No one remembers that in the 1970s, when Jacky and I founded Avirex to replicate WWII apparel leather jackets, most leather jackets were considered "bad boy" motorcycle clothing.....Marlon Brando....Fast and the Furious, James Dean, Steve McQueen...etc...
I had grown up with my father's A-2 he used while flying combat in China during
WWII and then graduated to wearing my uncle's
A-2 leather flight jacket which he wore flying P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes over Germany in 1944.
Apparently I was not alone. A lot of people were attracted to my jacket with its squadron patches and insignias as they commented to me while I was wearing these "artifacts" as flying kit while performing stunts at airshows in my
Stearman vintage WWII Bi-plane... et voila Avirex and
Cockpit USA were born!
The first jackets I had made for Cockpit USA were so stiff they stood up by themselves. This led to my quest to soften the product and create an aged "
100 mision worn in used look" to the jackets and ultimately to my developing what became known as "Distressed Leather" and "Distressed Sheepskin" to simulate years of wear.
The end result is the iconic Cockpit style Z2567 antique
lambskin A-2 pilot's jacket created by us in the 1980's. It has a luxurious satin lining with an embroidered, appliqued and hand printed decorated patriotic lining design adorned with American Flags, a salutation from the Gerneral of the Armed Forces and a
pin-up inllustration sewn into one side of the jacket featuring a 1940's beauty and the by line "For the Boys in the Cockpit." A lot of visual surprise on the interior of an otherwise utilitarian flight jacket - Cockpit created a first in the world of flight fashion.
Why do I call this leather "antique?" Because as you wear this jacket, the leather changes tone and shows signs of use but without damage, and lightens in areas of friction normally occasioned by normal wear ultimately becoming the personalized creation of the wearer. Each jacket ends up its own unique icon with looks slightly different between wearers.
And your
Cockpit A-2 style Z2567 is MADE IN THE USA!!!
You can't get homegrown quality like this anywhere but at the
Cockpit.
Choose an Air Corps brown or black color in this very comfortable all year round wearable pilot's original authentic flight suit clothing gear modeled after the jacket Jacky and I actually redeveloped in 1986 for the United States Airforce combat pilots.
Read about the
21st Century USAF flight jacket in my next blog. You will want to sleep in it is so cool.
Check Six and Keep'em Flying
Jeff C.
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