Are french fell seams more commonly used on any type of sporting equipment/sportswear that Goldsmith's may have made at the time?
I'm more convinced that the Goldsmith's batch of jackets were merely rough prototypes made to assist in the development of the A-2's specification. A rough speculative timeline could be as follows:
- Materiel Command at WP AFB contacts local sporting goods maker Goldsmiths in Cincinatti.
- They request a small run of 25 jackets be made for development purposes. At this time, there is no official spec - these jackets follow a rough specification similar to the preceding A-1 jacket, with the major differences being the addition of a leather collar and a zipper.
- Materiel Command studies the prototype jackets and debates what will and won't work. Certain senior and prominent members of the Air Force are recipients of these jackets for feedback purposes (Hap Arnold, Carl Spaatz, etc).
- After gathering feedback from these wearers and after much internal discussion, the final specification of the A-2 gets the stamp of approval it needs to go into initial production. Quirky features of the Goldsmith jacket which only existed because the specification hadn't yet been set in stone are rejected in favour of cheaper, more efficient alternatives. The french fell seams are ditched, and the A-1 style hook and button collar closure is replaced with a snap down collar, for example.
- The specification for the first "official" A-2 is finalised. Manufacturers are contacted to bid for this work.
- Security Aviation Togs Limited wins the contract for the first batch of 600 or so jackets which go into limited service with select Air Force personnel.
- Further details are refined after wider feedback from the SAT jacket.
- A bigger order for A-2 jackets is put out to the market. Werber wins this next contract.
Etc, etc. All speculation at this point