How to Tell Real Military Jackets: Talon and Conmar Zippers, Souvenir Jackets, Mitchell Camo

Hi guys, today we're talking about military stuff, right? Check this out. Very cool. 1940s Air Force jacket. Gotta love this right here. Man, the things that this thing has experienced, right? So, very special. You're going to look for Talon zipper. Does it say Talon? Sometimes it says Conmar. Two different brands from the, say, 30s to the 60s. Talon or Conmar, you're looking at probably something legitimate military.

There was many reproductions of military jackets. There's many things that look like bomber jackets and leather stuff that is just a cool repro. Something just to wear and enjoy, but not from the actual military. This is a great example. So, also you can always tell kind of, if you see a contract number or a stock number or a specification, certain kind of number with a bunch of things. Matter of fact, 1944. Sometimes if you learn how to read these, you get really in the weeds on it.

But sometimes there's a year in this patch right here, if it's a real one. I digress. All right. What else do we have here? Military. Yes, believe it or not, this is military. This is called a souvenir jacket, right? So, the GIs, Rick, thank you for your service. The GIs, after their time in whatever country that they were in, bought often an embroidered on the back souvenir jacket. Started in Japan. We've had tons of these jackets.

I love these jackets. Many I've sold that actually fit me because I'm a huge guy. I regret selling them. I wish I kept one or two. But in Japan, they call them sukajan. But anyways, souvenir jackets. You're a GI. You do your time overseas and there's these little shops downtown, you know, just let's say you're on leave or you're enjoying some time off from the base. You're walking around and all these people would be trying to sell you a souvenir jacket.

Satin, chain stitch embroidery, dragons, lions, tigers. Sometimes it said like where you served or certain different things. From Greenland to Alaska to Guam, all over the place. These things were everywhere. And so, these are awesome. These are considered a military jacket. We love these. We pay good money for these. Just depends on nation, size, all that stuff. So, if you see an old jacket, especially they're always going to say, not always, a lot of them say the year.

This was like obviously Vietnam era when we did some stuff over in Thailand. Very cool. Just a fun jacket. Now, a third category of military would be like camo, right? This is a super cool camo. What's so cool about it? It was never deployed. It was never actually used. It's a rare print. It's called Mitchell camo. You know it by the grape leaf. Personally, my favorite of all the American military camos that have ever been created, this one's my favorite.

That and like Desert Storm chocolate chip. It's more than just a cookie, my friends. All right. So, what do we have here? New old stock, early 60s. They made this like Cuban Missile Crisis era. They were planning on doing something in the woods where they grow grapes apparently, but they never got deployed. A lot of these are sitting in back stock in military warehouses. All that to say, if you're looking at any kind of military heirloom clothing, it could be leather jackets.

It could say G1 on it, A2, these different numbers on the tag I showed you earlier. It could be camo. It could be all kinds of different stuff. Pants, just olive green colored pants. We buy all that stuff. We'll help you kind of discern what you have too. Sometimes when old timers pass away, they have a lot of this stuff. And we've boughten it by the truckload before and paid a lot of money. So, if you have any questions or are coming across old military stuff, we buy more than just clothing, but we especially buy the clothing because this is just awesome.

So, our number is 949-449-1255. Give us a call.

Read more

The guides and pages this video is part of.

• Grandpa’s uniform deserves a real answer, not a donation bin.
• Sell military memorabilia to buyers who understand what it meant.
• What to Do With Old Military Uniforms: Keep, Donate, or Sell
• What Are Old Military Patches Worth?