You're only the second person to ask me that but a few have asked Sid, so seeing as someone's asked openly on here, I'll explain the situation. I love the work that I did with Sid and would happily carry on sewing for her and helping her with the shows - she's my mate; but the work load wasn't enough to keep enough money in my pocket. From talking to Sid, she felt that before she might not have been able to cope with the work load alone, but over the past year I've had no work sent my way, so potentially, she knows she can do it herself.
I also felt that I had separate ideas that Sid wasn't sure on as it's her business and her venture, it's her decision to go with her own flow; so White Forest has given me the freedom to produce unique ideas.
There's nothing like customisation up this way and we're on two different ends of the country targetting a wide spread market. I aim to provide different from Sid, as I assume she'll always try to provide different from me; but when it comes down to it, we would help each other; for example, the one supplier requires a minimum order of £100, alone that's hard to achieve, but together, we can help each other get supplies cheaper.
Some people have assumed it's me being a nasty cow or a cheeky sod because Sid taught me how to do the collars; but the rest of the items have been my own venture, my own design and my own calculations; so while I am extremely grateful for what Sid taught me and I always will be, I needed this own venture of my own.
The padding and side straps on mine have helped am lot but it still mucks about if they pull really hard lol.