On the way to the Holiday Bowl in 2004, we stopped by an Eddie Bauer outlet in Gilroy and damn near cleaned it out. After that, I literally went four years without buying myself any new outerwear. Then it started again, and went more or less like this:
VANDY 3, January 2009: a black Columbia Sportswear softshell with the obvious sporty markings. Good down to about 55 degrees. Sheds light rain. No hood. Can hold an iPad (awkwardly) in the inside left “pocket”. Stuffs adequately into a large bag.
CERT COAT, summer 2009. Canary yellow ski-type jacket with zip-in fleece, suitable for emergency wear at work. Didn’t pay for it, thank goodness.
ENGINEERS JACKET. November 2009. Green oilcloth Lands End coat with plaid flannel lining. Four patch pockets with snaps. No handwarmer or internal pockets. Good down to about 50 degrees. Stands up to moderate rain. No hood. As faux-Barbour outerwear goes, could do worse. First new jacket in 5 years in a color other than black.
GAP PEACOAT. December 2009. Looked all right, broadly speaking. Buttons not securely attached. Slightly awkward arm fit. Wound up donating to charity a year later.
SABOTEUR INVINCIBLE. Early autumn 2010. Gray blazer, double vents, red silk lining, “waterproof”. Not very good in serious rain. Little on the snug side. Probably wouldn’t do it again.
PEACOAT. Christmas 2010. Actual USA-made navy surplus in 46L. Fits perfectly. Suitable for any level of cold in California. Too heavy to wear at higher than 60 degrees. Looks awesome.
EDDIE BAUER CANVAS JACKET. June 2011. Just the wrong shade of off-white; gives impression of old-man poplin windbreaker. Good fit. Works well for mornings running the smoker. No water resistance, but good for temps down to 60 or so.
SEERSUCKER BLAZER. February 2012. On sale at Nordstrom, double-vent, great fit. Vandy lifestyle at its finest. Not really a regular-wear piece of work.
UNIQLO BLAZERS. April 2012. $30 apiece in NYC. Both look great and fit comfortably. One blue, one off-white.
UNIQLO BLOUSON. April 2012. Exactly like engineers except plain black cotton. Not at all water resistant. But was also $30!
So there’s been a lot of swings and misses in the last four years. Right now, as winter sets in, the move is either peacoat or engineers most days. But there hasn’t been a serious hard-raining day yet. My bases are pretty much covered, I suppose, but it would be nice to have an option for warmer than 50 degrees that let me stick my hands in my pockets and didn’t scream “I WILL NEVER TAKE THIS EXERCISING OR HIKING.” That’s sort of what I had in mind for the canvas until the color proved exactly wrong, and it’s not good against a chance of rain.
In case there was any doubt, this is all basically a Keltner list to suss out my thinking on outerwear at the moment…