Willis and Geiger- The Original Hunting Gear

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May 26, 2022
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When my Grandpa passed I was able to go through his closet and pick out some of his old flannels and shirts as we had the exact same size. One of the pieces was a very unique Safari Jacket with a red Made in America tag by a brand called Willis and Geiger. I kept the jacket and was curious about the brand.

(Pic of similar jacket from ebay)

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After some research I was surprised to learn that Willis and Geiger is arguably the greatest hunting and outfitting company of all time. The highlight reel of famous explorers they outfitted is impressive to say the least: Sir Edmund Hillary, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Teddy Roosevelt and Earnest Hemmingway among others. They also supplied the A1 leather flight jacket for our pilots in WWII. The jacket I had was actually designed by Hemmingway:

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It is interesting too that this was an era before synthetic materials and WG came up with a special type of cotton weave called 'Bush Poplin' that was very strong, had good wind resistance and was relatively water resistant. Willis and Geiger eventually was bought by Lands End and now only has a few items that are under the name only and not the quality that they used to. Its a similar story to other legendary outfitters like Abercrombie and Fitch who used to make shotguns and Banana Republic.

Its cool to look back to a time before KUIU, Sitka etc to see a different set of high performance hunting gear that used the best materials and technology of the day to outfit hunters and explorers. I still wear my jacket at the shooting range or car camping and it holds up very well for being cotton.

Here is a good article on the brand and their story:

 
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