John Dunn wrote:
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> As some of you who are on the BOB or tandem list already know, Brooks now belongs to Selle Royal.
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> WWW.brookssaddles.com
The most knowlegeable post I have read pertaining to the ramifications of the sale to Selle Royal is from Steven Maasland posted to the iBOB list the other day:
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Where is the best and highest priced leather furniture made? Where are the majority of the high-end leather shoes made? Where are the most advanced and cost efficient tanneries located? All in Italy. This was not the case 30-40 years ago, when Britain was still among the world leaders in leather. Why has Connolly not been able to make money for years? Their reputation is such that they are the only ones to be able to receive added value due to their name, but they are not able to turn the reputation into sufficiently high prices to cover their added costs and they have subsequently not been able to invest in production improvements. They are presently under receivership. I have helped an African friend of mine who commercially farms 20000 crocs and 6000 ostriches for leather and meat with sourcing his tanning needs. He must either get his tanning done in Italy or pay much higher prices in Japan. The quality from Japan is also often inferior, notwithstanding the higher price. All top-end watchbands, western boots and purse-makers all rely on Italy for these difficult to tan leathers. The same is true for all specialty leathers. In North America and Britain, you pay close to $1000 for a pair of custom-made shoes. I pay the equivalent of $250 to my Italian cobbler in Treviso (which by chance is also the province where the Italian saddle business is located). This in a province that has an unemployment rate of less than 3% and a correspondingly higher cost of labour.
Your comment about 'needing' a craftsman eye to read the hide is misguided, as it is the tannery that does the grading of the hides. The user determines the grade of hide used and verifies what they paid for is what they also received. The craftsman's eye is used only in cutting the leather to ensure the least wastage and that the invariable defects that occur in even 1st grade hides can be used in non-critical places. Selle Royal must use these same identical skills to maximize their own production. Most industrial companies that use leather now use lasers and lights to 'see' these defects and subsequently 'map' out the cutting of the leather in the most efficient way. Brooks on the other hand relies on 'craftsmen', that no matter how skilled cannot be as precise nor as adept at getting the utmost value out of the leather. All you need do is look at the Brooks website to realize that they first cut out a large cut-out then proceed to cut it down once after assembly and then chamfer the leather. There is no reason why a purpose built machine cannot do these three steps all at once, perhaps reducing the wastage by up to 50%.
With regards to the saddle rails lasting 30 years, my 2 Selle Royal contours, one with steel and the other with alloy frame are now over 20 years old and aside from a favourite Brooks are the most comfortable saddle that I have ever owned. On the other hand, I have witnessed countless Brooks saddles that reached their demise far quicker than this because of leather rips around the rivets, collapsed adjuster nuts or weathering.
You furthermore state that Brooks has always been profitable. This is a naïve statement unless one is privy to all details of the company. Under Raleigh, TI, and Derby management, Brooks had a guaranteed outlet for the largest chunk of their products. Beyond this protected market, they never were overly successful or widely available. Their 'profitability' is therefore suspect if you factor out this protected market. Under Selle Royal, availability can only improve. A further questions that begs asking is, why did the management, that only bought out the company in 2000 turn it over so quickly? I can see two possible scenarios that could explain this: they believed the company could not survive under the present economic situation, or they believed that Selle Royal was the most appropriate 'partner' to permit them to reach their proper market situation. As you so correctly point out, Selle Royal has numerous and highly distinct brands: among them you will find Lookin, Selle Royal, Fizik as well as others. The Brooks brand and technology has no overlap with any of these brands.
Lastly, your comment about Italian framebuilding is not based in fact. To this day, there are more high-end lugged steel frames being built in Italy than perhaps in all of the rest of the world combined. You can still pick up a brand new De Rosa, Daccordi, Tomassini, Chesini, Faggin, Scapin, Gios etc.. with 'classical' production. For every Brian Baylis, Richard Sachs, Mariposa etc... there are probably ten Italian craftsmen making lugged frames in much larger quantities. Perhaps they don't touch any of these builders in terms of workmanship, but they do exist and are still the norm in Italy. The difference is that in North America, craftsmen are so rare that they can demand a premium, whereas in Europe, the relative abundance makes their work less valued and fabled. Besides, it was the Treks and Cannondales of the world that started to actively market the non-ferous materials, not the Italians. The Italians merely reacted in a way that would allow them to survive.
I know that this will sound as if I am an apologist for Italy and all things Italian, but the reality is that after living in their midst for a decade, I have developed a respect for them as a people, notwithstanding my Canadian passport or my American residence.
Steven Maasland Moorestown NJ ==================================================
Chuck Schmidt
SoPas, SoCal