Sleevehead is an investment in the future of emerging and talented artisans flying under the radar. They often provide tremendous value but lack a platform to grow their brands, increase awareness and share their craft.

A shared discussion forum would go a long way to creating value for everyone. But running a discussion forum incurs recurring costs (i.e. web hosting and licensing costs) needed to run a secure and reliable instance of the forum and membership software.

Beyond that, Sleevehead Forum incurs travel expenses needed to encourage and educate artisans to take advantage of the opportunity. Many tailors still do not have websites and have no commercial experience or presence on the web. Critical to launch success is meeting with artisans face-to-face to invite and secure their understanding, cooperation and follow-through.

To cover startup and ongoing costs, some forums charge sellers a substantial monthly fee. However, I don’t believe this model works well in our case, especially for emerging tailors who are trying to build both awareness over a long sales cycle. Perhaps this might change over time. If a seller fee is added at some point, it will be a reasonable fixed fee or a variable fee proportional to their business activity on the Forum.

For now the reverse model seems more fair and reasonable. Interested participants such as consumers and business partners would pay a modest fee for exclusive access to content and conversations with a small group of world-class artisans and tailors.

Consumers and interested parties can access the forum by: (1) Purchasing a copy of SGST (any edition) which includes complimentary membership and access to the forum or (2) Buying a separate membership.

You are participating in the rediscovery and growth of the most important heritage tailoring tradition after Savile Row and Naples. For the first time, readers of SGST can now follow-up with Sicilian artisans in a single convenient space.

The forum will eventually offer access to all the Sicilian tailors and artisans covered in the book as well as serve as a platform for discovering new ones, crowdsourced by the community as well as by me.

Artisans will benefit from being able to reach a much larger audience than previously available. Moreover, you will be to cultivate your brand and relationships directly. 

Longer term, the Forum will become the definitive resource and archive documenting the history and methods of tailors and artisans in Sicily and beyond. In addition to helping active tailors, I hope to initiate and grow dedicated topics/conversations on retired tailors and “past masters” and encourage their former customers, relatives and coworkers to contribute content.

Forum membership is complimentary to all purchasers of Sleevehead’s Guide to Sicilian Tailors in any version or edition. If you bought the e-book, you will be sent an invitation to join. The same goes for buyers of the current edition in paperback or hardcover purchased from the Sicilian Reserve and Sleevehead websites.

If you bought the paperback or hardcover through a third-party retailer, I unfortunately do not have a record of your receipt or transaction since I was not the merchant of record.

However, if you email me a copy of the original receipt to [email protected], I will be happy to send a forum invitation.