SPIER & MACKAY - Official Affiliate Thread

[doodledoc]

Rick,

I hope you consider making some dress shirts with the Italian Semi Spread Collar. For many of us, the regular semi spread collar's points don't stay under the lapels of a jacket.

 

[losrockets]

Honestly Rick, we need more places doing good ties in the 35 to 50 usd range ever since Knottery got all weird on us. I'm fine with lesser fabrics s long as they look good and tie well. If you're able to get wide block stripe ties on printed, duller fabrics in that range, I'm pumped. The tie market is really packed and competitive right now, I don't really see a reason to jump in w a premium product when you've got something close to a flagship right now in your ocbd just picking up more and more steam.

 

[Claghorn]



Rick, 

I hope you consider making some dress shirts with the Italian Semi Spread Collar. For many of us, the regular semi spread collar's points don't stay under the lapels of a jacket. 

What is the Italian semi-spread?

 

[Lancaster]



I'm glad SM brought up the tie explanation

I personally would rather see the inventory dollars tied up with the great new shirting creations, and expanding the suits/jackets/trousers.

There is a lot of tie companies out there and tie deals to be had on the secondary market.

But there isn't a lot of people who make as good of a shirt as you, OTR or MTM for the $.

Rick, I second the sentiment. Don't do anything that will compromise the shirts and pants/jackets/suits. You've got something good there. (But I do believe you guys will do a bang up job with ties just as you've done with everything else)

Btw, don't know if they have recieved little love but i really like the first gen cotton pants and polos. Great cuts and the fabrics are really comfortably light.

 

[flvinny521]

What is the Italian semi-spread?

vs regular semi-spread

 

[spiermackay]

Guys, we're developing Desklooms for the OCBD program. These are essentially sample colours in the fabric for future orders.

What colours do you want to see down the pipe so we can get them developed.

Thanks.

 

[Claghorn]

Light brown stripes.

 

[Burzan]

Guys, we're developing Desklooms for the OCBD program. These are essentially sample colours in the fabric for future orders.

What colours do you want to see down the pipe so we can get them developed.

Thanks.

Navy, also a lighter Indigo perhaps, Burgundy, Olive, Pink (maybe two shades), Charcoal, Mint, Yellow, Lavender, Lavender Uni Stripe, Forest Green possibly.

The Chestnut & Fatigue colors from my post here: http://www.styleforum.net/t/383376/spier-mackay-official-affiliate-thread/3435#post_8365230


I will keep thinking on it haha

 

[AntiHero84]



Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Ont the topic of the Uni Stripe OCBD, some were expecting them to be available in March. Initially, we had cloth from a supplier ready to go, but then we started getting the feedback on our new OCBD cloth, which we developed exclusively for our use, compared to the cloth that was simply picked up as stocks.

The new fabric is a much, much higher quality and we realized that the OCBD program was quickly becoming an anchor product for us. In that regards, we decided we have to keep the quality consistent. The older cloth had some issues of shrinking irregularly and in some cases with stripes bleeding of colour and availability was very spotty.

Because of this, we cancelled the cloth we were going to use and opted to run our own cloth, the brushed oxford. Cloth typically takes 60 days to Mill and then 30 days to produce the garments. This is the reason we have pushed the Uni Stripes back. We have to deliver the best product and experience possible to our customers, and the older cloth was not cutting it.

Hope that explains the delay in the Uni Stripe Oxfords.

Rick.

Thanks for the transparency -- better to wait for quality than to put out a sub-par product. Still psyched!

Guys, we're developing Desklooms for the OCBD program. These are essentially sample colours in the fabric for future orders.

What colours do you want to see down the pipe so we can get them developed.

Thanks.

Indigo/chambray for solids, but I'd be more interested in some different patterns/textures in blue tones -- tattersal, checks, tartans, maybe something similar to the jacquard type stuff that Gustin has done.

 

[An Acute Style]

The last of my new custom shirts. This was suppose to be the same pattern as my burgundy uni stripe OCBD from yesterday, but the sleeves are considerably longer on this one.












I really like the collar. It fits nicely under my jacket and is wide spread the way I like. The collar has a light lining, but the neck band is too stiff in my opinion.

Someone asked for pics of the shirt with two buttons undone. Here you go. This is after wearing it with a tie all day. When I put it on this morning, it was spread out a lot more than this. Not bad now though.

 

[Spex]

Here is the challenge for our brand. We're in Canada and still 80% of our sales are in Canada. A $60 - $70 USD tie is about $80 - $90 CAD, which is pretty much way higher than what our base of customers will pay, with the exceptions of a few.

I completely agree with this. Consider where S&M's custom shirts and other items fall price wise to their competitors, a $60-$70 USD tie would be too expensive. I do see a gap where there are no decent options, though. This is in the $50-$60 CAD price range.

Lower priced ties can be had from department stores, thetiebar.com and discount stores like Winners and Marshalls, but I've yet to find a tie that I would consider "good" from any of those places. Perhaps some of the patterns are wearable, but the construction is often lacking (I own about 40 ties, including higher end brands and cheap Tie Bar ties, and I can tell you the difference in knotting them, their look, feel and design is substantial...at least to me it is).

Then you have places like Harry Rosen, where there are plenty of nice ties...all starting pretty well at over $100 CAD (I'm not going to factor in sales where the selection is hit or miss). Brooks Brothers seems to now price a majority of their ties at $108 CAD, but they have a decent selection and they are made in the USA. Loding has some decent looking ties for $70. Andrew's Ties in the PATH has a lot of ties, and perhaps half of them are in designs I would consider wearing, but I was in there the other day and the prices have increased and are now $69 or $79 CAD, depending on the tie. The 2 ties I have from there are ok, but I wouldn't say of very high quality.

My old stand-by Kamakura has done it again, pricing their ties in Japan at ¥5400, which is currently about $62 CAD. Last summer the exchange was about 1 yen per Canadian cent, which meant the ties would have been $54 CAD. Lots of great options...they seem to come out with new lines weekly, with at least a dozen different colours/patterns. Fabrics all from England, Italy, France or Japan, and all made in one of those countries, but mostly in Japan. Fantastic value...however not readily available to us in Canada.

I appreciate S&M focussing on what they do well and growing those products. However, if somehow you could manage to make quality ties in classic patterns for $50 CAD, then I think there would be a market.

 

[Spex]

Guys, we're developing Desklooms for the OCBD program. These are essentially sample colours in the fabric for future orders.

What colours do you want to see down the pipe so we can get them developed.

Thanks.

Uni stripes in light blue, navy, pink, purple, maybe grey and perhaps tan.

Solid - navy, dark blue, light blue, pink, purple... those are probably the only ones I would wear personally.

I'd like to see a shirt in a blue such as these:

 

[Spex]

Rick,

I hope you consider making some dress shirts with the Italian Semi Spread Collar. For many of us, the regular semi spread collar's points don't stay under the lapels of a jacket.

This is why I specified slightly longer collar points when I ordered my custom shirts with the semi spread collar.

 

[spiermackay]

The last of my new custom shirts. This was suppose to be the same pattern as my burgundy uni stripe OCBD from yesterday, but the sleeves are considerably longer on this one.

I really like the collar. It fits nicely under my jacket and is wide spread the way I like. The collar has a light lining, but the neck band is too stiff in my opinion.

There shouldn't be a difference in the sleeves. Could be how the cloth drapes in the oxford to that. Do you mind measuring the sleeve from the shoulder to the cuff and letting me know. If specs are off, the issue is ours to resolve.

You can specify the type of lining in both the collar and band for future orders.

Edit: Great Jacket BTW.

 

[fieldofdreams]

Kamakura spread

S&M semi spread

These were with same jacket. S&M collar points could ideally be .25-.5 inches longer. They just barely meet the lapel. If it makes a difference, I'm a size 40r and wear a 15.5 slim in Kamakura and a 39/87 Tokyo slim in Kamakura.