Good Wear on hiatus for new orders

[SuinBruin]

Looks like John is a victim of his own success... he's not taking any new orders for the time being.

http://www.goodwearleather.com/pages/index.html

I hate to say it, but a price increase may be the inevitable result... if he's this swamped in a recovering economy, imagine what the demand will look like when people are spending again.

 

[Roughwear]

As a one man outfit John has become a vistim of his own success! With the recent hike in the price of ELC A2s people are increasingly buying from Goodwear. He does make the most accurate A2s on the market and has now reached a point where he either puts a stop to new orders or trains another person to make the jackets. I hope the temporary halt on new buisness does not do GW any harm. Only time will tell.

 

[atkins]

I'd be happy to lend a hand for John if i'm in the States.

 

[watchmanjimg]

I guess this explains JC's lack of communication over the past two months, although in fairness he acknowledged even then that he'd gotten too far behind. We'll be waiting when he catches up . . .

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone knows what was the waiting time lately?

 

[chancerider]

Good for him! He, (Chapman) reminds me a bit of another very successful Pac NW craftsman/artist; Sacha White of Vanilla Cycles in Portland. Sacha had a 5 year waiting list for one of his handmade steel bicycles, so he stopped taking new orders for bespoke framesets. What he did do though, is introduce a high-quality line of production bicycle frames that are one-design, well made, reasonably priced, etc... Wonder if JC would ever do same if he could control QC, delivery, and the like. Lots of folks want a well-made repro, know/trust/want the "Chapman" name attached, and aren't complete authenticity nuts to the point where they care a whit about the "wrong" snaps on a Werber pattern, etc...

 

[zoomer]

I'd be happy to lend a hand for John if i'm in the States.

Some craftspeople won't train apprentices - even for free - because
a. it takes away from work time
b. it eats into the profits
c. simply because they feel their skills were too hard-earned to share with someone who might want to compete.

I ran into some of this in the music repair game years ago - basically no one will train you but a couple of community colleges. I'd have to take a beater saxophone, order a kit, screw up a lot, repeat repeat repeat.

John doesn't strike me as type c, so he might well consider bringing in someone with some basic experience who's a good learner during the break. Up to him of course...it's a delicate balance.

 

[John Lever]

I thought he had some help ?

 

[zoomer]

Really? We keep talking about him as a one-man shop. Maybe his help is the front-office type.

 

[rocco74]

if you make a good product like him , you can teporary increse production , but i think that he can lost the control of production(i speak but i dont know like type of industry he has, family?little?medium?).and if you lost direct control of production you cant only go better.

 

[Roughwear]

if you make a good product like him , you can teporary increse production , but i think that he can lost the control of production(i speak but i dont know like type of industry he has, family?little?medium?).and if you lost direct control of production you cant only go better.

John recently got married and has since become a father. Quite rightly he needs to spend time with his family and does not have time even to temporarily increase production. He is a one man operation (apart from some clerical help) and would need to train an apprentice or hire a skilled cutter/machine operator to increase production. This of course would eat into his profits in the short/ medium term. He would have to maintain quality control and would never sell inferior jackets made by another person.

 

[zoomer]

Babies change everything!

 

[Atticus]

Interesting. I can foresee the day when we will be buying original A-2s for our daily use...so we can reduce wear and tear on our Good Wear reproductions.

AF

 

[Clyde from Carolina]

Interesting. I can foresee the day when we will be buying original A-2s for our daily use...so we can reduce wear and tear on our Good Wear reproductions.

AF

Ha! Good one, sir.

I know in the custom pistol business it isn't unusual for truly talented gunsmiths to have waiting lists of several years. (I've heard of as high as five, like the custom bike guy mentioned earlier.) One of my favorite holster makers has about a two year wait, and only periodically opens up his wait list to take new orders.

I just hope John doesn't get like the curmudgeonly old smith Armand Swenson. Back in the '60s he pretty much invented the "customized combat" 1911 .45 pistol, and sold a lot of them to military guys heading overseas to Vietnam during that time. Supposedly back then if you were a Navy SEAL or other military guy, or a cop, you got bumped up to the top of the list.

BUT, I once read that if you were a rude customer who kept calling and bugging Armand asking when your pistol was going to be ready, the cigar box containing it got progressively shoved farther and farther behind his workbench...which supposedly could take years to find!

It sucks, but it is the only way a one man shop with high quality standards and high demand can probably exist.

 

[zoomer]

...outside of becoming a more-than-one-man shop.

But if craftspeople ran their craft like a business, they'd be businesspeople. And probably not so good at their craft.

 

[Clyde from Carolina]

True dat, Zoomer.

 

[grommet]

I once asked John why he doesn't get help and he said he wanted to do it his way (the right way). I am sure he is sincere. I hope that he doesn't find his work overwhelming. Fortunately, he clearly loves what he does, and how many of us can say that?

(Well, I do about 80% of the time, but I think I would rather make leather jackets if I had the talent!)

 

[chancerider]

...outside of becoming a more-than-one-man shop.

But if craftspeople ran their craft like a business, they'd be businesspeople. And probably not so good at their craft.

It can be done. Again to the world of high-end bespoke steel bicycles...check out Richard Sachs. http://www.richardsachs.com/

Sacha White (Vanilla Cycles) is also running a serious and thoughful business.

Sachs is a one-man shop, always has been, always will be....yet he is among the small group of franebuilders who runs his business like, well, a Business; Insurance, R+D, Marketing, etc.. Has an over-five-year waitlist that is closed to new orders.

 

[jschare]

Anyone knows what was the waiting time lately?

I think it's over 6 months now. I ordered mine in May of 2010 and got it in November of 2010.

 

[Peter Graham]

Oh well. There goes the B-6.