mapsedge: Me at Stone Bridge Coffee House (yorick)
mapsedge ([personal profile] mapsedge) wrote2006-08-22 01:35 pm

The Fading Codpiece

It'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.

[identity profile] starwyse.livejournal.com 2006-08-22 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting how the universe really does answer our questions...even unasked ones ;-)

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-08-22 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee. Even the questions we have tried desperately not to ask, and have avoided listening to when the answers have come before. "STOP!!! Get that solution away from me! I want sympathy, goddamnit!" You know. The usual. :)

The usual...

[identity profile] starwyse.livejournal.com 2006-08-22 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I know ;-)

[identity profile] hdsqrl.livejournal.com 2006-08-22 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Ermm...are you out already at this point? Chris REALLY needs to get new tights made and he keeps pushing it off for another year. If you've still got some green and/or brown in stock, I'll insist he come see you before you run out. Let me know? Please? :)

On a side note, I will be so sad if you guys go out of business. :(

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-08-22 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Still plenty of brown and hunter to go around. Drop me an email at tailor a t seamlyne d o t com, and we'll talk.

We'll be sad, too, but this has been in the works for a long time.
themadblonde: (Default)

how well...

[personal profile] themadblonde 2006-08-22 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)
does the fabric dye?

Re: how well...

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-08-22 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Our supplier offers an 88% cotton version that dyes very well, but the process is prohibitively expensive for the chosen market. We'd considered it.

[identity profile] rowangolightly.livejournal.com 2006-08-22 11:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow. Well, I haven't and won't talk to that person now. *sigh* I really hate this necessity since you're the best in the business, bar none, dammit.

Maybe I'll get Bruce into a pair of tights yet...hunter green would be the color.

Just...don't throw away the patterns, ok?

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you. Hunter green is a definite possibility...with our last order (before the increase in the minimum) we could get him about 116 pairs of tights. More than enough, I'm thinking.

Yep, will keep the patterns.

[identity profile] rowangolightly.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
I'll be doing good to get him into *one* pair.

*chuckle* You know what worked with both Pete and Sean? They both said, "never!" but just with wearing them once and all the attention they got about having such nice asses...they were hooked!

[identity profile] grizesme.livejournal.com 2006-08-23 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
I am so sorry!! I know a bit of what you are going through. Last August my husband and I had to close our computer business that we had run for almost 10 years. It just sucks!