Awfully tempting - may I ask what is meant by "Prairie Horsehide"? As no such information appears to be on the SB website. Thanks!

I wonder what the story is with Nine Lives right now. Kotaro Sato departed it would seem, and socials/product releases seem to be very quiet. I like their aesthetic and own a few items. It would be a shame if it's the end.

@Alex:

@tody:

Does personal taste play a role? I certainly believe so. I find, and I'm sorry to say so, most of the current UHF butt ugly. The 335 was my take from the lineup, but that was about it. The 340 I probably would have taken if I hadn't bought a previous iteration of that design used on eBay before. I have the last two crazy check flannels from the years before, but the colours of the 336 make me cringe. Sorry.

I actually agree with you, to a lesser degree here. I think this seasons flannels was one of the most polarising of recent years, and also there were some similar colours (anny and other sax, for eg).

I do check the R&H Sayonara page more often than is probably healthy, and a number of loud shirts from a variety of brands have been sitting there for a very long time, in a range of sizes, at a steep discount too. So perhaps something a number of brands will be revisiting.

Just adding my two cents as a customer since 2017, and lurker since 2015, who has purchased a number of UHF shirts.

I alas agree with others on the UHFs that the issue is obvious and fundamental: they're ugly. I find the shades of green and blue really odd - neither dark, nor light.

It might be a different story with the nicer shade of (emerald?) green that was used on the 203/206. I should add that I would snap up a 264 emerald green/black ombre in a heartbeat.

Could an issue be the lack of pattern symmetry at the front? Not all previous collections have been fully symmetrical, but these stand out to me.

It is the main reason I opted against the 335. Great idea and nice colours but lacking in final execution. I hope slow 335 sales do not dissuade you from making more herringbone UHFs - there's so much potential there.

With the ombre shirts, 180, 203/206s, and 230, the patterns line up better with shirt when it is buttoned up. These are much more appealing designs, in my view.

The front of the garment is the customers' first impression. The 336/342 and how the white doubles up clumsily at the front, it is a surprising lack of attention to detail. I concede that I am fussy, and usually opt for less loud designs. However, IH also prides itself on the details.

On non-UHF garments, and looking at the outlet, I think you could reduce your outerwear offering, with more focus on your own icons.

Outside of the denim jackets (including rider's jacket), no light cotton piece of IH outerwear has ever done it for me. But I could be wrong, I don't have access to the sales figures, of course.

I also snapped up a IHW-11 at full price and was surprised to see it end up in the outlet. So what do I know. No regrets on that one, by the way. I hope that my comments are read as constructive as I intended. Thank you.

@AdamJ:

@popvulture No indigo, it's purple/black ombre

Wunderbar! Will it be available in XS as well? 

Lovely news. Best of luck through these times to you and the team Giles.

@Giles:

1. The Simmons Bilt Jacket was made from Italian hide
2. The COO rules allow you to declare an item that is sufficiently made up of components from other countries, as COO of the country where it is made.  In this case, we complied
3. We got the duty refunded after a lot of shag and hassle, which sort of proves many of my points

Glad you got the duty back Giles, quite right. Ill-will doesn't surprise but incompetence less so. The deal was finalised mere days prior to the need to apply it. It's an impossible (if deliberately manufactured) situation.

@Giles:

1. A trade deal is of no use if the customs people who process shipments in the individual countries have not been told the rules
2. Any of the customs officials who are pissed off with the UK for leaving the EU and therefore making their lives hell, are punishing UK shipments by slapping whatever charges they think they can get away with (and now the hell do I start a claim with the Bulgarian tax office, or indeed, and of the EU countries)
3. The EU and Japan have a free trade arrangement, the UK and Japan have the same free trade agreement, so all intelligent people would think that therefore shipping Japanese goods between the EU and the UK would not attract duty, and that is exactly what we were told before 21st Dec.  Actually, there is a not now a single person we can speak to who will give us a definitive answer, most of our shipments containing Japanese goods into the EU are attracting duty, but not all.
   4) Even goods made in The UK (Simmons Bilt) are attracting duty (see point 2).

Point four is sadly a straightforward case. The jacket fails to meet rules of origin.

While made in the UK, it is made of what is considered "foreign" content. American hide, for instance.

Over a certain threshold of "foreign" content and the good fails to qualify. And if it does qualify, the paperwork needs to be filled out to say so.

Just explaining the situation for the benefit of all. Tariff-free trade is a mere mirage. A delight, from start to finish.

@vaquero357:

…so the UK is doing this (additional costs for shipping/tax and confusion) or a retaliatory strike from the EU members?

The problem is the terms of the deal itself. The UK decided in 2017 to leave the Single Market and Customs Union. They got their wish.

UK goods are furthermore liable to duty as they left the single VAT Area. Sadly, there is no "sorting" this out. This is the outcome, for five years at least.

Teething problems are only somewhat true. UK traders do not yet need to produce all paperwork to prove their goods meet requirements. In future, they will.

The UK left to pursue strike deals elsewhere. Okay. But that likely results in regulatory divergence with the EU, therefore more UK-EU trade friction. Or why leave?

I can't claim to have any special insight, but it seems to me that an expanded Iron Heart EU operation is the only viable, long-term path. I hope it's up to speed soon.

Hello everyone, apologies that my first post is about Brexit. I also own some Iron Heart goods, and look forward to ordering again in the near future.