Horween USA and Aero Leather Joint Statement

[Peter Mackin]

Nearly 20,000 views in 6 days tells me that lots of folk find this topic pretty interesting,,,,just saying like !!!!

 

[majormajor]

Nearly 20,000 views in 6 days tells me that lots of folk find this topic pretty interesting,,,,just saying like !!!!

Ever noticed, Peter - whenever there's a car crash on the motorway, every driver slows down to have a look??:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

 

[Dr H]

Nearly 20,000 views in 6 days tells me that lots of folk find this topic pretty interesting,,,,just saying like !!!!

Yes, but 10,000 of those are me just checking to see whether it's finished yet ;-)

 

[Peter Mackin]

Yes, but 10,000 of those are me just checking to see whether it's finished yet ;-)

Love it.......lol

 

[dr.velociraptor]

We're all adults here, no one is getting nasty or breaking the TOS from what I've read, if you don't like the thread just leave it, pretty simple really. You guys are so obsessed with jackets this is quite a newsworthy topic for a site centered on basically these types of leather jackets, must be 10 Aero posts per page, it's like your Watergate.

I am amazed by the loyalty of Aero fans, after the Aero USA debacle and now this it would be near impossible for me to part with my money for one of their $1000+ jackets. I still can't get over the fact that Aero doesn't sell FQHH jackets over 3 ozs, makes so many points people made about their horsehide over the years on this site completely irrelevant.

 

[frussell]

For some of us, I would imagine we keep coming back to this thread because we haven't heard back from Aero, so this is our only source of information on how this situation is developing. Until I hear from Holly, this thread is the only update I'm getting, so I check in often. Frank.

 

[HorseHide]

I am amazed by the loyalty of Aero fans, after the Aero USA debacle and now this

And let us not forget the fact that they collect VAT from non-EU customers and pocket it (something that they failed to disclose until challenged - oops).

 

[caffeinated]

Yeah, Dr. V, I am puzzled by the lack of concern here too. We request samples of various hides from Aero, obsess over the difference between brown horse-hide and cordovan horse-hide or regular vs vintage, and spend hours reading threads and asking each other about the qualities of our jackets as they age. I researched for months, and eventually decided I wanted horse-hide based on all the high praise and awesome photos from this site.

Yet now the possibility exists that the jackets we paid top dollar for are not made of the hide we thought they were. And we don't know the date range when these frauds were taking place. So for some unknown time period, we could have just called up Aero and said "Send me a jacket and you pick the leather as long as it's brown. But allow me to pay a premium price for it."

I agree that Aero is a stand-up company for coming forth with the info about the steer-hide jackets being sold as horse. All I'm asking is for clarity on when jackets were being made with mixed hides. And I'm really surprised more people aren't interested in knowing this.

As far as closing the thread, I can't see what purpose that would serve. No one needs to click on it if they don't want to see it.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Did you ever think that just maybe Aero doesn't know when Will started substituting steer for HH or mixmatching?
I'm assuming that he has been running the show since Ken retired several years ago. After AeroUSA shut down..I would imagine that Ken stepped in for some investigation..and possibly found more than he bargained for. Ken and Holly had to try and deal with the aftermath of AeroUSA..and then to discover probably even more than they've made public to date. The shock of Will and Amanda's involvement..and then attempting to pick up the peices..all the while trying to continue 'business as usual' must have been mind boggling. With the persons doing the dirty deeds immediately out of the picture..and off the premises..I don't know how they could ever find out for sure. Certainly none of the records would show the misdeeds. If Ken retired in 2006..it could have started right away...or only a year ago.
It seems that Ken would need to examine customers hides(either in person or photos)..and then check the date of sale to have any clue of a time period.
HD

 

[Dr H]

Succinctly put as ever, Van. That sums it up well.
My last post on it, promise.

 

[TomS]

Wow... too much!

 

[eClairvaux]

I tried all search terms I could think of, but could not find any entry in the scottish courts register of it's current business, neither in Selkirk, nor Edinburgh. That's a bit odd, because usually the claim is made before informing the public.
(http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk under "Current Business")

 

[wdw]

Having had the "pleasure" of sitting on a jury for a serious crime trial at the High Court in Edinburgh last year, I would say any trial is probably a year or so away, so I doubt very much if we'll see anything until late 2013.

The more serious cases are heard there and I can say from experience that the level of detail gone into about personal lives and anything relevant to the case is scary, not to mention often embarrassing and humiliating. It's not something I'd like to go through again.

 

[cloudylemonade]

Did you ever think that just maybe Aero doesn't know when Will started substituting steer for HH or mixmatching?
I'm assuming that he has been running the show since Ken retired several years ago. After AeroUSA shut down..I would imagine that Ken stepped in for some investigation..and possibly found more than he bargained for. Ken and Holly had to try and deal with the aftermath of AeroUSA..and then to discover probably even more than they've made public to date. The shock of Will and Amanda's involvement..and then attempting to pick up the peices..all the while trying to continue 'business as usual' must have been mind boggling. With the persons doing the dirty deeds immediately out of the picture..and off the premises..I don't know how they could ever find out for sure. Certainly none of the records would show the misdeeds. If Ken retired in 2006..it could have started right away...or only a year ago.
It seems that Ken would need to examine customers hides(either in person or photos)..and then check the date of sale to have any clue of a time period.
HD

You are exactly right, we just don't know. At first we thought it was only within the last year, but now it seems that probably isn't the case. We really do not know how long this has been going on for.

As I've said, and many others have said, if you are in doubt please email me. I'm doing my very best to answer everyone as quickly as possible, but as Van pointed out, we are snowed under with normal work as well as trying to handle this current situation, so I'm sorry if anyone has been left waiting, but if thats the case feel free to email me again. All photos need close investigation, and time with Ken to do this is at a premium. Combined with me currently having no out of hours internet access til early next week, this is causing a further slight delay.

 

[Sloan1874]

I tried all search terms I could think of, but could not find any entry in the scottish courts register of it's current business, neither in Selkirk, nor Edinburgh. That's a bit odd, because usually the claim is made before informing the public.
(http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk under "Current Business")

The wheels of justice turn slowly in Scotland. I should imagine the civil case is heard before a criminal one if it reaches trial.

 

[Unwissender]

Can be of importance which is workers made ​​the jacket? Perhaps one could more easily tell FQHH or steer?

 

[Lungomare]

Can be of importance which is workers made ​​the jacket? Perhaps one could more easily tell FQHH or steer?

You are right - the makers and the cutter, they all must have known that steer is sold as horse. They obviously were in cahoots with Will & Amanda. Why they kept mum would be interesting, but we might not get to know the reasons.

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[Lungomare]

There is another thing I noticed. Normally horsehide gets stiff(er) in the cold but my 1950's doesn't, but stays as soft as it is under warm conditions.

I thought horsehide always gets stiffer in the cold because of the special tannery process using wax, etc..

What do you think?

Kind regards,

Johannes

 

[cuthbert]

Not all the jackets made this year were made of steer, Holly confirmed that my HD is indeed horse, and at that time I asked Amanda the heaviest horsehide they had.

 

[wdw]

There's no reason the machinists would necessarily be involved, as they would simply put together what was given to them and would neither know nor care what the buyer ordered.

If any machinists left a month or two ago, then that may (or may not) have been coincidence.