Booted Up

Hey Zoom-Bizarre.com! Where's my leather catsuit?

Dear Zoom-Bizarre.com,

HI! Remember me? It's been a long time. Perhaps you need a reminder.

In early 2002, a British gentleman named Steve sent you $800 (US) for a leather catsuit. You happily accepted his money and promises were made. I sent off my measurements, and we waited.

Five months later, you sent a cloth 'preview' of the catsuit. What is not obvious in the above image - the preview was horrid. See that seam on my right calf under the boot? That's were the catsuit ended. The torso was too short, the legs and arms were designed for a child. The preview was sent back - with a letter stressing the proper measurements.

And then we waited. And waited some more.

I moved from Los Angeles to Palm Springs. I sent you a letter regarding my new mailing address - I sent it twice. No response. After a few months, and several emails, I received, "Please accept our apologies, we've had a change in management."

That's OK - things happen. I know what it's like to have a business turn into a clusterf##k and to try to pick up the pieces afterwards. I let you slide for several months because of that empathy.

But after several unreturned emails, it was time for a phone call. I do not speak German, so one of my German chatroom regulars (Stephan) volunteered to call.

You gave Stephan the run-around too, and made promises to him. That you were aware and embarrassed by the situation and wanted to do right as soon as you could! You asked for my measurements again - which were sent - twice - then...nothing. Follow up emails were met with nothing.

I moved to New York City and sent another email with my updated address - on the off chance that someone was actually reading these things. Again, no response.

Well...it's 2007.

The Zoom Bizarre catsuit?  Keep it. I don't want it - it would be like blood money to me at this point. It would make my skin crawl.

What I WANT is for Steve to get his money back. That $800 he gave Zoom Bizarre in good faith, and you dicked him over for - GIVE IT BACK.

No excuses, no more, "Oh...change in management, we're working on it, blahblahblah BULL!" GIVE HIM HIS MONEY BACK.

Hey! According to my stats, over 20% of my readers are German! Awesome! Hallo jungen!

Zoom Bizarre? Do the right thing and I will delete this post. Continue dicking around with excuses? Watch this post screw with your search engine traffic.

(Bootlovers #18 - Click here to view the enlargement)

Gloves Bolero - New Colour

I am on the Ines Gloves mailing list, and they have just announced that their 'Bolero' design gloves are now available in 'My Fire' red.

(Sighing...) IF I owned a pair of these - which would, like, pretty much make my year - I would be able to tell you that they are awesome. But I don't, so I'll keep staring at the pretty picture.

You have NO IDEA of how close I am to posting a 'Wish List' rant. No idea. It's just screaming to come out.

(Ines Gloves)

Latex Boots!

From 3xL: Lust, Love & Latex:

"Simon O is back with more exciting news: high quality rubber boots! Sizes from 36 - 45. The rubber boots there is made from strong rubber has a metal stiletto heel and is easy to put on because of the smoothly lining. Super sexy!"

Simon O
LustLoveLatex.com

Jean Gaborit Clearance!

Just in time for you to blow off November's rent and/or car payment...Gaborit is having an almost unheard of shelf clearance. How many fetish boot sellers offer this? (Staring at ceiling for several seconds...) Right then. (checking current Visa balance...)

(Jean Gaborit Clearance)

Mistress Tokyo - update.

Well...here I was all ready to open up a can of righteous verbal whoop-ass on a greedy bootmaker, and another who should be defending his paying customer...

I'm going to have to deal with mental blue-balls for the time being - because apparently phone calls are being made, and there has been a major (and unexpected) play involving the main person who was responsible.

Andrew Joachim is no longer running Leatherworks. This could be a big 'thing' in our little boot world, because Leatherworks owns the bootmaking necessities once owned by The Little Shoe Box. Now if the new owner has an iota of common sense, he or she will take a good long look around and think, "Hey! There's an entire MARKET out there who would LOVE to give their money to a trustworthy, competent, and talented bootmaker! And I won't even charge the equivilent of a month's morgage payment for a pair either!"

We can only hope.

In the meantime, Mistress Tokyo is patiently awaiting her properly made custom boots.

Leatherworks: It wouldn't be fair to hold the mistakes of your previous management against you. Consider this an opportunity. Do the right thing by Mistress Tokyo, and it will be a first step at attaining a good reputation - something that would not have occured under Andrew's watch. There's a lot of us who desire a LSB 2.0 - assuming the program has been debugged.

Steve (Shoecraft) - you too. We have featured you in the past in good faith so do the right thing. You need to stand up for your customers. Boot suppliers are notoriously unreliable, and they come and go. If you are running a SHOP - a go between - then consider who is paying your rent. It's not your suppliers that you should kowtow too. Believe me, it's better to be known as a hard-assed prick who is willing to fight over 50 bucks for a customer - that sort of thing becomes the stuff of legend and brings customers in from far and wide. If you're the type who shrugs his shoulders and says, "Oh well, there's nothing I can do.." when one of your customers asks you for help...expect that sort of behavior to haunt you. 

So for now, we have to put this in the 'Open' file. If Leatherworks decides to finally do the right thing by Mistress Tokyo, well...no problem.

If this is just another delay tactic and run around...well, speaking as someone who has been ripped off and dicked around by custom bootmakers in the past - and since I know several of my readers have had to deal with this kind of bullshit in the past...

We're waiting for results. We can happily whip out our credit cards and custom boot designs, or go all medival on your bootmaking asses. The latter would be rather ugly and drawn out and best avoided - but I'm up for it if necessary. Are you?

'Bolero Gloves' special - Ines' Gloves

From their mailing list...

"Special price for only 5 days, until August 26.
Now only 159 euro! ( original price 239 euro).

(Click here for more information)

NEW Jean Gaborit designs!

Jean Gaborit has released two new summer styles: Sabrina and Lola. For the launch and the next two weeks, they are available at a reduced price!

(Click here to visit the Jean Gaborit website)

NEW Jean Gaborit designs!

Jean Gaborit had such a wonderful response to the 'Wild & Western Shania' boots that they have decided to add two more 'kinky cowboy' designs to the collection! 'Cheryl' and 'Shannon' are new members of the Jean Gaborit boot family.

(Click here for the details)

NEW Jean Gaborit designs!

WOW. I mean, D.J. had told me that Jean Gaborit was going to make an effort with showing the Little Shoe Box crowd how it's DONE, properly  - but these boots have exceeded my expectations!

The design shown in this post? You know it - the infamous 'Berger Boots'. The same design that LSB had no problem ripping off from my hand-drawn design 10 years ago (which - obviously - I ripped off from Herr Berger's originals from the 1940's). Anyway, they are available again at a much higher quality!

Also, JG is offering thigh-high 'snap' boots! I have to have a pair of these! And they are finally experimenting with extra tall heels as well! 15 cm heels with platform on their 'Tina' boots! Maybe, if we nicely suggest enough, they'll bump that up to 22 cm with a 10 cm platform (Hint. Hint. Ian, are you reading:)?)

It's finally starting to look as if there is life after The Little Shoe Box - with better quality and customer service at that! Anyone who had to fight with LSB in the past to get their boots (raising hand) should appreciate this. No more waiting for months, only to get a boot that doesn't even fit properly. No more sending your money only to be ignored. I hope this is only the beginning of a long, happy relationship with kinky boot lovers around the world!

(Jean Gaborit - New Designs)

New custom boot source!

Finally! A North American source for high-quality leather custom boots!

D.J. (Bootlovers.com editor) spoke with Tony of Montreal's Hot Peppers (aka Qualifetish) last week, and learned that the 40 -year-old, family owned and operated company is now offering custom thigh-high, knee-high, and calf-high boots with 6" heels! Chapboots too! Their ballet boots are already known as the best on the market and we cannot wait to give their new stiletto-heeled boots a try!

From the Hot Peppers website:

"The people of Hot Peppers footwear bring over 40 years of high quality footwear experience with fine Italian leathers, and divinely hand-crafted Ballet Boots and Shoes.

Our dedication to producing maximum comfort and fit has made our standard and custom made boots a worldwide success. We can produce for large thigh, thin calves, long or short legs, or any other special fit. Just send your measurements in our custom made section."

The prices are very reasonable (the website lists U.S. prices) and delivery takes 2 - 4 weeks.

To learn more about Hot Peppers history, check out their feature in Bootlovers #3!

(Visit the Hot Peppers Website)