At The Front - 5 Button "High Neck Sweater"
Review Date: 5/26/2012
Author: Chris Guska
"The Fearsome Four of Fightdom in France"
Bailak, Pa. (died during war), Kurk, Texas, R. L. Webb, Texas, Vanderpool, KY of C Company 359th
Nov. 5, 1944.Background:
The 5 Button Sweater, (Sweater, Highneck, Stock Number 55-S-64245) was a fairly common item in North West Europe. The 90th Division issued 8,640 Sweaters, Highneck in October 44, with subsequent reissue thereafter.
Variations exist slightly in weave, construction, color and "hand" of original examples. For this review, I will be simply providing photos and observations of the reproduction I recieved from At The Front. At a future time when I'm able to pull together a representative sample of several original sweaters, I may do some comparison photos. Based on the variation I have observed over the past 15 years, and that they went through at least 5 revisions to the specification, I dont believe that I'd be doing any service comparing against the single original in my collection...
Ordering:
Ordering was quick and easy via telephone with At The Front. I ordered a pile of helmet liner components as well as this sweater. The order was accurately filled and delivered via UPS the same week when I ordered it.
Cost: $75.00
The Reproduction:
Overall:
The sweater is made from a wool / poly blend knit. The fabric feels to be the right weight and hand to it, its not super scratchy, yet not exactly downy soft. The weave has good elasticitity to it, in that it stretches where it should and actually returns to shape.
Buttons are correctly sized and are of a color well within the range of originals. The change in weave is right on to some originals.
The sweater comes with a realistic styled QM tag, and a turbo farby country of origin tag as required by law. Conveniently, the country of origin tag is loosely stitched in place for rapid removal. It tore off within seconds of this photo being taken. Also of note is detail on how the colar is attachd to the body.
Detail of body seams where collar, shoulder, body and sleeve meet.
Underam seam detail.
Cuff and waistband detail. The cuffs are plenty long and do stretch and return to shape/size well.
I prefer the cuffs rolled up for wear.
Back, overall view.
Fit - I wear a 38-40 jacket depending on who made it. 15.5 / 32 shirt. In these photos I am wearing a "Small" which is indicated for 33-37 on the ATF website. I really think these smalls will fit up to a 42. They are somewhat loose / baggy for a Small considering I wear a "Medium" by the size charts. In the photos, I look kinda "paunchy"
As an experiment, I ran the sweater through the wash on the regular setting, cold water, Tide detergent, and dryed it on the medium / high heat setting. The reccomended settign is cold handwash and hang dry. The sweater did shrink, taking out some of the baggyness. The arms appeared to shrink more than the body, taking the excess length out of them, and the body tightened up a little.
I feel that after washing it (on settings NOT reccomended) the sweater ran truer to size than out of the box.
After washing, the hand / feel was about the same. The sweater did not pill up, change color or grow legs and walk off
Summary Pros and Cons
Pros:
Weave is good
Weave has plenty of elasticity
Buttons are good
Materials are OK
Construction is well done and sturdy
Doesnt do crazy things when washed
Reasonably warm
Cons:
A little baggy for the marked size
50/50 blend - but not much to complain about due to costs...I don't have much to complain about of substance once again. I’m happy to replace an original out of my kit with this one. I wouldnt have any heartburn reccomending this sweater to my friends or other unit members.
