repro A-2 name tag comparison

[SuinBruin]

I've been in the market for a name tag for my upcoming Goodwear Bronco. I thought I had found a good one until zoomer pointed out in another thread that the font was all wrong on most repro tags. (See this thread: http://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=870.) That set me off on a quest to find the best name tag I could. Here is a comparison shot of the 5 vendors I bought tags from.

Taking into account the font issue, I think Aero clearly has the best tags. The leather is thick and a nice natural color, and the type has been deeply impressed. The total cost for the tags was £12 plus £2 shipping, so about $28. This is steep, but Aero did send me three tags as you can see.

The worst tag is the one from sswr_resources on eBay. It was cheap ($8 shipped I think), but the leather is really thin and flimsy, and the font is all wrong. The US Authentic one is also not great... the leather is on the thin side, appears to be wider than the originals, and has some kind of painted or applied brown coloring on it even though I requested a "natural" brown.

The Garcia Aviation tag is OK if you don't mind the font, but I think it was twice as expensive as the sommerandsons tag from eBay ($8). If you don't care about font accuracy, I think the sommerandsons tag is the way to go.

 

[deeb7]

.... I think the sommerandsons tag is the way to go.

And their spacing of the letters, looks more appealing than Aero's.

 

[Vcruiser]

Strange...the font and spacing looks quite different on my Aero nametag...don't you think...?

Van

 

[deeb7]

Strange...the font and spacing looks quite different on my Aero nametag...don't you think...?

It does, and it looks better ... not so fat.

Perhaps having initials also helps.

 

[Hamsterbear]

The best I've seen are those from Roberto in Italy. Ask John Chapman what he thinks, he's done his homework there as well, and I'm sure he'd want you to have the best authentic looking nametag available to sew on a jacket.
-Brian

 

[bfrench]

Here is a comparison shot of the 5 vendors I bought tags from.

Hi, SB,

I took some liberties and I hope you don't mind but I added the copy of the original name tag posted by Zoomer in an earlier thread, to your photo.

Really shows the type of tags available and how they compare to an original.

Bill French

 

[SuinBruin]

That's perfect Bill, thanks for going to the trouble.

 

[Hamsterbear]

These are from Roberto:

 

[Anonymous]

Unless I have had a few too many, those look slanted.

 

[Hamsterbear]

Unless I have had a few too many, those look slanted.

That's just to show the lettering and type used. I ordered 2 tags and he sent me about 8, these being the ones used to set up the job- The perfect ones are already sewn on my jackets. The extra's were included as freebies.
To quote John Chapman:
"There are many reproductions available, with varying degrees of authenticity and material choices. Our desire is to go a little further and create A-2s that emulate the qualities of originals, faults and greatness included. In the 1940s, A-2s were mass produced in factories, going from one station to another (note how some jackets have several different colors of thread in the parts), which led to these jackets having an organic, imperfect look in the details, yet a classy overall character. That’s what we like."
So, what's wrong with a nametag with the letters slightly off center? Seems like it would look more authentic as a wartime example.
-Brian

 

[MikeyB-17]

This is mine from a 10+ year old ELC. I've always thought it was pretty good. Had a couple of Aeros too (I miss mine with the 527th BS patch on it-well, actually I miss the patch more than the jacket!), personally I don't like the pale colour of theirs, so I darkened mine up by various methods, but they were still pretty good.

 

[CBI]

the 3 Aero namestrips shown at the top of this thread don't look right. All of the Aero's I have seen were better spaced and the letters were not over-pressed the way these look. Sorry.

I do think Aero makes the nicest ones as shown on a later photo as do ELC.

 

[SuinBruin]

Thanks for the feedback. The Aero strips are a little crowded; I may see about getting one a little more spaced out and not pressed quite so hard into the leather.

Adding another name or initials might also help, but "Cable" is both my grandfather's last name and my middle name, so it's intended to do double duty on the jacket. D.K. "King" Cable served in the USAAF as a navigation instructor during WWII, and passed away this January. (He really, really wanted to be a pilot, but his eyesight was bad. He did get his pilot's license after the war and truly loved to fly until he had to give it up due to his age.)

In going through some of his service papers a few months ago I came across a quartermaster record showing that he was issued an A-2, size 46. Alas, he must have had to turn it in after he was discharged, as I've never seen or heard of him wearing one after the war. In any event, the Goodwear Bronco is in part a tribute to him, as he was someone I loved and looked up to a great deal, and who stoked my interest in WWII and airplanes generally.

 

[RudyN]

I like the name tags Roberto makes. Does anyone have a contact e-mail for him or a website address as I would like to get a couple of name tags, at least, from him. Thanks

 

[deeb7]

Does anyone have a contact e-mail for him or a website address ...

Or just PM, rob751T.

Here are his pictures ....

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c380/ ... atchmaket/

 

[SuinBruin]

An interesting development in my quest for the perfect name tag happened this weekend. I was visiting my grandmother in southern California with my folks, and there was a box of my grandfather's effects to go through. I was poking around when I found three embossed leather name tags tied in a bundle (see the pictures below). These had to have been tags he was issued during his service in the USAAF during the war (as I stated in a prior post, I know he was issued an A-2, as his receipt from the quartermaster was in with copies of his service records). The tags match the size, color, and font of other pics of original tags I've seen posted here and elsewhere. (Also, so far as I am aware, my grandfather never took any steps to have a repro or other replacement A-2 after the war, and I can't see him ordering the tags for no particular purpose. Plus, as Zoomer has pointed out, the font used in the real tags is quite distinctive and found almost nowhere else, so it is doubtful to me that they are aftermarket repros. But I digress.)

Needless to say, I was pretty excited by the discovery, and it looks like one of my grandfather's original A-2 name tags will be stitched to my pending Goodwear Bronco. (My grandmother also gave my my grandfather's garrison cap with lieutenant's bar, and his first military ID before he received his commission and was still only a private.)

Funnily enough, I had just received my second batch of tags from Aero with just "Cable" on them... I asked that the letters not be pressed so hard into the leather, and I think they turned out very nicely. I included scans of them below also.

 

[Anonymous]

great stuff
There's one more guy on ebay (split_s) who sells this

What do you think?