Everything goes up in price, and in the case of Brooks, there are more
reasons than just "the passing of time." As Joe B. noted, the weak dollar
is one. Another--some of you may remember when Brooks went bankrupt about
------ I'm not going to look it up but it was about 8-9 years ago. Panic
ensued, and in some kind of business deal that I don't understand, it
(Brooks) was sold to a guy described "mainly as a Las Vegas gambler" for
something like $38.00, note the decimal point. Then he made some money
reselling it to Italy's second-biggest saddle maker, Selle Royal, and
Brooks was saved, although amid fears of the new non-British owners somehow
wrecking it.
It would be foolish for a company to buy a failed business and continue to
operate it in exactly the same way that lead to its folding, and so SR
changed things. Labor costs did not go down, but presumably (I mean,
ideally) we all make more money now than we did then if we're in the same
job, so some of that can be absorbed and seen as a way to actually support
Brooks and prevent another bankruptcy, as opposed to just scoring a fire
sale saddle or two.
I was certain SR'd wreck it--that we'd see plastic Brookses, etc. (Brooks
itself tried that a decade or more earlier and it didn't work). Under Selle
Royal ownership the saddles got bumpy, not just painted, badges. Who cares,
right? But considering there wasn't much to improve short of genetically
engineered cows, that was something. The boxes got better, truly no big
deal. The consistency seems to have improved---something no one rider is in
a position to notice, but we-who-sell-many do.
Brooksitalia is reaching out more, with slick ads that play heavy on its
heritage. Too heavy for my taste, but if it's what they need to find new
customers and keep this saddle alive, have at it. The accessories, in some
cases, romanticize the olde days more than I can handle when I'm in a
low-tolerance mood. The pink saddles, oddly, don't bug me that much,
because underneath it all it's still a B.17.
Rivendell has always tried to welcome challengers and others into the
leather saddle world. We were the first or nearly the first to sell other
leather saddles, and I think it would be good for everybody and Brooks if
there were some other serious options. The SA saddles are still (I think)
more comfortable, and that's saying a lot. Are they too comfortable? Maybe,
but they don't last as long and they cost more. I'm not sure that's such a
bad deal, either. Is $180 too much to spend for a saddle that lasts,
minimally, 5,000 miles? That's about three and a half cents a mile, and
it's your genitals we're talking about. A personal decision, that one.
There are tons of Taiwan saddles, too. Mixed reviews, and we've sold them,
but for now I'm cheering them on and waiting to see how long they last, but
I don't want to sell them anymore until they're in the same league as
Brooks.
The internet makes price shopping easy for anybody, and there's no way to
look good arguing against it. I can say that in our case, if we were to
price Brooks lower than we do, we'd have a harder time being in business
than we do. Our rent is low. Our salaries are as high as The Business can
afford, but they're not modern successful-company salaries by any means.
The old Holiday flyer you can link to on the BLUG is odd because except for
the item descriptions, it is written without using a single "e." That's why
it reads weird, but if you think you can write item descriptions or even
anything ("anything" being excepted) without using (those two words
excepted, too) the letter e, then...let's hear it!
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