Ask Giles and/or Alex Anything
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When I first started working with Haraki, the largest size he made in tops was XL….I've been pushing the sizing boundaries ever since
And for that I owe you a debt of gratitude.
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…I'm with @Palmer! Feel very fortunate that I'm right at the cusp on this sizing subject!
…and with that being said @Palmer is my direct competition now on who gets to the limited items being offered! Like a damn game show, who clicks the 'BUY' button first! :o
…all good and it makes it kind of fun and interesting. Psychologically speaking when there's just 'one' sitting there available it does a real number on me!
...thanks Giles!
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When I first started working with Haraki, the largest size he made in tops was XL….I've been pushing the sizing boundaries ever since
And part of the reason I glommed onto IH. Other brands' size XL were M to my mind.
And the unsinged, uncalendered, unsized, unanything was interesting. Little did I know…
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…I'm with @Palmer! Feel very fortunate that I'm right at the cusp on this sizing subject!
…and with that being said @Palmer is my direct competition now on who gets to the limited items being offered! Like a damn game show, who clicks the 'BUY' button first! :o
…all good and it makes it kind of fun and interesting. Psychologically speaking when there's just 'one' sitting there available it does a real number on me!
...thanks Giles!
Totally agree. Sometimes I'll agonize for weeks over the last item in stock.
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…it's like 'would somebody just buy the damn thing!!!'.
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@Giles what's your favourite idea you've had that Haraki has refused to do? The one that got away kind of thing
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Ah yes, remember spotting that and the story of repeatedly asking Haraki. Looks amazing. Thanks for that, and an excellent thread
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Alex and I start seeding ideas whenever we have flashes of brilliance
whenever we think of them. Haraki starts the "formal" process the moment the previous collection has gone to production, so FW21 will have started being thought about in Oct/Nov 20.The Fleece-lined type III. Alex and I thought about this probably 18 months ago and we have sampled it a couple of times, we decided to include it as part of the FW21 collection, it won't be released in Japan.
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I'm a relative newcomer on here, although I have lurked for a while, so this has probably been answered somewhere else. Since you have said that you pretty much wear one pair for a year, what do you do with all of your old/retired pairs (since they all look pretty amazing once you are done with them)?
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They either go into the archives here, or we send them out to retailers for them to display….
Figured it was probably something like that…definitely display worthy. Mine just go in my closest, haha.
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Giles-
I've been curious but have had problems forming the question to go from my brain out my mouth hole.
What % of the factories time that Haraki uses are just spent making Iron Heart clothing? Do the factories make clothes for other brands too? If so, could we assume those other brands have the same quality construction as Iron Heart but without the proprietary materials that Haraki weaves? I can see another Japanese company boasting, "Sewn by the same people who make Iron Heart's famous 21 oz. jeans or western shirts)
I feel like i could ask a ton of supporting questions, but I think I have it laid out there.
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Jeff,
We use a number of factories, all of who make clothes for other brands. I do not know what percentage, but it is rising all the time as we grow and most other brands in our space are treading water at best. In fact, we had a Zoom with H on Tuesday and we discussed the fact that our single biggest constraint on growth was how much time we could/can get in the factories. Haraki has just started negotiating more time in each factory. I gave him his opening gambit "you want to back a winner or a loser?"…......Re: the quality, perhaps there are various "levels" and therefore price-points for making stuff. I do know that Haraki is an absolute sticker for quality, and if I know, you can bet your bottom Dollar that the factories know that too. Add to this, Haraki is extremely highly respected in the whole Amekaji space, would you want to irritae him?
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@Giles , filed under "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," I wonder whether there will ever be a situation where it makes sense for IH to vertically integrate some of their lines. I guess you really have to be at the right scale and rhythm to pull that off and perhaps companies like The Flat Head were more vulnerable if they were more integrated than IH. I could see the share of production for a factory trending up until it hits 100%, and then a "feck it, let's buy you out" thing happening, but it seems like the flexibility to source different factories works out awfully well for all of us and I don't understand how in-housing would impact internal costs, quality, and flexibility… but it intrigues me as a topic.
