (ok, no remarks there)....it's an uneasy truce that we're experiencing between the Wested and Flightsuits camps, with occasional skirmishs flaring along the line.....but today all is quiet on the Western Front....reporting live, or close to live, this has been a field report......." Regards, your field reporter, Michaelson

Thanks for self-administering here guys and not allowing this to become another battle. It's nice to not have to jump in for a change.

Now will someone get Michaelson out of that field before he gets his gear dirty?!

Mike

Natural distressing, my friend.....natural distressing.... Regards. Michaelson

Beautiful, simply beautiful!

Sincere regards,
Swindiana

My first wested that i bought used (and has not wearn before) also seems
to be an old version. It is lamb and has lining at the top of the stormflap.
The Stormflap is much higher than on my new on. It has no extended back panel etc etc. How old might that jacket be ?

Mr. Lee Keppler has contributed SO much more to this hobby than alot of people will ever know.... He certainly does not get enough credit. Wested and Gibson and Barnes (Flightsuits) would not be where they are today in regards to indygear, without Mr. Keppler.

Your a he\\ of a guy Lee!!

James