Brigade Gun Leather feedback...

[cef]

thanks for sharing @rockymax great looking holster...great craftsmanship and nice photograph.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[highvoltage]

17 may 2011 - 30 march 2012 !!

Ed,

He is trying to catch up. Not an excuse, just a possible reason for your delay.

[rockymax]

thanks for sharing @rockymax great looking holster...great craftsmanship and nice photograph.

You are very welcome and thanks!

[TxRhino]

I came across this thread while searching for reviews on Brigade. They appear to make a fine quality product but wanted to get some customer reviews, and man did I find some. After reading through this thread I have a few comments to add as someone who has not purchased from them but is a business owner.

As redbeard said, almost all artists are horrible at running their own business. I have never once met a good tattoo artist that is good at communicating with you about appointments or what you want. Its not the artist fault its just the way they are wired I think, and part of it is because they cant really increase their supply without hurting the product quality. Relating back to tattoo's, most good artist will have ATLEAST a 9 month waiting period, some as high as 2 years, so it is not surprising that a company like Brigade has a 9-18month lead time.

That being said, Brigade will never be able to grow his business with that kind of lead time. I know nothing about leather work but I am guessing there are certain steps with each holster than can be done by someone that is less experienced than troy. This could help speed up production without hurting the product. Another idea would be to hire and train a college kid, friend, girlfriend, wife, etc to return phone calls and emails for the company. Im sure Troy will still have to attend to some issues himself but this could cut down on his phone and web time by more than half.

As I mentioned before I was wanting reviews on Brigade because their products look amazing, and after reading the thread I would say Troy sounds like a great guy and I would not think twice about giving him some of my hard earned money for a fine holster, BUT at this time I am not so in love with one gun that I want to wait 12 months for the holster. By then I may have a new guy that I would prefer to carry.

[ScoutKansas]

I want to return to the thread to report that I recieved my M-11 today and I love it! It is everything that Troy promised on the website. I have been wearing it around the house this afternoon and it is indeed quite comfortable and works to conceal my S&W 5904 very very well. I am one very happy customer now. It would have been best that I would have known that I was going to have such a long wait up front but in the end I got a superior product and now the frustration is melted away.
I had the opportunity to meet Troy out of all this and found him to be the fine person I had always thought he was. I now highly recommend his work and can atest that his quality of build is superb. Too bad he has such a backlog! Good for him though! I will indeed do more business with him. Thanks Troy!

I am still waiting for my order that is now 9 months old. When I ordered he told me it would be "a bit less than six months". I read all the posts here about their experiences and read his responses. I see the fellow that waited three years finally got his. All this made me realize that my wait is going to be longer. I bought my first holster from him in about 2004 and only waited eight weeks. It's a nice holster and well made. So I ordered again last august.
I have spoken to him by phone a couple times and at one point he said it was "in the shop".
I have to say I am disappointed with this long wait and his stating on his web site and on the phone that my wait time would be six months and clearly this was deceptive. There is no other way to understand that.
I don't understand that kind of way of doing things but I do expect to receive a really nice holster at some point but I WON"T wait three years for anyone. I think Troy is a good guy but he needs to change his ways. I hope he does. I would love to do more business with him. I had intended to order another after I had a chance to use the new M-11, for another pistol. No way now.
I think he is trying to do too much. He added gunsmithing services in the last year or so. How can he possibly think this is realistic with his backlog?!
So Troy, please get it together. I await your holster. I am sure it will be wonderful. I can't wait to tell folks how good it is.

[BrigadeGunLeather]

17 may 2011 - 30 march 2012 !!

Ed, I noticed that you never posted the story of what happened after you recieved the holster in the wrong color. In my haste I made you the holster and pouch and then when you told me about it I offered the following to you:

Because of my haste in getting it shipped the first time and for the trouble you of course can absolutely keep both holsters and mag pouches. Kinda like buy one holster and mag pouch and get the second set free.

I know that folks mostly just focus on the negative howerver, in this case as always I go above and beyond to satisfy customers. I sent him a whole new order (the correct color) within a week of the first one that I sent him. I told him to keep both and not to ship it back, this way he would have a black set and brown set. I also offered him 10% off on any future order.... to which he promptly place an order for a belt. I worked on Sundays to get it done earlier than normal and that belt will be delivered today 9410803699300031321855 www.usps.com.

So just to clarify.... after making the wrong color of holster and belt, he got to keep that and I shipped him a new correct one. That's one free holster and pouch and then an expedited 10% off belt.


Ed, let me know how that belt works out for you as well and I am glad you returned to place a second order with me.
Thanks for taking the time to read


Sincerely,
-Troy Harp

----------Address----------
Brigade GunLeather
33301 Osawatomie Rd.
Osawatomie, KS 66064
Toll free 1-888-600-2377
Fax 913-755-3041
www.brigadegunleather.com
forummember@brigadegunleather.com

[BrigadeGunLeather]

Gary (ScoutKansas)

I spent an hour responding to your post and I will cut and paste it here for you. Your order is almost ready to ship. You will receive an email shortly.

Gary, I received an email from a forum member and long time customer about this post.
I want to set the record straight about a few things...

Number 1:
I am doing my absolute best to get as many holsters done as quickly as possible. I get overwhelmed with orders and phone calls and emails and it does slow me down. I have tried hiring people throughout the years to help with that and without fail every customer who was checking the status of his order wanted to speak to me personally, so hiring someone to give useful information and details about leather work just didn't help that much. After 17 years now... believe me I have tried it all. I begin the day at 0730 and don't actually touch leather until around 11-12 most days because of floods of emails and calls and posts about status. I realize I am loosing 3-4 hours of work per day but I am literally doing my best. I don't leave the shop till 10:30pm 7:30-10:30 7days a week for 17 years... I am doing my best guys I promise you.

Number 2:
I beg your forgiveness, I am often on the phone while others are tying to get through and then I can't work because I have to try and return those calls. again I beg for your patience, I am very stressed, and I rarely sleep well knowing I am hated by so many people while they wait for their order. It is a terrible feeling inside laying there at night knowing that no matter how hard you work and try to get stuff done you will wake up to more angry people talking about you. Believe me after 17 years it is hard to deal and wears on you feeling like everyday you have to defend your reputation, again I beg your forgiveness with the slow work of holster making.

Number 3:
I am a one man shop trying to survive and get as much done as I can. I am always trying to play catch up, I beg your forgiveness. In the last 16-17 years I have had literally over 12,000 customers (roughly 2day) and it seems as though say around 100-200 or so customers have been really upset with me, for that I am truly sorry. I often imagine how it would feel to hear all the good feedback from well over 11,500 satisfied customers. I realize it is just the way this business works, like a credit score, you do your best and perform 98% of the time and then a few get by you and you suddenly become garbage. I wish the over 11,000 customers could post their experience.

Number 4:
I will not minimize the wait times. They are long. I never put someone ahead of others. I actually quote different wait times for different items, example a belt has a shorter wait time, a hand carved western gun belt and holster has a much longer wait time, an IWB holster has a regular wait time.

Number 5:
My order wait time quotes are becoming too difficult for me to predict with any accuracy. The reason is that more and more I am noticing that folks are not ordering 1 or 2 items but often I have orders that have 8 or 9 items on the one order. Again, I will try and come up with a better solution for predicting wait times.

Number 6:
Gary (KansasScout) I did not just start up 1911 pistolsmithing recently. I began that 8-9 years ago when business was much slower. I don't build but 5 guns a year. That is only on Sundays anyways which doesn't affect my mon-sat holster work.

Sincerely yours,
-Troy Harp

[ScoutKansas]

Thanks Troy
I look forward to getting it soon. I will give a review of my new holster which I do expect to be wonderful in every way. I never doubted that it would be anything less. It's why I ordered from you again. I don't intend to just slam you here. You will get credit where credit is due.

[multistage]

I do a ton of leatherwork. Mostly rodeo chaps, chinks, belts, anything I get to tool. Had the best teachers there are: Clinton Fay, Chester Hape, Don Butler, Sterling Lamb. Was even lucky enough to get Don King for an afternoon. And I have built a lot of holsters. And they can be a nightmare. It better be perfect. I said to heck with them. Let the holster only guys have 'em. Folks have asked me why a leather guy like me has stuff that says Sparks, Alessi, TT Gunleather, Ritchie. I tell them I am not a masochist, and therefore do not build holsters, although I do run a few of my own.

Any one man holster shop has my respect. And sympathy.

[ScoutKansas]

Rockymax
I believe you. I know my holster will be very nice. I already have one of his holsters from 03 or 04. I also think he is a nice guy. I wish him the best and hope he pulls out of this so I can order another sometime. I plan on telling folks about mine and posting pictures. With this kind of backlog he needs to find a good apprentice.

[vincedac]

Troy, i emailed you and have not heard back so i wanted to make sure you received my order cancelation. It was for the pocket holster for BG380 for D'Acchioli--
--please confirm you recieved this.

-Vince
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Yes, I receive the cancellation. I did email you back. The holster was shipped anyway, free of charge. I apologize for not getting it shipped when I thought it would go out. However, at least you will be recieving a FREE HOLSTER anyway, Thanks.

-Troy Harp

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UPDATED

Just received my new pocket holster for my Bodyguard 380 from Troy. I have been around this stuff for a long time and I cannot believe the quality and workmanship coming from his shop. Had a tough time gettiging the holster because he was so backed up. Troy went way over the top in taking care of me a making up for the delay. Amazing attention to detail both with the product and customer service. Cannot say enough about Brigade.

[BrigadeGunLeather]

Be advised, there may be lots of rumors swirling around out there.... I am here to set the story straight.

I have had back orders for 17 years now that vary from 4 months to years.
Back orders vary from order to order because I quote different wait times. For example a regular dress belt has a much shorter wait time than a holster does. A wait time for a full custom carved or tooled western gun rig has wait times that are in the years. IWB holster or CCW holsters are often between 6 months to 12 months.

With that said here is why I struggle to pin down precise wait times.... There has been a trend in the last year or more where I am noticing each customer is ordering more than one item. It use to be that folks would order 1 or 2 items so I could manage wait times more accurately. However, more recently when I print off some orders I notice that more and more folks are ordering 4-6 items. Obviously, that is roughly 3x more actual leather work per order. Obviously, I am aware of that and am doing several things about it. Read below.

1. I have hired someone to do the shipping and billing and a few misc other things.

2. I have set up a brand new number for forum members only 913-755-9517 to reach me on since my toll free number is so often busy.

3. I am currently not accepting any new orders until I get the wait times down ( I have done this many times over the last 17 years) to a much more manageable level.

4. I will continue to work tirelessly to keep and earn your business, I am working non stop to clear up my back log and the changes that I have made will allow that to happen much faster.

5. I am looking for a forum member or two, to help me out with managing the customers here. If you post quite often and are on the forums often please email me at forummember@brigadegunleather.com and I will compensate you. We can discuss the details. I have been in contact with JD and am awaiting his response, I am hoping he will be able to help as well.

6. Thanks for reading and I absolutely promise you I am doing my best and working my hardest to full fill as many orders as quickly as possible and with some of the changes that will happen.

[cef]

I have now canceled my order with Brigade. I would like to own a holster crafted by Troy, but I will wait and see how things play out.

----------------------------------

Check your pm, cef....

[BrigadeGunLeather]

Hello, guys! I have been working like crazy to get orders done and have shipped quite a few this week including several folks on this forum. I am going to attach several recent gun holsters that have recently shipped. As well as show some leather working to show you why I am slow at getting my leather done. Although it is true I will never win awards for quick work but I would rather be know for quality work. Anyway, here goes a few photos.

-Troy Harp

[BrigadeGunLeather]

Hello, guys! I have been working like crazy to get orders done and have shipped quite a few this week including several folks on this forum. I am going to attach several recent gun holsters that have recently shipped. As well as show some leather working to show you why I am slow at getting my leather done. Although it is true I will never win awards for quick work but I would rather be know for quality work. Anyway, here goes a few photos.

-Troy Harp





























I am currently working on 17 gun holsters from folks from this forum. Please email me at forummember@brigadegunleather.com if you are awaiting your leather holster. I will get it printed and in my shop right away. I won't know to get yours printed if you don't email me, thanks a lot for your patience.