The purpose of this trip to Turkey has been not only to begin learning the importing business and to check up on our pipe orders but it is also to work out some new pipe prototypes.
One of the prototypes is to be a meerschaum equivalent to a Favorite of an unnamed American crooner. We are hoping to present the prototypes, along with all the associated collateral to the Italian briar manufacturer of this particular pipe to see if they would be willing to co-brand and co-market this pipe. Worse case, we'd like them to allow us to use the name of which I shouldn't speak here. This is planned to be a limited production run with no more than 1,000 pipes being constructed and each will be numbered.
The pipes have turned out so good that Tom wants to do a variant as a Tobacco-Barn.com and Member's Only Club exclusive called, get this, "Cottom's Choice". I'll give you more on this later.
As for B's Favorite, we've done 4 different prototypes, 1 being rusticated and 3 being smooth. The bottom one is our leading contender as it appears that the two gold rings with a black stem is a winner. We are still waffling on going with 2 gold rings or a single gold band spacer.
The second from the top has a 13mm stem which is more in keeping with the size of the shank/stem on the original B's Favorite and we hope to be the stem size of choice for this if it proves to be strong enough. Because of the length of the shank, we may need to go to 14mm stem just to be safe. We're still trying to decide which way to go with this. Being that it is a numbered pipe, there is no way to replace it if a shank is broken so purchasers will be more likely to take proper care of these pipes.
At left you will see the leading contender in the B's Favorite (at bottom) and the rusticated version (at top). You'll notice the rusticated version has a shorter shank which would be good for the Cottom's Choice limited edition pipes (more information below).
Below is the drill guy giving the first prototype B's Favorite pipe it's first blow, clearing out dust and wax after drilling.
Tom and the boys seem to be pretty happy with their work. The carver on the right does the majority of the drilling for the pipes and also did our Green Man prototypes. He is a very talented artist and does lots of different jobs in the shop to keep from getting bored by carving the same thing over and over again. He really excels in more intricate carving jobs.
Green Man prototypes are still getting made so don't have them to show. The first two of 4 styles (MegaGreen and GreenWoman) are looking good and would be full-head bowls while the other two (Trickster and Fritz) will be carved in relief on the front of the bowl, perhaps with leaves, snakes (or not) going back onto the bowl and the shank.
Other news: We met with Sevket (pronounced Shevket BTW and spelled Şevket) and his wife at his house today. Very hospitable and we purchased 3 signature pieces and ordered 10 medium mixtures of floral, 4 medium claws and 6 ring pipes (1 large, 5 small with 2 being calabash rings).
The bigger news is that we have negotiated an exclusive with him that we are the only people that will get Sevket ring and rotating calabash pipes. So, for the duration of this agreement, IK Meerschaum and Tobacco Barn will be the only places you can get new Sevket ring pipes and the newer calabash pipes with rotating caps.
Ok, as for the news of the totally new prototype that Tom is calling Cottom's Choice, here is the information:
- This is going to be a limited edition pipe only available at Tobacco-Barn.com and Tobacco Barn retail store(s). It will not be available to wholesalers and distributors.
- The intention is to make this an annual pipe with runs of 50 each year. We plan on starting with 25 as Tom thinks he can sell 20 within a month of getting them to the store. If we decide to go with one every year, or every few years, that will depend onn demand, however there is no commitment to go beyond that.
- Bowl is the same as on the Bing's Favorite only with a shorter shank (approximately 35mm). This will ease production concerns since doing bowls for one or the other would depend mainly on the stone size.
- As with the Bing's Favorite it will have a black stem with two gold rings however the stem will be straight instead of 1/8th bend like on the Bing's Favorite.
- Text on left side of shank will read "Cottom's Choice 2007"
- Text on right side of shank will read "Limited xx/50" where xx is sequential numbers
- Every 5th number in the series will be rusticated.
- Shank on rusticated pipes will include smooth text panels on left and right side to accommodate text above
- Will come in a fitted case with black leatherr and white satin lining.
By limiting this to in-house only sales, we can keep the cost down for our preferred and repeat customers since we don't have to build in additional costs since there will be no distributors or wholesalers that we need to get a profit out of. The estimate is that this pipe, with fitted case will try and keep the price under $100.
What do you guys think of that?
posted @ Friday, February 16, 2007 11:47 PM