A Brief History of the Mackinaw Jacket

The Mackinaw Jacket is a classic slice of Americana—the kind of piece that you’d be forgiven for thinking Stan Ray had always made—which is why this season we’ve thrown our hat in the ring to make our own. With angled hand-warmer pockets, that signature double-layer shoulder panel and the perfect plaid pattern—the Stan Ray Mackinaw Jacket is just how you’d want a Mackinaw to be—the sort of no-nonsense jacket that’s just right for throwing over a hoodie or work-shirt when you need a bit of extra warmth.

The chunkier, heftier older brother of the flannel shirt—these thick wool jackets have been a mainstay of the Pacific Northwest outdoor wardrobe for well over a century, loved by loggers, fishermen, hunters and pretty much anyone else who spends a lot of time out in the woods.

The story goes that the first mackinaw jackets were created in 1811 when British Army Captain Charles Roberts finally realised his men, stationed on the remote Ontario island of St Joseph, weren’t going to get their military-issue greatcoats any time soon. Giving up on the powers-that-be ever sending the coats they needed for the harsh winter weather, he bought some wool blankets from the local shop and had them transformed into jackets by the shopkeeper's wife and her friends. 

The first versions weren’t too dissimilar to the long wool greatcoats worn by military folk elsewhere—but a year later, now posted on Michigan’s Mackinac Island (pronounced ‘Mackinaw’—which explains the name), Roberts had another batch made. Taking advice from a dispatch runner, the new jackets had a shorter, more nimble shape. 

To be honest it seems a bit of a shame that this guy is only ever referred to as ‘dispatch runner’ and no one seems to know his name—as he probably deserves a statue or at least a plaque in commemoration of his contribution to outerwear design. While the old-style long and billowing greatcoats would be cumbersome and clumsy in the deep snow, these thigh length jackets were light and flighty. In short they were loads better for the harsh environment Roberts and his men were up against.

Not only were these jackets warm, but they kept the rain out too. In a humble, lo-fi era long before DWR-treatments and Gore-Tex, the tightly woven wool worked as mother nature’s technical fabric—the yarns swelling when wet to create a barrier against the elements. This probably goes some way to explaining why these jackets basically became the uniform of the American Outdoorsman in the early 20th century—especially in the damp, dense woodland of the Pacific Northwest. 

Such was their outdoor omnipresence that they soon became visual shorthand for a certain strain of working class American life. From larger-than-life folk hero Paul Bunyan to Marlon Brando’s pigeon-fancying longshoreman Terry Molloy in On the Waterfront, the Mackinaw has long been a symbol of both blue collar toil and the life away from the rat-race. Homer Simpson wore one when he took Bart hunting, Twin Peaks’ Pete Martell wore one the fateful day he found the body of Laura Palmer and Bruno S. wore one as he drifted through America in Werner Herzog’s tragic classic Stroszek. And then there are the shotgun-toting hunters who lurk behind trees in Gary Larson’s Far Side comics… stepping straight out of a 1950s LL Bean catalogue in their black-and-red Mackinaw jackets and matching ear-flapped caps. 

If there’s ever a film character who lives out in the woods, dispensing life-earned wisdom as they patiently tie fishing flies in a log cabin on the edge of a lake, then they’re probably wearing a Mackinaw. 

On the other side of the coin, the humble Mackinaw was also the unofficial jacket of Vancouver’s Clark Park Gang. This Warriors-esque crew were notorious for street brawls, stone throwing and rock-show riots in the early 70s, and they did it all in chunky plaid jackets, reappropriating the workwear of their lumberjack fathers in a bid for blue-collar authenticity. 

This duality is maybe why they’ve endured for so long. On one hand they’re a super-tough piece of workwear built for action, but on the other, they’ve got that sleepy backwoods flavour that makes you want to sit out on a porch and whittle a piece of driftwood into a spoon as the sun slowly sets on another lazy day. And in our fast-paced world of endless distractions, that’s pretty special.