Avoid Advintage

[Garrett]

More like take Ad-Vantage.

After providing precise measurements and shelling out substantial coin then waiting 6 weeks the hats arrived a size too large. I know my hat size having had custom hats from Penman, Adventurebilt, Art Fawcett, Optimo, Gary White, Jimmy Pierce, Black Sheep, etc. Not to mention the 15 years of hat collecting both vintage and modern.

In his defense, Thomas offered to fix it but shipping to Germany and back? After 6 weeks? Not gonna happen!

Now I have to get this fixed locally.

Very Disappointed.

[adVintage]

Garrett,

I am sorry that you are disappointed, I really am, but that is not quite correct. I am about 99% sure the hats I made for you and sent you have exactly the size you have ordered (56cm). I am measuring many times when making a hat and one last time on final inspection. However, things can happen and no one is perfect (although no plea of guilty). I offered you to send the hats back to me for a full refund, I always want my customers to be 100% satisfied... but you refused

Telling people to avoid me, just because a hat did not fit (no matter who's fault it is) seems a bit unfair to me.

Kind regards
Thomas

[Howard Weinstein]

I have FOUR adVintage hats and I love them.

My experiences with adVintage hatmaker Thomas Osygus have proven he is as doggedly devoted to good customer service as he is to making great hats at great prices -- and always improving his line-up at all price points. He will bend over backwards to keep his customers happy.

Hat-sizing and head measurement are inexact sciences at best. Even the big Australian company Akubra has inconsistent sizing. I wear a 58 -- yet of the dozen or so Akubras I've owned, all 58s are not created equal. Some have fit perfectly, others have needed a bit of sweatband padding, and one in particular fit like a 59.

When it come to the popular Akubra Federation IV many of us here have owned, exclusive seller Hats Direct advises that the blocks run small, so order a size up. So on my 3 Fed IVs, I ordered 59s -- and all needed padding to fit well.

Then again, with custom hats, many hatters ask us to send them our head-size measurements rather than ordering a specific pre-set size. This allows them to fine-tune the fit.

My adVintage 58s have all run a bit large -- though not excessively so. I've ordered enough hats over the hears to know, as noted above, hat sizing is by nature somewhat inexact. So I put a little padding in to customize my fit. And many posts here tell us that hats shrink a bit with wear over time.

Knowing the unavoidable slight variations in sizing, I wouldn't trade my adVintage hats for anything. I highly recommend them if you're looking for a new hat. Thomas Osygus is very responsive to emails, and on custom hats he'll work with you to assure a good fit and a satisfied customer.

[Garrett]

You mentioned they run large. Why so? I thought this was supposed to be custom?

[Dalexs]

Just want to drop this reminder, in case things get out of hand.

Please don't forget the forum rules (especially the line about posting slanderous comments.)
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9941" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Its understandable that you may be unhappy with a product, and by all means are allowed to post your review.
But keep in mind
- Vendor attempted to rectify the situation.
- You seem to be refusing the effort.

If necessary, please take the rest of the conversation between you and advintage offline, as it, in no way, reflects the majority of the reviews
and only serves as an avenue for you to post your displeasure with a situation you are not satisfied with.

Constructive negative reviews are just as helpful as positive reviews, but only if posted as such.

Dalexs

[teneas]

I own 3 Advintage hats, and every single one of them comes to me larger than my head. Not significantly so however, and I just put some cork in them, and in time they shrink due to oils, sweat, etc on the headband. My Penman hat is the one that has shrank the least and honestly still is a bit large on me. It's not an exact science I'm sure, especially since I have a "long oval" head shape that I don't even bother to tell the hat makers.

Very poor taste to do this post. Thomas has always been amazing!

[Indiana Croft]

I’m a soon to be AdVintage hat owner. And Thomas has been very helpful and responsive to emails. I’ve read multiple reviews and done extensive reaserch on my next Fedora.

AdVantage won, and I personally didn’t want to wait 10 months.

Can’t wait for my new lid.

Croft

[distantpeople]

An excellent reminder that I need to order a Streets of Cairo from Thomas.

[backstagejack]

Just want to drop this reminder, in case things get out of hand.

Please don't forget the forum rules (especially the line about posting slanderous comments.)
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9941" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Its understandable that you may be unhappy with a product, and by all means are allowed to post your review.
But keep in mind
- Vendor attempted to rectify the situation.
- You seem to be refusing the effort.

If necessary, please take the rest of the conversation between you and advintage offline, as it, in no way, reflects the majority of the reviews
and only serves as an avenue for you to post your displeasure with a situation you are not satisfied with.

Constructive negative reviews are just as helpful as positive reviews, but only if posted as such.

Dalexs

This.

[AttyOzzy]

Hi all:

I just tried to post a reply to this thread and likely through some fault of my own it disappeared. So if it shows up twice, please forgive me.

Nonetheless, given I am making two efforts to post something positive about Thomas and Advintage, that should say something.

I have three (3) Advintage hats and two (2) more are on the way. Until I discovered Advintage, I had long given up on obtaining a screen accurate muffin-shaped SOC fedora that fit my budgetary and calendar needs.

Thomas is a joy to work with and his hats are top-notch. The material he uses is comfortable and aesthetically pleasing, yet rugged and built for some abuse. I have twice been relieved that Thomas has inquired or reminded me about an important detail that I overlooked or otherwise omitted during the ordering process.

I have found Thomas to be ethical, honest, accommodating, and in my case, ahead of or right on schedule. I look forward to future orders from Thomas.

I wish the author of this thread the best of luck, and would encourage him to stick with Advintage, should Thomas still want your business. You will be glad you did.

[Howard Weinstein]

You mentioned they run large. Why so? I thought this was supposed to be custom?

Hi, Garrett --

I did say just a smidge large -- the same experience I had with another custom hat I ordered from a different (US) hatter. Again, neither was appreciably large. All have fit fine with a little padding.

If anything, all factory-made hats in a given size should theoretically be identical, right? But they're not. I have no idea why. Why would Akubra make blocks for the Fed IV that run small, leading to advice to order a size up? Again, I have no idea.

With custom hats, I suspect part of the equation is the difficulty of measuring our own heads totally accurately. I know when I bought that other custom hat, I was asked to send 3 measurements. Even though I thought I was measuring the exact same way each time, all 3 were slightly different. The hatter averaged them...and the hat was still a little large.

In the old days, when there were many local hat-making shops, buyers could go in and have the hatter himself do the measurements. These days, of course, most of us buy our hats from reputable online hatters. That person-to-person remove likely adds a "measure" of inexactness to the art of measuring our heads.

I can only speak from my own experience. All I'm saying is, considering the variables in self-noggin-measuring and hat-making (which is more art than science), slight variations may be understandable and perhaps somewhat unavoidable

Howard W

[Mulceber]

You mentioned they run large. Why so? I thought this was supposed to be custom?

I'm kind of surprised you'd say that, given how many custom hats you mentioned owning in your original post. Custom hatters vary widely in their sizing. I suspect there's just too many variables involved in making a hat (how long you leave the hat on the block, what quality of felt you're using, measuring the sweat, etc.) for the size to be totally uniform. My Optimos fit TOTALLY different from my Penman, and my VS hats are different still.

[whipwarrior]

Garrett, your regrettably negative experience doesn't give you the right to spurn AdVintage on behalf of all future customers. This isn't a 'buyer beware' situation. Thomas is a reputable, established vendor with a logbook of very satisfied clients (myself included) who have only praise for his amazing quality hats and personalized service. Please show a little respect from now on.

[Wotalark]

I've only had the most positive experience dealing with Thomas. I'm sorry you had a bad experience Garrett, but this guy is great, I'd use him again, and highly recommend him.

Give him a chance to recover the situation as he has offered ...

[Mulceber]

Garrett, your regrettably negative experience doesn't give you the right to spurn AdVintage on behalf of all future customers. This isn't a 'buyer beware' situation. Thomas is a reputable, established vendor with a logbook of very satisfied clients (myself included) who have only praise for his amazing quality hats and personalized service. Please show a little respect from now on.

Yeah, I gotta agree. It's one thing to be disappointed that the hat you ordered doesn't fit perfectly, but to suggest, as you do, that Thomas took advantage of you is pretty uncalled for.

[Jeremiah]

I wish people could realize like I learned, how having a slightly larger hat is sooooooo much better than having one too tight.

I'd take one loose any day of the week over one that fits snug, cause that snug is gonna turn tight one day. maybe too tight for comfortable wear. that loose can be remedied so much easier and you don't have to worry about the hat being too tight one day.

so, by being fixed locally, do you mean you have to put some felt behind the sweatband? I do that to many vintage hats I buy. Its a perfect remedy.

[Charybdis]

I love my AdVintage as well. Yes, it also came just a tad large but the foam inserts are in and voila! Perfect fit. In fact, I think it is starting to shrink a bit as I am considering taking a bit of foam out now.

[AttyOzzy]

I always order my hats a little larger, stuff it with some foam or cork, and within 6 months they fit like a dream.

The same can be said about my pants as of late also, but that is another story

[Glenville86]

I have many Advintage hats. I normally wear a 7 1/4 or a size 58. Also have many other fedora ones from various makers.

Some are a perfect fit, some I have to slightly stretch out and most I have to use cork inserts (eBay from Canada). You don't even have to buy inserts and can just fold up a paper towel instead.

Eventually on most that are slightly too big, after wearing for awhile, I can remove the inserts as the fedora band molds to my head. A few do not mold but you cannot notice the slim inserts anyway.

Akubra ones seem to have the most variance in the same size...…..

If I see a fedora I really like that is a size up (7 3/8) for a good deal, I will get it and just use the inserts. No big deal for me. Also, I only get a hair cut every so many months and that will slightly alter fit.

Really like my Advintage ones.

[Garrett]

Glad to hear others had a better experience.

This was MY experience.

It was worth mentioning IMHO.

"Do what you will" - Belloq

[Garrett]

My email to Thomas

Thomas,

Your hatting skills are superb.

But the sizing on my particular orders were off.

The quality of materials, construction and finishing technique are stellar.

Please accept my apology.

Feel free to post this on COW.

[Garrett]

I will also follow up by stating the indy proportions have not been accurately transposed to smaller sizes.

In addition to the wrong size

dimensions were not adjusted either.

Not all of us are Harrison Ford.

[Castor Dioscuri]

Garrett, I feel for you. It does take some guts walking into, for example, an Apple convention, and stating that the iPhone should be avoided. Considering the number of Advintage fans there are here, that takes guts.

On the flipside, I do agree that you might have been a tad harsh with your statements, especially considering it sounds like the vendor was, and still is willing to work with you on remedying the problem. Don't forget that the over-sizing seems to be a response to consumer demand, since most of his customers presumably want to subject the hat to harsh conditions that would shrink it, so that's taken into account when making the hat. As for dimensions, again probably just a response to fan demand.

I get that it didn't work out, but I'd cut both Advintage and Garrett some slack.

[backstagejack]

It's not that it's the iPhone of hats. We've all had problems with vendors. It happens. Asking for help on this forum and advice on this forum is fine. Posting about an experience is one thing.

It's opening up a whole new thread posting things like "Avoid this company" and "Ad-Vantage". Slandering someone's entire company when they are attempting to work with you is another thing. I'm honestly not sure what you expected. It doesn't take guts to anonymously slander someone on a forum.

That's the part that is uncalled for. Indygear does not endorse any vendor but many of those vendors are upstanding people that try to do the best they can. Many of them are on this forum and will read what you post and defend themselves.

It's understandable that others that have had good experiences and great experiences will post defenses as well. Especially when you come out of the gate swinging.

We're a welcoming community and we try to keep things above the belt. Those comments were not. I would defend and comment on any thread that treated an established vendor in such a manner.

[Michaelson]

It's probably time to ring down the curtain on this one, as nothing more can be achieved by continuing to bandy this about. It's time to take it offline and sort things out.

Garrett, I hope you work out your problem with Advintage to the satisfaction on both sides.

Time to move along folks.....nothing more to see here.....

Regards! Michaelson