Crown Zipper Problems

[Cooper A-2]

Happy ending! Please let us know if the entire zip assembly replaced or just the slider? Also, please advise about how old your B-3 was at the time. Thank you.

B-3 was a few days old. All zipper replaced...perfect restitching.

 

[Stand By]

I bought my 2008 ELC RW B-6 secondhand from eBay and I had the seller (in the UK) mail it directly to ELC instead of me and I had Crown zippers fitted to it to replace the Ri-Ri ones that were originally put on it (as well as the strange label).
The zip worked fine for the first year but then Xopher's issue happened to me and I gave Gary a ping and he said he'd repair it and I returned the jacket and Gary fitted a new one for me.
That was good for a couple of years and then the cotton began to fail at the bottom around the hardware and I nursed it through the next season, just being gentle with it and it was fine enough.
Then, at the very start of the next Fall, it gave up on me and I just didn't wear it as I couldn't zip it - I wasn't going to England and money was tight and I thought I'd just use another jacket (from Mark's Work Warehouse) and I did - but it only reinforced just how much I cherished that jacket over a regular jacket as it is so comfy and the perfect weight and I love the look of it while a regular jacket simply says nothing to me - so I gave Gary a ping and he asked me to return it to him. By happenstance, I was going to England later that year but only for one week and I asked Gary, if I mailed the jacket to him on the Monday morning, if he could repair it and have it back with me for Friday for that Sunday's return flight? He said he would try - and I sent it out that Monday morning and sure enough, it came back to me that Thursday morning (!) and the work was simply perfection - you'd never know it had had a new zip. And there was no charge whatsoever on the repair or the posting. Shortly afterwards I did post the jacket and mentioned the repair on TFL and gave credit where credit's due and it totally was. And the jacket has been worn a lot this mild winter (far more than my ELC RW B-3 and Irvin) and the zip shows not a hint of a problem and is performing flawlessly. Perfect.
As I've said before on other posts, IMO, when we opt for vintage designs of zips like Crowns, Talons and Kwiks and the like, we are buying something that requires a little more care as they are old designs with any design limitations they had built into them. They'd go on to be replaced in the mass market as they couldn't compete with easy-sliding zips of modern materials. A vintage design (NOS or repro) requires some thought and attention when engaging and disengaging and all that's required is just a little time and being "present" in mind - instead of trying to do it on "auto-pilot" and not looking at what you're doing. I learnt that the hard way.
So, we love these jackets for their vintage appeal - and, say, like a classic car, one wouldn't drive a Triumph TR-6 as one would a new Porsche or Honda ... take your time and enjoy the zip and in using it properly and with care, like every other part of the jacket.

 

[HPA Rep]

I bought my 2008 ELC RW B-6 secondhand from eBay and I had the seller (in the UK) mail it directly to ELC instead of me and I had Crown zippers fitted to it to replace the Ri-Ri ones that were originally put on it (as well as the strange label).
The zip worked fine for the first year but then Xopher's issue happened to me and I gave Gary a ping and he said he'd repair it and I returned the jacket and Gary fitted a new one for me.
That was good for a couple of years and then the cotton began to fail at the bottom around the hardware and I nursed it through the next season, just being gentle with it and it was fine enough.
Then, at the very start of the next Fall, it gave up on me and I just didn't wear it as I couldn't zip it - I wasn't going to England and money was tight and I thought I'd just use another jacket (from Mark's Work Warehouse) and I did - but it only reinforced just how much I cherished that jacket over a regular jacket as it is so comfy and the perfect weight and I love the look of it while a regular jacket simply says nothing to me - so I gave Gary a ping and he asked me to return it to him. By happenstance, I was going to England later that year but only for one week and I asked Gary, if I mailed the jacket to him on the Monday morning, if he could repair it and have it back with me for Friday for that Sunday's return flight? He said he would try - and I sent it out that Monday morning and sure enough, it came back to me that Thursday morning (!) and the work was simply perfection - you'd never know it had had a new zip. And there was no charge whatsoever on the repair or the posting. Shortly afterwards I did post the jacket and mentioned the repair on TFL and gave credit where credit's due and it totally was. And the jacket has been worn a lot this mild winter (far more than my ELC RW B-3 and Irvin) and the zip shows not a hint of a problem and is performing flawlessly. Perfect.
As I've said before on other posts, IMO, when we opt for vintage designs of zips like Crowns, Talons and Kwiks and the like, we are buying something that requires a little more care as they are old designs with any design limitations they had built into them. They'd go on to be replaced in the mass market as they couldn't compete with easy-sliding zips of modern materials. A vintage design (NOS or repro) requires some thought and attention when engaging and disengaging and all that's required is just a little time and being "present" in mind - instead of trying to do it on "auto-pilot" and not looking at what you're doing. I learnt that the hard way.
So, we love these jackets for their vintage appeal - and, say, like a classic car, one wouldn't drive a Triumph TR-6 as one would a new Porsche or Honda ... take your time and enjoy the zip and in using it properly and with care, like every other part of the jacket.

Perfectly stated, Stand By! The extra care is often a hard point to have accepted by the average Joe, who is, generally, not prone to giving much thought to anything, and who is even less inclined and accepting of having to do so when dropping the sort of cash requisite for a high-end repro jacket. This could well be part of a societal conditioning at large that stems from having so much readily available, and usually very cheaply.

I sometimes hear expectations about the availability and functionality of repro jackets that are fully akin to buying made-in-China, mass-produced, disposable jackets from LL Bean. While I can certainly understand and appreciate an expectation about the function of a jacket that costs over $1, 000.00, the very vintage detailing that is a huge part of the driving cost and attendant incentive to make the purchase too often is lost in the overall understanding of the characteristics inherent in the jacket, leaving some to end up declaring that they'd rather have a YKK zip installed. This reflects a gap in purchase understanding that is not unlike what would be found if a Ferrari buyer expected their new toy to perform as reliably as a Honda purchased for a fraction of the cost.

When LL Bean offers free shipping on delivery and all exchanges/returns and allows the recipient of a jacket with a faulty zipper to keep it and also receive a new jacket free of charge even a year later, I maintain this doesn't really foster a positive image of the merchandise and brand; rather, it cheapens both because the true cost to the manufacturer cannot be very much in order to provide for such benefit, hence the consumer's expenditure is, at least to me, very disposable. I explain to customers when pondering such a scenario that we would have to adopt the same profit margin LL Bean maintains in order to extend this sort of customer service, which would not yield a repro leather jacket that costs between $1, 000 - $2, 000, but one that costs $4, 000 or more!

 

[HPA Rep]

I bought my 2008 ELC RW B-6 secondhand from eBay and I had the seller (in the UK) mail it directly to ELC instead of me and I had Crown zippers fitted to it to replace the Ri-Ri ones that were originally put on it (as well as the strange label).

Stand By, please elaborate as to just what sort of label and zippers your RW B-6 had originally installed? I am struggling to imagine Gary Eastman would have permitted a RW B-6 to have had RiRi zips installed, though this does date back to when custom options were accepted, and sometimes oddball ones. Thank you!

 

[HPA Rep]

B-3 was a few days old. All zipper replaced...perfect restitching.

Thank you, Cooper A-2, for the reply.

 

[Stand By]

Stand By, please elaborate as to just what sort of label and zippers your RW B-6 had originally installed? I am struggling to imagine Gary Eastman would have permitted a RW B-6 to have had RiRi zips installed, though this does date back to when custom options were accepted, and sometimes oddball ones. Thank you!

FOUND IT! That took a while ...
Here's the link to my original post that explained my then-new (to me) ELC RW B-6 and at the foot of the post are the photos that the seller sent me of the original RiRi zips and the odd labels. I never saw them in person as the jacket had been returned to spec. by Gary when it arrived at my end.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/my-new-old-elc-rw-b-6.74845/

 

[HPA Rep]

Thank you, Stand By. Now that explains it - ELC made this as an exclusive!