Order Update Thread

We are such smart asses.

Just noticed LD dropped the retail price on their waxed cruisers to $135. The brown cruiser was initially priced at $198 and the navy British millerain cruiser at $189. Seems strange that I paid 50% of the $189 price only to see them drop it $135. I'm not complaining - I paid $106.50 with shipping which is a steal. It's just odd that they would drop the price even more which would mean anyone placing new orders for the cruiser is getting them for $67.50 (minus shipping).

That is a great price (however, not all of us are entitled to 50% off).  With LD, I'm not in buy mode until I receive my first order - but this is making it a lot more difficult as I have had my eye on the navy for awhile - it is lined as well right?

yes, the navy British millerain cruiser is also lined. I figured it should be very similar to Filson's soy wax cruiser, just in a different color/fabric. I ordered mine with dark blue stitching, black hardware and red canvas pocket lining.

oh this is just beautiful. Sal got back to me to tell me 'The last info I got was it was waiting for sewing to piece it together"

This is hilarious. This is what I was told back in November.

To update my earlier posts, Sal came back after a couple of days and has now processed my refund, which I'll hopefully get in a couple of days, so thanks to him for that.

I do hope things work out for LD, but get the feeling that people need to accept a 3-4 month wait until the LA factory comes on stream.

I still have a vest on order, and will possibly place more orders if the price is right, or if the fabrics change, but I'll take a very long-term view on delivery next time.

FYI, I am not sure the lower priced ones are lined.  And I am pretty sure they are out of the brown however the picture is still there.  

I figure if my cruiser doesn't fit I can sell it and at least recoup my money. I'm consistently a size large across most brands when it comes to outerwear, so based on LD's fit guide I should technically be ok. If it's on the fitted side like Gustin's trucker that's ok too.

But like I said, i'm in it for the long haul and will patiently wait for my cruiser. I have zero expectations that it will be delivered in the time frame they've specified so i'm not in panic mode yet. I'd rather they took their time and make the coat correctly than rush it and have it not fit me. Good things come to those that wait as they say.

This was my most productive time in AZ yet. The amount of things I got into was both important and exciting. As much as everyone may feel like they are not being attended to, just know if we are not around its because we are attending to you. We can only do so much at our price point before it cost us more to make the item. . If we were selling thousands of jeans at a price of $300 with a net cost of $25-$30, we would have a team of 100 and maybe more. We came out with a pretty good idea which was to provide people with a great pair of jeans but at standard everyday jean price. We are not a big operation as you all know but we took on an enormous amount of business in a extremely short amount of time. I know people question why we won't shut down "Sales" or stop offering jeans at such a low price but for obvious reasons you should never stop selling...RIGHT. The price we offer during sales is the price we want to sell at. If we stop that we stop what we intend to do which is to bring great quality into inexpensive territory. The plan is to offer and prove $300 is not the reality but just the reality we have been taught over years of brands telling us the value of their clothing.



As for our ability to keep up with demand and the amount of emails, I would say we are doing our best and do not mean to leave anyone behind. I read some feel we are neglecting customer service but I think that's definitely not our intentions. We have production that needs attention and thats what I personally wanted to handle during my stay. Of course I am typically the person that keeps a presence in the forums so naturally you haven't seen me around. I decided I would do everything the shop does on a daily basis but I dedicated my time to touching every order i could. I opened packages and read notes. I also found out that some of the custom requests are just a bit to much to handle. Our already custom options make for a slower pace but add in a pocket change from one shirt to the other and a tacker stitch being red while the rest is blue really hurts everything so if you notice something wasn't done it is likely something we can't afford to do. We caught wind of it and have made necessary changes to the site. The reality is we can't meet 1-2 month turn times but can do it in 3 months. For now everyone who placed an order during the initial opening will have longer wait times than what a new order may have. It will take time to get through all those initial orders but as I said it will all speed up down the road as we get to the orders that are cleaner. I have placed 4 orders so far and my 1st two orders were completed in ( placed on Oct 3rd) 9 weeks 4 days and (placed on Oct 17th) 13 weeks 3 days. That's a few week difference but exactly what most are seeing and likely because of the custom orders being in abundance. I also have a new site order # 143 that was being cut during my last few days in the shop. Have we had a few wait longer than times stated...Yes but its not the majority. When I say 12 - 14 weeks, I say that because I am seeing that mostly. Can it change? Yes and that's based on what is in production at the time. The orders are all different with all different amounts and customization's. I have said this many times and it is not an excuse but a fact, Not one factory in the world would want to take on what we have. We are doing something nobody would want to do let alone do it at the price we are doing it. Why do we get charged $400 for a pair of good jeans? Because it is a lot of work to make a good pair of jeans let alone a shirt which is even more difficult. The fabric, machines, workforce, middlemen , brand advertised value as the best all add up to higher priced items. We openly tell everyone what it costs us to make something and then show you how much we make by charging a price everyone thinks is great. I strongly believe not one brand out there can match our quality with the price we advertise.





To answer what are we doing to grow and hit all our promised expansions..EVERYTHING possible including eliminating semi custom which was really full custom in most cases. I counted how many orders were really full custom under the semi custom label including $69 jean. That alone will resolve everyone's wait time by likely a month eventually. We also added 2 cutters during my 2 weeks and 3 more sewers who are doing mostly small things like plackets and collars. We are very serious about improving on our production and systems. We are also working towards the 2nd factory which will take time to set up as it requires legal paper work and testing to get taken care of.





If anyone feels slighted, we apologize. If you feel the price we charge is not worth the wait, let us know what you want and we will do it. We may be slower than liked but I am confident we are making some great clothing. Have there been a few mistakes ..yes but i think we fix that pretty fast and are fixing it like no other custom shop would. We take the loss not the consumer. Most custom shops have a disclaimer that if you size wrong you cant get a refund or a remake and we do. I think that's a pretty good commitment to the consumer. If we made the mistake we again look to fix it. People are questioning whether they can cancel their orders which we of course will allow. Just shoot me a message and I will take care of it. Anything that is done from an order that is cancelled will go up on the site for sale immediately which we have a few shirts I think most will want. We will continue to put out some great product with the consumer in mind but ask for your patience and understanding.


Thank you 

Sal

thanks for the info Dirty_Denim, always good to hear about what's going on from the inside. with regards to the customizations that you aren't able to do once you hit production...are the customers being notified once you realize their garment won't be made to their request? i'd hate to see backlash when customers get items not as expected without notification or an included note acknowledging that the omission was intentional.
also, the site rework looks nice, but seems to still be indicating a 8-10 week production cycle. is that the real expectation for newly placed orders? i noticed the same 8-10 week schedule was quoted to a customer on IG the other day. if so, that's great news...if not you again might be setting up customers (and ultimately yourselves) for disappointment if you aren't expecting to meet that timeframe. people are willing to wait, but are less forgiving when told one thing and faced with another.

Two things that can't be over done: Customer Service & Quality Control. And absolutely, as you fellas point out, do not set yourself up to fail (re: timelines).