The A-1 pockets

[Jeff M]

Andy, how is production actually running?
I know I have been waiting for my A2 since the beginning of the year...still no ETA.
Meanwhile, it seems like BK rolls out a new jacket design every day.
The "Waldo Pepper", "Aeronaut", "Hercules", "Westfall", "A1", "Biker Jacket" each announced over at the VLJ forum just since the first of this month.
Sometime back over at the VLJ Platon said that BK was a "smaller operation" than Good Wear leather.
Good Wear is a one man operation, with one additional person to help with emails/secretarial help.

If you are that small, how can you offer so many new designs.....especially when the old ones don't seem to be making it out the door?

 

[andyfalzon]

Hi Jeff,

We are a smaller operation in terms of turnover.

 

[Jeff M]

Hi Jeff,

We are a smaller operation in terms of turnover.

Turnover...of employees, or jackets going out the door ?

 

[Seb Lucas]

Turnover: I'd say he means jacket out the door, Jeff.

 

[Jeff M]

Turnover: I'd say he means jacket out the door, Jeff.

That's kind of what I thought, had to wonder though.
I believe Good Wear is producing 2 to 3 jackets per week.
On top of keeping up with existing orders, it seems like it would be hard to really nail down a new design if turning out fewer than that....much less the half dozen or more new designs BK has announced in the past few weeks.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

hmmm this is the nature of buying on a waiting list! It's not like he can stop developing his business, and I can't see that developing new designs necessarily slows down production - it's what one does in the spare time. We all need a break at the end of the day, and when building a business, that break tends to take the form of trying to grow the business (i.e. developing new designs).

 

[andyfalzon]

Hi Jeff,

Turnover means income.

The new designs we presented is the product of work of several months. We don't make them overnight. It takes at least 3 months of designing, developing, sourcing the right materials etc. to make a new jacket. To give you an example, to design and make the woven label of a jacket takes more than a month. The latest H&L Block label we made was made and rejected 3 times before it could become as much accurate to the original as humanly possible.

To sum up, we don't make a new jacket with whatever leftovers we have from the previous jackets like others may do. All components are carefully selected. We care to make exquisite quality jackets. We are not interested in making clothing. You can buy that elsewhere. We aim to make works of art, high quality pieces, jackets with personality, jackets that the wearer will be amazed with the quality and proud to wear.

We have made some very fast steps increasing our quality lately while others have been advising us to stay low profile by offering 1-2 jacket styles at most. Not our cup of tea. Nobody can stop the progress, and we believe one should ride the train of progress, even though it runs fast, or miss it for good. In short, if we CAN provide wide selection and good quality items to our customers it would be a crime not to do it.

We will push the quality thing further, as far as it goes. For example, with the Victory horse, it can't go any higher than that. We never stopped looking for horsehide, even since we found the Victory, but every leather expert who looks at this leather says we won't find any better.

 

[Boyo]

Andy, Can you comment on the average length of time it takes to construct a jacket? it appears that the OP (JeffM) has been waiting close to 7 months for his order? is that normal? it has been discussed here many times that various manufacturers have wait times anywhere from several weeks to 18 months. where does BK fall in this equation? A long wait time is not necessarily a detriment, as long as it is known up front.

 

[andyfalzon]

When we have all the materials in stock it takes 2 weeks. But we're at the mercy of the leather suppliers. Leather suppliers of high quality leathers do not care for small orders so small orders get pushed back. Last time that we ordered Victory horsehide, tannery promised delivery in 1 month and it took 4.5 months. All that time we were receiving many orders for it so when it finally arrived there was a huge backlog that created the 7 months wait that Jeff is suffering. We are suffering together. We want to have leathers so we can work. When you wait, we wait with you.

The only way to really solve this problem would be to raise the prices at GW or Himelbros levels so to generate more cash more quickly that would allow bigger volume orders. The Victory horse is a super expensive hide, costing 3 times more than regular FQHH and we have to be able to meet the tannery's minimum order requirements. But we do not want to raise the prices and I do not think anybody else wants. So we will try to keep them low as long as we can afford.

I know that waiting is annoying but one has to weigh the benefits. You can't get leather of this quality that cheap. Worth waiting for.
Jeff has been particularly unlucky with his initial order because the local mouton importer, while he had told us that there is plenty of mouton available, run out of stock and the replenishment time was unknown. We had to go to Portugal with a mouton sample and re-create the leathers from scratch custom made to our specs. The Portuguese made miracles and they made the mouton pretty quickly. The whole time required for Jeff's jacket was about 2 months. That was far outside the 2 weeks advised but the 2 weeks estimation was given basis that the mouton was available locally. We apologized to Jeff for that.

Generally, BK ships jackets 4-8 weeks after ordering and there have been less than a handful of cases where delivery exceeded 2 months.
The delivery time cannot be fixed it is always subject to current conditions so a customer should always ask before placing an order.

 

[Sloan1874]

Nicely explained.

 

[Jeff M]

... the 7 months wait that Jeff is suffering. We are suffering together. ....

And looks like more suffering to come.
Just heard from Platon that you are currently out of the "Victory Horse" hide. Again.

 

[andyfalzon]

Yes we are. And because all tanneries close for August the new batch of Victory will not arrive before October.
That is why we will be offering Badalassi, which is probably the best steerhide in the market today.

Badalassi is a tannery that produce massive amounts of hides and thus they control their production efficiently.

On the other hand, the Victory is made by a very old and traditional tannery who refuses to mass produce in order to preserve handmade quality and while everything there is done by hand, according to the old methods, takes considerably longer time.

Badalassi are currently producing the leathers for us and will ship them just before they close for holidays. So we should be able to receive them the 1st week of August or so.

 

[handymike]

Will you be able to get the Badalassi Blue that the Few offers for their A1?

 

[andyfalzon]

If you are referring to this

the left side hide is called Ortensia and the right one Petrolio.

Yes, we could get this, no problem at all. But not before August. The soonest it can be done is September. If we order it early in September, we will get it before end September.

But there are two problems. First, we don't make boots,
and second, as blue is not a very popular leather for leather jackets we would not feel comfortable to stock it.
So, if 2-3 guys here can get together and make a pre-order for say 3 jackets, we will get the hides and make you the jackets.

 

[handymike]

Definitely the Petrolio...
I think you might be able to muster up 3 guys...
Do they have a similar style DARK GREEN?

 

[andyfalzon]

Actually they do. It's called Oliva and it's great. I have a small sample here and looks perfect though a bigger piece may not look so dark.

 

[handymike]

please show us!

 

[Boyo]

When we have all the materials in stock it takes 2 weeks. But we're at the mercy of the leather suppliers. Leather suppliers of high quality leathers do not care for small orders so small orders get pushed back. Last time that we ordered Victory horsehide, tannery promised delivery in 1 month and it took 4.5 months. All that time we were receiving many orders for it so when it finally arrived there was a huge backlog that created the 7 months wait that Jeff is suffering. We are suffering together. We want to have leathers so we can work. When you wait, we wait with you.

The only way to really solve this problem would be to raise the prices at GW or Himelbros levels so to generate more cash more quickly that would allow bigger volume orders. The Victory horse is a super expensive hide, costing 3 times more than regular FQHH and we have to be able to meet the tannery's minimum order requirements. But we do not want to raise the prices and I do not think anybody else wants. So we will try to keep them low as long as we can afford.

I know that waiting is annoying but one has to weigh the benefits. You can't get leather of this quality that cheap. Worth waiting for.
Jeff has been particularly unlucky with his initial order because the local mouton importer, while he had told us that there is plenty of mouton available, run out of stock and the replenishment time was unknown. We had to go to Portugal with a mouton sample and re-create the leathers from scratch custom made to our specs. The Portuguese made miracles and they made the mouton pretty quickly. The whole time required for Jeff's jacket was about 2 months. That was far outside the 2 weeks advised but the 2 weeks estimation was given basis that the mouton was available locally. We apologized to Jeff for that.

Generally, BK ships jackets 4-8 weeks after ordering and there have been less than a handful of cases where delivery exceeded 2 months.
The delivery time cannot be fixed it is always subject to current conditions so a customer should always ask before placing an order.

Andy, thanks for being taking the time to answer my question.

 

[andyfalzon]

Here you go.

Happy to answer your questions. We don't just make jackets we love jackets. It's our hobby too. Don't be afraid to ask questions and please do not see us as 'the distant jacket manufacturer'. If we were any closer we 'be beer buddies for sure.

 

[Boyo]

If you are referring to this

the left side hide is called Ortensia and the right one Petrolio.

Yes, we could get this, no problem at all. But not before August. The soonest it can be done is September. If we order it early in September, we will get it before end September.

But there are two problems. First, we don't make boots,
and second, as blue is not a very popular leather for leather jackets we would not feel comfortable to stock it.
So, if 2-3 guys here can get together and make a pre-order for say 3 jackets, we will get the hides and make you the jackets.

I was under the impression that the boot on the right is the color the (new) boot on the left changes to over time and with wear..?