The new official TOJ thread, 2011 - Page 1590

DO NOT DOUBT CHARLY

First off, the hidden/less obvious parts of my lamb jackets (like the gussets, plackets, and unexposed portions of the rider lapel or sleeve) are usually more textured. I'm not sure if this was something that was decided on by Drew, or is done by the craftsmen at the factory, but it looks really nice, and kind of reminds me of how the anaconda detailing was done on brad-t's UCDR. It also seems like the person who put my MDR together went to a lot of trouble to make sure that it looked amazing. The leather is noticeably stiff, minimal (if any) veiny-ness, and the lapel has this smooth glossy-look I would expect from a goat leather jacket. It looks really luxe, and people kept coming over to touch it on the one day I got to wear it out.

The CWU-45 jacket's suede name tag is actually much larger vertically than the A2's. The A2's is much smaller vertically and probably a little longer horizontally. The tag's a beefy piece of suede that's been stitched on to the front of the jacket, for those who weren't already aware.

The ribbed collar option uses a collar with same ribbing that's used on every other black bomber. TOJ1 owners, the ribbing used for the TOJ1 is different from the ribbing used on the bombers. The TOJ1 ribbing is beefier, coarser (still comfortable), and pills more easily. Bomber ribbing is thin, silky, and is seemingly pilling resistant.

Also, not sure if this was just for my jacket or part of the pattern, but the sleeve on my CWU-45 doesn't taper as much as my A2 does. My CWU-45's sleeve is 2+ish cm larger above the ribbing than my A2. I'm pretty happy about this, because it allows me to stuff some of my bulkier watches behind the sleeve.

The gussets on the bombers are different from the gussets on my MDR. The gusset stops about 3/4 up on the MDR, but goes the entire length on the bombers. I don't remember how the gussets on my old 2010DR were done, so I'm not sure if this is a feature that is special to the MDR - honestly can't feel the difference in mobility though.

The A2 has three male snaps along the collar (one on each tip, and one on the back) which snap on to the two female snaps below the collar (gives it a nice roll) or on to three female snaps on a placket on the shearling collar. This keeps the collar looking crisp, and avoids the appearance of the little bumps you see on the CWU-45's front pockets (female snaps are on the inside of the cwu's leather pocket flap). I don't know how the CWU's collar differs from the A2's - mine has a ribbed collar. It's a really nice detail to have, and I'm glad I opted for it, because it's nice not to have thick leather pressed against the back of your neck sometimes. Riders have female snaps attached to the lapel, and male snaps to the body. (But my MDR has a snapless lapel )

To attach the A2's shearling to the jacket, you flip the collar up, and (in no particular order) connect the 3 corresponding snaps, and fit 5 elastic loops (at the bottom of the shearling collar) behind 5 small horn buttons along the inside of the collar.

On the two bomber jackets I own, the front pockets are folded at the edges and stitched to the body of the jacket. The top flap is actually a single folded piece of leather with stitched folded edges. It's attached by two seams (one hidden) to the body of the jacket. Stitched button holes on the A2.

The CWU-45 arm office is stitched to the leather sleeve, two pen-sized pockets are stitched to the arm-office, and two golf-pencil/tee-sized pockets are stitched above those pockets. The way that the arm office is stitched to the sleeve, you get a small strip of reverse lamb leather behind the zipper, and only the back of the arm office is lined with fabric - the rest is lamb. The pocket easily accommodates cards without affecting the shape. The pen-sized pockets can easily fit those cheap pens you can buy in packs of 10 for $2, and there's a bit of leather on the arm office to protect the rest of the sleeve from rubbing against the cap.

The side entry pocket on the CWU-45 is not partially lined with leather - the inside is all tech/lining fabric. The side entry pocket on the A2 is partially lined with a bit of leather, the rest of it is also fabric. The inner pockets on all three jackets, and the front zipper pockets of riders are also partially lined with leather, but use a lot more of it than is used than the side-entry pockets on the bombers. It feels really nice against my palm whenever I'm reaching for something.

On jackets with black hardware, both the A2 and rider jackets get double zippers. The CWU-45 has a single slender tab zipper for both the arm office (duh) and a single bulky main body zipper. I actually would have preferred it if the A2 was done the same way - with one zipper. If you look at the way the zippers are done for bombers and riders, rider zippers have the teeth exposed, and bomber body zippers have small tabs of leather that partially conceal the zipper teeth down to the ribbing. When I unzip, the bottom double zip bumps into the leather at the bottom of the bomber, and makes zipping up/down a little more difficult. Black double zippers are a very nice detail on non-bombers though - love em on my MDR, and I'll love them on my murked out 2010DR.

One difference between the 2010DR and the MDR is the convertible cuff. The 2010 has an attached cuff, whereas the MDR has a convertible cuff that can be snapped or unsnapped like the cuff on a button-up shirt. It's a great feature that can be used to prevent getting water/soup/etc on the jacket in situations where I'd rather not take it off (public bathroom sinks, outdoor lunches, etc). It also allows you to roll up the sleeve more easily, if you're into that.