Snake America Twenty Eight
Snake America is a bi-weekly email newsletter covering eBay auctions like the State Department. This week, some dumbass fishing vest, and a bi-yearly butt-beater of a two-tone sweatshirt. Subscribe.
eBay: Nike fishing vest: Is this good vintage or old trash? That's a question better applied to something other than a brown vest, but why not look. There's a gap here. In a store in New York, it would sell. If it was on the rack, people would point it out, take it off the rack and stroke it and try it on, and if it doesn't sell by the end of its first day, it goes in the window and flies out the door. "This is sooo crazy," another customer might say. "I didn't know Nike made fishing vests, and yet," they'd continue, "and yet, here I am stroking a Nike fishing vest in this New York store and no one's arresting us." But if this Nike fishing vest was found in the bottom of a by-the-pound junk pile or in a remote flea market, it'd be passed over. This is less a condemnation of the vest than retail and the city I live in. But that said, this thing sucks. I'm not sure it's real(1). The logo dates to Clinton-Bush-Perot, which is a trash era. Plus Nike doesn't do much fishing gear--some is on Amazon, but most are sunglasses and/or wicking Tilley hats, etc., not deep waders--and I'm not sure this is fishing gear. I've seen and read about fishing vests and this is no fishing vest. What's with the pockets? You can't put tackle in this thing. A fisherman or -woman can't carry more than two kinds of bait in one pocket of their vest. Worms don't mix with lures. Fishing vests--as seen in on the back cover of this silver-age Emperor(2) album:
Are characterized by:
tan khaki cotton, the shittier and more unflattering in cut the better. So this half-applies to the vest.
many, many pockets. Two-dozen is a good number. Small ones not even big enough for a Nokia--those are worm pockets. You don't want to put your worms and your Powerbar in with your iPad.
buttons--some vintage vests have a button snap across the front so fishers don't fumble with their YKK or Talon between castings.
So it's not a Nike and not a fishing vest. I am sure Nike at some point made fishing gear, Maybe these:
Not sure what these are. The vest, though, I could find this under my bed and I'd keep it there. Stay away.
eBay: 1930s two-tone sweatshirt: This is a great sweatshirt and an important piece of American vintage and something that shows up on eBay about ... every other year. Maybe once a year. Not often and very rarely. This is a two-tone sweatshirt that is thicker than two sweatshirts, built for stout people. The hood is sewn on after the fact, with the front coming out further like a lip. The most popular color for the second tone is navy blue. Burgundy pops up now and then. This friendly man below, in this photo snatched from the instagram of some guy who works at RRL is wearing a navy two-tone:
And he looks like what my friend Rob describes as "a bad guy from the 1960s Batman." Like a friendly stevedore with doorman eyes(3). The Instagram post describes him as "Merchant Seaman, 1941." Sounds about right. The sweatshirt also has an orange tone, only seen here:
in an on-the-floor photo From the 2012 Inspiration LA, which is kind of like the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament but for vintage clothing and on the Queen Mary and not the Stamford Marriott, in 2012. What a sweatshirt and outfit. I put in a bid on the relevant auction to see who the winners would be, but you can't search by bidder anymore. But you never know. This thing can't fit good. I think the auction ends around $900, but if it goes for over $1,200, it wouldn't surprise me if a company like Polo reproduces these for next fall. Might even hit 2 Large, who knows. That tends to happen. Rules go out the windows with butt-beaters. These were never cheap, ever. But on some joints, there are no deals.
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Snake
(1) not in the deep sense, but it looks bootleg
(2) Fun Emperor fact... former glory-era songwriter Mortiis' real name is Havard--that's a type of delicious cheese!
(3) can be confused with Maitre D eyes as well... people who have seen the faces of doom, been to the edge and back, etc.