Aero Leather Clothing trial update

[Monitor]

Yes, and just think about all of that pattern work. Or NOT having to do all that pattern work.

My money on the latter. Just compare Aero and AL full action back. Other than Buco, no other manufacturer makes the same looking action back. Countless other examples.

That said, eggleman's comment makes me sad. Again, I don't want to see AL getting ruined. They make really good jackets and now's the time to prove their worth.

 

[IXL]

Think 'Serial'...

Are we gonna get decoder rings?

 

[Sloan1874]

I'll post the next section tomorrow (Thursday) evening. I think it'll answer some of these questions. No decoder rings, just more and more facts!

 

[wdw]

So this guy who made 108 jackets when not an employee, did he get paid for doing that and did the sales go through the Aero books? That's about £60k on top of the £200k.

Or is this another **** of some sort that we weren't aware of? If not an employee he shouldn't have been paid, but why would anyone make 108 jackets just to keep their hand in? And be allowed to?

How do they know it was only 108 jackets? It could gave been 1,008, who knows. Sounds well dodgy.

 

[pawineguy]

My money on the latter. Just compare Aero and AL full action back. Other than Buco, no other manufacturer makes the same looking action back. Countless other examples.

That said, eggleman's comment makes me sad. Again, I don't want to see AL getting ruined. They make really good jackets and now's the time to prove their worth.

The whole situation is so sad... what makes these types of scenarios so painful (and they are actually not uncommon, they happen in all industries, short of the actual theft of the goods) is that when you look at all of the innocent people now working for the "new" company, you don't want to see them harmed, obviously. However, sometimes for justice to be served, there is no way around it.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

What guy made 108 jackets 'when not an employee'..??
Don't understand...

 

[pawineguy]

What guy made 108 jackets 'when not an employee'..??
Don't understand...

See Sloan's narrative on the new thread:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?82006-Aero-Trial-Narrative

 

[HoosierDaddy]

See Sloan's narrative on the new thread:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?82006-Aero-Trial-Narrative

Oh..I see. It has been edited since I read it.
HD

 

[Fanch]

What guy made 108 jackets 'when not an employee'..??
Don't understand...

Last paragraph of Sloan's Aero Trial Narrative:

"LC also said that they had found a jacket bearing a tag with the name of a former employee who was no longer on the payroll. When WL was asked what was happening, he told them that the former employee "was just keeping his hand in".
She identified the maker as Stephen Toohey, and said that she found he had made 108 jackets while not an employee of Aero."

My Google search of "Stephen Toohey" from LinkedIn showed the following information:

Steve Toohey
Managing Director Alexander Leather Company
Selkirk, Scottish Borders, United Kingdom

Until Sloan's Aero Trial Narrative, I'd never heard of this chap. [huh]

 

[wdw]

Cripes. Well investigated, Fanch. Maybe he was building up AL stock as part of keeping his hand in...

There's more to this than meets the eye. I also wonder if any pay he got for these "108" jackets went through the company books, was he paid cash in hand, did he pay tax on that income etc etc?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Last paragraph of Sloan's Aero Trial Narrative:

"LC also said that they had found a jacket bearing a tag with the name of a former employee who was no longer on the payroll. When WL was asked what was happening, he told them that the former employee "was just keeping his hand in".
She identified the maker as Stephen Toohey, and said that she found he had made 108 jackets while not an employee of Aero."

My Google search of "Stephen Toohey" from LinkedIn showed the following information:

Steve Toohey
Managing Director Alexander Leather Company
Selkirk, Scottish Borders, United Kingdom

Until Sloan's Aero Trial Narrative, I'd never heard of this chap. [huh]

Yep...his name is right on Alexander's web site. Very interesting.

 

[tropicalbob]

Does anyone know why Toohey left Aero? Let's see: why would WL be coming in at 4:00am and employing a former worker to make jackets? Hmm.

 

[Timsum]

Basically, he was accepting money for jackets, spending it without ordering the jackets, and waiting until more orders came in and then using that money to pay for the previous round of jackets. This is known as a Ponzi scheme - it exists in many forms - but it relies on a constant source of money coming in to keep the scheme going. The moment something disrupts this cash, the whole **** collapses.

Looks like we have another leather jacket debacle at another forum. People waiting years to get their jackets or at least still having the illusion they will receive their jackets.

Reminds me of the informercials where the audience are holding their cash on hand, standing and waving them around hoping that the presenter will take it away from them a throw in a set of free steak knives with whatever they were buying.

Caveat emptor.

 

[Big J]

Well, clearly Sloan's got more to tell, and has left you all with a lot of unanswered questions, of which I'm sure there will be many more, ultimately followed by the answers.
I feel like this is some kind of freak show.
First, this thread, which is itself just a teaser for the real story.
And now after every installment from Sloan, as quick as he can type it up, everyone will be coming over here to speculate on what it all means.
It's like that annoying trend of having analysis shows on air right after the episode of the actual show has aired.
I really don't see the point of this thread at all.
It's just gossip, and quite frankly, since Sloan already knows the outcome, why get so excited with speculation?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Not really...I think the straight facts of Sloan's first hand reporting is revealing the true story..and discussing it a section at a time on this thread is even exposing more to the story (like Franch's discovery of who Steve Toohey is). Some speculation may come about by wondering why Lauder and Toohey were making jackets during the early morning hours..and so forth...but this may eventually add and bring to light more parts of the puzzle that isn't being included on the 'no comment' trial finale thread.
HD

 

[Azog]

Steve Toohey is seen talking in the first video on AL's website. I knew Will left Aero but had no idea that Steve was an ex Aero employee too.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

If the story doesn't interest you...no matter what info comes about or how it turns out..why not just skip this thread..? All of this observation and discussion will be over probably in the not too distant future. It's contained within only two threads and not busting out to disrupt other threads.

 

[Big J]

If the story doesn't interest you...no matter what info comes about or how it turns out..why not just skip this thread..? All of this observation and discussion will be over probably in the not too distant future. It's contained within only two threads and not busting out to disrupt other threads.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. I think I'll just stay away from this thread and read what Sloan writes on the other one. Maybe discussion will bring more to light, but I doubt that it will. It doesn't matter either way since Sloan already knows the whole story as it came out.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Do you really think that you can stop reading this thread Big J...
Just sayin...

 

[navetsea]

Yes, and just think about all of that pattern work. Or NOT having to do all that pattern work.

while designing a totally new model would be a lengthy process in patterning, but as long as you have a finished sample jacket in hand, it is relatively easy to make a pattern of, I imagine, just few pieces of scrap cloth and double sided tape to trace each panel, and then trace it again on thick paper/ cardboard, done. probably the experience in choosing what part of the hide make into what panel to be economical yet worn nicely & visually pleasing, or somebody who know how to tune the sewing machine to make a smooth sewing line on different hides, etc. I guess these experience and skill worth more than just patterning.

what I was trying to say, after reading some of this thread, probably seducing a bunch of experienced and skilled people to jump ship has much bigger effect than plagiarizing some model. while in a war that act is punishable by death, I don't know if there is any law against that in business.