B-Man2
Well-Known Member
If you said that they were “kissing cousins” or related by blood, you wouldn’t be wrong. For those of you who may be hearing this for the first time, all three of those manufacturers of WWII A2 jackets , and many other types of WWI and WWII military jackets as well, were started and owned by members of one family . The Isaac Spiewak family.
Notice that I didn’t say sons, the reason being is that while Isaacs’ sons were involved in the company that we all know him for, Isaac Spiewak & Sons, his Son in Laws founded, United Sheeplined, and Isaac and other family members founded Bronco
Manufacturing. It’s a an interesting story and back in 2011 VLJ member “bjoy” wrote up a historical post of Isaac Spiewak, that is probably one of the most comprehensive posts on this forum about Spiewak, his family and his businesses. You can read it here:
For a Polish immigrant coming to the US in 1904 in search of the “American Dream” Isaac certainly did achieve a high level of success .
Ok .. so after some thought about the roles these three companies played in the manufacture of the A2 jacket during WWII, I decided to do a comparison review of all three jackets to see exactly what traits they might have in common ... if any. I’m very fortunate to own original A2’s from each of these companies , a Bronco , a USL and a I. Spiewak & Sons , so I thought that I’d take a look at them, along with you guys and post some photos for your review as well .
So let’s begin with a review of all three jackets
United Sheeplined
Bronco
I.Spiewak &Sons
Now without a lot of effort you can see that there are some similarities in a few areas of each of these jackets. So let’s drill down a bit and take a closer look at some individual sections of these jackets .
Labels
As you already knew the labels are similar as specific information was required on each label , however the label placement right up under the leather hanger is interesting in that several different contractors placed their labels all over the place but these three jackets have label placement figured out .
Now at this point I have to let you know that I have a lot more to come , but because I’m doing this from my cell phone , I’m limited to only posting 10 photographs at a time so, the only way I can manage this is to post this section and then come back with the next section with more photos once it’s completed. A frustrating process for both of us but we’ll get through it
Be back shortly with the next chapter.
Notice that I didn’t say sons, the reason being is that while Isaacs’ sons were involved in the company that we all know him for, Isaac Spiewak & Sons, his Son in Laws founded, United Sheeplined, and Isaac and other family members founded Bronco
Manufacturing. It’s a an interesting story and back in 2011 VLJ member “bjoy” wrote up a historical post of Isaac Spiewak, that is probably one of the most comprehensive posts on this forum about Spiewak, his family and his businesses. You can read it here:
Researching I. Spiewak & Sons, Inc
Isaac Spiewak immigrated from Warsaw, Poland, with his wife and then five children in 1903. The family grew to eight children with sons Henry E (1894-1976), Philip (1896-1991), Murray E (1906-1985), Harry I, Peter, Sam R, and daughters Esther (1899-1968) and Rose. Isaac had noticed that the...
www.vintageleatherjackets.org
For a Polish immigrant coming to the US in 1904 in search of the “American Dream” Isaac certainly did achieve a high level of success .
Ok .. so after some thought about the roles these three companies played in the manufacture of the A2 jacket during WWII, I decided to do a comparison review of all three jackets to see exactly what traits they might have in common ... if any. I’m very fortunate to own original A2’s from each of these companies , a Bronco , a USL and a I. Spiewak & Sons , so I thought that I’d take a look at them, along with you guys and post some photos for your review as well .
So let’s begin with a review of all three jackets
United Sheeplined
Bronco
I.Spiewak &Sons
Now without a lot of effort you can see that there are some similarities in a few areas of each of these jackets. So let’s drill down a bit and take a closer look at some individual sections of these jackets .
Labels
As you already knew the labels are similar as specific information was required on each label , however the label placement right up under the leather hanger is interesting in that several different contractors placed their labels all over the place but these three jackets have label placement figured out .
Now at this point I have to let you know that I have a lot more to come , but because I’m doing this from my cell phone , I’m limited to only posting 10 photographs at a time so, the only way I can manage this is to post this section and then come back with the next section with more photos once it’s completed. A frustrating process for both of us but we’ll get through it
Be back shortly with the next chapter.
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