Feather Hair Extensions

[Mike O]

You can google this, it's amazing.

On another board there is a discussion of the use of feather hair extensions and how it is reducing the amount of genetic hackle available on the market.

I would like to hear from the guys at the shop as to whether this is happening locally?

Mike

[Andy Guibord]

It is very true. We are selling more hackle to these hair designers than fly tiers.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

It is so big that it has actually exhausted the inventory in the United States right now.

Whiting Euro rooster saddle patches are the most popular in grizzly and also grizzly died wild colors.

Right now almost none are available through all the normal distributions.

They like really thin, long rooster grizzly saddle hackles so it won't affect all the fly tying feather market.

The Whiting Euro grizzly rooster saddle patches have just gone up from $37.00 to $60.00 but none are available yet.

The dancing girls in places like Los Vegas will pay much more for the big perfect plumage than us fly tiers so this is nothing new.

The hair dressers charge ~$10.00 per feather, installed in your hair......

[Hogan Brown]

a Buddy of mine at a fly shop in the bay was selling his old hackles for $3 a feather to hair dressers under the table...do the math a whitting 100 packet $300!!!!! He said he made more selling his old hackle then he did working in an hour. Fly shop was cool with it as it allowed the shop to keep their hackle stock up for actual tiers.

[Jay Murakoshi]

Talk about feathers..... The wholesaler ( Swafef & Son ) who sells to Wapsi, Hareline, etc is just down the street from where I live. I've been there a number of times and I'm still amazed at all the feathers, long and short. They were telling me that most of the business is to costume designers. Also a large company where I use to purchase my 8" white, black and red strung saddle hackles did the same thing. Fly tying materials is just a spare time project for them. I have a few pounds of yellow, red and chartreuse marabou. Fantastic feathers and great vibriant color.

Jay

[Rich Leonetti]

I saw a girl buy 680 bucks worth of hackle the other day..... and I thought when I spent 100 bucks on tying materials I was nuts.

[Bob Laskodi]

Almost all fly tying materials originate from the clothing/textile industries and are products made for costume/clothing manufacturers. The amount of this stuff that actually ends up in tyers hands is miniscule compared to those uses, and the fly tyers market is small potatoes.

[coolrivertx]

The shop I worked at in Austin sold more Eurohackles to women than the tyers! I had about six that would come in regularly and drop $100 -$200. I would talk to Tom Mullin at Whiting, and he would always be out of the hot colors. With the price increase, that might take a little wind out of their sails.

[Steelie-Stalker]

I saw some girl at my high school the other day with a few pink/green died grizzly hackle feathers in her hair. I kind of did a double take and was like...wait what did i just see?

[k.hanley]

Say hey Maodiver,
It's all true enough. Whiting sent out a two-page letter to all of us on thier tying team. The letter layed out the situation and how it was going to be for the next year.

Fly tying has always been a small part of "the feather industry." The fashion industry rules the roost.
Cheers, Ken