Adventurebilt hat company ownership

[BendingOak]

Since there has been some confusion to who owns AB. I will run this down one more time. specially since the site went down for a few days there have been some concerns.

Steve Delk still owns AB, Just as Marc Kitter is his own entity Adventurebilt Delux. I do NOT own Steve's company. He asked me to take it over when he retires but I told him I can NOT due to it being to overwhelming to stock and run two completely different handmade/custom made hat companies. He wanted his customers to have access to re-bocks/re-furishing for AB. He wanted the Indy 4 hats to still be able to be offered after he has hung up his hat at hat making. Steve is a fan of Indy and he wants his fellow indy fan to have what he didn't when he wanted that Raiders hat back in the day.

I still wanted to help out Steve in his desires for AB so I said I will offer re-blocks/re-furshing but needed to stock sweatband, liners, etc. etc. Just like Marc I decided that with permission from Steve I would have the rights to make Adventurebilt Legacy but unlike Marc I don't or can't do a whole entire line of hats. It would be too overwhelming. Thats why I limited that permission to just a few very limited and no option line of hats. This way I can help my friend and still not be overwhelmed with two hat companies. Also by doing it this way I don't compete with Steve or Marc as I don't want to take money out of their pockets.

right now the Legacy collection is limited to two hats that steve doesn't offer and with no options. This way I can limit how much stock I need to buy and stock.I am in NO way obligated to pay him any money but do so out of friendship as I feel I owe him for all his help and support of me becoming a hat maker.

I can NOT use his Indy 4 blocks. I can NOT use them until after he retires. His plan is to continue as AB until he finishes off his back orders. even with Steve being in recovery he still isn't the same man he used to be. He still has his bad days and the illness has bankrupted him. He has no phone, no internet and Im doing everything I cash do to help him. In return hopefully helps customers who are waiting for their hats. I took over the website as the time on it was running out and someone had to pay for the fees. That is the reason I had to take it over as to keep it up and running. Since I have control over it I will be updated it and hopefully we will have something posted about backorders when I get word from Steve. Speaking of words with Steve. I do NOT hat a bat phone to Steve or a secret way of getting in contact with him. once in a while he meets up with his daughter and checks in on e-mails. Sometimes he gets mine and sometime he does NOT.

At some point when Steve does retire we will rethink how AB will stay around. It could very well just be the Legacy collection with a few specific indy hats and Marc ABD. That mean the AB original will be no more and Marc and Myself will continue in our way but AB the original. We might revamp and do entire different thing for AB. It all depends on how long Steve needs to work to get things fulfilled. Where I am at in my life of hat making. Things change all the time. for right now the plan is AB will shut down and the indy 4 hats will live though the AB legacy collection as well as the brand with Marc and myself. Adventurebilt hats will always be Steve Delk because lets face it Steve Delk is Adventurebilt and no one will replace him.

I will answer questions for a limited time so please get them out now. This has taken up more time then I have.


John

[Indiana Jeff]

John,

Now that you have control of the AB site, how will orders or inquiries posted through the site reach Steve?


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[BendingOak]

Control over the site doesn't change anything. His email will remain the same.

[Indiana Jeff]

You had mentioned making updates to the site so I wasn't sure what that meant.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[BendingOak]

Removing the Henry will be the first.since I don't sell them, that needs to be removed. Stuff like that. Hopefully a update stated ment from Steve about back orders. It will take some time as he doesn't have a phone not internet at his home.