Well Dressed GI / The Quartermaster Inspector Shop - Jeep Cap Review
Review Date: 10/11/2011
Author: Joseph Scarbrough
Foreword by: Chris Guska - 90th IDPG
Foreword:
Joseph reached out to me some time ago with questions regarding Jeep Caps. In late September 2011 he emailed me with a review of his recently purchased Jeep Cap from the Well Dressed GI.It has been a number of years since a unit member had purchased a Jeep Cap from Tim Scherrer's Well Dressed GI, of which - I held a favorable impression of the reproduction.
As we all know, vendors change suppliers and their products evolve over time. It is important to have timely reviews to stay ontop of the latest offerings. Joseph has graciously offered for us to publish his review here.
Without further ado...
The Reproduction:
Earlier this month (September 2011), I ordered a new Jeep Cap from Tim (Well Dressed GI) again, and was in for a bit of a surprise when I see apparently he had switched manufacturers as well...
I've taken some pictures to show where I was left scratching my head a little. To be fair, I've had my older cap for three years now, so it's faded a bit (amusing when pulling down the ear flaps and the cap looks like it has tan lines, lol)... and also, I made a slight alteration on the old cap: the brim stiffener wasn't quite the right shape and size, so I had replaced it with one I had gotten from a local army surplus store (the wonky-looking modern-day green ones), as well as added the reinforcement stitching.
First things first, I notice the knitting and weave on Tim's new caps look "finer" than previously, almost similar to WWII Impressions (from what I had seen in the other review photos), but I did notice two improvements off the bat:
1) the brims are now the correct size and shape (though still lack the reinforcement stitching), and the seams atop the crown are all exactly three inches, though it too still has a rear seam down the back like Tim's older caps.
As for the top seams, take a look at them: the stitching in the older cap is pretty neat and clean, but the stitching in the newer cap looks sloppy and rushed.
One thing that took me by surprise was the tag; the older caps do have an oilcloth tag, although not in the original authentic style, but that's a minor quibble, since nobody really sees the tags anyway... but the new caps appear to have a papery tag, and while it make look like the originals on one side, turn it over and... "Made in China"? "50% wool, 50% acrylic"? Granted, it does feel softer and "fluffier" compared to the older cap, but I believe the older cap may have been completely acrylic, but then again, I have no issue with it, because after three years, the older cap is still retaining it's shape, and has no surface fuzziness that appears overtime (like the aforementioned surplus store one I purchased).
Another detail I couldn't help but notice was the newer cap has just a little too much weave above the brim; it's hard to tell since it seems to lay flat down on the brim, but you pull it up, and it would seem there's about 1/3 inch of weave above the brim. As for the brim itself, the stitching isn't very secure, so the stiffener feels a little loose inside the weave, I don't believe I experienced that before I replaced the stiffener in my older cap.
Lastly, the newer cap looks small at first, but luckily it does stretch adequetly over my head (not really sure if the L on the tag is for real, the circumference of my head is more oval-shaped than round, so my hat size in like on the border of L and XL), but it seems to form-fit in the wrong places, as you can see in the photo: the older cap fits very well on my head, almost as if it were seemingly custom-fitted to my head, I never had to "break it in", and it hasn't stretched out or anything, it still retains its original shape and fits perfectly; the newer cap on the other hand conforms to the shape of my head up to below the top of the crown, then the rest kind of flops around on top (and also, there's that bulging previouslymentioned in other reviews).Conclusion:
So, what do you think of Tim's newer caps? Personally, my feelings are a bit mixed... it doesn't seem to be a very high quality repro, almost more like the kind a punk skateboarder would get a Walmart or something, but it does resemble the original WW2 caps very well.
