Thank you so much for your input guys. A few points;
* The difference in appearance between nickel & chrome is fairly obvious "in the flesh" so to speak. It's difficult to capture on camera, as much of the difference is in how it reflects light. if we could economically source our own nickel hoops to the same quality as our hardware, there would be no choice to be made.
I'm a nickel guy too, although chrome is cool too
* Cases. We've hooked up with the guys at Protection Racket to offer a full range of cases to go with the Origin range of drums. We can't sell them separately, but we can offer them at very attractive prices with our drums. PR are hesitant to work with us on branding for now, but the PR guys will be at LDS, so I'll have another crack at coming to some agreement on that
I don't want to consider other case companies right now, as I genuinely believe
Performance Racket are the very best there is. Their new hard/soft cases are just superb!
Who? Must be the long days Andy!
* Offering both chrome & nickel options actually have minimal cost implications for us, outside of order planning. The chrome plated units go through exactly the same process as the nickel plated pieces, just the additional process of chrome plating over the nickel at the end.