I am in the club

[CatsCan]

Good evening!

I am new to the club but have lurked a pretty long while! Time now to out myself as a junkie of heritage looks. A week ago I catched my new Pike Brothers N-1 Deck Jacket from a store 50 Km away from me. I must confess I was not overwhelmed when I tried one on several years ago. But I see now, they have improved their takes on N-1 drastically from the more bulky fit of their old and first batch with numbers as sizes instead of letters a few years ago to the newer line which says S, M, L, XL and on. This is an M. I am 187 cm tall and 76 kilograms, meaning I belong to the slim type of beings what allways rendered it impossible to find a good fit with the Pike Bros Deck Jackets. Now I am very satisfied, their new batch fits well on me, does it?

The pants are their 1937 Roamer, nearly two years old and 8 washes since new.

And Boots are L.L.Bean Katahdin Iron Works..

Sorry for the bad picture quality but I simply couldn't wait 'till daylight.

Hope I have done everything right in my first post here.

The boring series of images I have done here is just to catch the fit in every possible pose to help others with a slim and tall stature decide if they like it or not.

I did not like their u.s.n. stencil kit because the characters are way to big and narrow, so I have done some handpainting...
http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/CatsCansPictureCan/media/a_zpsc46yyogq.jpg.html
Looking forward to your comments...

Cheers for now!

Cats




This is not done with a stencil, but by hand...

 

[Superfluous]

Congrats on the PB N-!!!! Looks great.

Ps: Now that you are a member of the club, please send your dues to:

Superfluous
Pennhurst Insane Asylum
Spring City, Penn.

A cashier's check is preferable.

 

[CatsCan]

Superfluous! We have met there in the park outside the asylum, did you forget? I have won the dwarf-throwing competition and you said you would give me some of your baseball-collectibles soon...

Thanks for your kind words regarding the PB!

Cheers
Cats

 

[nick123]

You're a new member who has graciously provided multiple fit pics. You automatically advance up a couple of tiers for that alone.

 

[Monitor]

Cool jacket, cool jeans, cool boots! I really dig those jeans!

 

[Peacoat]

Welcome to the Club, Cats; well done.

 

[ProteinNerd]

Love the first picture, you look so happy with the new jacket.....and rightly so [emoji2]

 

[rocketeer]

I had an original N1 from the WWII carrier Lexington, it was a bit worn out on some crease points but still one of the most windproof jackets I have ever had. I real downside was the alpaca lining, way toooooo itchy with just a T shirt so it had to go

 

[pawineguy]

Great first post, welcome to the lounge. That's a great fitting N-1.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Welcome and great pics and fit. But to British ears your heading seemed to announce that you were expecting a happy event!

Many nations divided by a common language….slang anyway.

 

[CatsCan]

happy event

hopefully my belly will not show things like that soon or later, it would ruin my believe in biology... and maybe worse, it would ruin the fit of many Jackets

Thank you for all your nice comments and your warm welcome here.
It was a pleasure to read many threads here, some of which have finally helped me to make a decision. I was leaning towards the RMC N-1, but since the PB-Shop is nearby, I thought, why not give it another try. Does not mean, that another N-1 will be not be added some day anyway.

take good care
Cats

 

[ButteMT61]

N-1 looks great! I'm a little tall for the Pike Bros N-1 - I think the fit is better on you. But I love that jacket - and I agree about the stencils which is why I never did mine. They just don't look right, so I'm holding off on it (still).
Welcome to the Lounge. Lots of good stuff here.

 

[bn1966]

Great pics and welcome sir...

 

[CatsCan]

N-1 looks great! I'm a little tall for the Pike Bros N-1 - I think the fit is better on you. But I love that jacket - and I agree about the stencils which is why I never did mine

Hi Butte, I followed your posts about your PB, and I thought it looked very good on you in front of your fresh stained stairs! I looked at many many pictures of authentic period jackets to find out how the stencils should look like and I am sure I haven't hit the nail with mine though. But I wanted it, so I applied it. Then I realized, that most - if not all - of the WWII examples had the USN a tad above the hight of the second button-hole, so mine is a little too low. I also have the impression that the letters are as high as the button-holes are long, so ca. 1 inch high. You could do your own stencil if you print USN on a sticker-sheet and cut the letters out using a fine cutting tool, then take the sticker and press it to the fabric and simply dash with the mine of a broad permanent marker (I used the interior of a black Edding). This was a good technique because the sticker is very thin and seals up with the fabric well.

 

[ButteMT61]

Thanks for the tips, @CatsCan. Maybe I'll see about trying this over the holidays. I like the way yours looks - and I've seen lots of different variations on vintage N-1's, so I'd wager it's not critical and more important to like the way it looks. Good to have you on board.

 

[CatsCan]

Thanks, Butte! You are right about many different variations, but It appeared to me, that this was mainly the case with post-worldwar N-1's, especially those of the vietnam-war period. The WWII-versions I have seen (with NxSx contract) seem to have this position in common:



...just to encourage you a little like you have encouraged me to go for the PB.

Have a nice day

Cats

 

[CatsCan]

This is the print-version I have done for me, just modified the "S". You could use this but would have to smooth out some outlines though. just open with photoshop, original size and it should be 1 inch to 3 1/4 inch when printed. Have fun!

 

[Stand By]

Really great first post, Cats! Welcome aboard.
And you wear your N-1 well - the cap and jeans just go with it so naturally. It looks great!
And thanks for the helpful stencil info too!
Bravo.

PS. I've had my eye on a pair of the LL Bean boots you have for a while - to replace my Blundstones (which have underwhelmed me for the very first time. The problem can be summed up in 4 words: Not Made In Australia). How do you rate yours, please? I'd love to know what you think of them. Thanks!

 

[Dreamofgilgamesh]

I only stopped to look because you said you were "In the club"

 

[CatsCan]

How do you rate yours, please?

WARNING - LONG POST
@Stand By First let me thank you for your welcome and kind words! @ all UK fellows: NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT (this would surprise me alot)
@ Stand By: To answer your question Stand By regarding the Iron Works Boots from L.L. Bean, I love them for many reasons.
My reasons to buy....
...those are vain somehow: There are Red Wing stores here in Germany and about everybody who wears Raw and Selvage has them. It begun to be a kind of a uniform. Since a few months you also can get Chippewa Boots here. But when I tried to find an alternative, they where hard to get in my location and including tax and shipping cost even more expensive than Red Wings from one of their stores. So I got myself these from L.L. Bean.


I know they are comparably cheap in the US. Dunno how much it is to get them to Canada though. Even shipping and tax inclusive they were alot cheaper than the Red Wings (which I also own in the meanwhile). I own boots, not many others in my country have

Quality:
These boots are not 100% made in USA. They say: assembled in USA, materials USA and imported. RAWRDENIM had cut them in halves to look inside. They found that the thin mesh lining which is used inside the front part of the boot to protect your socks from the oil tanned leather when you sweat was marked "made in China". The leather is the usual leather, Chippewa - who makes the boots for L.L. Bean - uses on many of their boots and is called chocolate Appache and the final sole is made in the italian Switzerland by Vibram.



I guess the brass eylets are also not made in USA but somewhere overseas - most probably in Germany. These may be the reasons to not mark them Made in USA even if nearly 70% of the materials are US made and the boots are assembled by Chippewa in USA. But this says nothing about the quality of the materials used. But this explaines the price.
The Chippewa Company seems to have (had?) some quality-check problems when it comes to boots they make for L.L. Bean. Mine had some faulty stiches which but could be easily repaired for small money by my cobbler. I read of others having comparable minor issues with theirs.

My opinion:
These boots are ideal for what I have to do with them! I really need boots to beat without thinking too much about where to step and without worrying too much about if I could damage them. So I started to wear them without too much care. To my surprise, they have proved to be very hard taking!! The construction is sturdy and solid. The leather still supple, even after beeing totally soaked with water dozends of times. Soles are brilliant as they have just enough profile to not be too slippery on wet grass or snow but just to little to not gathering and keeping mud like other boots I own. Mud is falling right off between your steps.
Above all: The last on which they are constructed seem to be brilliant as well. They are dead comfy to wear. If your right size, you should have room around your toes to be surounded by air (good against cold feet) and the bending point does not cut into your foot whilst walking (common issue with some other cap-toes sometimes).
I first found the piece of plastic built in the heel as spacer weird but learned it to value as very hard taking in that part of the boot. It will however not develope any patina like the rest of the welt will do so this can be an optical issue to some.
Not a single eyelet came loose even after use of heavy leather laces (which I had on other boots I own).
And best of all, after two years of nearly living in these boots (often worn day after day after day without giving them a day of rest ) they develope a nice patina, without loosing form and function at all. The following images show these boots just two weeks ago a day after giving them a wipe with a damp cloth and without oiling them (I haven't oiled or conditioned them more than twice since I own them, just wiped them regulary and sometimes cleaned them with a solution of warm water and olive-soap that I use for washing my hands. I could oil them now. Think they deserve it.







I would recommend these boots as beaters, good looking to my eyes, solid goodyear welt construction, Vibram soles, mineral oil tanned US leather, brass eyelets, cap toe box, fabric mesh lining inside front part, Munson last or comparable, tight around ankles so no snow or mud can come inside, a bit of a task to break them in but worth to go that mile.



Sorry - the swedish wool-gabardine, ski pants did not look good with these boots, but this was 20 months ago and I just have picked them off the interweb.

Have fun!

Cats