WWII Impressions Jeep Cap
Review Date: 7/7/2007
UPDATED: 9/2008
Author: Chris Guska
Ordering:
On Wednesday 6/27/2007 I called WWII Impressions to place an order for a pair of rough-out service shoes as well as a Reproduction Jeep Cap. I spoke with Elvis, the customer service representative at about 430pm EST. Elvis was courteous and generally knowledgeable about the products.
The WWII Impressions website lists the hats in size Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large, underneath the list is a link to a chart detailing the conversions from US, to UK, to Inches Circumference to CM Circumference. Ironically enough, it does not explain what Small – X-large corresponds to in US, UK, Inches or CM. Elvis was able to help me out while I was on the phone with him and knew off hand exactly what the sizes corresponded to. I wear a 7 ¼ hat, and that corresponded to a medium. 7 3/8ths was on the border of large.
After giving Elvis all the pertinent information, he informed me that the order would be packed and shipped the same day via UPS. He estimated that it would take 3 to 4 days to arrive.
I received the boots and jeep cap via UPS on 7/2/07.
Cost: $25
The Jeep Cap:
I’ve seen about 4 different reproductions of the Jeep cap, a variety of those owned by 90th IDPG members. Among those are WWII Impressions, At The Front, Tim Scherrer’s The Well Dressed GI, and What Price Glory.
I have been previously wearing an original and decided to retire it in favor of a reproduction.
I chose to order one from WWII Impressions based on what I had seen of the other reproductions, and my personal opinions on them.
I’ll try and show all the details that were important to me in comparison photos with my original Jeep Cap. Additionally I hope to show more details and more angles in greater quality than that on WWII Impression’s site.
Bear in mind that these are my personal opinions, experiences, and photos. The photos are pretty clear cut, and you can make your own decision based on them. My opinions and experiences are colorful, if you don’t like them, what I have to say, or how I say it, too bad, look somewhere else.
First off, before anyone has a cow or a hissyfit, my original cap is stretched out, well worn, and very faded. Here’s the first photo and comparison.I realize that might not be the best comparison, or representative photo, as it would be most fair to compare unissued originals to the new reproduction. But, look beyond the beat up original, and look at the details. Notice how the brim is sewn and reinforced, with a very thin strip of the weave ontop of the brim. Many other reproductions and surplus store variety Jeep caps are totally wrong in that detail, they have sometimes ¾ to 1 inch of material ontop of the brim. Totally wrong. Juan got his dead on with this repro. The reinforcement stitching along the edge of the brim is a bit longer, but, well, I’m sure variation existed in that. Additionally, the method in which the top seams are constructed are identical.
The reproduction hat has an authentic style size tag inside sewn into the crown. The brim of the hat supposedly has a leather brim, not cardboard or plastic like on some other reproductions. For some reason I thought they had cardboard brim stiffeners, but I could be mistaken. I’m not 100% positive, I just never remember reading or hearing about leather being used. Juan assuredly did the research, as it makes no sense to use leather unless that’s how it was originally done. The knit on the hat is pretty tight, like many originals I have handled. I personally prefer jeep caps with a tighter weave, as that is my major complaint with At The Front’s jeep caps, which there are several in the unit. The hat when worn is form fitting and stretches adequately, much like the original. When I say form fitting, the top of the hat lays on top of the head, and does not have any additional material still sticking up in a “chimney” of sorts. The problem I often seen with jeep caps or reenactors are, that either they get a jeep cap that’s too large for them, and doesn’t sit flat on the top of their head, or the jeep cap isn’t cut right, so it leaves a bulge on the top of their head, much like a reservoir tip condom. It looks stupid. The hat returns to shape when taken off, in that it does not stay stretched out, which is good. The original pictured below has lost that ability over time.
The color of the jeep cap is an acceptable color, well within the range of shades that would have been common for jeep caps. There is no one “right” shade for jeep caps, as I’ve seen originals with a wide range of colors. Additionally, no 2 batches of jeep caps, or uniforms for that matter, were ever 100% the same.
Summary Pros and Cons
Pros:
Overall, I’m really happy with the Jeep cap. It meets my expectations, and I feel that it looks good. I’m happy to replace an original out of my kit with this one. It’s a recommended buy over other vendors.
Correct details
Tight weave
Fits properly – No reservoir tip.
Good color
Good elasticity
Cons:
None really. Maybe that it costs $25. I’d love to see them for sale for $20 or less, so re-enactors would have NO excuse not to buy these.
September – 2008
Here’s the photos:
Jeep Cap Update:
After 1 year of use and a half dozen events, the WWII Impressions jeep cap is holding up well. No major issues other than its somewhat stretched out and has lost a little elasticity.
As mentioned above, the cap has lost a little elasticity so that the “fold” seems to like to roll down and is sometimes a pain in the butt to keep the very back folded up when not wearing a helmet on top of it.
There haven’t been any frays, snags, rips or other noteworthy occurrences with the weave.
I’m pretty happy with the hat so far, with no urge to replace it with “something better” or newer. I’ll probably check back in on the hat in a couple of years and see how it’s holding up.
For the moment – I’d feel confident in recommending these hats to new guys in the unit, or current members looking to upgrade.
