Originally Posted by
80ktsClamp
This.
Abbott's quality is far superior, but don't expect wonderful customer service. I just retired the last of my 3 initial sets of pants I got in a package deal from them back in early 2007- the seat of all 3 eventually wore out, but after 6.5 years of use. The jacket still looks new.
They've been replaced by pants I got at Kohls for 20 dollars. Way better deal for the pants there! My tie has held up fine, and I got a hat from bancroft which has held up as well.
FWIW- I just snagged the Hush Puppies loafers from the DTW stop-over-store. By far my favorite uniform shoes I've ever owned. I'd recommend those to anyone.
Gonna sort of agree with Clamp here....
The Abbotts jacket is HOT, and I don't mean snazzy. The material is very heavy, and you will COOK wearing the thing, but oddly enough, it doesn't retain enough heat for walk-arounds in the hinterlands (say, anything north of IND).
Ditto on customer service. The lining tore out of mine after the first year. I happened to be in ATL, so I tried to drop it off for repair. Not only were they kind of cranky about it, but they refused to even work on it unless I had the jacket dry cleaned first (?!?!). It tore out again just a few months later, and the nice lady at the DTW Stop over Store fixed it for free.
I gave up trying to look even remotely cool in any of the overcoat options UNTIL I found a nice double breasted overcoat at Banana Republic. It was two benjies, but it's really warm, and has a much more modern cut & fabric than any of the ones you can get from the usual suspects. It even borders on useable in civvies.
The pants are OK, but a match is only necessary when you wear the jacket. There are more cost effective alternatives, especially when a match isn't required.
For shirts, I do the cheapo VanHuesens. They're one of the few that come in a tapered fit. If you remotely work out or try to keep in shape, every other shirt will fit like a tent unless you can get a tapered fit. There are some on-line sources for other brands, but you can get the VHs almost anywhere. The VHs last for about 2 years, depending on how you cycle them. I'm kind of fastidious, so I go through 4 shirts on a 4 day trip. I have about 15 shirts, so they cycle out about once a month (always have a couple of spares). That way I only go to the cleaners once a month. That said, once the VHs start to go, their decline is fairly quick.
FWIW, the Stop-Over-Stores, both in MSP and DTW, have been around for a long, long time, and they have come in really handy to me over the years for all kinds of odds and ends, from forgotten belts, to blown out shoes, headset earpads, flashlight batteries, emergency bag and uniform repairs and the like. I try to throw some dollars at them when I can (I have no financial interest).
Nu