So Filson is offering their green Levi’s-designed trucker jacket for almost half off. This is the jacket that I tried on in New York City – it looked pretty good, the wife was surprisingly pleased with it, but it has a critical flaw: no hand warmer pockets. Instead, there are weird side-pouch things (you could wrap your arms around your chest and stick your hands in that way) and of course the double-zippered game bag in back for that rabbit you shot on the way to the bar or whatever…wait, what?
Here now a more in-depth breakdown of the jacket:
* It’s $150, down from $278. You can see it here. The thing is, I’m not convinced it’s the same thing as what I saw in New York, which is here.
* Not to be confused with this one, mind you. Which has the not-inconsequential advantage of swapping the game bag pockets for, you know, normal pockets. Although it’s possible those enormous circular pockets MIGHT take an iPad on the green ones…
* What is this jacket for? Basically it’s meant for weather that’s not cold enough for the peacoat but too cold for the shell or one of the cotton jackets. Think roughly 40-60 degrees with mild precipitation – which is to say, winter in the Bay Area.
* This would basically displace at least four jackets in current rotation: the Vandy soft-shell, the oilcloth engineer’s jacket, the leather Indy jacket and the suede (I KNOW STOP IT) trucker jacket.
This would be a much easier call if I hadn’t just laid down $90 for 3 jackets in NYC (none of which is going to be much help in precipitation or temps below about 55 degrees). As it is, my instinct is to hold off until about November or so and put it on the Christmas list if it looks like wearing…