Adventurebilt hats status update (read if you have an outstanding order)

[DJH]

It is indeed crazy and I really don't see all these older orders ever being completed.

As I understand things, when Steve took on this large amount of work, his pricing was really low - his business had been a hobby and he was pretty much just covering his costs. Add his ill health to the mix (he has been fighting cancer for a couple of years at least and this is not a cheap country to be sick in, even with decent insurance.)

Steve should probably have given up his business some time ago (as John Penman suggested in the comments on that ****informer thread), but I'm sure he sees that a lot of the people waiting are online friends and fellow Indiana Jones enthusiasts so he feels he has to try and get the product to him. I've been in a similar position myself with a business I was a partner in was clearly failing - giving up is a killer.

I can't imagine Steve has gotten rich on this - quite the opposite in fact. Seems to me that he uses the profit from his new orders to buy materials for his backlog hats. I noticed that after I (and another guy) bought hats from him this year, a couple of people on the COW Indy forum received hats they had ordered long ago. I can see why people waiting dislike the idea of new orders jumping the queue, but in reality it is probably the only way they will ever see their Adventurebilt.

So I agree with Alan - best to just get a hat from one of the other makers, Penman and Garrison being great Indy hat makers. Both will say that Adventurebilt is better than their own offerings, but I have all three and I'm not so sure!

Oh, I've noticed that a Lounger has just ordered an AB. I hope this means that someone on the list gets lucky as well.

 

[mayserwegener]

What suprised me is that he has a total disdain (Thanks! Alan) for hat making machinery. I think this is another reason he isn't able to fill orders in a timely manner. Machines are not the enemy. In fact they can help to make better hats and increase productivity. Also please no lectures on hand work vs. machines. I know where both fit into making a high quality hat.

 

[alanfgag]

What suprised me is that he has a total disdane for hat making machinery.

The whole thing of dissing Denmark really ****es me off too.

sorry Steve... couldn't resist.

 

[mayserwegener]

Alan, Good one!

 

[jlee562]

It is indeed crazy and I really don't see all these older orders ever being completed.

As I understand things, when Steve took on this large amount of work, his pricing was really low - his business had been a hobby and he was pretty much just covering his costs. Add his ill health to the mix (he has been fighting cancer for a couple of years at least and this is not a cheap country to be sick in, even with decent insurance.)

Steve should probably have given up his business some time ago (as John Penman suggested in the comments on that ****informer thread), but I'm sure he sees that a lot of the people waiting are online friends and fellow Indiana Jones enthusiasts so he feels he has to try and get the product to him. I've been in a similar position myself with a business I was a partner in was clearly failing - giving up is a killer.

I can't imagine Steve has gotten rich on this - quite the opposite in fact. Seems to me that he uses the profit from his new orders to buy materials for his backlog hats. I noticed that after I (and another guy) bought hats from him this year, a couple of people on the COW Indy forum received hats they had ordered long ago. I can see why people waiting dislike the idea of new orders jumping the queue, but in reality it is probably the only way they will ever see their Adventurebilt.

So I agree with Alan - best to just get a hat from one of the other makers, Penman and Garrison being great Indy hat makers. Both will say that Adventurebilt is better than their own offerings, but I have all three and I'm not so sure!

Oh, I've noticed that a Lounger has just ordered an AB. I hope this means that someone on the list gets lucky as well.

+1.

Steve definitely has not gotten rich of the venture.

 

[XPLSV]

This is a crazy situation. I admire the patience and goodwill of the many who have suppressed invective towards a maker whose life and business have clearly spiraled out of control.

If it were me, I would wave farewell and imagine the money lost as a donation to someone who likely needs the support. Life is short and there are great hatters still working and great hats out there waiting to be worn.

A fine summation.

 

[Hoyt Clagwell]

It goes without saying, I must say. Some things are better left unsaid.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Hat making machines are rare nowadays & cost several thousand dollars for each.

 

[mayserwegener]

They are obtainable if you want them. This hatmaker is against their use. If you do everything by hand it takes more time and doesn't always result in a superior product. I question any custom hatter that doesn't see it this way.

 

[RBH]

Remember the stuff the Major and I went to Florida for?
He got it for a song...now remember the machines needed work.
But well worth the drive and price.
Plus Mike will be keeping an almost forgotten part of history alive.

 

[Art Fawcett]

proper equipment means SO much when making hats Bruce, make that better hats. Making them without equipment is more a marketing gimmick than reality.

 

[1BAT4U]

Hey all, It's been a while since I checked this thread so I just got caught up.

Well as of now I'm still waiting for my March 08 order with no update. I've tried calling Steve's number quite a few times and left both voice messages and messages with his mother with all my information. I've also emailed a few times over the past months/year. I'm also a bit nervous since I've moved twice in the past 5 years so I have no idea if he'll send my hat to the correct address or the one I was living at when I place my order.

At this point all I can do is check here and club obiwan for members who have received hats. It's frustrating and disappointing but there are obviously things going on that we all don't know. Im assuming his health is not good as that is really the only excuse I can accept at this point, and the lack of communication just allows our frustrations to grow out of control. I think I'm just going to call it a loss and hope to forget about it and just hope that one day I will come home to a box sitting on my door step. Until then I plan to put in an order for either a Penham Crusader fedora or an Henry Adventurebilt from Penman hats.

Has anyone else had any update or received their hats?

 

[Mulceber]

Pretty much my experience as well - although in my case, it's not a hat on order, but a hat scheduled to be reblocked. I sent him the first hat he ever made for me almost a year and a half ago so that it could get a rebock, and haven't heard from him since. I wish he'd send it back, even un-reblocked. I too am at the point where I've basically given up.

 

[RBH]

Wow... three months for our Fedora Lounge Edition Campdraft seems like a long time.
Cant imagine.......

 

[tonyb]

This is a crazy situation. I admire the patience and goodwill of the many who have suppressed invective towards a maker whose life and business have clearly spiraled out of control.

If it were me, I would wave farewell and imagine the money lost as a donation to someone who likely needs the support. Life is short and there are great hatters still working and great hats out there waiting to be worn.

Such reasonableness is likely to leave hotheads thinking this ain't the place to be, Alan. Sheesh! You're threatening to put the blood-pressure pill peddlers out of work.

 

[Blackthorn]

I remember that he had cancer. Does anyone know if he's still alive? Is ANYONE getting hats from him?

 

[jlee562]

I remember that he had cancer. Does anyone know if he's still alive? Is ANYONE getting hats from him?

Bruce_Wayne got a hat from him the other day.

 

[Blackthorn]

Bruce_Wayne got a hat from him the other day.

Ah, well I guess there's hope, then.

 

[Blackthorn]

I'm not waiting on a hat from him, I just feel bad for those are are.

 

[XPLSV]

Bruce_Wayne got a hat from him the other day.

Bruce_Wayne can clarify this, but I believe I read on Club Obiwan that he placed his order on the 31st (which I took to mean Oct 31 2012), so I believe that was a "modern era," full price order...I have not seen a definitive post on someone receiving a hat from the back order list of those of us paying from the 2007 time frame in over a year...