Second Sunrise Archive: Deadstock Levi's Type 3, 70505 0217 Jacket

Deadstock Levi's Type 3, 70505 0217 Big E jacket

Maker - Levi's Strauss & Co
Era - Late 60s-71
Acquired - by Douglas Luhanko in 2009

When it comes to collecting vintage denim and workwear I always thought that it's quite interesting that the sought after objects doesn't necessarily has to be the ones that are in their best condition, but obviously a NWT, "new with tags", also known as "dead stock" garment will have a high collectable value. It's something with those objects that were never used that fascinates us, and maybe it's the thought of all the years that has passed without anyone removing the label or as in this case, wearing it just once. I think it's the same thing with a vintage Star Wars figure that's new in box, just the idea of a product designed to be played with that never got to fulfill its purpose and the mystery in why that specific thing was tucked away and frozen in time is just really fascinating.

Anyway when it comes to denim garments I have always been interested in the stories they can tell. Although I like them brand new like this one I always felt more for the heavily worn denim and if they have some hand made mendings and interesting wear, that's where Im hooked! I think it's nice to be able to study a garment and to get a feeling of the person/persons that has been wearing it by the way it looks. I remember a Ebay auction on a pair of 50s Lee jeans that me and my brother came a cross a few years back. The pants had been used a lot and one could really see that the garment had been favored by its owner back in the day! What was interesting with this particular pair was a small, strong fade located on the side of the thigh on the right leg. The fade in the fabric was so distinct and we were curious to know more about it, so we wrote to the seller and asked if she could tell us anything about the jeans. Her answer was that thy had belonged to her grandfather and that he was a smoker, and always lit his matches by scratching them against his leg and thats what left that mark on all the jeans he was wearing. That's the kind of story that means a lot to me and it somehow describes every reson for me to appreciate wearing denim, that it will over time describe the everyday life of the person who wears them. Sadly I didn't win that action but I will remember the story for the rest of my life.

Back to this jacket! The Type 3 denim jacket was first made in 1962 and named 557xx. The new, slimmer silhouette of the Levi's jacket replaced the 507xx jacket and I always though that it was quite interesting that the Type 3 jacket has a lot of similarities to the Lee 101j jacket, introduced by Lee as early as 1936. So 26 years later Levi's made their iconic Type 3 jacket and if you walk into a store selling Levi's today you will notice that not much has changed in the way this jacket looked back in the 60s up until now. It sure deserves a spot amongst the timeless classics!
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This particular jacket can be dated to the late 60s or up to 1971 due to the fact that it has a Levi's big E red tab and a smaller patch in the neck than it's precursor, the 557xx. The label on the 557xx measures about 77mm x 56mm while the label on this later version measures 66mm x 37mm. If you find yourself looking at a Levi's big E type 3 jacket where the neck label has come off and want to know how old it is my best advice is to look for traces where the label used to be, you can often see seams or just a darker shade in the denim telling you about the size of the patch and that will also give you a more accurate age of the jacket.
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I got this jacket on Ebay back in 2009 when I was collecting a lot of denim garments. To have a deadstock Levi's garment in my collection was something I thought I would never come across for a price that I could afford, but this jacket was listed from a seller who lived in Germany and for some reson I noticed that whatever was sold from outside of US tended to pass under the radar or simply was'nt as soght after for some reason, so the jacket ended up in my possession and I have kept it ever since. Today I use it to show people the basics of the aging of jeans, allowing them to see and feel a deadstock jacket in comparison with one that has been used for many years. It's interesting that the knowledge of how indigo fades seem to be less and less common and to the younger generations the pre-washed and factory torn jeans is synonymous with a brand new pair of blue jeans. It's quite sad if you ask me and it would be interesting to look into the future and see what they will think about the pre washed denim garments that came to be characteristic for the late 20th century.
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The paper tag located in the neck of the jacket is dry and as you can se it has two cracks that runs right through it. It's common for the older Levi's jacket that these paper labels become fragile with the years. The text is barley visible but you can still se that it's stamped with "70505 0217 Size 44" The yellow piece of paper located over the label is suposed to be removed when worn and it reads "All cotton 10, 44" Where 44 is referred to the size of the jacket.
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Fastened by the button on the left chest pocket we have the paper label telling us that this is a fitted jacket and that it's pre-shrunk. Back then Levi's was known for using unsanforized denim fabric in their products so if one was buying a pair of Levi's you could always calculate with a 10% shrinkage, but for this Type 3 jacket you could expect it to shrink less than 1%! If I remember correctly Levi's used unsanforized fabric for their 501 jeans up until 1985.
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The Levi's Big E red tab. This one is still all flat and not curled up, as they tend to be after a couple of washes. The capital E was changed to a small e after 1971 so these jackets are the very last ones produced by Levi's in the so called big E era. I know that I mentioned it in a earlier blog post but I might as well write it again, it is said that the way to spell Levi's was changed because someone at Levi's thought that it would be more respectful to the founder Levis if the name was spelled with a capital L, so they changed the name to Levi's. Since the lower case v, i and s look very similar to the upper case ones the only letter that changed drastically in appearance  was the E, that went from "E" to "e". 

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Levi's button located at the right chest pocket.
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525 stamped on the back of the buttons.
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On the lower back you will find a width adjuster on each side.

We keep this Levi's jacket as part of our archive in the shop and if you are interested to have a closer look we will be more than happy to show it to you over a cup of coffee! That goes for all the things we have in our archive and we hope that they can serve as inspiration.

If we missed anything about the story of the this jacket or if you like to add something we would be happy to hear your thoughts! In that case just give us a comment below.

Last week we talked about the history of why copper rivets became synonymous with jeans, showing one of the very early Levi's rivets used on garments in the late 19th century and if you want to read more about it you will find that post here!