OK, first item--I do have a comment about Alessi Holsters, but I will get to that just a little later. Forgive me if I may break a few of the "unwritten rules of forums", yet I am a new member to the Smith & Wesson Forum, just joined today and I noticed this subject right off the bat; therefore, this is my first post to the S & W Forum. I read all of the previous comments, and I must say, you seem to be a bunch of good, intelligent, and knowledgeable people, especially in this area of conversation--proud to be associated with each and everyone of you.

My input: I guess we all have our favorite holster maker(s), mine is located back in the woods of Alabama near Springville (Kenny Campbell--KC Custom Gunleather). KC has made me close to 20 holsters (counting the ones he is currently making) and I have about 6 more I need to order from him--could be more since I have my eye on three new additions to my collection (incidentally all of the new additions are made by S & W).

A little about Kenny, KC apprenticed under the infamous recluse (other peoples' words not mine), Thad Rbyka. Interestingly, KC does not have an Internet presence. He does business the old fashion way, word-of-mouth. You have to call or write him, or you could do what I do...get in the car and go see him at his place--he has some good stories to tell. I first heard of KC from Mr. Kenny Jordan who works at Shotgun Sports, HW 431 in Anniston, Alabama and he owns several of KC holsters. Since I have bought a lot of my firearms from Mr. Jordan, I take his advice readily and he was on the money about KC holsters. As stated earlier, I always travel to his place in the woods and work with him in his shop picking the leather and the design of the holster I want (picked up a holster just last week for a Walther PPS 9mm in pigskin--don't laugh--it is a heck of a good rig).

Now with that said, I do buy holsters made by other craftsmen--DeSantis, Bianchi, Galco, Mitch Rosen, and others (yes, I do have a lot of holsters--one/two for each gun). Yesterday, before I joined the forum, I went online and looked over the Alessi Holsters (I have done this on several previous occasions, but finally had the urge to buy) and decided to order some shoulder holsters (KC has taken shoulder holsters out of his line). I talked with the person who answered (Laura?) and I finally got to a question that needed Tom's assistance. Tom was out, yet when he returned he called me right away, discussed my holster needs, came up with a very good solution to meet my needs. I even got a 10% discount for some reason, probably due to something I said in my conversation or it must be my wit. When I asked about billing, Tom told me they would call me when my order was completed and get my shipping address and billing information and they would bill me at the time they shipped the order. I thought, "Hey, this is pretty good, pay for the product when it is ready and not before." KC does the same thing, so I like the setup Alessi has, and they treated me better than family. Now, with that said, I admit that the wait time I was told is 6-8 weeks, but hey, I think we all have to wait to get good custom made holsters. Heck, we will wait weeks--even several months--to get a gun made, repaired, or "tricked out." I have had some places tell me the lead time for a holster is 16-20 weeks, and frankly I do not care about the wait time as long as I get a quality holster--so, all-in-all, not a bad experience. I will keep you posted on the rest of this story, but hey, so-far-so-good.