FiveStar Leather Latest Developments 2023

[bellumbill]

My experience with FS has in the past been very good, however recently it has not been. Don't know if they are getting bigger and less attuned to customers or not? I ordered an A2 from them recently and the sizes I sent were all wrong upon receiving the jacket, esp. the jacket length which was short by two inches. When I reached out to them with photos and measurements of the jacket I had in hand, I simply never heard back from them. This has now been several months past. I have a few of their jackets I love, esp. a Monarch A2, but sadly I likely will not be doing business with them again. Hopefully I am simply a rare exception to the rule.

Best,
Bill K.

 

[Shawn Ali]

Now, Shawn needs to work on flying boots (with shearling fleece and molded rubber soles) so we can get a full outfit ....

View attachment 120663

Thanks for making our attention towards the boots, We are already working on the Boots, but this project can take some time to be completed


Best Regards

Shawn

 

[Shawn Ali]

My experience with FS has in the past been very good, however recently it has not been. Don't know if they are getting bigger and less attuned to customers or not? I ordered an A2 from them recently and the sizes I sent were all wrong upon receiving the jacket, esp. the jacket length which was short by two inches. When I reached out to them with photos and measurements of the jacket I had in hand, I simply never heard back from them. This has now been several months past. I have a few of their jackets I love, esp. a Monarch A2, but sadly I likely will not be doing business with them again. Hopefully I am simply a rare exception to the rule.

Best,
Bill K.

Hello Dear Bill

Thanks for your message, and I apologies for any inconvenience caused, please send me an email again at [email protected] with your order number, we might missed your email, But I assure you our Best Cooperation in this regard.

Best Regards

Shawn

 

[Enigma1938]

Well, my experiences with FS are:
Unquestionably great products, the 3 jackets I have are quality made, and they offer products you cannot get anywhere others, not to mention the reasonable prices.
On the downside my communication experience wasn't always that great like so many other customers posting here.
When I wanted to talk about customation of my Irvin - different leather types and colors they replied right from the start "we have this leather here, take it or leave it!" In a friendly but slightly annoyed tone without trying to help me out or making a suggestion like "wait a few weeks, we may have a different leather then..." or something like that. I know very well that some customers can be pretty annoying too but I see no fault on my side here.
But I should mention that I never talked to Shawn himself, must have been a employee.

 

[Shawn Ali]

Well, my experiences with FS are:
Unquestionably great products, the 3 jackets I have are quality made, and they offer products you cannot get anywhere others, not to mention the reasonable prices.
On the downside my communication experience wasn't always that great like so many other customers posting here.
When I wanted to talk about customation of my Irvin - different leather types and colors they replied right from the start "we have this leather here, take it or leave it!" In a friendly but slightly annoyed tone without trying to help me out or making a suggestion like "wait a few weeks, we may have a different leather then..." or something like that. I know very well that some customers can be pretty annoying too but I see no fault on my side here.
But I should mention that I never talked to Shawn himself, must have been a employee.

Thanks for your message and highlight your expereince, You can directly approach me any time either at Messenger, WhatsApp, or email, and we always try our best to be polite and helping all the times, that must be my colleague who are sometimes busy and have many customers to dealt with, as I explained in my previous other threads that sometimes we secure one order after communicationg more than 100 emails so you can understand our side as well. But we will try our best to improve our customer service more.

Best Regards

 

[Lockheed]

Now, Shawn needs to work on flying boots (with shearling fleece and molded rubber soles) so we can get a full outfit ....

View attachment 120663

Seconding this! Wartime A6 boots and RAF 1941 boots would be awesome to see, especially with there not being any repro options out there currently.

 

[Dumpster D]

I will buy a pair of those sheepskin gloves from FS if they make some!!

 

[bellumbill]

Thanks for your message and highlight your expereince, You can directly approach me any time either at Messenger, WhatsApp, or email, and we always try our best to be polite and helping all the times, that must be my colleague who are sometimes busy and have many customers to dealt with, as I explained in my previous other threads that sometimes we secure one order after communicationg more than 100 emails so you can understand our side as well. But we will try our best to improve our customer service more.

Best Regards

I sent you an email with photos last Thursday or Friday. Hoping to hear back from you soon. Bill K.

 

[Saint-ex]

Thanks for your message and highlight your expereince, You can directly approach me any time either at Messenger, WhatsApp, or email, and we always try our best to be polite and helping all the times, that must be my colleague who are sometimes busy and have many customers to dealt with, as I explained in my previous other threads that sometimes we secure one order after communicationg more than 100 emails so you can understand our side as well. But we will try our best to improve our customer service more.

@Shawn Ali encounters a common challenge in a growing business. We can no longer manage everything once there is growth, and at the same time it is difficult, if not impossible, to recruit people who are as involved as we could be.

Good luck Shawn !

 

[ties70]

@Shawn Ali encounters a common challenge in a growing business. We can no longer manage everything once there is growth, and at the same time it is difficult, if not impossible, to recruit people who are as involved as we could be.

Good luck Shawn !

Exact my thoughts, Vincent!!

When @Shawn Ali started to make flight jackets with a more serious approach, there were a lot of "hits & misses" regarding the outcome: extra inside pockets on A-2s, lifeless baby-smooth hides, side entries or other "fashion elements". The FS team was giving "their best", not knowing that for us less is sometimes more....

It was a learning process for FS to find out that WE have only a few, basic demands for our stuff...but please please please follow them to the point...

Nowadays, the military inspired stock of Shawn's portfolio might still be the smaller part of his business, but has nonetheless grown significantly....leading to the same problem we had in the beginning: workforce - unfamiliar with military jackets - has to be hired from the local leather (fashion) industry.

But there is hope: I think Shawn is one of us now, maybe not as obsessed as we are, but kind of close.. ;-)

Ties

 

[bellumbill]

Hey, guys, glad you have the 5 Star love - As you can see above, Shawn himself asked me to email him on the 20th - Today is the 27th still have heard nothing back. Maybe its just me

Best,
Bill K.

 

[Shawn Ali]

Hey, guys, glad you have the 5 Star love - As you can see above, Shawn himself asked me to email him on the 20th - Today is the 27th still have heard nothing back. Maybe its just me

Best,
Bill K.

Hello Dear Bill

Thanks for your concerns, well I replied your email 6 days ago immediatley after receiving your email, my answer was as below

"
Dear Bill

Thanks for the email and your concerns, well you are always welcome to discuss the matters with us as we try our best to please our customers any way, well that jacket which you ordered you requested to have the length as the Monarch A2 Jacket, so below are two images which you can find for both the Monarch A2 and the last shipped Star A2 jacket
that is Monarch A2

Below is Star A2

You can see even STAR A2 has a better length than the Monarch A2, can you please send me your images which are showing less.

As we dont keep the inventory of these jackets and we always make them fresh from scratch after receiving the orders so that is not possible we ship you a wrong size. However whatever is the case we are available for your assistance.

With Best Wishes and Gratitude
Shawn Ali
"

Well I was supposing your email in explanation to this, but I never heard back from your email address, so please reply my email and we will proceed accordingly.

Best REGARDS

Shawn

 

[Thomas Koehle]

Exact my thoughts, Vincent!!

When @Shawn Ali started to make flight jackets with a more serious approach, there were a lot of "hits & misses" regarding the outcome: extra inside pockets on A-2s, lifeless baby-smooth hides, side entries or other "fashion elements". The FS team was giving "their best", not knowing that for us less is sometimes more....

It was a learning process for FS to find out that WE have only a few, basic demands for our stuff...but please please please follow them to the point...

Nowadays, the military inspired stock of Shawn's portfolio might still be the smaller part of his business, but has nonetheless grown significantly....leading to the same problem we had in the beginning: workforce - unfamiliar with military jackets - has to be hired from the local leather (fashion) industry.

But there is hope: I think Shawn is one of us now, maybe not as obsessed as we are, but kind of close.. ;-)

Ties

Fully support your statement @ties70

 

[Enigma1938]

Thanks God there are still Guys like Morten from AVI leather.

 

[Thomas Koehle]

Just as an comment: @Shawn Ali is still personally replying my requests and messages - his reaction-time was always less than 24 hrs

I understand a situation where you trying to start to bring your business in a certain direction but from a "break even point" is no longer possible to react to each and every message on your own rather than by your associates

I think 5Star meanwhile reached this level and as long as Shawn with his staff is still working to get new items - which are rarely available as repros so far - im perfectly fine with the performance of FIVESTAR.

Still one must keep in mind of which pricerange we are talking and i do not want to talk about "you get what you pay for" but the opposite: i'm still amazed about the fact that quality and performance-wise FIVESTAR is absolutely able to compete with the expensive makers and delivers goods of decent quality.

"Kep 'em coming" @Shawn Ali

 

[mulceber]

I also noticed a drastic reduction of interest in details with FiveStar’s products this year.

The most recent proof of that, happened a week or so after Shawn unveiled the FiveStar repro of a B-7 parka (copied from an original). He also announced that they were going to replicate the 1937 B-3 (contract 37-2063-P link down here).

https://www.fivestarleather.us/products/jacket-flying-type-b-3-un-coated-1937-version

Almost immediately after seeing the pictures, I pointed him out that this jacket, has many mistakes and seems to be just their regular B-3 made with white sheepskin and with an extra buckle on the chest. These two jackets also share the same size chart. Judging from the results and some comments on Facebook, seems like he copied it from a single frontal picture of an original.

As I did other times to help him to offer a better repro, I wrote him privately a list of the various problems with the jacket and how to fix them. Also, I sent him this link, where he can find many pictures of an original in excellent condition.

https://vintage-mushroom.net/?pid=169589875

In the past, whenever I wrote him about something like this, he usually replied saying that his team would work to fix the issue and seemed to be more than happy to receive feedback. But this time, I just got completely ignored. I even tried to get his attention under the Facebook comments but nothing. He just doesn’t seem to be interested in making a well detailed reproduction anymore.

Freddy, I know you think you were helping Shawn, but tbh, I don't think your expectations were very realistic. Shawn's running a business, and while I know he wants to be as accurate as possible, telling him "you need to fix x, y, and z" isn't going to result in him making changes. Think about what that would entail: he takes your notes, spends the time AND money making a new test jacket, and in the end, he'd be left with a test jacket, without any customer lined up and no guarantee that all that hard work would result in more sales. This is especially true because the SFAD B-3 is a REALLY niche offering. I doubt Eastman sells more than a couple of them a year. Most people who care about that kind of accuracy on a very obscure jacket will just save up and buy an Eastman.

Can you really expect Shawn to put all that time and effort into making changes to a jacket that, for all he knows, was a one-off order? Even the big guys are frequently reluctant to do that - when I asked John Chapman about making a Pancho Barnes jacket (also a very niche design), his response (paraphrasing) was "I'm glad you want to order one - there's a bunch of things that I'd like to fix about the pattern of the first PB jacket I made many years ago." In other words, he wanted to make the most accurate jacket possible, but until he had a customer lined up to buy it, making the changes wasn't a high priority. Now John does do a lot of experiments with new patterns, new materials all on his own, so that he can continue to improve his craft, but he also has a sales page where he can off-load the results. Shawn doesn't have anything like that. Any test jackets he makes are probably going to be scrapped afterward.

All that is to say that, if you want to see Five Star implement your changes, then I think the best thing to do would be to order one and ask for Shawn to implement the changes on your jacket.

 

[flyincowboy]

Freddy, I know you think you were helping Shawn, but tbh, I don't think your expectations were very realistic. Shawn's running a business, and while I know he wants to be as accurate as possible, telling him "you need to fix x, y, and z" isn't going to result in him making changes. Think about what that would entail: he takes your notes, spends the time AND money making a new test jacket, and in the end, he'd be left with a test jacket, without any customer lined up and no guarantee that all that hard work would result in more sales. This is especially true because the SFAD B-3 is a REALLY niche offering. I doubt Eastman sells more than a couple of them a yea. Most people who care about that kind of accuracy on a very obscure jacket will just save up and buy an Eastman.

Can you really expect Shawn to put all that time and effort into making changes to a jacket that, for all he knows, was a one-off order? Even the big guys are frequently reluctant to do that - when I asked John Chapman about making a Pancho Barnes jacket (also a very niche design), his response (paraphrasing) was "I'm glad you want to order one - there's a bunch of things that I'd like to fix about the pattern of the first PB jacket I made many years ago." In other words, he

All that is to say that, if you want to see Five Star implement your changes, then I think the best thing to do would be to order one and ask for Shawn to implement the changes on your jacket.

 

[flyincowboy]

Yes it's what was done for my refurbished B3 the size was adjusted to my own dimensions i asked Shawn for Russet HH and trim ,proper buckles and straps. Just tell him what you want exactly and he will cope with your wish.

 

[Shawn Ali]

I also noticed a drastic reduction of interest in details with FiveStar’s products this year.

The most recent proof of that, happened a week or so after Shawn unveiled the FiveStar repro of a B-7 parka (copied from an original). He also announced that they were going to replicate the 1937 B-3 (contract 37-2063-P link down here).

https://www.fivestarleather.us/products/jacket-flying-type-b-3-un-coated-1937-version

Almost immediately after seeing the pictures, I pointed him out that this jacket, has many mistakes and seems to be just their regular B-3 made with white sheepskin and with an extra buckle on the chest. These two jackets also share the same size chart. Judging from the results and some comments on Facebook, seems like he copied it from a single frontal picture of an original.

As I did other times to help him to offer a better repro, I wrote him privately a list of the various problems with the jacket and how to fix them. Also, I sent him this link, where he can find many pictures of an original in excellent condition.

https://vintage-mushroom.net/?pid=169589875

In the past, whenever I wrote him about something like this, he usually replied saying that his team would work to fix the issue and seemed to be more than happy to receive feedback. But this time, I just got completely ignored. I even tried to get his attention under the Facebook comments but nothing. He just doesn’t seem to be interested in making a well detailed reproduction anymore.

Hello Freddy

Thanks my friend for taking time to write all of these details, well we totally understand what you are talking about, actually after receiving the information from you to improve that We started making the necessary print out's and call my team to work on that, and during these discussions I forget to reply you, we will surely work on that to improve, You can expect anything from us but Improvement is something which we never neglect from the day first we are in this forum, and you are our great friends here so please if you don't receive a reply don't make this in wrong sense, that link was posted for a friend who wish to buy that as it is, also we have only limited sheepskin for the white B-7 and B3 so expect some improvements in that soon
I once again thank you for all of your time and care you have for us.

Best Regards

Shawn

 

[B-Man2]

Shawn has been continuously improving his products since he first became part of this forum. I have one of his jackets and I’ve been very happy with it since the day that I acquired the jacket.
I can say without any reservation that if you order a jacket from 5 Star, you will have it at your doorstep in a timely manner. That’s more than can be said about some manufactures. While his jackets may not have achieved the level of accuracy as some tier one manufacturers jackets, give him some time and direction and he will improve his offerings continuously.
Just my opinion .