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Whatever happened to the Goldsmith A2 ?

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
After several pages of research , photo analysis, information sharing , design modifications and speculation, whatever happened to the planned releases of the repro Goldsmith A2 jackets. I know that Aero released their very limited 25 jacket version but are they now sold out? Has anyone heard of anything from Headwind on their release? Previous contacts with Headwind indicated the release of the new Goldsmith A2 was imminent, but the last reporting on it was back in October. I PMed Jay in December and was told that Headwind was sourcing materials to begin production, but since then nothing . Has anyone heard anything further? The excitement level was pretty high a few months back, but since then nothing.
What happened?
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
After several pages of research , photo analysis, information sharing , design modifications and speculation, whatever happened to the planned releases of the repro Goldsmith A2 jackets. I know that Aero released their very limited 25 jacket version but are they now sold out? Has anyone heard of anything from Headwind on their release? Previous contacts with Headwind indicated the release of the new Goldsmith A2 was imminent, but the last reporting on it was back in October. I PMed Jay in December and was told that Headwind was sourcing materials to begin production, but since then nothing . Has anyone heard anything further? The excitement level was pretty high a few months back, but since then nothing.
What happened?

We've got 21 of the 25 ordered, over half of these were completed and delivered before Xmas, the delay in finishing the others is mainly due to the fact that it's not worth training more than one machinist on such a small run and the machinist we chose has had a lot of time off due to sharing the care of the eldery father. We should have that last few finished in the next fortnight, we are only accepting "reserve" orders for the last four until we know we won't have any exchanges on the first 21
It would be a real shame if someone ordered the wrong size and then missed out completely as the 25 had already been sold
 
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B-Man2

Well-Known Member
Thanks for your response. To me it seems like there was a great deal of hype and excitement over the discovery of the Goldsmith A2 jacket and a fair amount of time, research and development went into coming up with a prototype. Most of us were excited about the new discovery. But now it seems to have slowly faded away. I’m hoping that Jay from Headwind will weigh in here, as he was one of those who was instrumental in the development of the jacket and had planned to release the Headwind version a while back. Some of us ( myself included ) were anxiously awaiting that release .
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
It's possible Jay was underwhelmed by the actual number of orders placed by VLJ members especially considering all the hype on here. We were!
I may be wrong, but as far as I'm aware we only received three Goldsmith orders from actual VLJ members, one was cancelled due to lack of funds, another was refused by us due to pervious problems with that particular member, the third, as far as I'm aware, was from a member who rarely,if ever, posts
So One solitary sale attributed to VLJ!
 

jimmy greene

Active Member
Gold Smith A2 . 2 of 25
 

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B-Man2

Well-Known Member
Nice looking A2..... congrats!!
If you haven’t already done so, why not introduce yourself in the members bio section.
 

2BM2K

Well-Known Member
For the record I bought an Aero Goldsmith.

AeroGoldie.JPG


It is very comfortable to wear. The leather is soft and the right thickness for an A2.

Somewhat ironically I dislike the buttoned pockets. They are far more difficult to button and unbutton than I imagined they would be.
The holes are barely wider than the buttons and some force is required to push the buttons through.
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
For the record I bought an Aero Goldsmith.

View attachment 13321

It is very comfortable to wear. The leather is soft and the right thickness for an A2.

Somewhat ironically I dislike the buttoned pockets. They are far more difficult to button and unbutton than I imagined they would be.
The holes are barely wider than the buttons and some force is required to push the buttons through.

The style of button hole is something we'd never had used by choice, they will stretch/open with wear but have to be tight to start with otherwise they'll go badly out of shape unlike a stitched Keyhole button hole.

After working on these and "unpicking" the manufuring procedure it would appear that awarding the contract to Goldsmith was a very uninspired choice..........................a bit like the Seaborne Freight Ferry Services contract? (Non Brits may want to use google)
 

Clark J

Well-Known Member
Nice jacket Ken ! Question for you I know in the past your A-2s were always a little short as far as the zipper measurements have you corrected that ? I know you make a nice jacket as I have purchased at least 3 jackets from you directly but was always never able to buy your A-2s on the second hand market because of the zip length . Sure wish I had my B-3 back could have used it this winter !!
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
Nice jacket Ken ! Question for you I know in the past your A-2s were always a little short as far as the zipper measurements have you corrected that ? I know you make a nice jacket as I have purchased at least 3 jackets from you directly but was always never able to buy your A-2s on the second hand market because of the zip length . Sure wish I had my B-3 back could have used it this winter !!

Hi John

I remember you well, of course, from The Thrift Shop days, you got a few great original A-2s from us back then. I'm not sure when the last Aero A-2 you bought was made but in the last 4 or 5 years we've gone back over our patterns using the old archive patterns taken off originals in the early 1980s, we must have relined several hundred back then and we kept many of the lining patterns. The patterns we've got now are as near as you'll find to the orginals, we've also had original patterns from JC to check against ours.

Ken
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
In answer to the OP we've got two left to sell, nos 24 & 25 plus a size 40" that was returned for exchange for a bigger size. Offers considered on that one.:)
Anyone ordering one of the last two will have to wait to see there are no other exchanges needed, we've got a few more orders to still fill
 
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