The ANOVOS jacket was held back to explore real leather as opposed to faux like originally planned
That's what they appear to be telling folks at Cons, but when I asked their customer service reps through the online chat, they denied it. Last time I mentioned it, I was even told that they had
never considered doing it in leather and that they were
not looking into it. I was also told (within the time it would take to ship them from Asia to the US) that the jacket was on schedule to ship by the 20th of March, which didn't happen. I contacted them online a couple days ago and was told that an announcement would be coming "soon". The latest info from Wondercon seems to be that they
are in fact switching to leather, which would be really cool (saves me tearing down the jacket myself and changing to real leather).
I'm usually for giving them a
lot of leeway when things get delayed and people riled up, since they are a small-ish fan-run outfit and dealing with manufacturing in places like Asia can be very difficult, when you aim for high quality and accuracy. (We on the RPF are used to quibbling and agonizing over small details, and sometimes a manufacturer will deliver something that barely resembles what you asked for.) I have several or their Trek uniforms and a couple helmets, and the quality continues to be outstanding. But they
do seem to have ongoing communication difficulties and would probably benefit from adopting a policy of brutal honesty. As someone who has dealt with very devoted and demanding fans (games industry...), I have learned the hard way that things can get pretty ugly when the communication from a company becomes inconsistent and rumors get started.