Lewis/Aviakit 'Irvin'

[BONNIEGIRL4]

looking at the close up the collar you get a fairly good pic of the main zip, can't quite read it but the letter spacing sure matches mine in reading Eastman

 

[Roughwear]

Despite everything John says I'm not convinced its not an Eastman jacket. At the price they are selling for it would have been easy for individuals in Japan to buy up some and re-sell them for nearly four times the price on the website above. If it wasn't a bulk order with ELC would all the employees be aware of it? It is possible that for commercial reasons John may not have been given completely transparent information. Everything about the jacket says ELC to me. Derek Harris of LL is quite careful with his words, saying the jackets were made 5 years ago, but he does not confirm by LL nor does he confirm the jacket pictured on the Japanese site was made by LL.

 

[Cliff]

Perhaps Eastman supplied them just the zips !

 

[Roughwear]

Perhaps Eastman supplied them just the zips !

Perhaps, assuming we know for sure LL made the jackets.

 

[John Lever]

Perhaps Eastman supplied them just the zips !

Perhaps, assuming we know for sure LL made the jackets.

From the horses mouth -
Hello John,

No, we absolutely do not make them.

Best regards,
Gary

 

[Roughwear]

Mystery cleared up then.

 

[John Lever]

Mystery cleared up then.

No...
From Lewis Leathers today -
You were right about Eastman, they did our production on that Aviakit jacket, we had no access to fur stitch machines in those days.
And also of interest -
Btw, I got an Irvin recently, late war, (Dot zips & plenty of panels) and most interesting for us, the remains of an Aviakit label inside!


So Andrew you were right all along.
I leave others to comment on the Eastman statement.

 

[Roughwear]

This is very interesting as I recognised their work-stitch by stitch! It seems as if ELC were economical with the truth or had forgotten making the jacket.

 

[Hawkeye]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the fact that these look absolutely identical to Eastman Irvins. The cut, the stitching, the zips, the fleece, all the little details just scream Eastman to me. Are we sure Eastman didnt make a special order of late-war jackets for Lewis?

Not to toot my own horn, but all I can say is.....told ya so! :lol:

 

[asiamiles]

So Japanese buyers were paying something like $2000 more just to have a jacket with that label sewn on the chest! Wonder what they would think if they knew!

 

[Roughwear]

Yes and a very very expensive label.

 

[John Lever]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the fact that these look absolutely identical to Eastman Irvins. The cut, the stitching, the zips, the fleece, all the little details just scream Eastman to me. Are we sure Eastman didnt make a special order of late-war jackets for Lewis?

Not to toot my own horn, but all I can say is.....told ya so! :lol:

Yes you did, but when Gary told me that they did not make them I believed him.

 

[Roughwear]

Remember the ELC redskin RW B-6 which was proclaimed as an original contract and yet turned out to be fictitious.

 

[asiamiles]

Yes and a very very expensive label.

Yes, that's what I was saying. Say about $1000 for an ELC Irvin, but $3000 for the (exact?) same jacket with the Lewis label. No wonder they wanted to keep it quiet.

 

[John Lever]

Some interesting news paper adds from earlier times. I wish the prices were still the same.

 

[joeson]

I am glad the truth is finally out.I have known about this all along,but as Derek is a personal friend,thought it was up to him to decide if he wanted to divulge information regarding his company and it's suppliers.

 

[John Lever]

I went to meet Derek at the shop today. He was very helpful, open and friendly.

There is a quite a collection down there, including the jacket Eastman copied for them to make the Aviakit RAF and some others.
More interesting though were several 1930's BRITISH A-1 jackets made from CAPESKIN. Some with buttons, others with very beautiful Lightening zips with similar boxes to the hookless ones from BR. He also has a civi B-2 by Carl Ort. These are his archive and presumably not for sale.
So the future looks bright as there may be other jackets to come as well as the RAF one.
The very high price as seen on Yahoo is due to some middle man issue and so is not part of the usual pricing he told me.

 

[rich]

Some interesting news paper adds from earlier times. I wish the prices were still the same.

John, I know what you're saying but you got me wondering so I went to www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare and back then it seems they were still a pricey item ..... these are the given figures

Current data is only available till 2008. In 2008, £6 6s 0d from 1931 was worth:

£319.00 using the retail price index
£324.00 using the GDP deflator
£1,240.00 using the average earnings
£1,580.00 using the per capita GDP
£2,110.00 using the share of GDP

 

[John Lever]

Wow ! ,not as cheap as I thought !
Isn't there a contemporary ad in the ELC RW A-2 thread showing a jacket for $700 ?

 

[m444uk]

Wow ! ,not as cheap as I thought !
Isn't there a contemporary ad in the ELC RW A-2 thread showing a jacket for $700 ?

That was a joke! The last time I did the calculation a new A2 selling in the 1940s was the equivalent to $180.

I've got a year 2000 ELC price list and the RW retailed at £352 which is £444 using the RPI.

Mr Eastman's head must of been turned by GW prices ?

The RAF was £376 which is £474 in today's monopoly money.