The Styleforum x Archibald Sneaker GMTO

[takashi78]

1- Leather tote that is not too heavy.

2- Ultimate shorts?

Too bad i live in Asia and most of the awesome clothing that you guys produce doesn't work for me.

Depends on how the sneakers turn out, i am all in for the loafers.

3- Slip on chukka sorta like the ones Lorro Piana makes?

 

[Mor]

Hi sorry I didn't complete my message to you, what I have suggested is a hack as any non-localized country (in this case China) incurs substantially higher costs of delivery, we use the UK price as the base and it all evens out (we have different deals for shipping, etc for different countries, the US is our biggest market so obviously we have best terms when it comes to logistics, etc there).

The trick is if you fill up all the address as normal and leave country as Hong Kong, then email customer service and let them know. This is something I shouldn't be advising but what the heck.

Hi @ArchibaldRoh
Contrary to what you wrote here and in our private chat,
customer service is not playing ball with my request.

I would appreciate your assistance here.

Thanks...
--Mor

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

Hi @ArchibaldRoh
Contrary to what you wrote here and in our private chat,
customer service is not playing ball with my request.

I would appreciate your assistance here.

Thanks...
--Mor

Hi @Mor

Sorry, it isn't.

If you see the earlier messages, this is a hack proposed to anyone who wanted to pay in USD and then the amount of shipping charged would be dependant on destination (and therefore the exact Naked price of delivery would be charged) instead of a more or less estimate which works out the same.

Hence in my message, I said the charge for shipping will be made separately but with your confirmation first. It is the same for each and every person making the order, if an estimate of the UK full price + shipping fee (in this case a portion of charges in UK contributes towards the higher cost of delivery) is to be circumvented for the exact value we are more than happy to let this happen as again the idea is it is at-cost. However as I wrote in my message, they will charge whatever the shipment extra is. At this stage, since I can see you are so concerned about the price, it would also be prudent to mention that the import duties are paid by the receiver in any non-localized country - I just want to ensure all is clear so you are not disappointed.

Like, I mentioned, we have streamlined logistics in the US and UK and therefore are able to offer customers there favourable prices. I am sorry you feel that customers there get a more favourable deal but conversely most brands charge customers in the US a much higher price.

At the end of the day, the whole idea of transparency and at-cost is to charge exactly that. Otherwise, it would simply be unsustainable.

 

[Mor]

Hi @ArchibaldRoh,
Writing something here and doing something else do not go well towards transparency.
I was very clear with my request in our chat and explained myself in a way that can't be interpreted in more than 1 way.

I really don't want to make this into something ugly but I don't appreciate this tactics.
I'm not pretending to know everything that goes behind the scene and that I understand the business more, but when the website tells me shipping cost is X then in the name of transparency it should be X - this is your way to be more transparent.

I'm well aware of import duties and do not expect you to cover them, that said the GBP price (shown to UK and non localised customers) should have the UK VAT deduced from it when shipping outside of EU - I didn't notice that, is that transparent?

maybe best to continue this conversation privately

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

Hi @ArchibaldRoh,
Writing something here and doing something else do not go well towards transparency.
I was very clear with my request in our chat and explained myself in a way that can't be interpreted in more than 1 way.

I really don't want to make this into something ugly but I don't appreciate this tactics.
I'm not pretending to know everything that goes behind the scene and that I understand the business more, but when the website tells me shipping cost is X then in the name of transparency it should be X - this is your way to be more transparent.

I'm well aware of import duties and do not expect you to cover them, that said the GBP price (shown to UK and non localised customers) should have the UK VAT deduced from it when shipping outside of EU - I didn't notice that, is that transparent?

maybe best to continue this conversation privately

Hi @Mor no I think at this point we should conclude on this chat as this is a big part of our brand. I'm just in a meeting and will answer in full though I feel I already have. We have already been through this with someone on the thread and we are not in the business of hiding anything.

I also notice that customer support did the full breakdown for you to address the point.

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

Hi @Mor no I think at this point we should conclude on this chat as this is a big part of our brand. I'm just in a meeting and will answer in full though I feel I already have. We have already been through this with someone on the thread and we are not in the business of hiding anything.

I also notice that customer support did the full breakdown for you to address the point.

Firstly, I have quoted my message to you in our private chat so other members who might be disturbed by this can see: "email to customer service requesting shipping to Israel and confirming you are happy to be charged the extra for shipping they will obviously confirm you with first"

I guess it missed the word THAT.

Secondly,

For non-localized countries, particularly those where we have high costs of delivery, we use the UK pricing base (as UK is the fallback value) and then add a small amount to account for the difference. It is true that when paying this price, the sales tax is not deducted because we run a calculation on all our products and allow the extra % to pay a portion of the shipping and then on top of that add a small shipping fee to account for the difference. Which is why you saw a quote of 8.99 GBP added to the UK price instead of full cost of shipping a pair of shoes from UK to Israel (considerably higher).

I believe you received a breakdown from Dutch but let's roughly go through this anyway fort he calfskin pair.

Shipping 1 pair from UK to Israel: ~38 USD, Shipping 2 pairs from UK to Israel: ~57.75 USD
Insurance on this shipment: 12 GBP

Part 1: UK Price: 139 GBP ---> ~ GBP 124.50 (159.36) remove shipping leaving taxes ----> ~159.36 USD + ~11.68 (8.99 GBP) = ~171.04 USD
Part 2: US Price: 148 USD ---->~ USD 128 remove shipping, leaving clearing admin ---> ~USD 128 + ~38 USD = ~166 USD

Difference is roughly USD $5.04. Now we have allowed the alternative to benefit those who want to pay in USD or pay the exact cost per country of shipment.

In fact, this strategy is in the best interest of customers making these orders as when a return is processed, the amount refunded is the full price of the product. However, truthfully we don't do it separating all the same for each country because we simply do not have the manpower to work out a naked cost or even normal cost for each product on each country. So by no means am I saying its a well thought out, purposelly done advantage.

However, the initiative is based on transparency and our brand is based on a better, fairer way towards retail. If you think this is a rip-off as you communicated to Dutch then as he mentioned we wouldn't want you feeling that and we can refund you on the order immediately. Ultimately building trust is the core of our growth strategy to achieve our ambitions and give you all great product so if there is a breakdown in trust it goes against everything we are trying to do.

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

*UPDATED LIST Prior to creating the polls!

- Leather Briefcase - Leather Bags - Handmade in Italy (starting from Jules)
- SF-02 Slip-On - Sneakers - Handmade in Italy
- SF-02 Mid-tops - Sneakers - Handmade in Italy
- Wholecut Oxford - Handwelted Dress Shoes - Handmade in Italy
- Cordovan Leather Jumper Boot - Handwelted Dress Shoes - Handmade in Italy
- Richard James x Archibald Modern Trench - Coats - Handmade in England
- The World's Best T-Shirt Part 2: Community Edition - Clothing - Handmade in Italy * (We did England for the RJ T shirt)
- Ultimate Classic Shorts - Clothing - Italy or England
- Classic Chinos - Clothing - Italy or England
- Sock Packs - Essentials - Handmade in Italy, Portugal or England
- Boxer Pants - Underclothing - Handmade in Italy or Portugal
- Corgi Knitwear Jumper - Knitwear - Knitted in Wales
- Cashmere Club Crew - Knitwear - Knitted in Italy
- Leather Portfolio - Leather Bags - Handmade in Italy
- Small Leather Accessories - Small Leather Goods - Handmade in Ubrique, Spain
- Sunglasses w/ Performance Polarized Lenses (3 Designs) - Eyewear - Handmade in Japan
- Cotton Polo Shirts - Clothing - Italy or Portugal
- Contemporary Shearling Coats - Jackets and Coats - Handmade in Italy or East London
- Shawl Collar Cardigan in Half Cardigan Stitch (Cashmere or Wool) - Knitwear - Knitted in Scotland
- Pullover Shawl Collar Sweater (Cashmere or Wool) - Knitwear - Knitted in Scotland
- Cashmer 4-ply Shawl Collar Cardigan - Knitwear - Knitted in Scotland
- Leather Tote - Leather Bags - Handmade in Italy
- D'Avenza x Archibald #theresurrection - Tailoring and Suits - Handmade in Italy

 

[NonChalant321]

Foldable suede travel slippers...maybe like la portegna rodrigo?

 

[imatlas]

Gloves, peccary or otherwise.

 

[MattJB]

Interested in hand welt dress shoes - could a cap toe oxford be a thing?

 

[takashi78]

Just thinking out loud, i thought usually pre-orders take 50% up front and the remaining 50% before the product ships?

Why are we paying full up front?

Sorry this just came to my mind.

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

Just thinking out loud, i thought usually pre-orders take 50% up front and the remaining 50% before the product ships?

Why are we paying full up front?

Sorry this just came to my mind.

I think most normal MTO's work slightly different and rarely offer returns/exchanges not to mention never pricing their stuff at-cost. By charging 50% with most retail margins they have already covered costs and made a good tidy margin - remember most brands put a 7-9x mark-up on production when working out RRP.

So especially when we work with pre- orders for items with naked pricing, there is no margin on our side and therefore production payment starts immediately with deposit, second payment and then final payment.

We used to run pre-order for batches that we have already ordered with no money down, almost like an intention to reserve but stopped dojng that when the focus changed to a more sustainable (financially, strategically and environmentally) approach of ordering what has been ordered.

The production run is padded only slightly with excess pieces over what has been ordered and that is literally to support exchanged required.

Even the transacting customer base who are ordering for second production on the live website now are paying full price up front as we had to alter the order logic to prioritize what we were doing with SF.

 

[striker]

To be fair, Kickstarter also takes the full payment ahead of production and I have seen my fair share of farce and **** ups by unproven people and businesses who won't even answer queries for weeks.

So far Archibald has done a great job of updating progress while always staying on top of this thread.

 

[OrlandoMo]

At the workshop, checking the details for the soles

 

[CWV]

I really want the whole cuts. Something like the Tony of fitzpatrick