Gunslinger
08-01-2010, 10:34 AM
Let's get some more product reviews up in all the categories, guys! Here's a "reprint" of my recent custom...
Ok, I'm done. This is IT. I have the perfect Raiders jacket now. I can quit obsessing and nitpicking. (Well, about getting my own facsimilie of the Raiders -jacket-, anyway!)
The photos below just can't do the reality of this jacket justice, and I have Riley at Tony Nowak Originals to thank for it. There's just so much to say about this that I don't know where to start.
The Backstory:
I already had a Mk2 grain style Shrunken Lamb Raiders jacket from Tony. I liked it a lot - it just vibed Raiders. But I was finding it a bit tight in the chest. I thought if I could sell it and my Wested Horsehide, I may be able to swing another jacket from Tony with a bit more room. Lucky for me, I sold both pretty quick. Then I started thinking - obsessing really - about making absolutely sure this would be 3rd time lucky - that my third shot at this jacket would be perfect. The night before I shipped off my other 2 jackets I took a bunch of pictures of myself in poses to match key frames in the movie, noted where the jacket was coming to on me lengthwise, and how much looser the chest needed to be, how much the shoulder seem needed to be off the apex of my shoulders, and so on. Consistently I found that my jacket was exactly 1.5" short. So rumours aside, Ford ain't 6'1" like I am after all - which meant I really needed a 24.5" length.
Then I started to look at the jacket details. Specifically taking into account the jacket Tony was given to copy was the one used in Hawaii and part of the Truck Chase, and had a few key differences between it and the main hero jacket. Both are clearly shrunken lamb, but the main hero jacket definitely has Merino X stiations, whereas the Hawaii doesn't have any that I could note. I wanted a jacket as close to that main hero jacket, so I went frame-by-frame through Raiders and the Making of DVD and mapped all visible grain, all the striation lines. They're on almost every panel, by the way, and at the exact distance apart that the shrunken lamb Tony Nowak sourced is at. I then looked at the little details of the Hero jacket that were different between jackets - the droopy, lopsided collar, the action pleats, the colar stand, the zipper gap, and so on. Once I had checked and rechecked everything, I called Tony.
Tony:
I thought he would think I had transcended a new level of Screen Accurate craziness, but as always, Tony took it in his stride. I told him I had a project in mind, but didn't know if he would want to take it on. He just told me to email him the details of what I want. He got back to me, and we had a couple of great, long Tony chats. Those lucky enough to have these know what I'm talking about. We went through my diagrams and what-not. Long story short, the big guy said "No problem." He made a bunch of notes and said he was going to Italy, and he'd hit it when he came back.
Then the unthinkable happened.
I realised jackets weren't that important about a week or so later when I woke up to find Tony was gone. Like many here, it hit me really hard. Bizarre for someone I had never met and only spoke to half a dozen or so times. Rest in Peace, Tony.
Riley Barrie:
I introduced myself to Riley a little later, letting him know I was one of the people that had paid for a jacket. Straight away, I really liked this guy. Here is a dude that totally out of the blue had to learn the ropes of a completely new trade, cope with losing someone so close to them, and take over a business all in one hit. Mind blowing. Riley asked me if I still wanted my jacket. I told him absolutely, but I wasn't sure if he wanted to take it on. If he didn't want all my crazy diagrams I was going to go with a straight, beautiful 747 leather; but I wanted to go for gold. I trusted Riley to get it right.
Then Riley went one better. He wanted to make sure everything was perfect for how I wanted it, given the highly unusual set of circumstances. (At this point I'll note I'm in Australia) With help from a friend of mine, Bryan, they took photos of all the shrunken lamb hides and sent them to me. I was then able to select what hides were used, and how I wanted them. It was like constructing a jacket virtually. VERY cool. I was able to get very close to my "map" of the striations and grain. (Let me note, this obviously isn't a normal service, and does cost a bit more. All I can say is call Riley and he will be able to discuss how much that would be as I have no idea what the current prices are.) For S.A. nuts like me, all I can say is the premium is worth it, and then some. With a few conversations, Riley clicked to my wishes - most of which I left in his court, and he ran with - getting 100% of them spot-on beyond my wildest dreams.
The Jacket:
Again, Wow. So I get my shipping box, and pull the jacket out. Number 31/888. First thing I notice is how SUBSTANTIAL the thing is. My earlier shrunken lamb jacket was fairly light compared to my Wested Horsehide, but this thing felt heavier than the Horse, and like it would stop bullets. Amazing. The Striated Shrunken Lamb (SSL) hide is just awesome in person. The thing is, it looks over the top at first, especially compared to what you THINK the movie jacket looked like, but it starts to break in on you almost straight away. Most of the shots I've seen of this hide on this site are kind of misleading insofar as they are taken when people have just bought the jacket. It looks kinda weird at first. But I'd say it has easily half the extremeness of texture now than when I got it a week ago. It also does show up shinier and lumpier in these photos than it does in real-life. But it's definitely morphing into the Raiders jacket more each day.
And that texture is incredible. It perfectly matches the grain patterns and nuances you can see in the film if you look with a trained eye. The back striations that you see when Ford's on the front of the truck are there. The chest panel striations leading to sinewyiness: check. Arm striations? Check. And so on. I can even watch the scene just before the Idol Grab where Ford's pointing out the trap and we see diagonal shrunken graining on the right hand side of the yoke - and it's on my jacket in the identical format. Just jaw-dropping. I mean, Riley even went and matched the little squiggles I noted for the pockets.
Other details are similarly spot-on. Among numerous other things, the right-hand collar droops over, the zipper curls out, the pleats have the exact right amount of stiffness and depth, and the collar stand not only has the curve - it even has the "butt-crack" dent idential to the real Hero jacket.
Oh, and it fits like a dream!
Anyway, apologies, I didn't mean to write "War and Peace", but you can probably sense my enthusiasm! I'm a really picky guy, but Riley and the other guys at Tony Nowak have just blown me away.
Gunslinger
http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_105528.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_104912.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_104948.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_105022.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_110142.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_104730.jpg
Ok, I'm done. This is IT. I have the perfect Raiders jacket now. I can quit obsessing and nitpicking. (Well, about getting my own facsimilie of the Raiders -jacket-, anyway!)
The photos below just can't do the reality of this jacket justice, and I have Riley at Tony Nowak Originals to thank for it. There's just so much to say about this that I don't know where to start.
The Backstory:
I already had a Mk2 grain style Shrunken Lamb Raiders jacket from Tony. I liked it a lot - it just vibed Raiders. But I was finding it a bit tight in the chest. I thought if I could sell it and my Wested Horsehide, I may be able to swing another jacket from Tony with a bit more room. Lucky for me, I sold both pretty quick. Then I started thinking - obsessing really - about making absolutely sure this would be 3rd time lucky - that my third shot at this jacket would be perfect. The night before I shipped off my other 2 jackets I took a bunch of pictures of myself in poses to match key frames in the movie, noted where the jacket was coming to on me lengthwise, and how much looser the chest needed to be, how much the shoulder seem needed to be off the apex of my shoulders, and so on. Consistently I found that my jacket was exactly 1.5" short. So rumours aside, Ford ain't 6'1" like I am after all - which meant I really needed a 24.5" length.
Then I started to look at the jacket details. Specifically taking into account the jacket Tony was given to copy was the one used in Hawaii and part of the Truck Chase, and had a few key differences between it and the main hero jacket. Both are clearly shrunken lamb, but the main hero jacket definitely has Merino X stiations, whereas the Hawaii doesn't have any that I could note. I wanted a jacket as close to that main hero jacket, so I went frame-by-frame through Raiders and the Making of DVD and mapped all visible grain, all the striation lines. They're on almost every panel, by the way, and at the exact distance apart that the shrunken lamb Tony Nowak sourced is at. I then looked at the little details of the Hero jacket that were different between jackets - the droopy, lopsided collar, the action pleats, the colar stand, the zipper gap, and so on. Once I had checked and rechecked everything, I called Tony.
Tony:
I thought he would think I had transcended a new level of Screen Accurate craziness, but as always, Tony took it in his stride. I told him I had a project in mind, but didn't know if he would want to take it on. He just told me to email him the details of what I want. He got back to me, and we had a couple of great, long Tony chats. Those lucky enough to have these know what I'm talking about. We went through my diagrams and what-not. Long story short, the big guy said "No problem." He made a bunch of notes and said he was going to Italy, and he'd hit it when he came back.
Then the unthinkable happened.
I realised jackets weren't that important about a week or so later when I woke up to find Tony was gone. Like many here, it hit me really hard. Bizarre for someone I had never met and only spoke to half a dozen or so times. Rest in Peace, Tony.
Riley Barrie:
I introduced myself to Riley a little later, letting him know I was one of the people that had paid for a jacket. Straight away, I really liked this guy. Here is a dude that totally out of the blue had to learn the ropes of a completely new trade, cope with losing someone so close to them, and take over a business all in one hit. Mind blowing. Riley asked me if I still wanted my jacket. I told him absolutely, but I wasn't sure if he wanted to take it on. If he didn't want all my crazy diagrams I was going to go with a straight, beautiful 747 leather; but I wanted to go for gold. I trusted Riley to get it right.
Then Riley went one better. He wanted to make sure everything was perfect for how I wanted it, given the highly unusual set of circumstances. (At this point I'll note I'm in Australia) With help from a friend of mine, Bryan, they took photos of all the shrunken lamb hides and sent them to me. I was then able to select what hides were used, and how I wanted them. It was like constructing a jacket virtually. VERY cool. I was able to get very close to my "map" of the striations and grain. (Let me note, this obviously isn't a normal service, and does cost a bit more. All I can say is call Riley and he will be able to discuss how much that would be as I have no idea what the current prices are.) For S.A. nuts like me, all I can say is the premium is worth it, and then some. With a few conversations, Riley clicked to my wishes - most of which I left in his court, and he ran with - getting 100% of them spot-on beyond my wildest dreams.
The Jacket:
Again, Wow. So I get my shipping box, and pull the jacket out. Number 31/888. First thing I notice is how SUBSTANTIAL the thing is. My earlier shrunken lamb jacket was fairly light compared to my Wested Horsehide, but this thing felt heavier than the Horse, and like it would stop bullets. Amazing. The Striated Shrunken Lamb (SSL) hide is just awesome in person. The thing is, it looks over the top at first, especially compared to what you THINK the movie jacket looked like, but it starts to break in on you almost straight away. Most of the shots I've seen of this hide on this site are kind of misleading insofar as they are taken when people have just bought the jacket. It looks kinda weird at first. But I'd say it has easily half the extremeness of texture now than when I got it a week ago. It also does show up shinier and lumpier in these photos than it does in real-life. But it's definitely morphing into the Raiders jacket more each day.
And that texture is incredible. It perfectly matches the grain patterns and nuances you can see in the film if you look with a trained eye. The back striations that you see when Ford's on the front of the truck are there. The chest panel striations leading to sinewyiness: check. Arm striations? Check. And so on. I can even watch the scene just before the Idol Grab where Ford's pointing out the trap and we see diagonal shrunken graining on the right hand side of the yoke - and it's on my jacket in the identical format. Just jaw-dropping. I mean, Riley even went and matched the little squiggles I noted for the pockets.
Other details are similarly spot-on. Among numerous other things, the right-hand collar droops over, the zipper curls out, the pleats have the exact right amount of stiffness and depth, and the collar stand not only has the curve - it even has the "butt-crack" dent idential to the real Hero jacket.
Oh, and it fits like a dream!
Anyway, apologies, I didn't mean to write "War and Peace", but you can probably sense my enthusiasm! I'm a really picky guy, but Riley and the other guys at Tony Nowak have just blown me away.
Gunslinger
http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_105528.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_104912.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_104948.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_105022.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_110142.jpg http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu163/roninbd/D700_20100625_104730.jpg