Alpha Industries continues to push boundaries and celebrate history.
The heritage military outerwear brand recently debuted an all-American bomber jacket designed in partnership with legendary magazine Playboy, marking its second collaboration with the label.
Strewn with images of vintage Playboy covers on one side and the magazine’s trademark bunny embroidery on the other, the reversible limited-edition MA-1 Battlewash Flight Jacket incorporates military and vintage elements throughout. The nylon and polyester coat features a utility pocket on one sleeve with pen cap inserts and a red “Remove Before Flight” flag parallel to the iconic Playboy bunny logo to further marry both brands.
But the brands have more in common than just these two iterations of a bomber jacket. Each has previously partnered with the U.S. military: Alpha Industries provided M-65s and other outerwear for U.S. soldiers in Vietnam in the 1960s, while Playboy provided its own—albeit very different—service for the military around that same time. The magazine first established “Operation Playmate,” a pen pal program that connected playmates with the Armed Forces to boost morale overseas during the Vietnam War, and has continued the program ever since.
Playboy has appeared in a number of recent collaborations outside of its latest with Alpha Industries, working with millennial-driven brands such as Missguided, PacSun and skateboard and skate clothing brand Huf.
Prior to this partnership, Alpha Industries demonstrated its range with collaborations throughout the streetwear and premium denim space. Last month, it collaborated with A Bathing Ape on its second partnership that celebrated the popular streetwear label with military influences. In 2019, it paid homage to craftsmanship and U.S. manufacturing through a partnership with men’s denim label 3sixteen.
The Alpha Industries x Playboy jacket retails for $250 and is available now on the Alpha Industries website.