Flight Wear by Society Brand Hat Co.

[foster]

Leather patches like mine originated in India. Perhaps I will change my company name to Paramjeet Aruni ( Highest Success pupil ) the leather patch maker, and say my patches are as good as the WW2 Indian patch maker Acharya Aahwaanith ( Teacher, One who has been ) Think it'll increase sales?

I think it would decrease sales...

If you must go for the foreign influence, go Japanese. That way, you can offer ultimate replica to give peace of mind and the improvement of life with style of fashion. And we will believe you, because it is true.

 

[Ian C]

A lot of cap comforters favoured by the Commandos were made in India, as was a lot of British kit in WWII apparently.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Leather patches like mine originated in India. Perhaps I will change my company name to Paramjeet Aruni ( Highest Success pupil ) the leather patch maker, and say my patches are as good as the WW2 Indian patch maker Acharya Aahwaanith ( Teacher, One who has been ) Think it'll increase sales?

I think it would decrease sales...

If you must go for the foreign influence, go Japanese. That way, you can offer ultimate replica to give peace of mind and the improvement of life with style of fashion. And we will believe you, because it is true.

Domo arigato, you can now call me Hodo yoku

 

[1942wannabe]

Hello All,

I believe I am the offending individual most of the colorful comments have been directed at. I am the owner of Society Brand Hat Co. Let me first say that we are not the original Society Brand Hat Co., but that we certainly did not steal the name. Society Brand has a long and storied history here in my hometown of St. Louis, producing caps as far back as WWI (under the name of General Cap Co. at the time) all the way up through the Vietnam War. At its peak Society Brand employed several hundred St. Louisans. Unfortunately, like so many great American companies, they folded, due to many reasons, mostly the decline of the hat and from competition overseas. We had an opportunity to bring back the name, and are proud to once again be making military caps here in St. Louis that bear the Society Brand name.

Our goal is to make quality, affordable products, and it is not our intention to offend or upset anyone. Dave, you make great caps. And yes, we know the difference between a cap and a hat (a cap has a visor) but we will eventually be selling hats in addition to caps, which is why it's www.wwiihats.com (www.wwiiheadwear.com is too long). If you look closely we always refer to caps as caps. But back to your products, they are wonderful. I apologize that we have caused you to feel we have stolen content from your website. When I first paid to have the website built, I will be the first to admit the designer very closely imitated your site. Since then, he is out, and I have tried very hard to ensure our website looks as different as possible. If I have failed, please accept my apology. There are only so many creative things you can do with a cap, if you know what I mean. Sometime this year the whole site is getting a complete overhaul, so we will do our darndest to make certain it looks even more varied.

As for the Eastman comment, please accept my sincere apology if we have offended you. I thought ELC was still selling Lancaster made caps, and since Lancaster recently closed its doors, I didn't realize we were going to offend anyone. I have altered the Eastman comment. Do I think our caps are just as good in quality? Of course. If a business owner doesn't feel he is providing a quality product, he's in the wrong business. But as I said before, our business is selling great products at an affordable price, not upsetting anyone, so the comment on the website has been changed and I am truly sorry.

Also, the blue combat patches: they are quality, thick wool, not the $0.95 craft felt from Wal-Mart. Just thought I'd clear the air.

If there is anything else that is considered offensive and/or plagiarizing on my website, please let me know and I will happily consider altering/deleting it.

Best regards to all,

Pete

 

[Monsoon]

Pete:

Thanks for all the info. I came across your site when I was surfing over at atthefront.com. I found it on a link page of a link page (you know how that goes).

I thought that the members here might enjoy checking your products out (the "pink" shade hat with the OD7 band really caught my eye, as I said before).

Didn't think I was gonna cause a shitestorm over it all; I don't think anyones feathers got too badly ruffled over it (and I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency).

 

[1942wannabe]

Pete:

Thanks for all the info. I came across your site when I was surfing over at atthefront.com. I found it on a link page of a link page (you know how that goes).

I thought that the members here might enjoy checking your products out (the "pink" shade hat with the OD7 band really caught my eye, as I said before).

Didn't think I was gonna cause a shitestorm over it all; I don't think anyones feathers got too badly ruffled over it (and I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency).

Thanks for the kind words. I definitely do not want to ruffle feathers. If someone feels I have done them wrong, I'll do my best to right the situation. Like my granddaddy always used to say, "If we can't get along, it's not because I didn't try."

Also, I forgot to respond to something which was mentioned earlier: yes, the first caps we made didnt have the semi-circular tabs on the slide keepers for the chinstraps. We actually have an original cap in our collection which has an original chinstrap made the same way. The tabs aren't missing because the leather tore; the tabs were never there. I thought it was kind of neat, I had the original to back it up, and it was super quick to produce (I also saw another cap at Show of Shows with the exact same kind of chinstrap; I believe it was made by Imperial if I remember correctly) so I made a decision to make the first ones the same way. Well, we received so much feedback asking for the tabs on the slide keepers, that all of our caps now have the tabs, like the vast majority of originals. Unfortunately I just haven't had the time to update the pics on the website. I'll make sure to correct the pics when I have the site revamped later this year.

 

[leper-colony]

Welcome Pete!

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Welcome and thanks for explaining. Guess consumers taking things at face value when advertising a product is just par for the course. Anyway, how about a crusher stuffed through the epaulette? or just crushed in a fist. I'm sure the blue patches are great but in need of another creative photo to do them justice. I read somewhere that they were to be stitched on so non combat aircrew couldn't play wannabe. Hopefully a fresh approach will bring about some new ideas.

 

[Steve27752]

Hi Pete,
Welcome to VLJ. It is nice to have a manufacturer here, who can make something that the majority can afford.
Now you are here, why not post regular updates on your products?
One thing that is off putting about buying from the U.S. is the very high shipping costs. If you can sort that then you may get more sales here.

 

[dmar836]

Welcome to the forum, Pete. Please do not associate our earlier dialog with that of Diamond Dave - the master!
Great to have more info and another artist here IMO.
Dave
Kansas City

 

[DiamondDave]

Welcome to the forum, Pete. Please do not associate our earlier dialog with that of Diamond Dave - the master!
Great to have more info and another artist here IMO.
Dave
Kansas City

Dmar... Nice Jab! I do not consider myself a master of anything, but will take that as a compliment, even if that was not its intention. I know that my products have met with mild success in the industry, just as I am sure that Pete's products will. There is a cap for every head, if you will.

DD


Pete,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for your honest and forthright post. NO, my feathers were not all that ruffled, and I wish you all the success! I look forward to seeing more products, and I am glad to see that someone is trying to bring back another vaunted name of yesteryear.

 

[Silver Surfer]

welcome to the abusement park, pete.

 

[1942wannabe]

Thanks everyone for the welcome to the forum.

Dave, I appreciate the kind words. As I mentioned earlier, if there is anything on my site you would like to see altered, please don't hesitate to let me know.

- Pete

 

[1942wannabe]

I'm sure the blue patches are great but in need of another creative photo to do them justice. I read somewhere that they were to be stitched on so non combat aircrew couldn't play wannabe. Hopefully a fresh approach will bring about some new ideas.

Yes, apparently the blue patches were authorized in '43 because so many GI's were pinning wings to their tunics when on leave to impress the British gals. I suppose Jimmy Stewart was correct in the classic 1942 training film "Winning Your Wings"... The wings just made it easier to pick up the girls (yes, it's really in the training film).

Anyway, I know my pic is atrocious. Eventually when I have time I'm going to have a comparison pic of an original tunic I own with original blue combat patch with one of my repops sewn to a tunic. Unfortunately free time is something I am lacking these days.

 

[dmar836]

Diamond Dave, I meant no disrespect. Since Pete and I had emailed a few months ago off forum, I didn't want him to think in any way that he had been speaking to you. I have never shown anything but respect for the work any of you guys do. Not sure why my words were seen as negative but I am sorry if I was vague.
Dave
Kansas City

 

[1942wannabe]

KC Dave,

Yes, I knew I wasn't emailing Diamond Dave a few months back. I understand what you mean though, there are several individuals named Dave on this forum and I can see how it would be easy to get them mixed up!

Pete

 

[DiamondDave]

Diamond Dave, I meant no disrespect. Since Pete and I had emailed a few months ago off forum, I didn't want him to think in any way that he had been speaking to you. I have never shown anything but respect for the work any of you guys do. Not sure why my words were seen as negative but I am sorry if I was vague.
Dave
Kansas City

Dave,

Sorry, I thought you were disassociating yourself with my comments earlier in the thread. Didn't realize there had been Email missives betwixt you and Pete, when I read your reference. Lol. No harm no foul.

 

[Phantomfixer]

I ordered a NCO cap from WWIIhat..a cross between a standard em cap and their officers crusher cap should be 6 weeks out....I opted for the green gaberdine wool with the flighter style visor, and a style of the officers crusher only no mohair, just gaberdine....put a rear chin strap on and bingo....looking forward to it...

 

[Phantomfixer]

just an update...according to Pete,,EM crusher should be shipped this week....

 

[SocietyBrandHatCo]

Hello everyone, I know there was some frustration expressed with our previous website resembling other websites. Our new site is up and running. Feel free to visit and offer feedback:

www.wwiiflightwear.com