Re: Huge exchange!? Not Really

Posted by Sergei from prx2.ipivot.com on August 21, 2001 at 12:27:14:

In Reply to: Huge exchange!? posted by Michaelson on August 21, 2001 at 10:55:39:

Michaelson,
I was afraid my response would cause this reaction. I apologize if it has. I really never bashed the PB. It's an excellent hat. I was going to buy it before the Keppler. Now that I have the Keppler, I will still buy a PB from Joe. The universe is OK. I appreciate all the vendors that support us.

: No such problem. My only concern is the continued tone of the old "my dad can beat up your dad" tone we seem to get when we have reviews of new products. Like a forum member said recently, we tend to all leap and eat our own members, or this case, friends OF the forum. Joe Peters Jr. stepped up to the plate about a year or so ago and agreed to begin making a true representation of the Indy hat for us, by our request, and absolutely true to scale. If there are problems with the hat, all we had/have to do is contact Joe and he'll make it right. It's custom made, and he will make it right. He even learned how to make the dimensional cut (never used by him before as he and his family has made Western hats for generations) just to fulfill OUR needs. The tone of the "review" that one product or the other is absolutely the make all, end all product just ain't so. It's up to each and every individual to make up their own mind what they do and do not like in terms of the products that's being offered. I personally do not want to go back to the days of having products available on off the shelf, one size fits all. We currently have levels we can move through to get items we want in our hobby. By irritating the manufacturers, such as PB, Wested, Flightsuits, to name a few, and we're right back to having just Stetson and the Disney jacket available. These vendors just don't need the extra headaches or bashing simply because a few are so tickled with a new item that all others are garbage. (I'm paraphrasing here. No one has actually said that, now.) That's my only concern. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a Kepler as well, and until then I'm tempering my responses, but I'm also aware of the history of this hat and how many iterations that Lee had to go through to get this one right, so it darn well BETTER be as good as folks are saying, as he's worked long and hard to get it there. You wouldn't believe the phone calls and emails he and I had during the development of it that he almost gave up on the project. I'm very glad he kept with it. Give Lee ALL your support. His vision is long and he's working hard to make available things we've wanted for years, but don't do it at the expense of the other ground we've sewn. We have a lot of friends out there. Let's keep ALL of them. Just my thoughts for the moment. High regards. Michaelson

:
: : Really don't want to start a huge exchange over this. Let's see when I picked up my Keppler from Lee, Rundquist, Jun and Dan were there as well. Rundquist brought his PB for comparison. We both have 7 1/2 inch heads. The first thing we noticed that the color was a little off on the PB (a shade light). Also the PB didn't look right from the back. Anyway we had side to side comparison.

: : Mind you I have a lot of respect for PB and I will be buying one in the future (gorgeous hat). But the Keppler is softer, smoother and really hugged my head better (less stiffness on the band).

: : Please don't get me wrong. The PB is awesome. But in my opinion, Lee has done something huge here.

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Understood, and... Michaelson 13:33:43 8/21/2001 (1)
- Re: Whewww... Sergei 14:03:24 8/21/2001 (0)

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: Michaelson,
: I was afraid my response would cause this reaction.  I apologize if it has.  I really never bashed the PB. It's an excellent hat.  I was going to buy it before the Keppler.  Now that I have the Keppler, I will still buy a PB from Joe.  The universe is OK. I appreciate all the vendors that support us.

: : No such problem. My only concern is the continued tone of the old "my dad can beat up your dad" tone we seem to get when we have reviews of new products. Like a forum member said recently, we tend to all leap and eat our own members, or this case, friends OF the forum. Joe Peters Jr. stepped up to the plate about a year or so ago and agreed to begin making a true representation of the Indy hat for us, by our request, and absolutely true to scale. If there are problems with the hat, all we had/have to do is contact Joe and he'll make it right. It's custom made, and he will make it right. He even learned how to make the dimensional cut (never used by him before as he and his family has made Western hats for generations) just to fulfill OUR needs. The tone of the "review" that one product or the other is absolutely the make all, end all product just ain't so. It's up to each and every individual to make up their own mind what they do and do not like in terms of the products that's being offered. I personally do not want to go back to the days of having products available on off the shelf, one size fits all. We currently have levels we can move through to get items we want in our hobby. By irritating the manufacturers, such as PB, Wested, Flightsuits, to name a few, and we're right back to having just Stetson and the Disney jacket available. These vendors just don't need the extra headaches or bashing simply because a few are so tickled with a new item that all others are garbage. (I'm paraphrasing here. No one has actually said that, now.) That's my only concern. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a Kepler as well, and until then I'm tempering my responses, but I'm also aware of the history of this hat and how many iterations that Lee had to go through to get this one right, so it darn well BETTER be as good as folks are saying, as he's worked long and hard to get it there. You wouldn't believe the phone calls and emails he and I had during the development of it that he almost gave up on the project. I'm very glad he kept with it. Give Lee ALL your support. His vision is long and he's working hard to make available things we've wanted for years, but don't do it at the expense of the other ground we've sewn. We have a lot of friends out there. Let's keep ALL of them. Just my thoughts for the moment. High regards. Michaelson

: : 
: : : Really don't want to start a huge exchange over this. Let's see when I picked up my Keppler from Lee, Rundquist, Jun and Dan were there as well. Rundquist brought his PB for comparison.  We both have 7 1/2 inch heads.  The first thing we noticed that the color was a little off on the PB (a shade light).  Also the PB didn't look right from the back.  Anyway we had side to side comparison.

: : : Mind you I have a lot of respect for PB and I will be buying one in the future (gorgeous hat).  But the Keppler is softer, smoother and really hugged my head better (less stiffness on the band).

: : : Please don't get me wrong.  The PB is awesome.  But in my opinion, Lee has done something huge here.

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