Originally Posted by
notEnuf
The Deltoid classics were uptight about the uniform. I was at a DCI carrier and when we got leather jackets, I would ride the combined employee bus and here it prior to every trip. You would have thought we were single handedly destroying the brand especially during bankruptcy. One guy dressed as a US Air pilot for halloween and the picture went around, most thought it funny. The Deltoids lost their sh!t.
Towards the end, NWA got rid of the hats and we got leather jackets. They were really pretty nice and worked quite well up in the frigid north. Zip in lining so you could tweak it for cold or MSP cold. No velcro or other crap, so once you took the epaulets off, it was just a normal jacket you could wear on an overnight, so no need to pack another coat. Wiped clean with a damp rag and otherwise required zero maintenance. The "official" vendor was Gibson and Barnes, and they were really well made. Of course, pilots being pilots, some went for a cheap option (some vendor in India), and they didn't look that great (my opinion, but hey whatever).
Given that most people say they're pragmatic, and that the jackets were the more practical option, the folks that didn't like the jackets for one reason or another had other things going on. "Hmmmm, I'm presented with a really practical option that works in 95% of the cases, versus a coat that looks like it came from a 1940s movie, winkles, looks like sh!t, and doesn't really keep me warm, plus I need to drag another coat along for a layover because I don't want to look like a creep...but I'm going with the later because....I don't want to "look like an RJ pilot".