Why Wednesday?

There's a lot happening this week at HQ, so rather than lump it all into Friday, we thought we'd deliver a special bonus Wednesday Briefing. Friday's saved for the Batch #2 General Release.

Batch #2 Release

Friday 18:30 GMT - Catch our livestream

As I'm sure you know, Batch #2 goes live this Friday at 18:30GMT. We've been all over the country with Batch #2, from the Lake District to Cornwall via Mayfair, Buckinghamshire, Dorset and beyond, meeting loads of great people in the process. We hope you love this jacket as much as we've loved building and promoting it!

This time we'll be live streaming the launch from the pub - you can watch on Instagram or YouTube and you can find the links on our website here.

We'll have the Vat #01 whisky on hand for tastings, and we'll be chatting to James and Al about Polish II Corps, Operation Chariot, new products we've got on the horizon and whatever else springs to mind. 

If you have a ticket to join us in person but can't make it, please update your RSVP on Eventbrite - there's an eager looking waiting list and it'd be great to give someone else the spot.

London Batch #2 Pop Up

Last weekend we launched our very first pop-up shop in Central London and were thrilled with the turnout. Just like We Have Ways back in September, it was really great meeting customers, new and old and chatting about the jackets in person. 

It was also lovely to see a few M1941 Arctics from Batch #1. Some looking crisp, others nicely worn in - all looking excellent.

Thanks to everyone who came along. We're hoping to make it a regular thing for each Batch we release.

Tank Museum Visit

Jim was at the Tank Museum in Bovington recently. If you haven't been, it's 100% worth the trip - their collection is phenomenal. 

In case you didn't know, our company is named after the Churchill AVRE — (Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers). It's a very cool tank and Jim has done a nice piece on Instagram on why we picked it as our name.

The team there were incredibly welcoming and let us get up close with some of the vehicles and kit. Thanks to the Tank Museum for having us.

Klarna

We're introducing Klarna for Batch #2, which means you can split the £349 payment if that works better for you. It'll be available at checkout from Friday.

Batch #2 Pre-Orders

Pre-orders are slightly ahead of schedule and will be shipping in January. We're about to receive 1,000 metres of fabric - most of it reserved for pre-orders, but there's still some of this allocation available for General Release orders.

This means that the first General Release orders we take on Friday will ship in January alongside the pre-orders. After that initial allocation is gone, remaining orders will ship in March. 

VAT #01 Whisky

As you might have seen, we got our hands on the very first bottle of VAT #01 on Saturday. It was the first bottle off the top of the cask, so the ABV was slightly higher than the main production run. Not that you could really tell - this was an exceptionally smooth whisky. We had it with a drop of water and the feedback around the room was resoundingly positive.

We're now working through the technicalities of ordering and fulfilment, but it'll be going live on the website very soon. More details to follow.

And Finally.... Our UPS saga is resolved!

This week we finally received back the fifth and last parcel that had been lost by UPS. These were Batch #1 jackets that we originally shipped in early August. Every single box we received back looked like it'd been run over by a truck. Glad to say though that the contents of each one were fine!

All US customers affected by the lost shipments are now in possession of their Batch #1 M1941 Arctics which is great news. We're exceptionally grateful to everyone involved for their unwavering patience over the last 3 months.

What's Next?

Friday at 18:30. That's what's next...