Panamabob
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,012
- Location
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
I appreciate the support.
I'm dying to know what the "hill villages" around Montecristi are (from a previous post)....do they have a name? I can't quite picture them.
As I usually say, it is your money, and we don't apologize for our low prices.
Some market days bring better hats than others. We don't go and buy 200 $50-00-300.00 hats once or twice a year as many hatters do. We buy 10-20 hats weekly from all spectrums.
Many tout that you have to buy now, rather than later, due to the fact that the masters are getting old and rare and mark unbelievable prices.
We thought we could keep people weaving by buying and selling more hats. Though we don't always have a huge stock, we do sell hats for as little as $2.00 profit, just to keep the weavers weaving. I get emails asking if it is worth my time...I guess not, but I do it. What better way to create master weavers than by having them practice weekly?
I see no problem in ourselves going shopping for finer hats and, indeed, we often find gems. Sometimes the hat meets the spec and all is well. Oftentimes it goes above and beyond the spec...and we don't raise the price.
Other hatters thought we were a novelty, and I guess we sort of are/were. A man who truly wants to help a few families fall out of the rat-trap-like life in Ecuador, primarily his wife's family.
One of them has threatened lawsuit, which of course is legal for him to do so. I should print the letter here, but won't, to show what is in my opinion...won't go there. We didn't see the lawsuit as valid because you can't sue a business in Ecuador for any violation of US trademark...but being a gentleman (who didn't believe any trademark was infringed, and funny, the dead trademark was renewed after many years, just one month before the letter), we obliged on our own terms as to what a gentleman would do. Little does he know we intended to stop selling hats last summer, but that type of negativity only spurns my stubborn behind.
Another, Brent Black, has been nothing but nice to me end point.
I'm heartfully and heartily trying to work with a blocker in the USA to offer a better finished product.
One day we may open shop in USA and petition a young man from Montecristi to come here and pay a handsome sum to have him apprentice somewhere. Who knows the future?
I know that people who really appreciate hats like our goods. I know that we do make a difference in the lives of several families in and around Montecristi (by the way, did you know that I don't know a single person in Montecristi who weaves, it is all done in Pile and Pampa and other surrounding villages).
As I told Art in an email...I'm seriously thinking of quitting again. Maybe I can be a wholesale supplier or something to keep the pricing low.
Maybe I'll get a stubborn bug you-know-where and keep it going.
Anyhow, no matter what happens, you people have been nothing short of honest and kind.
I appreciate it.
Robert
I'm dying to know what the "hill villages" around Montecristi are (from a previous post)....do they have a name? I can't quite picture them.
As I usually say, it is your money, and we don't apologize for our low prices.
Some market days bring better hats than others. We don't go and buy 200 $50-00-300.00 hats once or twice a year as many hatters do. We buy 10-20 hats weekly from all spectrums.
Many tout that you have to buy now, rather than later, due to the fact that the masters are getting old and rare and mark unbelievable prices.
We thought we could keep people weaving by buying and selling more hats. Though we don't always have a huge stock, we do sell hats for as little as $2.00 profit, just to keep the weavers weaving. I get emails asking if it is worth my time...I guess not, but I do it. What better way to create master weavers than by having them practice weekly?
I see no problem in ourselves going shopping for finer hats and, indeed, we often find gems. Sometimes the hat meets the spec and all is well. Oftentimes it goes above and beyond the spec...and we don't raise the price.
Other hatters thought we were a novelty, and I guess we sort of are/were. A man who truly wants to help a few families fall out of the rat-trap-like life in Ecuador, primarily his wife's family.
One of them has threatened lawsuit, which of course is legal for him to do so. I should print the letter here, but won't, to show what is in my opinion...won't go there. We didn't see the lawsuit as valid because you can't sue a business in Ecuador for any violation of US trademark...but being a gentleman (who didn't believe any trademark was infringed, and funny, the dead trademark was renewed after many years, just one month before the letter), we obliged on our own terms as to what a gentleman would do. Little does he know we intended to stop selling hats last summer, but that type of negativity only spurns my stubborn behind.
Another, Brent Black, has been nothing but nice to me end point.
I'm heartfully and heartily trying to work with a blocker in the USA to offer a better finished product.
One day we may open shop in USA and petition a young man from Montecristi to come here and pay a handsome sum to have him apprentice somewhere. Who knows the future?
I know that people who really appreciate hats like our goods. I know that we do make a difference in the lives of several families in and around Montecristi (by the way, did you know that I don't know a single person in Montecristi who weaves, it is all done in Pile and Pampa and other surrounding villages).
As I told Art in an email...I'm seriously thinking of quitting again. Maybe I can be a wholesale supplier or something to keep the pricing low.
Maybe I'll get a stubborn bug you-know-where and keep it going.
Anyhow, no matter what happens, you people have been nothing short of honest and kind.
I appreciate it.
Robert
, but that's secondary. Whatever direction you, your family, and the business decide to take, I wish you nothing but the best.
