[Closed] Hebden Bridge Trouser Company

but that was 18 months ago? do they still use that line on any current marketing material?

how much?

A bit late now that ctk has posted a video of an actual Hebtroco belt being made (and surprisingly enough it wasn't being made by the young lady featured on the website 😯 )

[quote=wwaswas ]but that was 18 months ago? do they still use that line on any current marketing material?

After this thread NO

Its a remarkable change in business focus, in a fairly short period, but yes they are absolutely free to do as they please with their branding and their ethos/ethics just as we are free to comment on the change of heart.

Not after this thread NO

But this thread is 18 months old too?

Why don't they just buy shorties and be done with it?

I'm confused as to what Shorties couldn't do.

Make enough? 176 pairs a week must be enough?

Cut the trousers the right shape? Really? That would suggest they weren't up to the job in the 1st place.

But this thread is 18 months old too?

Anyway we both seem to agree they made a big deal of hebden and they recently changed the website and there was some threads on here questioning them.

If I am guilty of post hoc ergo propter hoc here then i apologise

It wasn't changed because of the posts on here at all though.

Drac - accepted; we all make mistakes - and I make more than my fair share.

Cheers Frank.

[img] [/img]

[quote=Drac ]It wasn't changed because of the posts on here at all though.

I am sure Brants marketing expertise will ,though it will be no easy task, convince all other doubters as to the entirely unrelated nature of these events.

I am sure Brants marketing expertise will ,though it will be no easy task, convince all other doubters as to the entirely unrelated nature of these events.

I'm not sure they are even bothered enough to try ?

His name has been mentioned way more than three times... and he's still not here 😆

It wasn't changed because of the posts on here at all though.

I think we can all accept that. What does seem to be met with deafening silence from anyone who might know (and I think there is a fair chance that at least one of the key people is aware of the thread contents even if they're not constantly watching its tortuous progress) is what did prompt the change and when.

At risk of repeating myself, I'd be very interested to know whether the "saviours of trouser town" stuff was changed

1) As soon as they decided to buy in trousers from elsewhere

or

2) some time later than that, perhaps when it became public knowledge...

As others have said, it's their business, if they want to change direction, USP, strategy that's their right. But if they were still trading on the previous shtick when it was no longer true, that's really not cricket..

So, one more time - does anyone know when the marketing message changed relative to the timing of the change in trouser procurement?

I think we can all accept that.

You'd think wouldn't you.

The "open letter" from Shorties ([b]15th June[/b]) suggests that the marketing imagery etc. was still being used after the purchasing decision had gone against them. That's not the same claim as "[i]every[/i] pair of trousers we sell is being made in Hebden Bridge" though it's not difficult to see why folk might read it like that.

It was a surprise therefore when in [b]March[/b] of this year it became apparent you were selling trousers not made by us. Having supplied in excess of 2500 units it could not have been a quality issue.
Of course you run your company as you see fit and we have no complaint in regard to settlement of account during that time.
However as self professed saviours of all things local it is somewhat disappointing and does indeed make your company name somewhat of a misnomer.
Having help you get up and running you indicated your company has legs , it sure looks like you have learned how to use them !
Consequently as your trousers are no longer made in Hebden Bridge my workforce and I ask that you remove all video , photographic and verbal promotional material involving Shorties Uk Ltd premises and staff from your web site , facebook page and indeed any other promotional material.

So do Shorties sell direct to the public? If not then surely they should see the market opportunity.

[quote=johndoh ]So do Shorties sell direct to the public? If not then surely they should see the market opportunity.

I believe they now have. However, it's quite possible they lack the marketing nous of Brant and Ed that would make it a success.

So, one more time - does anyone know when the marketing message changed relative to the timing of the change in trouser procurement?

[img] /revision/latest?cb=20150710082219[/img]

Honestly, read that back to yourself in a quiet moment. 🙂

They'll be calling for them to publish all telephone transcripts and tax returns next and aiming for the impeachment of Brant within 12 months.

So do Shorties sell direct to the public? If not then surely they should see the market opportunity.

I believe they now have. However, it's quite possible they lack the marketing nous of Brant and Ed that would make it a success.

They should team up, sounds like they would do really well working together.

At risk of repeating myself, I'd be very interested to know whether the "saviours of trouser town" stuff was changed

Why?

From what I gather they were still putting business into the Hebden factory right up to the point where a) they had the QC issues with the new pattern and b) they made the Facebook post.

So, one more time - does anyone know when the marketing message changed relative to the timing of the change in trouser procurement?

It doesn't matter when it changed relative to the procurement. It only matters how and when it changed/changes in regards to selling those procured items to the pubic.

They'll be calling for them to publish all telephone transcripts and tax returns next and aiming for the impeachment of Brant within 12 months.

No, just asking whether they were saying either explicitly, or strongly implying, that they were in the business of selling trousers exclusively manufactured in Hebden Bridge when they knew that it was either no longer true, or in the process of becoming untrue.

The open letter suggests March at the latest (it "became apparent" in March which suggests it might have actually started earlier) - but that might or might not be right, we only have the open letter from a clearly pissed off former partner. In that context though, it would be good to know when the website text (not the factory videos, photos etc.) changed...

Have they run over your dog or something?

It doesn't matter when it changed relative to the procurement. It only matters how and when it changed/changes in regards to selling those procured items to the pubic.

I disagree. If they were promoting their wares as "Made in Hebden Bridge" and stating or strongly suggesting that they were exclusively so, then imho they were not being honest if they'd placed orders elsewhere, for two reasons:

1) I might have bought into the message and asked the missus to get me a pair for Christmas. The missus is good, but I doubt she'd feel the need to do due diligence in November when she placed the order.

2) I might have bought a pair now, and got a pair made in Hebden, but the driver could well have been, in part, that I was contributing to the ongoing and future development and revitalisation of the Hebden Bridge trouser making industry, if that is what they were claiming to be doing - i.e. the expectation that not only the supplier has been paid for my trousers, but that the HTC profit from that sale was going to go back into the Hebden Bridge trouser making industry (since that is what they had been claiming, up until... well we don't seem to be sure on up until when, do we?).

Shorties new company to sell direct, registered 9th March.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10662320

johndoh » S[b]o do Shorties sell direct to the public? If not then surely they should see the market opportunity.[/b]

I believe they now have. However, it's quite possible they lack the marketing nous of Brant and Ed that would make it a success.

Indeed, the second result of googling "Shorties trousers" is the website for the Hebden Trouser Company. I wonder why that is?

[url=

*disclosure - Brant bought me a pint once.

Not for me it isn't

Ah - stealth edit.....

and another stealth edit, I'd left the 's' off the end 🙂

Today, there's just one factory remaining. With six members of staff, working a three day week, producing 176 trousers a week. Amazing staff making incredible trousers. Yes, trousers can be incredible. [b]They are the highest specification trousers around, made for some of the most exclusive brands and most prominent public figures in the world[/b].

So, the new trousers are not of the same standard as the old then? Are they cheaper?

It's all going a bit On-One. 😯 I would say Ragley but they got better after the first few batches. 😆

So do Shorties have a website that I can buy some of their true Hebdon Bridge trousers from? 😆 I'd like to help save trouser town!
Hopefully they can both continue to be successful.

English Fine Cottons is working with an up-and-coming menswear label, to make the perfect fabric for their trousers here in the UK.

While we’ve been busy re-establishing cotton spinning in a region once dubbed Cottonopolis, the founders of HebTroCo have been keeping the industry alive in Hebden Bridge, which used to be known as Trousertown.

I'm sure the second sentence has FTFY potential.
[url= https://www.englishfinecottons.co.uk/journal/manufacturing/trousers-fabric/ ]The story[/url]

So the guy making trousers had set up a competitor company as far back as march .....

Shorties new company to sell direct, registered 9th March.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10662320

From the shock of 'betrayal' to fully-registered 'new idea' and title in days. Followed shortly afterwards by an undeniably damaging facebook message which comes out of the blue to the firm originally using the #trousertown marketing.

Where does the term 'stitch-up' actually come from again?

Incredible displays of bitterness here.

So the guy making trousers had set up a competitor company as far back as march .....

Well he registersed another company in March yes.

Quick browse of the website suggests no jeans and steep (even by hipster standard) prices.

I'll be off to TKMaxx until they scale up a bit.

Seems like it's speculation when it's not what you want to hear, but it's okay to make assumptions when it backs up your argument :roll:.

So do Shorties have a website that I can buy some of their true Hebdon Bridge trousers from?

This might be them.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/angel9262/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Sadly, if you know the backstory to HebtroCo, you'll have been lead to believe that this jeans factory was saved from closure by their ideas and production, that was complete fiction!
The manufacturing company had been going strong for years and these guys came around with an idea and asked if they could use this fictional backstory to sell the factories jeans design re-branded as HebTroCo's own. Which they were allowed to do, solely under the provision that all the production work be given to the factory and the design remained in the factories archives.
But they went one further and decided to state that it wasn't just the last trouser factory in Hebden Bridge, but that it was facing imminent closure due to declining orders - and that UK manufacturing in the valley was long since gone - total fiction! There are over a dozen companies in Calderdale producing clothing - always have been, always will be.

This agreement went well for just under 12 months, then these people who had professed that they were the Saviours of Calderdale decided to copy the trouser pattern that belonged to the Hebden Bridge company - making the necessary legal 5% changes to the pattern to avoid copyright theft - and took their production to another factory, which they now claim is costing them 20% more to manufacture from - but NOBODY is that stupid to believe that anyone would go elsewhere and pay more for an items production? are they?

This move left the small manufacturing unit in Hebden Bridge hanging on a promised production of 40 - 80 units a week, believing that the orders were imminent, the Hebden manufacturing company turned down work from other sources in lieu of this promised work, they waited patiently - for 2 months - but It never came, and so the factory is (and has been) on a 2 day working week for the (past and) next few months, leaving the staff in the factory out of work and struggling financially.

HebTroCo don't seem to give a damn about the people they have left in their wake, their blase and childish comments on their social media pages about their reasons to move to another factory, and their deletions of people asking them questions as to their integrity over the Hebden Bridge manufacturer? leading to people being blocked from commenting,
'profits over principles' seems to be the order of the day, and over the past 12 months they have slowly but surely chipped away at their own principles and backstory to a point of complete annihilation of their original ethos.
Within months, the local company Brisbane Moss who supplied them with British dyed cloth were binned off in favour of cheaper imported cloth from Germany. Now the manufacturing company who were in a strong position before these jokers came along is in a bit of a crisis due to being hit with fickle promises and lies.

OUR ETHOS:

In 2016 this Hebden Bridge manufacturing unit stepped in and helped me out big time after the 2015 floods,
We as a manufacturing company lost over £130'000 in machinery and goods in those floods, fell foul of the insurance companies refusal to pay (we weren't alone over 4000 other companies and individuals in the valley suffered the same fate) knowing this, the factories owners allowed me full access to their machinery and premises to get our production back up and running again, without this companies offer of help, we wouldn't have pulled ourselves back so quickly from what seemed to be imminent forced closure.

I don't forget the hand of kindness that is offered from relative strangers, So its time for me to try and do something for them, in their time of need.

I am planning on having a few hundred pairs of these jeans produced by this Hebden Bridge manufacturing company, investing my own money into this project to see if I can get at least one days additional work a week for the foreseeable, for their staff.
I'm selling these trousers at one third less than HebTroCo - as a loss leader to try to keep the orders coming in for the Hebden Bridge Factory.
If I can sell the 80 pairs (I've already had produced) quickly, I'll start placing weekly orders with them and hopefully, this should tide them over until their winter orders kick in.

HebTroCo sell their jeans at £110 a pair, and charge £10 for having the hems turned up to your measurements, these same styled and same cut jeans I'm offering are just 75.00 a pair..... British Made by the same hands that made theirs, and I'll match exactly the same guarantee that HebTroCo offer,

I could sell them for more, but this is not about profit, after production costs, VAT, Ebay fees etc, I'll make less than £6 a pair on the sales of these jeans,
This is about giving everyone down the line a good deal - from the customer to the people producing the items, my priority is ensuring that the girls in Hebden Bridge are kept in full time work and not suffering financially as a result of being tossed aside by the fickle attitudes of a couple of people who evidently have little understanding of the garment industry - and who evidently don't have a scrap of loyalty in their bones!

Buying these jeans from here is helping a small hard working community keep their heads above water, not filling the coffers of a greedy individual.

Ouch!

..

Item description...... 😯

Item description......

Indeed. 😆

However... hadn't realised that they'd sacked off the British fabric manufacturer as well- now using moleskin imported from Europe, according to that.

Oh just read the description on the items detailing what had happened on the eBay site. Pretty damning if it's true. Having said that £75.00 a pair. May be worth a punt.

This might be them.

That's a hoof in the slats.

So, the new trousers are not of the same standard as the old then? Are they cheaper?

Assuming Brant's post a few pages back is to be believed, there is no "new trousers." The moleskin pants, the subject of the Kickstarter and this thread, have always been made in Hebden. The ones made elsewhere were different products.

That's a pretty damning post from the factory. As ever with these things, I suspect the truth may lie somewhere in the middle of these two versions of events. Both parties are saying "I can't believe they've done this to us" - it sounds like a breakdown in communication at the very least. Either that or one side is being dishonest of course. Which side that is, I can only speculate (but I'm not going to cos some of you are far better at it than I am).

Mystery inside a riddle wrapped up in an enigma.
This seems to be a story that just keeps on giving.

Cougar - that Companies House link is pretty damning.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10662320
/p>

If you look at Pickles' page he only seemed to have the "idea" to set up Last Factory a week or so ago. Yet had it incorporated as far back as March.

I still stand by the assertion that the whole #prayforhebdenbridge thing definitely comes across as bait and switch but there appears to be more to this. Nobody is coming out of this looking good IMO.

I'm hesitant to post this for fear of being accused of sticking up for "mates" I don't even know, but putting that wall of text up on every advert seems a bit of a low blow to me. Are they selling jeans as a "loss leader" to advertise their story to as a wide an audience as possible?

If I hadn't heard of either company before, I'd be filing that ad under "weird" and giving both of them a wide berth.

Evening all
I have kept well out of this so far, I know Richard and Ed and have also made a pair of trousers for Brant, i'm the manager of Spencers Trousers (the last remaining trouser factory in HX6 8) )

I would be very surprised if that ebay store above is anything to do with Shorties! Sure, the trousers look like their makeup but doubt Richard would put such a scathing statement on a listing.

EDIT I also have no idea what has gone on between them

If you know them, why not ask them?

As for the eBay listing.

Item location: Tavistock Devon, United Kingdom

Based in United States, angel9262 has been an eBay member since 28 Apr, 2000

It's absolutley none of my business!

This is all getting very undignified.

I dont think the ebay store is Shorties but its all a bit yuck.

It's absolutley none of my business!

Oh you just know them, rather than bezzie mates know them?

Oh you just know them, rather than bezzie mates know them?

I'm selling these trousers at one third less than HebTroCo - as a loss leader

after production costs, VAT, Ebay fees etc, I'll make less than £6 a pair on the sales of these jeans

Someone either doesn't understand what "loss leader" means or is as full of shit as they claim everyone else is.

This whole thing just seems to get grubbier and grubbier. All round.

Do they wipe clean? Because with the amount of either spit or a.n.other bodily fluid being splashed all over them from the opposing viewpoints on this thread, they want to.

This adds nothing but an anagram of STW and HebCoTro is "Both to screw".

Slow day at work.

I think the ebay Ad is another company based in Tavistock who are buying from Shorties. If you read their backstory as listed above they say Shorties stepped in when their, presumably Tavistock, factory got flooded in 2015. This ties up with google facts https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tavistock+flooding+2015

This adds nothing but an anagram of STW and HebCoTro is "Both to screw".

Slow day at work.

[s]Also, Boo Retch for just HebCoTro.[/s]

Throb Cos Wet 😀

eBay add deserves an Oscar it's better acting than one of the Baldwins.

Trows, Beotch!

This is getting even sillier. Ironically I actually need some new jeans/trousers. Can someone advise on what I should buy? It's an ethical minefield and I don't want to be either on the wrong side of the STW lynch mob, or spat at the next time I go for a pint in the Old Gate.

Craghoppers from TK Maxx.

Buy from Spencers at Friendly.
That way, you will remain neutral.

Daz, there's a guy in Devon banging out pairs made by Eastern Europeans doing them from home on piece work.

Are you out on Monday? I'll tell you some stuff that isn't on here.

Oh great. Now Cougar is plugging his mates at TK Maxx.

No shame. 😡

Oh great. Now Cougar is plugging his mates at TK Maxx.

No shame.

You can go right off some people.

(-:

Are you out on Monday? I'll tell you some stuff that isn't on here.

Well I can't possibly miss it now can I?

Genius recruiting strategy BTW, could be a good turnout on Monday 🙂

Are you out on Monday? I'll tell you some stuff that isn't on here.

That's what this thread was missing. People alluding to top secret information.

I heard the last copy of STW includes hidden messages that lead you to the only pair of HebTroCo made from gold cloth, woven by Nora in the only remaining hand spinning wheel in use in Yorkshire.

scotroutes - Member
Ouch!

Which naturally lead to the question who do you intend to buy from for your next pair of jeans trousers? 😮

who do you intend to buy from for your next pair of jeans trousers?

ASDA.

Cougar - Moderator

who do you intend to buy from for your next pair of jeans trousers?

ASDA.

it's better acting than one of the Baldwins.

[IMG] [/IMG]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Mike Baldwin became chiefly known for his ruthlessness in business and his string of ruined relationships.

[img] [/img]

Actually the more you look at baldwin the more you see life imitating art.

Started out in jeans manufacture then later on he turned handbags.

[img] [/img]

Somewhere in the middle he got into ladies underwear.

Makes you think.

Is he the guy from EastEnders?