New prototype coat, sample gloves, and a sample hat!

Final Prototype!

White leather gloves! What's this? A hat?

There's a sense of expectation in the air at AbbyShot... The designers are charged with a subtle undercurrent of excitement, the sewers are eager to see the results of every sewing project, and Adam is practically everywhere, snapping photos of new developments! We've reached that penultimate moment before launch when we're so close to the product release that everyone can almost feel it!

The Alucard design is so near completion that there's really only a few last minute details to determine. We have a "Version One" of the Alucard hat made and we expect to have the final version ready any day now. Even the prototype gloves have arrived from our glovier friends and they're looking really great! Let us know what you think of all these new developments. What can we say? Another product will soon be here! How much? Just when it will be available? Well, if I told you that... :-)

Making ourselves more accessible to you!

Live chat is now on our web site!

We continually receive compliments from our customers about the quality of our customer service. We're not ones to boast, yet it is a fact that we deliberately go above and beyond the ordinary to provide exceptional service for our customers. We feel that this is an important part of why our customers keep coming back to us. However, excellent service isn't a fixed goal, and we're always looking for ways to "raise the bar" and surpass even our previous accomplishments.

So in the spirit of constant improvement, we are now venturing into providing live chat support on our web site. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to contact us when you have questions. This is being debuted on a trial basis for now, however if we deem that it is a positive thing for our customers then it will become a permanent feature of our site. If you have questions or comments, then let us know. We'll do our best to develop this new customer service method into a helpful tool for you when you visit our site.

Revised pattern undergoes testing!

We've studied our first sample from last month and have made several revisions and improvements to make it even more screen accurate. The next stop: making a final version in the actual suede! We're getting VERY close to release time, which is making everyone around here extremely excited! The production sewers are eagerly looking forward to working on a new garment design. We're all like a bunch of six year olds on Christmas Eve whenever a new product is about ready to go out the door! :-)

Take a closer look!

The vest that the character Zoe wears in "Firefly" has received some interest as well. We're not sure if there's enough interest to justify developing it though. So, we're throwing it out to the Firefly/Browncoat/Serenity fan community. Do you like this? Do you think that AbbyShot should develop this into a new product? Contact us with your opinion!

The vest of request!

Actual movie prop, NOT an AbbyShot prototype.

There is simply no other garment accessory that is more highly requested! This is a picture of Blade's vest from the first BLADE movie. This is one of several different vest designs that the Blade character has worn throughout the past three BLADE movies and it is the one that the most people have asked us for. There are a lot of custom features in this vest: custom pockets, straps, loop holders, and padded panels. In many ways this would be as complicated to produce as an entire trenchcoat is. All the same, we are currently STRONGLY considering producing this garment. If you are seriously interested in seeing us develop this item, please contact us to show your support!

The Kingdom Hoodie is back and better than ever!

We have been receiving a lot of positive feedback on our Kingdom Hoodies. Everyone it seems is raving about them. We're quite pleased with them as they are quickly becoming one of our more popular items. We'd love to print everyone's comments here, but there's a limit to how big we want this newsletter to get! :-) One early customer feedback we received was from AbbyShot forum regular Blight The Dark Maelstrom. He wrote a full report on his findings with his Kingdom Hoodie and we are pleased to include it here with our comments.

Blight wrote:

I've kept a lid on this for too long. Today I received the greatest thing since my Enigma: My Kingdom Hoodie. Here's my 2 cents: The new fleece is amazing on its own, and compared to the old stuff it's like god send. The mesh pockets are nice, a bit far back for my short arms but still quite comfy. The new beads are shinier and held together by an expansive cord now, so that eliminates the possibility of it breaking. The one way zipper is okay, however a double might be cooler. The thumb slits are awesome. Nuff said on that. It's warm, fits like a glove and I'm glad I have it for those less rainy days. AbbyShot's Design Team Response: I gathered the Design Team, showed them the Field Report, and compiled their feedback. Here's what they said: Overall, thank you very much for the comments (the pro and the con) they were very helpful Pros: The warmth of fleece is one of it's primary reasons for existing and was the original fabric preference all along. We are also very pleased with the new fabric supply and your comment on how much better it is over the old one is typical of a lot of the customer feedback we've been getting. The wind blocking properties however is mildly surprising as we didn't deliberately design the Kingdom Hoodie to be wind resistant. Consider this a free bonus feature! :-) The mesh was intentionally chosen for that very reason you stated, glad you like it. The new necklace cord was chosen as we felt that it would be an improvement over the original wire we were using. Thanks for noticing! The hood was indeed 'inspired by' the Oblivion hood from the Enigma... ;-) Cons: There is an inherent limitation to the pockets in this design that is caused by it's zipper placement and the lack of length. There is just no physical room to make the pockets bigger, unless we made the opening drastically higher, at which point they would be quite difficult to get into... You've simply reached your M.P.C (Maximum Pocket Capacity)! ;-) The problem you mention with your thumb holes should not be happening. We made many Hoodies, all using the same method. Please send us a picture of what your cuffs look like so we can see what went wrong. We're keenly interested in fixing this if need be. Blight's Field Report: Pros: It was surprisingly warm throughout the time I wore it. I knew fleece was supposed to be warm but, man, did it wow me. Thankfully if it did get too hot the zipper easily relieves any excess heat. Quite good. Wind was blocked completely. Except when I put my hands in my pocket, that action just circulated some wind in but it was refreshing. The mesh lined hood was also a plus. It kept most of the hot air in while allowing some circulation. Same goes for the pockets. As I stated earlier the new beads and wire are a great improvement. The hood is a good size and fits more of the hoodie feel. (Was it based on the oblivion hood?) Nice long draw strings. I don't plan on pulling a Kenny but it's nice to see them there. (Just look out for there pendulum motion, it may hit you in the face ^_-) Cons (I know it didn't seem possible): The pockets are a bit small, mainly just designed to keep your hands in them. Care must be taken when using the thumb holes; my left hole is slightly higher than my right so the stitching is looking to be coming a bit loose. That's all I have for now.

Individuals wanting free samples of the new fleece can contact us and we'll happily send them out.

New Fabrics Being Tested!

Black, black & black. All with subtly different content and properties! :-)

By now it should come as no great surprise to our regular fans that we've been receiving a "few" suggestions for a Malice Mizer trench. Now, while it's really too early to justify a Coming Soon page, we do feel confident in announcing that after our current Coming Soon designs are completed, that one of the next designs to go into development will be the Malice Mizer. Already, we've sourced and have received three different yardages of medium weight fabrics that we think are suitable to choose from for this design. Once we have a pattern designed for this, we will test out the fabrics and see which one will best work for a Malice Mizer trench. Once we have more definite news beyond simply stating our intentions, we will be putting up a Malice Miser Coming Soon page for this project.

The US Dollar value rises and AbbyShot prices fall!

Aside from an anomalous spike in February, the USD has been fairly consistent since December 2004.

As planned, we have revaluated the US dollar for our web site. We've learned a lot about the fluctuations of international currency exchange rates over time. Some of our products have changed in price by a large margin, while others have only changed a small amount. This is due in part to us having refined our manufacturing processes for some designs as well as revaluing the US dollar, so in those cases you're seeing the effects of two changes in one. Our next scheduled update is due to occur in June, and from what we've been learning, neither the Canadian nor the US dollar is expected to alter noticeably for the next six months or more, so we're predicting minimal changes if any in June.

Which ones have changed the most this time? Well, the most dramatic changes were in the Leather Stampede Duster, Leather Cleric Custom, Leather Sunstalker Trench, and the Divinity Reloaded, although nearly every product has changed in price to some degree. Check out our product lineup and see the new prices! There's never been a better time to buy an AbbyShot!

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