Metal/Punk Battlejackets and other gear

[ZinesByLennon]

Hi!
I surround myself in a good few alt subcultures and like making all sorts of battlevests/battlejackets and I just find the community around making battlejackets to be quite toxic...at least on youtube. I've had some experience finding some cool peeps on instagram and at festivals and concerts but so many people in the space are elitists. So I thought I'd reach out here and see if there's anyone on Neocities making their own vests and sharing my current WIP, Halford's Monster.

This is a photo of my GF showing off the back of it a while ago, it's a bit further along now.
The pauldrons come from the tips of a pair of boots I wore to a Nekrogoblikon show once, and they got destroyed in the mud pit there. So I saved the tips of them since they had transflags on them. The lighting are just EV wires. I need to invest in some JST connectors of my own so I can make a bit more reliable of a connection but it does well for all intents and purposes and the flickering when I get shoved in a pit is kinda cool lol. (Everything is insulated I'm not at risk of shock don't worry) Underneath every band patch is an NFC tag that links to an album/artist/song in my digital music collection and will play if I hold my phone to it, though some need replacement already as I was testing different types of NFC tags here and there.

Anyways I'd love to see what other stuff people have done. Just flipping through tshirtslayer (although I'll never talk there, it is...not a great place) and some photography books have done wonders for inspiration on stuff like this.

[zj]

Hi!!
I also have this hobby, although my jacket is not yet where I'd like it to be.. It's kind of barren, and I'm slowly working on adding more. It's part music, part personal stuff. Yeah, the music elitism is kind of off the charts online unfortunately :P I say, our music taste is our own and so is the way we express it. Those NFT tags are such a cool idea!!!

Here is mine, so far, very much a work in progress:

Spoiler

[close]

I apologise for the Very Large and varingly sized photos, I couldn't get it to work. As you can see, not all of this is music related - I like to include some other interests as well. The Valtra heart is not there because of a love of tractors, but as a memory of my grandfather, as I was given it by him and my grandmother. I noticed only after uploading that the elk sign is upside down, haha. The eye on the collar is actually an old ring, not a pin. The red pin with text reads "an equal society free from violence", they were handed out at pride last year :) The Eternal Scout one is a reference both to growing up as a scout and to a fictional podcast I love; Welcome To Night Vale. It's about a supernatural town in the desert ^_^

Apart from more music related patches, I want to add "moss" that seems to grown on the edges of the seams and patches - I love nature, and I saw that idea in passing once, just not sure yet how to realistically achieve it  I also love mushroom picking, so I'd love to add some favourites to it as well!!

Sadly I am not involved in the irl scene, I sometimes go to local shows with my partner in Gothenburg, but we are long distance and there isn't really a scene where I live.

[ZinesByLennon]

This is a cool jacket so far!
I also have one or two jackets and other DIY stuff that aren't really tied to music that I'm showcasing on my site. I'm slowly getting everything up but for example I have a purple jacket I sometimes wear to conventions to trade pins. (If you go to my site in my signature, click more, and then DIY Zone, you can find the other stuff. I still need to add that metal jacket to the site.)

[Musekicker]

These are really cool! I've never heard of battle jackets before but loving the idea of them.

Are they all meant for the punk/mostly music scene or it's it more anything you want it to be? Or would that be a whole different concept maybe?

Because a idea of edited with patches/fixes/and other add ons sounds cool. I don't have any sewing skills myself, but sounds like a interesting place to start.

[ZinesByLennon]

These are really cool! I've never heard of battle jackets before but loving the idea of them.

Are they all meant for the punk/mostly music scene or it's it more anything you want it to be? Or would that be a whole different concept maybe?

Because a idea of edited with patches/fixes/and other add ons sounds cool. I don't have any sewing skills myself, but sounds like a interesting place to start.

They came from the Punk/Metal subcultures, but they can really be for whatever. I have a few that have no bands on them whatsoever. One of them is a queer one I made for pride and the other is a city pop/vaporwave inspired one. It's generally accepted that you can put whatever you want on a vest, but some people in the scenes are a bit elitist if it's a battlevest or just a patchvest if you don't put any bands on it. (Which I think is a bit dumb)
I sew everything by hand and it's an easy skill to learn if you take some time!

[Musekicker]

They came from the Punk/Metal subcultures, but they can really be for whatever. I have a few that have no bands on them whatsoever. One of them is a queer one I made for pride and the other is a city pop/vaporwave inspired one. It's generally accepted that you can put whatever you want on a vest, but some people in the scenes are a bit elitist if it's a battlevest or just a patchvest if you don't put any bands on it. (Which I think is a bit dumb)
I sew everything by hand and it's an easy skill to learn if you take some time!

Those other jackets sound awesome as well.

And ugh, people being elitist. Not a fan of that either. Gate keeping things, more so being creative just makes less creative things in the world.

But yeah! I'm going to consider looking into it. Maybe find a old jacket that's a bit beat up to start with.

[tarraxahum]

I made one some time ago, mostly lifestyle rather than music tho, but I kinda screwed up by choosing a very big and heavy jacket that was too warm for warm weather but not quite warm enough for the cold. And to add insult to injury due to certain events half the stuff I put on it became quite dangerous to wear legally (which. fearing that makes me not quite "punk" I suppose but I am soft and squishy and anxious and I won't pretend otherwise. it takes guts to wear a target on your back).

SO I am planning to make a new one, maybe make it a vest this time, and mostly make it music-centered. Which will also be quite barren at the start 'cause I'm picky about what bands I want to wear on me (not due to music elitism but like, personal tastes and relationships to their music).

Will update here when I do get started on it :3

(Forgot to get a patch a the last show I was at. Dammit)

[BlazingCobaltX]

I looove looking at battlejackets! I love patch designs and I really admire the handiwork of those who sat down and manually put all the patches/pieces onto the vest.

For a while I thought about making a battlejacket myself, with a combination of artists/music-related patches and more political statements (pride, antifa). I even got two patches from Metallica to start off with. However, once I really thought about it, I am not much of a jean jacket person to begin with. My body temperature is quite unpredictable and I often have to dress practical just to not get extremely cold. Knowing jean jackets generally don't give off warmth, I could see it happening that I would put effort into the jacket only for it to gather dust in my closet.

Instead I've pivoted to adding patches to my instrument bag. That way I can at least show off the things I like on an item I would use often. That said, I would be less likely to put political patches on the instrument bag, simply because I don't know who I would encounter with that thing. Oh well, first gotta find the bag to begin with - they're hard to come by.

[Symberzite]

My old-ahh leather jacket should be ready this evening. Posting here to remind myself to post photos.

Semi-related but the tailor lady has been really nice and gave me a few tips to spice it up, I ought to leave her a tip for her hard work. After I'm done with patches I kind of want to sew in some embroidery, like use gold string near the shoulder area.

[ZinesByLennon]

My old-ahh leather jacket should be ready this evening. Posting here to remind myself to post photos.

Semi-related but the tailor lady has been really nice and gave me a few tips to spice it up, I ought to leave her a tip for her hard work. After I'm done with patches I kind of want to sew in some embroidery, like use gold string near the shoulder area.

I have a leather jacket or two but they're really heavy and difficult to sew into so I haven't done anything with one yet as I haven't really had a paint job idea yet. Verrrry interested to see how yours comes out however! Will probably be motiviating enough to get to work on mine lol.

[Symberzite]

Just came back from the tailor. The jacket's done-ish, but I think I can attach more. I'm just currently afraid that if I add any more patches without considering things it might end up looking really tacky. I understand looking tacky is kind of the point, but at the same time I want this thing to look semi-presentable.

[zj]

That looks very cool, Symber! Love the eye especially. Do you have anything particular in mind that you also want to add?

[Symberzite]

That looks very cool, Symber! Love the eye especially. Do you have anything particular in mind that you also want to add?

I've got a few ideas. The tailor said that if I keep adding more colourful patches the jacket may start looking gaudy. I'm thinking of adding the grew SCP patches on both sides of the eye and just calling it a day there. I can, in theory, add the smaller patches in front, but that would definitely change the tone.

Choices choices 

[Pippa_the_Prius]

I was gifted a battle vest by someone and I'm always scared someone will call me out for not knowing all the bands on the patches because I didn't make it!    But I still want to make my own one day!!
Love seeing everyone's stuff here it's all so cool and inspiring

[AnIzzi0t]

a while ago me and my friend got together and made some of my own  :DDD its not done yet, but its on a greyish green vest and all the patches are homemade with modgepodge