Plate Coats

[Nate]

Has anyone purchased a plate coat from honigs? Or has anyone purchased one from Gerry Davis. I really want to make this an investment.. There's not really lot of reviews for either products..

Nate

[BT_Blue]

another thing you can do is go buy a jacket from a used suit place (make sure its still in good condition). Make sure its big enough to go over your CP and bring it to a tailor to get the pockets enlarged. A guy in my local association did this and it looks really good.

[Nate]

another thing you can do is go buy a jacket from a used suit place (make sure its still in good condition). Make sure its big enough to go over your CP and bring it to a tailor to get the pockets enlarged. A guy in my local association did this and it looks really good.

Really? I'm sorta a perfectionist.. I've heard of this being done, but wasn't sure if I would actually like it that much.. I'll look into it.. I know a suit store that would do such a thing for me and probably add the pockets..

Nate

[Stan W.]

Nate,

The reason you don't see a lot of reviews on plate coats is the expense. In the old days the only guys you saw wearing plate coats were the college guys where it was mandatory....Now with all the pullovers, and the relatively inexpensive nature of a pullover they are predominant...

In my car now, to comply with the leagues I call, I have jackets of black with white stripes, navy with red stripes, navy with light blue stripes and a solid blue. And I am still a good hundred dollars under the cost of a good plate coat.

BUT....as a bit of an old school type guy, when I see an umpire in a plate coat it adds a certain respectability and for certain it is a good indication that that umpire is INVESTED in umpiring...

Now to the coats......for the longest time, the gold standard in plate coats was Fechheimer....Then when Honigs began to be the dominant college supplier thier coats were considered the best. I have seen both and I can tell you that you could not go wrong with either. If I was buying one, and I hope to someday,....It would be the Honigs model...

Now this is just my .02 ..... I would not recommend getting a suit coat altered. I have seen one attempted and to be honest it looked bad...I would rather see you looking smart in a pullover than cheap in a knock off plate coat....the material selected to make the correct pockets did not match the jacket fabric in weave or color....it looked like what it was....a knock off....

I have never seen a Davis plate coat up close to give you an opinion....

[Umpire in Chief]

I hope to add a plate coat to my uniform collection in the not too distant future.

[BT_Blue]

In the coat I discribed that a friend got made out of a suit coat the pockets were expanded within the coat. It still looked good and to someone that isnt familiar with what a proper plate coat looks like, it would look just as good.

For me I liked how it looked but I will still be buying a proper plate coat. But I am thinking that I will go with Gerry Davis when I do since those are tailor made. Where as the Honigs ones come in sizes (large, extra large, medium, etc.) rather than getting tailoring sizes.

Just sounds to me like the Davis ones would fit better since its made to your specific sizes.