Technical clothing tailor....

http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/

The woman who runs this, Penny, was great to work with on my North Face FreeThinker shell. I bought it, and realized after doing so that it is an unbelievable shell.....with one glaring design flaw. The hood does not detach or self hide in a zipped compartment or fold up and snap in place. Plus, it doesn't fit over a helmet.

I had all kinds of crazy thoughts about cutting it off and this and that, as I hated it flapping about back there....then I went to The North Face site and burrowing through a bit found her referenced as an outside vendor for custom tailoring in technical clothing. She can work on any brand.

So I sent her the jacket and she:

1) cut off the hood, and made it mount with a zipper.

2) built a new hood out of Gore XCR and sized it for helmet clearance. It zips onto the same zipper side attached to the shell neck that the small hood zips to.

So, now I get to use the jacket for hiking or skiing with no hood, with the small hood attached for rainy/inclement hiking or skiing without helmet (a rarity these days, but perhaps in Spring), or with the large hood put on for those storm skiing days with helmet on.

I was pleased with her quality and service. So I thought I'd mention her in case anyone might need such services.

what did a modification like that run cost wise...if you dont mind my asking?

M

Labor and materials and shipping....

SkiDog said:

what did a modification like that run cost wise...if you dont mind my asking?

M

Click to expand...

Were about $150....it was a lot of work and most of the cost was the new hood, as she doesn't just sew it up, she makes a pattern, blocks it out, then sews. The top of the hood has a little stiff visor insert....and it has a bungee system at edges for tightening or loosening, so it looks and feels and performs very professionally. All XCR gore tex seams in the new hood are also seam sealed/taped. It's really sweet.

Luckily, I bought the $499 list price FreeThinker jacket brand spanking new last May for $279....definitely a one shot, lucky, end of season deal that disappeared from the website the day after I made the snag....it was $489 one day later.

Cool.. I really havent found any need for modifications yet, but its nice to know there is someone who can do them and do them nicely, and since I primarily wear north face shes perfect since shes authorized.

M

That's pretty cool.
I think someone needs to make business suits out of technical materials, overcoats out of softshell material, that kind of thing. Walking from meeting to meeting in, say, NYC in January is freezing- it'd be awesome to be warm and look snappy, all at the same time.