Dear Mr Leatherstein, Thank you so much for your visit to our store in Regent St, London. We hope you enjoyed it. Thank you also for your very fair and positive review of our products in general within your full video on RU-vid. Naturally myself and our team are extremely disappointed that in the bag you examined a stitching fault was evident, which somehow as you say was not picked up by our QC. Please let me assure you and all our customers that in a never ending spiral of cost pressures, Aspinal strives tirelessly to provide the very best quality and beautiful products at a very fair price point. Aspinal is proud of the superior quality of our leathers (which you kindly mentioned), the linings and materials we use and of course our craftsmanship. We hope you will find another opportunity to learn more about Aspinal and our continuous efforts to achieve the most beautiful highest quality products we can. Best Wishes Iain Burton Chairman
Wow! I’m impressed that you took the time to review his review and respond to it. That suggest to me that you really do care about your products and your customers. I’ll never be able to afford an Aspinal bag ( or any other high end) but if I could your interaction with this leather artisan would definitely encourage me to buy from you. Sincerely - well done.
I buy your brand all the time and plan some unboxing. I did not like your recent large price rises but for me quality has always been great. The BEST place to buy with friendly staff is your Selfridges outlet. It’s my go to.
Hi Mr. Burton, Thank you for your kind comment. I am aware of issues like this happening in manufacturing of leather goods as I do it myself but your response shows me your sincere care for your brand's quality. It is unfortunate that one of these problematic bags came to my hands but I hope this will help as an acceleration point to find and address the causes of these issues. I truly appreciate your hard work providing value for the leather consumer. I am looking forward to doing other reviews in the future with your other designs and leathers. I wish you and your team all the best! Cheers,
I m really impressed too. I was striking off this brand from my shopping list after this video, but luckily i read comments and found this. I m gonna give this brand another chance.😊
I hope someone from Aspinal of London see this so they can sort out the quality control issues. When 1% of these production errors getting through, then they should consider more if not all of these lapses in quality are slipping by.
I hope so as well. And being in production myself, these things may happen but as soon as managers realize it, things can be done to prevent them going forward. Thank you for your support!
In summer i ordered sunglasses, and the case arrived empty 😂 aspinal fixed the bizarre case, their customer care team was absolutely lovely! But it made me wonder if they expanded too fast, and struggled with their supply chain. Sending love to team Aspinal
I bought one of the lottie bags last year. I bought it at a discount. It's not on clearance. It was just on sale at that time. So I assumed there is nothing wrong with the purse. I also sent a message to customer service to verify if all purses will come with dust bag. They said yes. My order arrived packaged well and beautifully. But unfortunately the dust bag is missing. I messaged customer service chat to ask for my dustbag, but this time they referred me to email because they said they dont handle post-order concerns via chat. That's odd. So i sent email and made at least 5 follow-up yet nobody ever responded. While waiting for response, I decided ill just use the purse since i like it anyway. As i inspected it, I noticed there's lots of left over glue on the front where the hardware is and on the other areas where the stitchings are. It's awful. So I sent them another followup email. I said since they havent responded to my emails and now I noticed quality issues, I would rather just return the bag. This time they replied by saying I need to pay for return shipping. I told them I'm returning only due to quality issues, I asked why should I pay for return shipping. They never responded back. It was awful. Never again and i would never recommend this brand.
that's sad to hear. errors may happen but not being able to fix them at the CS level is not a great way to cultivate a brand at these price points. thanks for sharing
I have a couple of their bags and have no issues but I have had issues with their customer service in the past. Strathberry customer service is far superior.
@picklesmith1972 It’s funny how we all have such different experiences. I’m in the U.S. I bought a Strathberry. Wasn’t impressed & initiated a return. It cost me over $200 to return the bag. Never again.
Oh I’m so relieved!! I’ve bought a preloved hobo bag from this brand and reading the label “made in turkey” was a little unsettling bc in the site they were like boasting about their English craftsmanship! A lovely bag tho!
As far as I learned brand is trying different places to make their bags perhaps for cost reduction reasons. But the challenge will be ensuring the consistency of the quality and this was the perfect example. I think their idea is right but more care is needed in the QA with such broad production network
Thank you for the review. I have been asking for this for ages. Have been buying their products for years. I always get compliments from my friends. Service in their Regent Street store is impeccable.
I was looking forward to this video! Thank you! I would love a review of their black Large Lottie Bag and their black Mayfair Bag to see if the bestsellers are worth it😍
Aspinal is one of my favourite brands, so I was a little scared to click on this video since I have quite a few bags from Aspinal that I collected over many years. Thanks for sharing this video. It was so intriguing to watch your professional opinion on them.
Another fascinating review! I really enjoy these and have learned so much from your channel. I appreciate your attention to detail here because these are things anyone could easily miss, but at this price point, the consumer and brands should consider. Also, more brands should add, along with more details on the leather, where the product is made.
Thank you so much for this review. Love your videos. Great choice on the wallet you bought, got the same for my husband this Christmas. This brand is perfect for gifting with their lovely packaging. Aspinal has been one of my go to brand for years and I love all their bags. They are super classy and elegant. One of my favourites are Mayfair for the evening and London Tote as my work bag. They all age very well. Shame about the stitching on this one, surely this will be looked into. Went and checked my bags after your video and they are all good, maybe just an unfortunate one you bought. Read also some comments about Customer Services, my experience was really good, never had to chase and all questions were answered. I will continue to be a loyal customer to Aspinal after my personal experiences with the brand. Waiting for your next review.
I'm thrilled to hear you're enjoying the videos and your positive experience with Aspinal. Their blend of elegance and durability makes them a staple for any occasion. It's regrettable about the stitching, but it does seem like an isolated incident.
Hope you intend to provide an update on your wallet after 6 months and then after 1 year. I purchased a Gucci wallet for my husband but its corners became worn looking after a few months. It was a simple bi-fold which he carried in his back pocket. He purposely only carries abt 4-5 cards and a few bills to avoid a George Kastanza bulge. (Seinfeld reference)
Thank you for your great videos! Could you please do a Mulberry bag review? Since they make bags in multiple locations like Aspinal, I would like your thoughts on a bag made in England like the Iris. Thanks!
I have a Mulberry Anthony and not impressed by the way it is wearing. I'd love a review of Mulberry too. They are another brand who boast about being hand made in England but they seem to be made all over the world.
Oh yessss!! If they can get a Royal warrant, they surely have something special. Would put a comment requesting this brand as well so that Tanner can notice it.
I purchased a bag from them online and I was extremely disappointed. Bag was a new style (not on sale either), didn’t came with a box, dust bag was too small for the bag (the handle was showing so certainly you can’t keep your bag from getting dusty AND the metal clip came apart BEFORE I can even use the bag. No more Aspinal for me. My TOGO HELEN will be my new day-to-day bag and now awaiting for the viola that hopefully in the future, will come in Togo.
I have ordered from and shopped at Aspinal of London for bags, SLG and scarves for 20 years, I find the quality superb. I still have them all. Always durable, chic, and a pleasure to carry. I’m shipping for a new Mayfair now.
Thank you for this review. I have two Aspinals bags purchased two years ago. The small London Tote is really well made and the leather is wonderful. The small Lottie bag in Kavair leather is nice, but not quite as impressive as the London tote. I think with these QC issues, I will wait until I go to London before further purchases.
That redone stitch line reminds me of my time as a process engineer in apparel factories. We never worked with leather, but depending on how the stitching teams would be penalized for mistakes, many would just not bother to report it. I wouldn’t either, who wants a manager yelling at you or docking your pay for what was ultimately a badly-designed process or workstation?
great insight. Perhaps this is the result of such penalty system at a leather workshop. The problem with leather is that needle holes are irreparable, they stick out like sore thumb unlike most fabrics. The piece has to be replaced...
@@tanner.leatherstein Exactly. Production management and design have to build a process where mistakes are difficult to make (templating) or are low cost to replace (order of operations). This or the brand can build the cost of mistakes into their pricing structure.
Small Suggestion for your own line of stuff, updating your wallets to be RFID protected. I haven't seen many real leather goods made with RFID protection.
Imagine buying a bag worth 500$ and finding out that the stitching was done haphazardly and realizing that the needle punctures was caused by a craftsman mistakenly stitching the wrong way and decided not to redo everything but to restitch the other way. 500$ is still 500$ that came from a person’s hard work.
I have two large Lotties from them and they are beautiful. The customer service has always been responsive to my questions, I did let them know that the automatic shipping notifications did not happen like it says in the confirmation email so I had to be diligent checking that. I had a stitching issue with one but I opted to keep it as it was a sold out piece and I had purchased it at an amazing price.
Another great review. I do hope they heed your advice about QC on other countries. Will tou olease do Tanner Krolle? Ihave a couple of their bags which I bought 20 years ago and thise were great quality. I'd like to know if they are still worth the price. Thanks!
Glad you like it. There are so many leather brands I am hearing from you all. I just looked Tanner Krolle website and it seems impressive. Hopefully will do a review on them one day. Thank you
For the price of the bag I think printing the brand name is not good look and looks cheap. I’m fine with an inexpensive bag and the brand name being printed, but not a higher end bag. Just my two cents.
I’m planning to start a men’s leather brand of wallets made out of India (my home country). Would you be kind enough to investigate or share the manufacturer of the wallets? I’d like to reach out for a white label product!
Hello Tanner. I would like to ask you a question, please. Is it possible to add feet to a bag? Would a cobbler be able to do this? I have a large Max Mara bag that can get heavy at times. I put it down on the floor most of the time and it's starting to show the wear. I don't expect a definite answer, I just want your opinion please. Thank you, Maura in Ireland.
good point, it seems like they have quiet aggressive sales throughout the year. That may be a great option to score some cool bags. I saw one (the woven yellow white in this video) was discounted to a $250 or sth. Great deal
Black Friday until Christmas is usually their crazy sales period. If you can wait, I'd always wait for Black Friday because you can get up to 50% off. Its a bit of a gamble, because they even do special day sales throughout that sales period
First I thought it was a joke but then googled it and it is really another brand. That is way to close for two brands in the same field. Strange/ but will look into it. Thank you
Glad to hear that. Probably, I got one of the rare ones with such major issue slipped through the cracks but it is helpful to highlight as it is not a small thing for a brand targeting a high caliber image
I have two questions: first, would you be open to doing more shoe videos (both men's and women's)? And second, can you always tell from the videos which tanneries the leather is from? I know you've seen in some of the videos before.
Yes, I will do more shoe reviews but kind of having hard time finding time from bag requests. And I can't tell where the leather is from most of the time unless it is one of the most famous leathers from top tanneries. Most mid level leathers are impossible to identify through dissections. But sometimes I run into the workshops making these bags or tanneries making the leathers reaching out to me after a video so I get to learn a lot more about the brand and product afterwards :)
Living in London, I wouldn't classify them as "luxury", they look fancy but when you handle it in person it feels "OK". Is a brand you buy as a gift for people to signal you are not cheap but at the same time don't have a big budget. For the amount of money they charge, plenty of rep bags from China are better quality and better design.
Most Made in India products are awful. Ngl However, please do a review on Ferragamo Leather belt cause I’m trying to buy one. I need your HONEST ADVICE to it. Cheers!!!
