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Horween USA and Aero Leather Joint Statement

cloudylemonade

A-List Customer
Messages
405
Location
Glasgow
Statement by Skip Horween (President, Horween, USA) and Ken Calder (Chairman of Aero Leather Clothing Ltd (“Aero Leather”).

It has been brought to our attention that Will Lauder (former MD of Aero Leather) has been responsible for the mis-selling by Aero Leather of Aero Leather jackets, cut from Horween’s heavy 4oz Chrome Excell Tanned Steerhide.

These have been labelled and sold as Front Quarter Horsehide. This constitutes a serious misrepresentation with which neither Horween nor Aero Leather wish to be associated.

In the past two days Aero Leather have had two jackets returned to the factory for exchange by customers unaware of the mis-labelling. Both jackets were Steerhide jackets which appear to have been intentionally mis-sold as Horsehide. Each had an Aero Leather Horsehide label.


Both Horween & Aero Leather regard this mis-selling as extremely serious. As our loyal and valued customers are aware, customer satisfaction and the authenticity of our products are our paramount considerations.

If any customers have purchased from Aero Leather any very heavy “Horsehide” jackets in the past 12 months, and are in any doubt about the authenticity of the leather in regard to the labelling used in the product they have received, those customers should email holly@aeroleatherclothing.com. Aero Leather will be happy to inspect the product and confirm what the leather is, and, in appropriate circumstances, offer a replacement jacket.

Please note, this only applies to the very heavy 4 oz Aero Leather jackets made during Will Lauder’s term as MD.

Aero Leather regret that, against the background of an ongoing criminal investigation in respect of the conduct of Will Lauder, in his capacity as MD of Aero Leather, and current civil proceedings by the company against Will Lauder in the Court of Session, Edinburgh, Will Lauder is no longer associated with Aero Leather nor Horween.
 

Cooperson

One Too Many
Messages
1,165
Location
Midlands UK
Good grief! Looks like things are getting very serious, "ongoing criminal investigation". I'm shocked!
 
Last edited:

cloudylemonade

A-List Customer
Messages
405
Location
Glasgow
As are we Cooperson, and totally appalled. Many companies I'm sure wouldn't come forward about this, but we've always taken an honest stance on whatever is happening. We will always tell the truth.
 

oneterrifichog

Practically Family
Messages
876
Location
Alexandria, Va
Hopefully next year will have less surprises. I think you folks have had enough craziness for awhile.

Thank you for your continued decency in such an insane set of situations this year. I for one appreciate your honesty and can not say enough about your craftsmen and customer service people.

Wilbur
 

mattp

One of the Regulars
Messages
161
Location
Australia
Wow, that is big! I'll send you an email about my FQHH cafe racer that I bought in July...

I remember at the time I was told Will had a special 'super duper' thick batch of brown FQHH, which sounds ominous in retrospect.
 

cloudylemonade

A-List Customer
Messages
405
Location
Glasgow
Wow, that is big! I'll send you an email about my FQHH cafe racer that I bought in July...

I remember at the time I was told Will had a special 'super duper' thick batch of brown FQHH, which sounds ominous in retrospect.

Please do Matt, it does sound suspect.

As I've been telling customers since I've taken over Amandas role dealing with customer orders there is no such thing as horsehide heavier than the 3oz Horween horse we sell as standard FQHH. Tho, way back in 1986-88 there was the odd batch of particularly heavy horse, but as Arnold Missner (the then president of Horween) explained that some of that horse that was in store was from old working cart horses, which is why it was so heavy, but its been WELL over 20 years since we've seen any of that and it had probably been sitting in store at Horween for 20 years at that point!
 

jlanderson

One of the Regulars
Messages
245
Location
Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.A.
Hopefully next year will have less surprises. I think you folks have had enough craziness for awhile.

Thank you for your continued decency in such an insane set of situations this year. I for one appreciate your honesty and can not say enough about your craftsmen and customer service people.

Wilbur

Ditto, Wilbur.

Holly, her dad and Aero have held their heads high through adversity and been honorable from day one. And I'll repay them with my loyalty.
 

jimmer_5

Practically Family
Messages
668
Location
Oregon
I have no dog (or horse) in this fight, but I just want to thank Holly for coming out and being so upfront about this. It's not easy to do the right thing, and I see Aero doing an awful lot of this in that last year or so. It's great to see this kind of support for the customers.

It was always my understanding that it was hard to tell Horween's horsehide from the heavy steerhide - how do you tell them apart? I see some subtle differences in the grain, but that's about all I know about distinguishing between horse and steer.
 

Fanch

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,490
Location
Texas
Ditto, Wilbur.

Holly, her dad and Aero have held their heads high through adversity and been honorable from day one. And I'll repay them with my loyalty.

Also ditto what jlanderson and my old friend, Wilbur, had to say. Full transparency is always best, and I also fully support Aero. Everything that preceded this is now beginning to make sense.
 

cloudylemonade

A-List Customer
Messages
405
Location
Glasgow
I have no dog (or horse) in this fight, but I just want to thank Holly for coming out and being so upfront about this. It's not easy to do the right thing, and I see Aero doing an awful lot of this in that last year or so. It's great to see this kind of support for the customers.

It was always my understanding that it was hard to tell Horween's horsehide from the heavy steerhide - how do you tell them apart? I see some subtle differences in the grain, but that's about all I know about distinguishing between horse and steer.

Thank you Jimmer, you're nothing without being honest in our opinion.

The cutter would know the difference instantly as a FQHH skin is around 10sqft as standard whereas a steerhide skin is around 23sqft. Jonny Minto (who has left Aero - to be replaced by a superior former Aero cutter who declined to work with Will) worked for Aero for 23 years, and it is impossible for him not to have known the difference.

Once cut, subtle differences in grain and weight is the only way to tell them apart without an extensive knowledge of leather.
 

saucerfiend

Practically Family
Messages
618
Location
Somerset, NJ
Thank you Jimmer, you're nothing without being honest in our opinion.

The cutter would know the difference instantly as a FQHH skin is around 10sqft as standard whereas a steerhide skin is around 23sqft. Jonny Minto (who has left Aero - to be replaced by a superior former Aero cutter who declined to work with Will) worked for Aero for 23 years, and it is impossible for him not to have known the difference.

Once cut, subtle differences in grain and weight is the only way to tell them apart without an extensive knowledge of leather.


So, would you be able to tell from pics or would I have to send my Highwayman to handle it?

Brian
 
D

Deleted member 16736

Guest
How can horsehide not be heavier than 4 oz.? Aero's claim to fame has been heavy 4 oz.+ fqhh. Going back at least several years, it was always sold as 4 oz.+ leather. I bought my jacket three years ago. Is it covered by the alleged fraud?
 

cloudylemonade

A-List Customer
Messages
405
Location
Glasgow
How can horsehide not be heavier than 4 oz.? Aero's claim to fame has been heavy 4 oz.+ fqhh. Going back at least several years, it was always sold as 4 oz.+ leather. I bought my jacket three years ago. Is it covered by the alleged fraud?

3oz is heavy horsehide, and this is the 'heavy horsehide' we've always sold and no one had every wanted anything else. Before Will had taken over, there was never any advertisement of 4oz horsehide, and I've personally never seen him advertising it as this although he's clearly been pushing super heavy horsehide that doesn't exist.

There is no alleged about it Joel.

We've always had, and kept heavy steer, but its only in the last year that we've been aware of there being bigger stocks of this leather than the tiniest stock we used to have. But even then we were completely unaware of the volumes there was, and certainly not what Will was selling it as.
 

cuthbert

One of the Regulars
Messages
224
Location
VR
3oz is heavy horsehide, and this is the 'heavy horsehide' we've always sold and no one had every wanted anything else. Before Will had taken over, there was never any advertisement of 4oz horsehide, and I've personally never seen him advertising it as this although he's clearly been pushing super heavy horsehide that doesn't exist.
.

..therefore any jacket sold as 4 oz. horse is in reality steer?
 

cuthbert

One of the Regulars
Messages
224
Location
VR
That's pretty much the crux of it yes. Unless he's told you that its 4oz and in reality it's 3oz.

Mmm... I also have horsehide jackets of other manufacturers, and some of them are almost as heavy as my Happy Days, but there were advertised as horse...

Oh, there's one of your competitors who boast 4++ horsehide...
 

cuthbert

One of the Regulars
Messages
224
Location
VR
Well, thats not for me to comment on, but Horween and any other tanner of horsehide we've ever known has never been able to make more than 3oz Horsehide.

This is going to be an interesting statement for a lot of people on this board...
 

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