This is from an email from Steve at Exo-Mountain in regards to current times for pack production. It was sent to customers with current orders.
First of all, Lenny and I want to sincerely thank each of you that has placed an order with us so far this year. The response has been overwhelming and we sold more packs in the first 6 weeks then we were planning on for the entire year. We have been extremely humbled by the response and are truly excited for the future of Exo Mountain Gear.
That said, with this excitement has also come a lot of new company growing pains, most notably with our production. The local sew shop we are using has been unable to handle the extra volume, which has affected our ability to get packs out to all those who have ordered them. We have been pushing them to make three-times as many packs in a two-week period than we originally agreed on and simply put, they haven't been able to keep up and missed several deadlines.
Just yesterday we sat down with them and made the decision to step back a little and re-organize in order to come up with a long-term solution. Our plan is to work with them to get a dedicated group of people who will be manufacturing our pack line full-time. This will provide greater efficiency, but it also means a change in how and when the packs will be produced. They are going to do runs with each pack piece in all colors at the same time, i.e. making bags, then frame panels, then hipbelts, etc., rather than making all the pieces for a single color of packs in the smaller runs.
In the long term, this will result in more consistent and better delivery times, but the immediate impact is that all orders that haven't shipped yet (ASAT, Foliage and the second run of Coyote Brown) will be delayed and will not ship for another four weeks. This was a tough decision to make because we know that many of you have been waiting patiently for quite some time and we had promised to have to packs to you in much better time frame. We certainly did not expect these delays and do apologize for any frustration or inconvenience it has caused. We are working hard to work through these initial production hiccups and believe we now have a good plan in place to ensure more timely delivery of packs, while continuing to meet our demand for quality.
We really appreciate everyone's patience and support so far and in an effort to show our gratitude for this we plan to give everyone who has an order in a free hipbelt pouch when your pack ships.
Also, if you have a hunt or trip you absolutely need a pack for in the next month, let us know and we'll do our best to send out a loaner prototype pack until your pack is ready to ship. Please let us know if you have questions or concerns at any time.
On a positive note the reviews that have been coming in from the first run of Coyote Brown packs have been overwhelmingly positive. This one from Nick Watson was just emailed to us this morning from a bear he shot last weekend.
"Steve,
I thought you would be interested in some of the pics I took. The pack was awesome and like you said ended up being way bigger than expected. I packed 5 days worth of gear and ended up packing out a bear hide in the load sling with all that gear in it. I was very surprised that all my gear fit. I packed out about 100 pounds 4 miles, the suspension worked very well. I was always able to get a nice comfortable fit every time and the power pull belt makes it quite easy. For me the stretchy outside pocket is the one of the nicest additions to the pack, its very easy and quick to access. It works awesome for clothing.
Thanks,
Nick"
Thanks,
Steve and Lenny
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