Looks like Diamond Dave is Closing up the Jacket Business

[Officer Dibley]

No need for this surely? An ill-considered, certainly ill-timed comment, sure-I winced at it a bit myself. But lose Ken’s vast wealth of knowledge over it? We all know Ken doesn’t have much of a filter, but I‘d hate to see him leave over it.

Mikey, you missed out “unrepentant” ...... no-one is bigger than the forum.

 

[A2 B3au]

Not wishing to kick a man when he's down but he let's be honest, he was well short of being a top level jacket maker..............Of Course I couldn't make a Crusher Cap, in fact his jackets were almost certainly better than my caps would have been.............at least I knew it

Oh oh that’s it ken your cancelled..... lol

 

[Officer Dibley]

No need for Ken to leave just because he was rude and didn’t like the reaction from some.
Everyone has the right to ignore - or not .

 

[zoomer]

AND most importantly, he was the only one out there making a true 48.

As a 46-48 myself, I've suspected for a long time that that is the point of diminishing returns.

 

[Clark J]

Just saw a post of DDs that he just redyed an old customers jacket be cause the color had changed.That seems to me to be great customer service ! It looked fantastic ! Daves prices were a bit cheaper to.

 

[Grant]

Screw the rude arrogance. I hope Dave sticks around!

 

[Clark J]

Not wishing to kick a man when he's down but he let's be honest, he was well short of being a top level jacket maker..............Of Course I couldn't make a Crusher Cap, in fact his jackets were almost certainly better than my caps would have been.............at least I knew it

Says the owner of a company who still to this day can't put a proper spec label in his B-10 ! Shit Ken ever heard that old say about rocks and glass houses ?? Hell your B-10s aren't any better than that Dong guy !

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

Says the owner of a company who still to this day can't put a proper spec label in his B-10 ! Shit Ken ever heard that old say about rocks and glass houses ?? Hell your B-10s aren't any better than that Dong guy !

Aero has never pretended to be a purist Militaria oufit. Anyway, a lot of folk like the "Experimenal Lab" label It's quite unique and totally legit, and the economics of getting a full size range of Type B-10 labels with sizes isn't justified by the low % of demand for such expenditure, or the small number of staff working on cloth jackets. We sell far more Letterman's Jackets than B-10s
Civvy jackets and period design are our everyday business
Our knitwear turns over more £££s than our Militaria

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

My point was this.........and finding the right start off price is one of the hardest things with a new product
In all fairness DD's A-2s are about the same level of a decent Aero Trainee's A-2, good but with plently room for improvements, I have handled one DD and seen the close ups
The difference is that DD charged $1000 for his "learning" jackets
Aero Trainee A-2s rarely go for much over £400
This might have some relevance...........you guys talking up the expectation level of the product didn't do him any favours.

 

[Otter]

I kind of like the "Expirimental" label. I am prejudiced, I own two, a very old standard one with a grey alpaca lining that now looks like a 50 mission jacket and one of the run out production ones from about 10 years back with the wool outer.

 

[mr_lits]

Dave, I have owned your jackets before and find them superb. I'm sorry to hear the news and hope you are able to continue to your craftsmanship in whatever direction you choose to take next. Ignore the boo-birds they will always exist and try to tear you down. Thank you for the dimension you brought to the jacket world.

 

[B-Man2]

There’s a bit of deflection going on here.
We weren’t talking about price points, sales and trainee jackets and learning curves. We were talking about courtesy, and empathy for a fellow forum member and the inappropriate, insensitive and untimely remarks of another .
It’s not a complex business issue, just a basic human one.

 

[Grant]

Well said, Burt.

 

[Monsoon]

I saw this on Facebook too. I have one of his Acme A-2s.

Know why I'm not a repeat customer? I'll tell you why.

When I got his, it fit great out of the box and has only gotten better. Why get another when this one is super great and I love it.

When I had some patches put on it, the local leather shop said it was a very well made jacket and looked great.

DD, sorry to see you go!

 

[ausreenactor]

I saw this on Facebook too. I have one of his Acme A-2s.

Know why I'm not a repeat customer? I'll tell you why.

When I got his, it fit great out of the box and has only gotten better.

See, taking a DD A-2 out of the box is the problem . Perhaps I will be ruined for all other A-2s?

 

[DiamondDave]

My point was this.........and finding the right start off price is one of the hardest things with a new product
In all fairness DD's A-2s are about the same level of a decent Aero Trainee's A-2, good but with plently room for improvements, I have handled one DD and seen the close ups
The difference is that DD charged $1000 for his "learning" jackets
Aero Trainee A-2s rarely go for much over £400
This might have some relevance...........you guys talking up the expectation level of the product didn't do him any favours.

Yep once again Ken is right. This the man who to this day can make an A-2 in just under two hours (bullshit).

I am sure that at some point Ken saw one of my jackets, and has picked it apart thoroughly. What I will say to that is this...Let’s see a few of Kens earliest pieces and I bet we will notice something similar.

Let’s be fair, I’m not the best at this, but I have heart and passion for it. I am not drawn only by money or reputation.

Comparing apples to apples helps a lot. And now having made 125 A-2 type jackets, I will stack them up against anyone.

 

[2BM2K]

DD your Facebook post was spot on.

Maybe the lack of orders was due to not enough publicity and marketing.
Over the last couple I have not seen much online activity, perhaps the odd Facebook post.
I had assumed this was because of having plenty of work.

I'm not even sure of the range A2 contracts available .

Geoff

 

[Bombing IP]

I am in engineering principly machine tools and one thing I know is the best at the job say nothing just do there job and are masters at it,then you have the ones who keep telling you how good they are and how every one else is a Fu$k up (these are the ones who cannot do it ). Then you have the one who used to do it and now have been promoted and they just remember how fast and well they did everything and they get faster as they get older . Not pointing the finger at anyone just comes to mind people and their characters ,and there is same shit in every company .
Sorry if I went off topic .

Jeff

 

[STEVE S.]

Ok, I’m going to put this out there for what it’s worth. I don’t come here very often at all anymore, which seems to coincide with many of the “old guard” from back in the yahoo days. If I want all the drama, bickering, gossiping & denigration, there are too many places I can go to see the live show vs online. After my fathers murder a few yrs ago, I realized life is short & made major changes in my life to enjoy whatever time I have left. I cut loose the toxic people in my life, even moved from the city to the country to get away from the drama. I keep my fairly small circle of friends who don’t piss/moan, start bullshit & live & let live.

Some nowadays seem to thrive on starting shit, denigrating others etc. I guess it boosts their fragile egos to put others down vs building them up. Narcissistic behavior, pure & simple, look up the definition. Also, when faced with adversity or negative backlash, immediately throw the victim card on the table & give bullshit excuses/ deflect in a different direction etc.. Then, everyone chooses sides & the pages of bickering comments start piling up.

I know Dave well, consider him a good friend. I also think I know what direction he is going in, following another passion & am sure it will be a total success. I too have many different passions & sometimes get spread thin due to the number of them, so I get it.

Again, it’s sad how many passionate people who have so much to offer have left or been run off from here over the yrs. Maybe now is a good time for some personal reflection on how we treat others would be in order....

Peace, out.....

 

[CBI]

yes Steve, my participation with forums like this has cut way back as well for probably many of the same reasons......good points above. Wishing Dave the best of success, he loves this leather jacket thing!