By David Gewirtz
Sometimes I love my job, especially when I discover a new company with great new products and I get to be the person who tells you about it. I really enjoy giving those companies a push to success, bringing them new customers and helping our readers find great new resources. It's the ideal marriage of innovation and enterprise, and it's a rare treat.
Sometimes though, my job can be something of a bummer. That's the case with the products I'm going to present to you today.
Don't get me wrong. These products are worthy of a 4-star review. It's just that you're probably never going to buy them, even though you should. Sadly, while you and I live in 2006, the company selling these products is pretty much stuck back in 1986.
The thing is, that could be ok, especially when you're talking about camera bags. After all, when you're buying fine bags, you want that old-world construction, attention to detail, and focus on quality. The bags shown in Figure A have all that.
FIGURE A
This is likely to be the only time you'll see these bags. (click for larger image)
Unfortunately, you're not likely to be able to buy them.
When we when to the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) show in Orlando, back in January, we met the nice folks from Werner Hollingworth Photoware, makers of the camera bags above. The company had just created a fine line of camera bags. They were so excited about getting press coverage that they loaded down Managing Editor Denise Amrich with a pile of bags, right on the show floor.
We like showcasing new companies, so we were happy to lug the bags back to the Connected Photographer offices and scheduled them for review.
The time for review came around and I realized I didn't have pricing information for the bags. No problem. That's what the Web is for. I'd just visit their site and get the information.
Sadly, their Web site is shown, in its entirety, in Figure B.
FIGURE B
Werner Hollingsworth's Web site is this simple page. (click for larger image)
Hmmm... there had to be more. So I called the number on the Web site. There was no answer. "Wow," I thought, "I hope they're not out of business already."
Unfortunately, given our heavy publication schedule, I had to table the review and write something else up for my next deadline. A few months later, when I wasn't on a deadline, I tried calling again, again getting no answer. I asked Denise to see if she could dig up a business card for these folks and she did. On the card was an email address.
I sent an email to that address asking if someone would call me back, if the company was still in business, and if the company had a more complete Web site.
The next day, I got a returned call from Gary Steinmann, the very nice VP of the company. If you lived in 1986, the conversation Gary and I had would have made sense. But we live in 2006 and so it was a bit surreal.
The gist of it was that I'd called outside work hours, so, of course there was no answer. When I suggested they might put an answering machine on the line, he told me they're a small company. When I suggested they might want to put their products on the Web site with pictures and possibly ecommerce, he told me they're a small company. When I asked where readers could buy his products, he told me they had a dealer (one dealer) in Miami and readers were welcome to go there and look at the bags.
The conversation reminded me that getting customers was much harder back in 1986. Disintermediation was virtually impossible. Sure, you could send a direct mail (real, paper, snail mail) to prospective customers, but beyond that, you were quite literally a captive of the distribution channel. If you didn't have dealers, your product didn't sell.
But this is 2006. Today, if you have a Web site, prospects can see your products. There are huge online distributors like Amazon, and setting up your own ecommerce site can start at less than ten bucks a month! Plus, there's eBay.
And, for the love of megapixels, Bell South's voice mail service costs all of $6.95 per month. It doesn't matter that you're a small company. My buddy's Jeff's slacker brother-in-law, the one who lives at home and mooches all the beer, the one who insists everyone call him "The Rock" and spends every waking hour on MySpace (yeah, it's sad), he shells out $6.95 for voicemail!
The bags are sweet. They use luggage-grade extreme heavy duty nylon fabric, the sort of fabric you'd find in good luggage. They're coated with Polyurethane on the inside for water resistance and are made of a material that's pretty much identical to ballistic nylon, but with a heavier weave. The hardware and buckles seem rock solid. Handles and straps are stitched with an "X-Box" (not that XBox!) stitching pattern that'll help the straps stay attached, most likely for the life of the bag.
The bags' pricing is good. The bags shown run from $7.95 to $96.95. The really nice, large gadget bag, the one Connected Photographer readers would most likely want to buy is less than $100.
So, what's a reviewer to do? We have a certain, fixed criteria for product reviews that helps all our ratings be consistent across all the ZATZ magazines. Based on our published review guidelines, these bags rate a 4-star review. They're really nice bags.
If you want one, call (305) 256-9591. Make sure you're calling between 9am and 5pm Miami time. Or, if you happen to be in Miami, stop on over at Pitman Photo Supply. Pitman, it turns out, has a nice little Web site. Sadly, Werner Hollingworth's bags aren't on it.
Denise summarized it best. "'We're a small company.' Never has such a statement been less relevant than in 2006."
RATING: 4 STARS