Carhartt Detroit Jacket Review: A Complete Comparison of The J97 vs Modern Made Coat

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Let’s talk about my 16-year-old J97 Carhartt Detroit jacket, probably the most famous Carhartt Detroit jacket of all time. I bought mine deadstock – the tags were still on it. It’s as brand new as a 16-year-old piece can be brand new. I also have an old Betty; it’s a Carhartt 6 BLJ. It is 30 to 40 years old and made in America.

The J97, which is considered the gold standard of Carhartt production, has something in common with the modern Carhartt, which does not get the same love at all. There are around 21 differences between the J97 and the modern Carhartt – some I actually think are very good welcomed changes; others I don’t.

I’m going to be running a Carhartt Detroit jacket review scorecard so I can keep track of everything. That way, with that scoreboard, we can try to deduce: Did Carhartt quality go down? And if it did go down, by how much?

And I found out through research and development on this article that that’s not the real question we should be asking. The real question is which Carhartts specifically went down in quality – or changed. I shouldn’t say it went down in quality because we’ll get to that in a second.

 

Here is today’s agenda:

The first thing we’re going to do is just go over the very easy stuff. There is a massive fit change between the J97 jacket and the modern jacket. There are also a bunch of very obvious things that Carhartt removed and added that we’ll go over in this first part, too.

Then, we get to the drama of this article – part number two. I will tell you every single difference between the J97 and modern-day Carhartt, and I will rank them on what’s good or what’s bad.

I would like to call part three of this article the grand finale. I had an assumption about how Carhartt worked. After doing a lot of research for this article, I realized I was totally wrong and that Carhartt has essentially two secret flagship – or they’re not secret but two flagship products that are the same quality that you know and love from Carhartt.

Sleeves

The sleeve on the J97 is 2 and 1/12 inches longer than the sleeve on the modern Carhartt. Because of the drop-tail hem, the body on the modern Carhartt is 3 inches longer than the J97 body. The bicep on the J97 is an inch narrower, and the chest on the J97 is also an inch narrower, according to a Carl Morowski video – which you should definitely check out. Carl is great. Hi Carl!

The reason that Carhartt lengthened their jacket was simply because most people were buying the tall version anyway, which is a very big recurring theme. Put a pin in “most people were doing anyway.” Also, among other things, the tail of the jacket prevented people from seeing your butt or wind going up your back or something like that, so these are functional changes for sure.

The initial ranking and scorecard will be as objective as possible, AKA just because the new jacket is longer, I won’t give a point to the old jacket because you may like that it’s longer. This first scoring will only be awarding points to jackets when there is something markedly better about the jacket, and then, of course, after all that crap, I’ll be super subjective and tell you why I think the J97 destroys the modern version.

Modern Domination

Number one: the J97 does not have snaps for a removable hood when the modern Carhartt does. Plus one for modern Carhartt.

Number two: I would give a point to the modern jacket because Carhartt added elbow gussets, which gives you more freedom of movement when you’re moving your arm. The reason they had to add those is because they slim the sleeves by an inch. Impartial, so no plus or minus.

Number three: On the Detroit jacket, at least in the black one, we are no longer using brass hardware zippers. Contrary to popular belief, these are both YKK-5 zippers. Nothing really changed. Your teeth are about the same size, and the only thing is the brass that I talked about before. Points go to neither.

Waist adjusters: the J97 has them, but the modern jacket does not, and that is the end of part one – the easy part. Modern jacket plus one, J97 zero.

The Slaughter

Welcome to part two – the dramatic section.

There are some things that I should say about Carhartt that are very good and you need to know before we get into the nitty-gritty. The first thing is that Carhartt has a repair program, and from what I can tell online, for the most part, it’s free if it’s not any crazy major damage.

You send your jacket in, and they give you a label, and they send it back fixed. I don’t think there’s any single way Carhartt is making money from this. I think they are actively losing money by doing this, but it’s part of their brand image.

I’m pretty sure to be doing this, Carhartt needs to be of the mindset of “we would rather overbuild our clothes so you never have to send them back in rather than us build bad clothes that you keep having to send in because then we’ll keep losing money with these clothes that are ripping and getting torn apart.”

And with that, it’s very important to note that Carhartt’s entire brand rests on durability, and they do extensive durability testing that is far beyond what I could do. My brand, The Iron Snail, is working with this really cool scientist guy who’s testing a lot of materials for us. But still, Carhartt is testing its products to make sure that they still live up to a certain standard. I have no doubt about that. I know many people are skeptical of that, and that’s not to say that Carhartt’s quality and durability didn’t go down because…I’ll talk about it in a second.

The real thing is there is a line that Carhartt will not cross if things become unreliable or not durable because that is their entire brand. They will be overtaken by many, many other work brands that will continue to make tough stuff, and maybe that is what will happen eventually, but I really doubt it.

And finally, another big point – there is also Carhartt WIP (Work in Progress), whatever you want to call it. It is not the same company as mainline Carhartt; it is a licensing deal with a European company that uses the styles and logos of Carhartt, but still, Carhartt has a fashion division because I believe they get a percentage of Carhartt WIP’s profits, so they’re still making money there and they don’t need to go the fashion route 100% in order to still be cashing in on that. With that said, who the heck knows?

My biggest grievance with the modern version is the darn pockets! I’m just kidding; it’s not going to be that brutal, but still. The good thing about the modern Carhartt jacket is that it has two interior pockets, double the amount of pockets, same jacket, unbelievable.

Interestingly, however, and this may be another zero point, actually, now that I think about it, Carhartt changed the construction of their pockets. Instead of having a lining in the pocket that catches the object, Carhartt essentially sewed a square down, this time into the lining, so nothing falls past that square instead of having a little bag catch it, which is great.

But interestingly, there is no reinforcement on the inside of these pockets – it goes straight to this striped lining, which is meant to keep you warm. I’m sure it’s very strong, I’m sure it’s very durable, you’ll probably never have an issue with it, but if there is a hole in that lining developed from what you’re putting in your pockets, it will fall into the jacket because there is no secondary lining.

Now, the biggest change. This is very interesting. There is a hand warmer pocket for the J97. It’s a full pocket, so I can pull the whole thing out. With the modern Carhartt – if I stick my hand in, I can’t pull the pocket out because it’s sewn into the bottom seam. You don’t have to worry about the lining of your pocket ripping anymore because if it does rip, it will just hit the bottom of the seam, which is the jacket, which is two pieces of 12 oz canvas sewn together, which is an even stronger pocket like an impossibly strong pocket. Brilliant.

The cuff on the J97 is iconic Carhartt. This is Carhartt 101 – it kind of gives you a natural gusset when the cuff is closed to protect you a little bit more, but the new Carhartt cuff gives you an actual gusset. That’s plus one for modern. Also, the modern Carhartt has a storm placket. There is an extra layer of canvas there to protect you from getting hit by the elements. Plus one for modern Carhartt.

On the back arm gusset of the modern Carhartts, there is a much more precise edge stitch than the other two vintage Carhartts that I’m talking about today. Functionally, that doesn’t really change it. The stitching on the modern is neater, like throughout the entire jacket, so I will give another plus one for modern in terms of stitching quality.

One of the biggest complaints about modern day Carhartt is the lining, which, funny enough, is why we have to talk about the old made in USA Carhartt in a second. A lot of people say it just sags after you wash it; it sags even beyond the jacket, and I think the reasoning for that is just the way that they construct things now. When I lift the lining up it’s very loose. It’s not sewn into the jacket; it’s sewn together at a couple of seams, but that’s not in the jacket – it’s only sewn into the jacket on the edges and on the bottom.

If you look at the J97, it’s all sewn together, so you can see the triple stitch on the outside. The major benefit is you can’t lift the lining as much before you hit something that’s sewn into the jacket, so it doesn’t sag as much, it doesn’t feel as loose, it feels much tighter. Plus one for the J97.

The lining on the modern day Carhartt is a polyester and acrylic blend. This lining on the J97 is 100% polyester, but this is some very thick, coarse polyester. The immediate benefit of this super scratchy polyester lining is that it’s dramatically tougher. I filed both of them for, I think, a minute or 2 minutes, whatever it may be – I got a much bigger chunk out of the acrylic blend because the coarse fibers are just generally tougher than the acrylic polyester blend.

Carhartt makes up for that by making the polyester and acrylic blend lining thicker than the J97’s lining, so there’s more stuff to chew through, and I’m guessing it would also be a little bit warmer because of the thickness. Originally, I thought Carhartt was giving a softer lining to people because they were probably complaining that it was too scratchy, so the new one uses this new softer lining. But that’s not true because the Carhartt 6 BLJ, which is 30 to 40 years old, has the same blend as the modern jacket.

So it seems like Carhartt was just going back and forth figuring out which one they were going to go with – they went with the less scratchy one, but with that, I like the added durability. The 100% polyester lining will look more presentable and better longer, maybe not forever, but I’ll give plus one to old Carhartt.

Finally, now presenting the most important part of this entire article: Carhartt is famous for its duck canvas. The J97 and the modern Carhartt both use duck canvas – they’re both 12 oz, they’re both 100% cotton, but they’re not the same. They are definitely not the same. The weave on our modern jacket feels finer, it’s not as stiff, and there’s a whole bunch of different things. I asked my girlfriend, Taylor, what the difference was with her eyes closed – she said the J97 was clearly thicker and more robust.

I don’t have a direct connection to Carhartt. However, Carl Morowski I believe, has talked to Carhartt multiple times, and in one video where he’s dissecting new Carhartt jeans, they say the jean fabric, I think, went from 13 ounces to 12 oz, but it’s just as strong – very important information. I’m assuming Carhartt would say the exact same thing about these duck canvases.

What’s frustrating for me is that Carhartt doesn’t say why because they could be using a longer cotton fiber, they could be spinning the fibers differently, or they could be doing the plain weave differently.

I don’t know because Carhartt gives you zero information besides this: Carhartt now has their firm duck and their regular duck. Their firm duck they describe as “12 oz heavyweight firm hand 100% ring-spun cotton.” Their regular duck they describe as “12 oz 100% ring-spun cotton duck,” and that’s where I realized the secret menu thing that we’ll get to in a second.

There are definite ways to make two weaves that are made out of the same material and the same weight feel stiffer and rougher, and one could be stronger, but it might not be the heavy one. So it’s tough to say with 100% certainty that duck is not as strong as firm duck, but to be honest, if I had to bet my money on something, I would bet my money on firm duck being stronger than duck. Plus one for the J97.

The tally for this Carhartt Detroit jacket review is now at five points for a new Carhartt, three for old, but with that being said, the outer material changing can’t be worth just one point – that doesn’t make sense. It’s the most important part of this jacket. It needs to be worth more; it needs to be worth like two or something like that, so I will give a weighted result based on my opinion at the end.

The big fat mistake I made was thinking that since the Carhartt Detroit jacket is one of their most historical pieces or one of the most famous pieces, it would be their biggest seller, the most important piece – and that’s not true at all. It’s the Active Jack.

Look up the Active Jack on Carhartt’s website – firm duck, made in the USA, brass hardware. Nothing really seemed to change that much because it is their flagship product, and I think Carhartt essentially tiers everything depending on how important it is to their catalog and how much it’s selling.

Carhartt can only pick certain things to be made in America because they don’t have a lot of manufacturing capacity. The only way they can afford to make things in America is if they do it via their own factories, where they have to train people and get them used to sewing Carhartts and all of that.

Otherwise, if they go third party in the US, the manufacturing price is probably at least double, which would then make the modern jacket go up, and they have a target price that they want to stay below, so then they have to be pushed to overseas.

The things that they do keep in the US are their flagships. So it looks like you kind of have three tiers of Carhartt in their catalog:

Number one is their made in USA Active Jack and double knee pants – I think that’s it, and even then, they say it could be imported.

Then you go to tier 2, where there is still a firm duck being used, but it’s imported and not made in the USA.

Then you go to tier 3, where it doesn’t look like there is any firm duck, and it’s all imported. And maybe that’s Carhartt trying to save price on firm duck, but I doubt it.

In reality, I think what’s happening is that Carhartt is very hesitant and does not want to change its flagship products. They don’t want people who have been buying bibs and Active Jacks and the double knee pants for years to all of a sudden be like, “What the heck is going on?” With their non-flagship pieces, Carhartt can move around a little bit more and not worry about upsetting their core customer fan base.

And maybe the new Carhartt is cheaper, it probably is if I’m being 100% honest, but the bigger money makers from Carhartt – they don’t want to change.

And this point is kind of proven if we look at Carhartt tier 4, 5, and 6 – there’s a certain point where it seems like Carhartt’s like, “Alright, just slap a logo on whatever piece someone else made and throw it out the door” and they don’t care about quality, it doesn’t matter because it’s a Carhartt accessory to a point. I’m not saying that’s good; I’m just saying I think that’s what Carhartt is doing.

So it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but I think that’s what’s going on. Carhartt obviously has a review section, and the top complaint about the new Detroit Jacket using duck is that it’s too flimsy. The top complaint on the Active Jack using firm duck is that it’s too stiff. The other very popular complaints about the Detroit jacket are as such:

1. The jacket is too long
2. The jacket is too short
3. The lining is too soft and weak
4. The lining is too itchy

So they just have to do what is most popular, and there are 600 and something positive reviews for the Detroit jacket and 100 or something negative – 6 to 1. So I guess they did the right thing.

So, the actual weighted ranking – I’m still not going to change things for fit and stuff, but all in all, I would probably give the J97 9 and the modern day Carhartt 5. I think changing the outer material from firm duck – I just don’t think Carhartt should do that. It seems very silly to me to modify that. Yes, it’s stiff, but it’s Carhartt. It’s a workwear brand – get WIP if you want something softer, but go with the heavy thing.

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That’s All Folks

There is a very deep feeling in Carhartt, which is like you have to break in your Carhartt gear – the brass is going to look cooler over time, the jacket will fade, all this stuff will happen but you have to break it in. It’s tough, and it’s hard to work with, but that’s Carhartt. You have a physical job, and it will get soft over time and show you how hard you’re working. Then your kids who are into fashion will be like, “Wow, I can’t believe you have such a cool jacket. Can I wear that?”

There’s pride in the brand, there’s pride about passing things down, there’s pride in being like, “You want to wear my work jacket that I do a lot of crap in?” Okay, there’s so much behind Carhartt that changing the J97 to something like the modern Carhartt and making it softer or less robust or longer, whatever it may be, has a ton of weight behind it because this is so much more than just a slash pocket double welted jacket that people wearing – it’s an American icon. So there’s just a lot more behind it than normal.

So anyways, yeah, to wrap up this Carhartt Detroit Jacket review, I think the J97’s a little cooler. Bye bye!

This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.

The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.