So if there are only 5 going to be sold, and the aim is to produce the best protective glove to improve safety - does our opinion on those aesthetics matter? As we're then not really the target market for such a product.
I'd say the voices here are exceptionally relevant regardless of wether anything i design under my own name sell more than a few units. It doesn't mean that the design isn't going to be used under a different name.
Also "target market" makes my skin itch... its always people... things like statistics in product development or for that matter any form of marketing leave huge holes. People vary even if they are the ones you feel would be potential customers... they are always people.
I'll try them out for you Marcus. I'm not afraid of something that looks different. Even if I don't need the protection.
Thanks Tim, you seem to be my first port of call for most of the items i introduce... edna says hi!
But it may seem odd that an independent would go to such lengths and personal cost, but larger companies with a following rarely break that trend of introducing the radical. This trend is slightly bucked by kooks but not through to completion. A rather brave but lazy attempt. I can tell you that glove will be one of the best for proximal, intermediate and distal phalanges on fingers 4/5 (i know the thumbs isn't strictly a finger but is gets counted all the same). The issue is that with a mounted slab with no fixing its a moving plate. Closer to a poor sparring mitt. But where it gains in protections from certain angles it loses on others and the shock value for the most common injury will be no better than a very high end three part sausage glove.
In truth most items produced in the cricket world are above most of us as players, we all have equipment that is not comparable to our standard as a player. We simply choose the best because we can or that it gives us a buzz and its something we can discuss. If it werent so, grade 3 willow would be selling very well, but we can't quite bring ourselves to use something considered by many to be a poorer quality than the man next to us.
My only argument is if this is the trend then i would like to ensure that people who will pay to have what is considered to be the best actually do so with products of safety and get substance to match the price point.
It may no be everyones cup of tea, but i wear a certain lid because it offers me quantifiably the best levels of protection. I want to see that as an option for each area of cricket protection and thank fully others do to. Hence me doing and using the polarised view of the forum to gauge the extreme/aware view of a new item along with convention testing with online research companies like Toluna.
All in all i wanted people to know that something was being progressed other than what colour swatch can i change this year and where shall i place the badge?... More can be done... so i am.