COVID-19 and Jacket Makers

[Brettafett]

Should make face masks...

 

[Skip]

They should follow NZ's lead, no pissing about.

Totally agree their cobber

 

[Flightengineer]

I literally just received a reply from AVI LTHR this morning from a few months ago, enquiring about their status. So, they've been quiet and seem to have come up with a new concept...

Quote, "At the moment im working on a “made to order” concept. The customer will order the jacket in their own measurements and the jacket will be made in these measurements. So customized your own measurements. Hoping to offer it for nearly the same price as today."

Hi Brett, I think Morten was a little late with this, considering where he make his jackets. Shawn has taken this niche.

 

[Officer Dibley]

Headwind might not be able to continue with 2 employees but Eastman press on for now

 

[Persimmon]

There is vast money to made it appears in the Eastman camp. Very different attitude adopted by Aero where it seems their people come first.

 

[Smithy]

There is vast money to made it appears in the Eastman camp. Very different attitude adopted by Aero where it seems their people come first.

I think they (ELC) are probably privately worried and are reticent to close because of the financial loss. Over the last few years they've been trying to reposition themselves as a high end luxury brand and with appropriate pricing to boot. Unfortunately when something as bad as this happens, one of the last things people start thinking they need is luxury goods. And if this continues to go on for month after month and people are losing their jobs and livelihoods you have to wonder how many people at that stage will be thinking it's the right time to be shelling out £1,000 for a fancy leather jacket. I don't know how much sales figures will fall but I don't think it will be pretty.

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

Headwind might not be able to continue with 2 employees but Eastman press on for now

View attachment 34158

Oh Dear

He must consider ELC a "Vital" service

 

[mulceber]

Spot on analysis of Eastman’s motives, Smithy. Still seems hard-hearted of them. Good on you, Ken, for putting people first.

 

[CBI]

good luck to everyone - very potentially devastating times. Here in the middle of the US in a rural state its bad but people are out and about and many businesses are up and running. The weather changed to sunny yesterday and on the surface things almost looked normal..............but of course far from it. In many respects, happy to be living in a spread out rural community in a rural state with a small number of cases growing at a very slow number.

 

[STEVE S.]

good luck to everyone - very potentially devastating times. Here in the middle of the US in a rural state its bad but people are out and about and many businesses are up and running. The weather changed to sunny yesterday and on the surface things almost looked normal..............but of course far from it. In many respects, happy to be living in a spread out rural community in a rural state with a small number of cases growing at a very slow number.

same here in the mountains. Only problems we have are folks from the city driving 2 hrs to raid the grocery stores. No cases in this county, but at least 4 in the next one over. It was traced to someone from NYC who came here for a social event.

times like this I’m glad I stay small, no employees to stress over & no accounts to worry about paying on. I pay up front for supplies as I go, no charge acts or credit cards so only thing I worry about business wise is availability of supplies & shipping etc.

 

[Smithy]

The more I read that Instagram post from ELC the more I wonder if that was such a great idea and whether it might actually backfire a bit on them. When lots of businesses are trying to take steps to ensure the safety of their employees that statement from ELC comes across more like, "until the government shuts us down we're doing things as we usually do."

Maybe I'm judging the tone and intention wrong but it's in stark contrast to the language and tone of Aero's position which seemed to be a direct translation of the governments advice and with a focus on employee safety rather than business continuity.

Seems though that I wasn't the only one to wonder about it as somebody has asked Gary on Instagram what safety measures they've introduced to protect their staff. Hopefully they have established some strict rules and procedures to protect their employees.

 

[ButteMT61]

Funny thing is, if someone had posted the ELC copy with no attribution and I had to guess who it was, I'd have guessed ELC or Andy (I've since forgotten the name of his company)

 

[Smithy]

Funny thing is, if someone had posted the ELC copy with no attribution and I had to guess who it was, I'd have guessed ELC or Andy (I've since forgotten the name of his company)

Fair point Scott

The more I read it the more it doesn't come across as the most appropriate tone and way to approach something which is killing a lot of people and has a very good chance of screwing the global economy. Maybe I'm reading it wrong and they've got a ton of measures they're implementing but it didn't come across that way to me at least.

 

[Spitfireace]

I think they (ELC) are probably privately worried and are reticent to close because of the financial loss. Over the last few years they've been trying to reposition themselves as a high end luxury brand and with appropriate pricing to boot. Unfortunately when something as bad as this happens, one of the last things people start thinking they need is luxury goods. And if this continues to go on for month after month and people are losing their jobs and livelihoods you have to wonder how many people at that stage will be thinking it's the right time to be shelling out £1,000 for a fancy leather jacket. I don't know how much sales figures will fall but I don't think it will be pretty.

Luxury goods are not going to be happening.

 

[CBI]

I had to go to Home Depot for something for the bathroom - needed repair. it was crowded, the paint dept is as busy as its ever been. loads of people with gardening supplies, mulch, etc. Too bad there is no excuse for garden and home improvement projects - YUCK!!!!! but in reality - good news

 

[Smithy]

Luxury goods are not going to be happening.

That's exactly why this thing could kill off a lot of the companies we talk about on here.

And all the economic fallout from this is only just beginning to start now. I was talking to one of my best mates back in Melbourne and who is the godfather to both my kids less than ten minutes ago. He said (pardon my French) he's fucked. His company can't survive this and with be laying him off this week and probably today.

 

[33-1729]

Who knows what's going to happen
Aero's slant on the shutdown is we'd sooner lose business than a single staff member

Factory Re-Opening - Aero Leather, Scotland, UK

Factory Re-Opening, news story on Aero Leather, Scotland, UK

www.aeroleatherclothing.com

Whether we had to shut yesterday or not is a moot point, we'd already sent home every staffer with ongoing or previous health issues a couple of weeks ago, and those who can will work from home ...they were mostly doing so already


We have volunteered to make protective clothing for the NHS but so far no response which is a shame considering the shortages, other than that everyone is going to have to wait for an Aero product till it's safe to reopen

The factory is now set up so there's safe distance between any reduced staff level .................if the NHS come back to us or when we reopen "as normal"????

Keep safe and follow advice and don't think advice doesn't mean you

I wholeheartedly applaud Ken’s actions.

The concept of “head immunity” keeps coming up, so please consider this example as a bit of perspective. Herd immunity varies depending upon the disease, but just so we have a number the measles require >90% infected/vaccinated to provide a measure of protection for the rest of the uninfected/unvaccinated population. Don’t know what it is for COVID-19, so I’ll pick 1 out of 3 or 33% as a possible number (likely a low number). The Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of COVID-19 is considered to be ~3%, but the actual CFR isn’t clearly known so I’ll assume 1% (likely a low number too). Using those two assumptions for the US works out to around a million deaths. Obviously a back-of-the-envelope calculation is worth the napkin it’s written on, but it does provide a rough scale for the level of concern. Ken's not just saying but doing the right thing.

 

[Smithy]

I had to go to Home Depot for something for the bathroom - needed repair. it was crowded, the paint dept is as busy as its ever been. loads of people with gardening supplies, mulch, etc. Too bad there is no excuse for garden and home improvement projects - YUCK!!!!! but in reality - good news

One of the local hobby shops I buy from is the busiest they have ever been. People buying model kits and that kind of thing to keep them busy in lockdown.

 

[ausreenactor]

I was talking to a mate back in Melbourne just last night. He's absolutely livid about how slow ScoMo and the gang have been at doing things.

And yet others are whining about what restrictions are in place.

VIC and NSW new cases have peaked and trending down. What we did wrong was let everyone overseas back in? Majority of cases are tied to returned overseas travellers and infected visitors like Tom Hanks and contact with those individuals. Hope his Greyhound movie tanks! (Only joking Tom we love you)...

 

[ausreenactor]

Oh Dear

He must consider ELC a "Vital" service

Anyone with an order anywhere would put their jacket down as essential.