The Fading Codpiece
Aug. 22nd, 2006 13:35![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mapsedgeIt's not like we didn't see it coming: we just didn't want to see it. Oh, we'd talked about it, that's for sure, but it appears more and more that the decision is being made for us.
Seamlyne, as a tights business, has an extremely uncertain future. In the past, when we've talked about retiring, the response from our customers has always dragged us back to the machines. It was always a simple matter to plug the machines back in, get on the phone with our supplier and get thirty yards of the whatever color and get it going again.
But the rules keep changing, and all the favorite ren fest colors are going with them. The sportwear industry as a whole is moving to pastels, and the jewel tones: wine; hunter; navy; and earth tones: brown; caramel; are being phased out of regular production.
I can still get them...if I want to order six hundred yards. At about six thousand dollars per color, and we offer twelve colors...that's a little more than I can invest, let alone store, and - with apologies to all my tights customers out there - the business simply isn't enough to justify what it would take financially to make that happen.
So, it's no longer a question of whether we want to do it or not. I can't make and sell what I can't get material for.
Yes, by the way, we have looked at other avenues for fabric, and could do it if we had the time to go and buy, and were willing to give up the quality. No thanks.
So, it looks like the decision is being made for us, which is not entirely bad. Sometimes us Pisces need to be pushed off the fence. I've started finding other things I want to do - you may have noticed a "movie" trend to my posts lately.
More to come, I'm sure.
Late Edit: we're not shutting off the lights today. We'll keep going until Christmas or until the fabric runs out, whichever comes first. Considering that there's 150 yards of hunter green in my basement, it'll be Christmas.
Seamlyne, as a tights business, has an extremely uncertain future. In the past, when we've talked about retiring, the response from our customers has always dragged us back to the machines. It was always a simple matter to plug the machines back in, get on the phone with our supplier and get thirty yards of the whatever color and get it going again.
But the rules keep changing, and all the favorite ren fest colors are going with them. The sportwear industry as a whole is moving to pastels, and the jewel tones: wine; hunter; navy; and earth tones: brown; caramel; are being phased out of regular production.
I can still get them...if I want to order six hundred yards. At about six thousand dollars per color, and we offer twelve colors...that's a little more than I can invest, let alone store, and - with apologies to all my tights customers out there - the business simply isn't enough to justify what it would take financially to make that happen.
So, it's no longer a question of whether we want to do it or not. I can't make and sell what I can't get material for.
Yes, by the way, we have looked at other avenues for fabric, and could do it if we had the time to go and buy, and were willing to give up the quality. No thanks.
So, it looks like the decision is being made for us, which is not entirely bad. Sometimes us Pisces need to be pushed off the fence. I've started finding other things I want to do - you may have noticed a "movie" trend to my posts lately.
More to come, I'm sure.
Late Edit: we're not shutting off the lights today. We'll keep going until Christmas or until the fabric runs out, whichever comes first. Considering that there's 150 yards of hunter green in my basement, it'll be Christmas.