Yes, this is exactly what you think.

Rideable Bicycles Replicas (or RBR) has been making beautiful Boneshakers, tricycles, recumbents, tandems, and surreys since 1973. They can cost a pretty penny, running anywhere from $800 to $1,100, but they’re worth every last cent. RBR has created custom bikes for Cirque Du Soleil, the touring cast of the hit musical “Wicked”, and even the New York City Ballet. They can create custom bikes for you, too!

You can bet those of us here at Lastwear will be getting our own one day.

To find out more you can visit their site here .

Jes, tiu ĉi estas juste kiel vi pensas. Vetureblaj Biciklaj Imitaĵoj (Rideable Bicycles Replicas aŭ RBR) fabrikis belegajn “Boneshaker-ojn“ (Osskuiĝila prabiciklo), triciklojn, duopa-biciklojn, kuŝ-biciklojn, kaj aliajn formojn de pra-becikloj ekde 1973. Oni povas opinii ke ili estas altkostaj, kostantaj $800 – $1,100 sed ili certe estas pagindaj! RBR jam verkis laŭpreskribajn biciklojn por Cirgue Du Soleil, la muzikteatraĵo “Wicked“ kaj eĉ la New York City Ballet (Novjorka Urba Balettrupo.) Kaj, jes ili povas laŭ preskribe verki bicikleton por vi!

Vi devas certigi ke ni, ĉe Lastwear iam provizos nin per unu .

Vi povas legi plu ĉi tie.

…at least for the time being.

Some of you may have noticed that the patterns are no longer available for download.

Here’s why.

When we started Lastwear we were very into the idea of open information.  You might even say we were a little starry eyed about it. Open source was on the rise, people were successfully marketing themselves through free electronic distributions of their ebooks, songs etc. and still making sales to pay the bills.  It looked like sharing was the way to go.

We liked that fact that it flew in that face of conventional business practices, thumbed it’s nose at corporate colonialism.  In a world where people seemed ever more distrustful of businesses large and small, open sourcing our work seemed like a way to show we were for real.  That we weren’t just in it for the money.

We felt confidant that any sales we might lose to folks downloading and sewing their own gear from our patterns would be more than balanced out by the increased exposure.  We thought being the first truly open source clothing company would be something that got people talking.

Sadly, that hasn’t been the case.

While it seems that many people certainly like the patterns, and a few of you have even been so nice as to voluntarily pay for them, the exposure we were hoping for never materialized.

We’ve had very little by way of feedback (on person to date blogged about their use of our pattern and kindly sent pictures) and we’re not seeing any clothing sales that we can attribute to making the patterns available.

We have heard that some folks are sewing garments from our patterns to sell. That’s fine, we never said you couldn’t, but it would have been nice to be contacted .  To know that we could expect some business sent our way too?

The other big problem has been the extra work that releasing the patterns entails.  Unlike open source software, we have had to put many hours into converting patterns from the file format we use for production, into a more widely readable format.  Even once we do that then it becomes an ongoing tech support issue to try to figure out what software on what system will work to read them properly.

On the other side, amongst those of you who do buy our product, no one seems to list our open source philosophy as the main reason for buying our clothes.

So we had to ask,

If our customers don’t care about us being open source, and making our work available doesn’t make us any sales but instead costs us money, why are we doing it?

The truth is, we don’t have a good answer for that other than to stop.

As I write this, I’m genuinely sad about it, it feels like the abandonment of a cherished belief.  Being copy left (almost militantly so) has been a big part of who I think of myself as for almost a decade now and it’s very hard to let that go.  As things currently stand though, all the evidence I have says I was wrong and at this time I’m not willing to gamble my livelihood on it.

Lastwear is still committed to promoting small independent businesses and personal creativity of all types.  We still love maker culture.  We’re just going to have to find other ways to support it for now.

We hope no one is too horribly disappointed about this and we certainly encourage your feedback on the issue.

I will continue to post sewing tutorials and perhaps further down the road, when we’re not scraping to get by month to month, we’ll be able to start offering patterns again.

-Thom B.

A curious plague has broken out at the Lastwear Journal offices: comments and messages by non-existent people. They are odd individuals, these folk without physical being. They often seem to have opinions about the items posted on the Journal, and then loose the thread; they ramble on about other topics and often blather meaninglessly. Almost as if they were the ghosts of ideas once partially formed, but are now drifting free in the Aether that is the interwebs.
The writers are, of course, S.p.@m-bots. We dare not speak their names, for it calls them onto our site. Even using the S-word calls to them. Rather we shall call this kind of post as “luncheon-meat”, which is what the original product was, after all.
As an Historian Archivist of the LastWorld, we are familiar with the notion of ideas having a life of their own. If enough people believe something, no matter how little foundation in reality it has, the idea can grow and take form; have impact on the real world. In a curious way, the luncheon-meat writers are demonstrating an underlying principle of the LastWorld: If enough people believe it’s real, it becomes real.
These little luncheon-meat writers are having a positive effect, however! Their level of English (And Esperanto) usage is very low: they are primitive, mindless little creatures at best. Because of this, if someone wants to have their comment posted, they must write intelligible, properly spelled, grammatically correct English. Otherwise, our Luncheon-Meat Removal Officer will simply expunge them! Please continue to reply to our journal entries, writing in clear, Standard English (or Esperanto) and be assured your words will be heard!

What’s that, a whole new product that we didn’t tell you anything about?
Why yes, yes it is.

Introducing the Cloverdale Vest.
We’ll have these up on the website for purchase on March 1st, and while they won’t be part of the sale, we will be offering them at a special introductory price.

Seattle is a great city for eating out. When I Googled “Italian Restaurants” there was a map, and I started counting them. I gave up after I got to 50. And that was just in the downtown area. But you know, that’s not unusual: most cities have lots of Italian restaurants. And lots of Thai, Chinese, and Japanese restaurants, burger joints and endless Teriyaki places. Of course you can’t move in Seattle without seeing a Starbucks, but there are independent Coffee bars and Espresso cafés everywhere, too.
And all of these coffeehouses and restaurants are in competition. Occasionally one goes out of business. Occasionally one grows so big the owner opens up another branch, and another and the next thing: Starbucks. This is the free market. And the reason there isn’t one giant chain of generic restaurants that sells all kinds of food is because that would be a terrible restaurant, and even if the food served there was much cheaper than anywhere else, it would just be a chain of food-courts.
And who wants to only eat at food courts? I mean, all the time?
And the thing is, if you shop at Wal-Mart you are really shopping at a kind of food-court for…well, just about everything. And just like at a Food court none of the brands there are really in competition with each other, and since the only thing they have to offer is lower prices, they don’t offer much choice in quality. Or product.
And absolutely no choice in service.
What would it be like to shop in a shopping mall, where all of the stores were independent, owner-operated and focused on you? Where the manager was the owner, and not some multinational corporation? Where the products were, for the most part, locally made? A shopping mall that worked like the Restaurants in downtown Seattle?
Well, for one thing, you would have a lot more choice. Because every shop in that open-source shopping mall would be offering its own products. Did you know that most of the mall stores have their clothing manufactured in the same factories in China, or Macau or Indonesia? I mean, not just in the same countries, in the same FACTORIES. And the only thing that changes is the label and the price tag.
Lots of choice.
And the corporations have no incentive to change in any way, because they are bound by law to maximize their profit margin. They don’t need to offer you choice or quality or service because you no longer have an option.
Except that you do. For every MacDonn*ls, there is a local burger joint. Here in Seattle we have loads: Dicks, Kidd Valley, Red Mill, Blue Moon, even Red Robin! And they all offer great burgers, at reasonable prices, and they are owned by Seattleites. Dicks gives high school seniors a chance to earn a College Scholarship, serving burgers and fries. Local companies can do that. They don’t have to push up their share value every quarter. All they have to do is sell good food.
Do you want choice, quality, a job? Support Lastwear in its fight against Corporate Colonialism. Shop local. Work local. Support your local jeweler, potter, software developer, game company, whatever. Shop online. Support the makers on Etsy. Once upon a time, the United States was the workshop of the world. We can be again. We don’t need government help, nor the banking of big banks. You can start today, helping small business earn a living. How? Just stop helping the Corporate Colonialists from making a killing.
Now, do you want Green Cake with that Pinkerton? Free pattern? Chips?

Ahoy there folks,
The Steeplejacks are now on sale.

We are currently very low on stock and do not have the fabric to make any more right now so what you see is what you get.
If we meet our goal for the Staying in Business Sale we will certainly be getting more in stock ASAP, but if you want the sale price, you’ll need to act quickly to get the size you want.

The new Teasdales are now up on the website and they’ll be on sale until next monday.
We’ve made a few crucial alterations to the pattern and after testing them out on folks at the Queen Mary we’re very happy to say that the new Fit is a great improvement.
Not content with merely improving the fit, we’ve also increased the number of sizes, adding in a size 18 and a 20.

If you’re an odd size (i.e one of our older versions) we still have some original stock left on Etsy, but for everyone else, the new version is better all round.

With our Staying in Business sale coming along nicely we’re feeling really good about announcing an entire new menswear line for 2012.
Our new collection, while still incorporating many of our current silhouettes, will be taking things in a 1900 to 1930′s direction with Art Nouveau, Deco and Dieselpunks influences.

Something we’re calling Decopunk.

So if you like Flappers and Mobsters, wide pinstripes and crisp lapels, then you’re in for a treat.
Saturday February 11th at Neighbors in seattle we will be debuting an whole new line.
You can pick up tickets here and if you use the code 1920 you’ll be treated to $3 off the regular price.
So come join us for drinks and be the first to see what Lastwear has planned for the future of yesterdays tomorrow!

Event address is

1509 Broadway Seattle, WA 98122

Evening starts at 7pm