My thoughts :

1. I agree with others on the elitist aspect. it's fundamentally wrong to provide either early access or exclusive items that the "inner circle" or those that can afford will be the only beneficiaries of.
   Many may and probably will disagree.

2. Anything that requires designing, sourcing, manufacturing, and delivering yet MORE product when that is part of the fundamental problem in the first place is just a bad idea and totally defeats the purpose. Be it a mug, a calendar, a pin badge, a bag of crips or whatever. It doesn't matter if it's made in Japan or Woking, it all takes time and effort and is a distraction.
   If the crew want to drop stuff like this in as one offs whenever they choose to whoever they choose that is their prerogative, but anything beyond that becoming some kind of "right' or "expectation" or “scheme” is only gonna end in tears. As sadly, some of the comments on this thread show. It's like when people start dishing out employee of the month, more hassle than it is worth. There are many ways of rewarding/acknowledging people and their contributions for many reasons. Mostly kept private. At the general workplace or towards a customer. All at the crews discretion as should be the way.

3. If anything I'd revert to Alex's original idea of some kind of "allowance" to whatever gathering may or may not take place. A voucher for a hot dog, a free beer, a tenner towards your train ticket. the financial aspect of it is secondary. It's the gesture, doesn't matter if you are loaded or skint, if someone gives you a tenner or a fiver or a pair of socks or a shake of the hand I'd appreciate it.
   Yes many people will never ever be able to attend a gathering, so what. Let's hope those that do have a great time. It's like a football team wanting to sack their mgr cos their team didn't win the league, if that was your only criteria for success or enjoyment then every year 95% of fans would be constantly raging. You have to find some other measure of success and happiness.
   If you can attend a gathering, fantastic, if you can't, then you've presumably been able to buy and wear some of the best clothes around and you ABSOLUTELY FU**ING LOVE THEM so really, you are a winner already.

4. The point here seems to be to reduce the strain on the entire operation from sourcing to delivery. which must be critical or all the changes wouldn't be very bravely getting made. I've spent a lifetime knee deep in supply chain related stuff so I get it. Anything that takes the focus of the team away from keeping the very considerable amount of plates spinning all year round because someone is griping about not getting the right sticker or chocolate bar or staff member 'X' forgot to put extra kisses on the big spenders Christmas card is just a distraction no one needs. It will only add to the hassle, increase the likelihood of moaning and people feeling left out and take folks eye off the ball.
   As this thread has shown, the whole loyalty thing in the first place was low key, most people wouldn't be aware of it, so to bring it out of the shadows and come up with a new version in my opinion will just become a millstone.

5. The biggest loyalty reward any customer can get is for the brand to simply be able to keep doing what they do and delivering the goods to the level they do and continue to foster the community and the whole 'story'. Most people have zero idea of the complexities : commercial, personal, logistical that go into bringing anything to market. You may think you do but you'd still probably be nowhere near it. To do it so successfully day in day out at this level is no mean feat.
   We need to respect that and let the team actually focus on delivering the goods. In fact if I make it to any kind of gathering then really it should be us buying THEM a beer. I am relatively new to this but have picked up quite a few things in a short space of time and I totally love it.
   It's like when you find a new favourite band, you'd be gutted if they split up.
   So I don't want the wheels to come off because the "Men of Iron Heart" calendar has had a delay at the printers and the big spenders are raging.

I've already gone on too long but you get the gist.

Strolling around town. Edinburgh that is.

Mike D of Beastie Boys at 26 Leake Street, London, Saturday 6th June. For anyone unfamiliar, it's a disused road tunnel underneath Waterloo Train Station.
Mind bendingly good performance. crazy venue, packed beyond belief. hotter than hell itself.

@Giles This might have been mentioned elsewhere, and I don't wanna be "that guy" but should we not just impose a blanket ban on AI/ChatGPT pics unless it is with a huge "AI" watermark through it. or just ban it altogether.

The problem is people end up copying and pasting and/or sending pics to others and before you know it the original context (already shaky) is lost and people are making decisions based on nonsense or people saying "that looks sh*t" because it's a rather shoddily produced mockup of what something might or might not look like.
Or people just quickly scrolling through threads and see pics and think its sh1t and keep scrolling.

IMO product pics should be real, with no exceptions. No doubts, no queries, no caveats.

In the last week or so I've seen fake aging pics, fake snap pics, who knows what else.

No offence to any of the original posters, but its a slippery slope to not knowing what is and isn't real/mockup/meant to be funny etc etc.

I could be miles off it here, in which case no offence intended and carry on lol.

Red Wing 8203, think they were a Europe exclusive.

me : 6 foot. (183cm)
177lb. (12st 9lb). 80kg.

Shirt is a Large.

Absolutely love it.

Kraftwerk, Edinburgh Playhouse Tue 9th June. As always, incredible. I managed to get great seats in 2nd Row and the sound nearly fractured every bone in my body. As it should be.

Playing one of my favourite albums today....

@steve4861 I have a spreadsheet where I have pics of all the items along the top columns.
Below each pic I have the model number.
Below that I have the sizes of that item as per the IH site at time of purchase, not the actual sizes. I never measure them.
I also have where from. IH, Rivet/hide, wherever. and the date of release.

That's just all in order or purchase. Newest item to right.

On two other tabs I have 1: the same details/pics but sorted by chest size, and 2: same details/pics but sorted by shoulder size.

That way whenever a new sizing chart comes out for a potential new purchase I can rapidly see where it would sit amongst everything I have against the only two measurements I really look at.

works well for me. here's a section of an older version, something along these lines.

Screenshot 2026-06-14 at 03.21.56

Manchester Marathon 2026 completed, so happy with my run. Training paid off but I got totally seized up with calf cramps way out at 38km, lucky it happened so deep into it. Managed to shake it off and trot through to the finish. Beat my PB by a country mile. Which does to be fair indicate the previous two marathons I had actual injury probs on the day (hence was slow but completed) but this time I felt good all the way. Over an hour quicker than previous.
No injury issues, cramps are cramps, it happens. Delighted and really enjoyed my run, amazing crowd support, great weather and a brilliantly organised event.
Signed up for next year already.

@Ross thanks!

Is Rudi wearing Large as usual in the pictures on the product page? It normally says, just wondering as I am very similar measurements to him.

@AdamJ Just received and can confirm it is awesome. Perfect fit and looks and feels great. Thanks again!

@waXology not yet. but i follow them and i know these things can be random but that's a couple of people mentioned now they've not been hit with any additional charges in the UK (I am in Scotland) so that gives me a bit more confidence with any potential future purchases.

Thanks for that!

Have spent last few years in kinda marathon training loop, so whatever distance I have been running has always been with one eye on having to be going for much longer.
So over the last few months I've spent a lot of time just working on getting faster over 5k and 10k .
Got my 5k down to 21mins 36.
10km down to 45mins 50.
Then the other week I went out to try take down my Half Marathon PB and took it from 2hrs down to 1hr 41. Well pleased with that and really really enjoyed my run and it was just a glorious feeling. I Know it's nothing compared so a lot of people but it just made me feel good after putting a lot of work into it. Really enjoying my running at the moment.

Made me a bit more confident to push on and not worry about dying a death lol.

@waXology did you get any import changes in the end?

Just picked this up through the latest RE:LOVE drop. This is the shirt that got me into IH, by that I mean I saw it and was immediately taken by it, though it had already been and gone by the time I first ever seen it. I disappeared down the rabbit hole and many items later this popped up.
I don't normally ever buy used clothing but fingers crossed this looks alright and fits ok.
And as ever, it came about 5mins after I'd sworn to not buy anything for a few months. C'est La Vie!

@SKT said in Live Concerts:

Journey tonight at the Great Southern Bank Arena in Spfld, MO. Don’t stop believing mf’ers

my man's teeth here are brighter than the lightshow. respect.

@Matt you will most definitely not be disappointed.

FYI : Description for white on page says "model Rudi wears Large" but pic is of Freddie. He is probably still wearing Large, but just incase people go with Rudi's size and whatever......