Filson Jackets & Cruisers

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Filson jackets are built around the Cruiser, a pattern C.C. Filson patented in 1914 for the timber cruisers who scouted forests ahead of the logging crews. Six of the jackets here are versions of it,

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The Filson Cruiser jacket, and why the pockets are arranged that way

C.C. Filson filed the pattern in October 1912 and was granted US patent 1088891 on 3 March 1914. It was designed for timber cruisers — the men who went ahead of a logging crew to survey a stand and work out what it was worth — and the pocket arrangement is a direct answer to their job. Four flapped pockets on the front, one sized for a compass and one with slots for small tools, plus a double-layer back opening from both sides to hold maps flat. The original was a heavy wool pullover shirt. The jackets came out of the same pattern, and more than a century later the Mackinaw Cruiser is still recognisably the 1914 drawing.

Filson tin cloth or Mackinaw wool

The two fabrics answer different problems and the choice between them is really a choice about rain or cold. Tin cloth is a tightly woven cotton with an oil-finish wax: it turns rain, blocks wind, resists being dragged through brush, and arrives stiff enough to hold its own shape before softening over a season into something that fits only you. Mackinaw wool does the other job — a dense, heavy woollen that keeps insulating when it is soaked, which no cotton does. The Mackinaw pieces here are the most expensive things on the page for that reason. If you are choosing for a British winter, tin cloth handles the rain and wool handles the standing about.

Canvas Outfitter, Ranger and the rest of the jackets

Not everything here is a Cruiser. The canvas Outfitter jackets are the lighter, plainer option — a chore-jacket shape at well under half the price of the Mackinaw pieces, and the ones to start with if you want the make without the weight. The Ranger Journeyman is the shorter, closer cut, nearer a trucker jacket than a work coat. The Swiftwater is the outlier: a lightweight rain jacket rather than a waxed or woollen one, for when you want to stay dry without carrying two kilos of cotton. Check the fabric on the individual product pages, since the Outfitter and Ranger cuts appear in both waxed and unwaxed cottons depending on the season.

See Filson shirts, browse Filson caps and hats, or look at Filson bags.

Filson Jackets FAQs

A jacket built on the pattern C.C. Filson patented in 1914, US patent 1088891. It was designed for timber cruisers, the foresters who surveyed a stand of timber before the logging crew arrived, and the pockets reflect that — four flapped pockets on the front, one for a compass, one with tool slots, and a double-layer back that opens from either side to carry maps. Filson still makes it in wool and in tin cloth.
Tin cloth is a heavy cotton canvas with an oil-finish wax, so it sheds rain and blocks wind, and it starts stiff before softening into shape over a season. Mackinaw wool is a dense woollen that keeps insulating when it gets wet. Tin cloth for rain and brush, Mackinaw for cold. The wool pieces cost considerably more.
Both Yards Store shops carry the brand: 13 Old Bank Street in Manchester and 86 Pinstone Street in Sheffield. Given the prices and the way Filson cuts outerwear, this is a range worth trying on. Ranges differ between the two shops, so ring ahead for a specific jacket or size.