Well, got this kickarse patches from Warriorcleon and just added a felt cut out to it. These are what I'll be using on my vest that my leather guy and I plan on doing and will also be sending these to Alex_Fugazi. We are on the brink of the ultimate Warriors vest folks, I'm excited hehehe..
Did I get the border right? It looks about right from the pics I have, but would love any advice on what you see that could be better. The Border is very crude and will be percise once my leather guy and Alex_Fugazi gets them:
Score!
Cleon patches are here. I'll have to size them up quite a bit though! The Warbird we're using on our vests right now is Quite a bit bigger than the ones he was using. I'll have these over to my embroidery peeps soon enough!
Allright, here's the skinny. We're almost out of our old vests completely. I just dropped the WarriorCleon patches off at my embroidery guy's shop today. I told him a few things-
1-don't mess with the design, make it just like this
BUT...
2- Make it much bigger.
These new patches are going to be just as big as the current mondo patches w/ the Warrior Cleon design!
Not only are we going to be selling the Warriors vest with the patches, but we'll have the patch sets on their own. We're only ordering 100 of them to be made, but from what he's told me, we'll be able to sell them for much, much cheaper than you'll see them on ebay right now (which are selling regularly for $100 bucks!?!)
I took the vest itself back to the design stage. We're going to stick with the current leather color (as most people seem to be happy w/ it). We're tightening up the armholes, but not as much as the Coney Vests. I showed my pattern maker several photos of the coney vest, and she said to go that tight would eliminate a lot of my customer base, as everyone has different sized arms (of course) and leather tucked up that tight under your armpit tends to chafe! The reason the movie vests fit so tight...is because they're custom fitted! But hey, we care and want to make sure the armholes are smaller. AND- we're changing the pattern of the binding around the pockets to make sure the sides end in triangular points, as opposed to flat squared off ends, making them even more film-accurate.
Next step is the sample process! I'll have scans of the new patches up in a week, and hopefully a new sample vest in 3-4 weeks. We should start taking orders for these early November, and have them in everyone's hands for X-mas.
The great thing is we'll be able to sell these new vests for right around $150.00
I heard everyone's feedback about the old vests, and these new ones will MELT YOUR FACE with greatness!
I gotta tell ya, I'm super excited about this.. the pocket idea, tighter arm hole and accurate patches.. I'm drooling with anticipation and the County Island Warriors will all upgrade their vests to these aswell. Just don't forget me.
With those updates, I just may buy one to replace my A-1 vest. The pockets thing has always bugged me.
If I still dig my A-1 vest more, and your new patches are as good as Cleon's, or better (the warbird will have the black border right?), I will probably buy a set if they are affordable. Can you give us an idea of what the patch sets will run?
Glad to hear you are making updates, and striving for the perfect Warriors vest. Although I really like my A-1 vest, I would replace it in a second for a more accuaret one.
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2987551938_453a0afcbf_t.jpg[/img]
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-Inanimate Life Photography-[/URL]
Yeah, one of the reasons I'm not messing w/ the color is that everyone has a different opinion of what the color should be. The current color is actually darker and redder than the vests used in the film. BUT with the use of lighting and filters, the film vests appear different in every shot.
Since there is no consensus, I've decided to go with what works.
Athough, I believe WarlordSwan is offering to dye people's vests for them...which he SHOULD be charging for, as I'm sure that's not an easy thing to do! (But he's a nice guy, so, hey...)
Yeah, technically it would be better to have no patches when doing the dye thing, but I have a method in that I use a very fine brush to first dye the areas around the patches, the trim and the pockets, before doing the rest. The final result looks no different then if the vest already came that color. It's a near flawless transition.