Podium Master Thread

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This thread is the Podium Master Thread for you to discuss intel on product offerings at the Podium event.

For reference, here's a brief primer on Podium Order (PO) vs Special Order (SO):

Podium Order

i thought pos aren't really an "order" yet, until it is approved by paris, hence they can only "cancel" it after the order has been placed by the sm (not the client).

According to my sas, whom have explained the whole podium process with me quite clearly. (things can differ a little from country to country, but i think the general picture is the same)

1) regular clients submit/express their "wishlist" to the sms before they go off to paris at each podium. But you don't have to do it in jan/jun, you can tell them i really want x anytime, say in march (just after the feb podium), and the sm will just have to note it down, and then order it at the next podium (july), so the wait to see whether this order has been approved is, of course, a lot longer than say, if you have told the sm in jan. At this point, this is still a "wishlist", not an "order". I know people like to say that "i am going to order this and that", but bare in mind, nothing is an "order" until paris has approved it, before then, it is still your "wishlist".

2)the sms take this wishlist to the podium with them, and see what's availabld to order, then match this with the wishlist and submit their orders for the next season. (feb for aw, july for ss)

3) once these orders have been approved by paris, they will become an "ordered book/list", which are all the items that the store will/should receive for the entire coming season. Hence, everything on this list is "approved", so if your item appears on this list, then it is now an order. So your sm will be able to tell you whether the item you have asked for has been approved or not at this stage.

4)as you can see, this order list is for next season, so there is at least a 6month wait for whatever you've ordered. Some people said they've only waited a month after they have submitted their "order", but to my understanding, it is not the item that the sm has ordered for this client at this particular podium, it is merely an item from the current or past season, which hasn't been spoken for, and has just arrived and happened to match the client's "wishlist", hence, was offered to this client, so she didn't have to wait for the one which the sm has ordered for next season to arrive.

5)sometimes, things that the sms have ordered just never arrive at the store for no reason, some are actively canceled by paris, some are delayed for more than 2 seasons.(aka pending orders from previous seasons) so i guess, you can call all these scenarios as an order being canceled by paris.

6) clients are generally told that pos take 6months ~2 years to arrive, because the order can be delayed for many seasons, but most of the stock should arrive within the next season

7) special order is a totaly different route, and hence whatever i have written does not apply to sos.

8) every country has a different policy for their "waitinglist" or "list" (however you want to call it)

a) some store let a very small amount of client to choose from their ordered stock list for the coming season, (but you can only choose from certain colours/leather/size/hw) so the chance of getting what you have chosen is very high.

B)some stores from time to time ask their clients what they want, and keeps a list of client name with their "wishes", and may use this as their guide at each podium, but you can submit your wishlist in ss11, but sm might not have ordered it till ss12, so you dont' know how long you'll wait for this item. Not everyone can go on this list.

C)some stores (like taiwan) let everyone put their wishlist down, you don't have to be a regular client to submit your wishlist. It is a merely a record of clients who wants b/ks. They don't use it to make orders at the podium, it is not an order list, not a waitinglist, it does not mean you will get this item for sure, it is just a client list, just in case one day a vip turns down a bag that the sm has ordered for her, the sas will then go to this list, and call those who also wanted the same bag.

9) can you change your order once it has been placed at the podium? I am not 100% sure about this, but my guess is no, once it is ordered by the sm and once the sm has left paris, it can't be changed. But if you are lucky, if there's something else that matches your criteria in the same poidum ordered list, and hasn't been spoken for, then the sm might offer that bag to you, or if you are a vip, they will re-order it for you at the next podium.

Ok, keep in mind, this might not apply to all stores and even whatever the sm has ordered, might be altered by paris without prior notice. (ie changing the hw, or the size or the leather etc)

Special Order


I have explianed previously how POs worked; Now I will explain how the current SO works in my country:

SMs are informed the number of b/k they are allocated for next season at each podium. Say a store has 50 b/k, it is up to the SM how many b/k she/he wants to order at the podium. For example 40 was ordered, then the store has 10 quota available for SOs. Which is why SOs are usually ordered after the SMs have returned from Paris. They are also not allowed to order anything "regular" through SOs now, ie if it was available to order at the podium, then such bag should only be ordered at the podium and not hogging up another SO quota. Appeareantly this rule is quite recent.

As we all know, since last year, Hermes introduced this SO online system, which allows SA to submit their applications online and it also tells us what can be ordered. (ie, if it was not an option on that system, then it is not available to order) This system puts a limit on many criterias, so we are not as free as we were in the past to order whatever we want. If you want to order something even more special, then it is customised order, which is so rare that each store only gets 1 quota per season or year (can't remember sorry)

Unlike in the past, you can have many options to play around with the bag in different colours. Now you only have 5 options.

1) single colour in a SO only colour/leather

2)Bi-colour:
a) Exterior in one colour, and lining/piping in another colour (if contrast piping is requested, it has to go with the lining colour. No contrast in piping is accepted)
b) Exterior in one colour, and lining, straps, handles, piping in another colour
c) Exterior in two colours (3 sides/ colour) and lining, straps, handels, piping is the same as the sides.

3)tri-colour:
Exterior in three colours, (2 sides/colour) and lining, straps, handels, piping is the same as the sides.


So, we can no longer get a tri colour in exterior in one colour, straps handles in one and lining in another.

You can still choose the hardwares and the stitching. But again they have a list of available colours for stitching should you want to choose another colour other than the default stitching.

They also removed the option of exotics from SO (as of late 2011). So we will see less and less of tri and bi colours exotics now (I am not sure how these can be ordered now, I didn't ask)

Box was also not on that list (as of late 2011), so box can only be ordered at the podium.

Chevre is only available up to size 30 for Birkin.

The SAs have a list of available colours/leathers, so you can only pick from that list, anything that's not on the list can't be ordered.

You can mix and match any colour as long as they are on the list.

The system will give you an instant approval and also give you a not so accurate ETA date.

However Paris can still cancel it BUT they don't generally do so. So once you are on the sytem, you are quite safe.

What I have just typed doesn't apply to anything that was not ordered through that SO system.

(As of late 2011) The wait is also much much shorter than the past, both of my SOs which were ordered through this sytem, arrived within a year, one of them only took less than 7 months.


Here's an explanation of Podium vs Rack.
 
Gris Pantin (color code P0):

calvi-card-holder--044164CKP0-front-wm-1-0-0-1600-1600-q99_g.jpg

calvi-card-holder--044164CKP0-above-wm-4-0-0-1600-1600-q99_g.jpg

Also, unrelated but since we are talking about new colors, the new Bleu Tie color is genuinely hard to search for photos online because if you search "Hermes Bleu Tie" it shows you...ties from Hermes in blue (duh). But it has shown up in a couple items online by now. Color code is P5.
 
Gris Pantin (color code P0):

View attachment 6121247

View attachment 6121248

Also, unrelated but since we are talking about new colors, the new Bleu Tie color is genuinely hard to search for photos online because if you search "Hermes Bleu Tie" it shows you...ties from Hermes in blue (duh). But it has shown up in a couple items online by now. Color code is P5.
Loooooove this!!
 
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How sure are you that it's gris platine? Only checking because I think that's a 2024 color, and I think there may be another new Gris whose name is actually pretty close to platine. And the shade looks kinda similar to bleu glacier...lol
Because the colour they showed me was more “white” ( similar to Gris Pale) than grey lol
Also because it was written Platine on the back.
Instead Gris Pantin as shown in the calvi just after my post is a true gray and it’s very similar to Gris Mouette to my eyes.
 
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Because the colour they showed me was more “white” ( similar to Gris Pale) than grey lol
Also because it was written Platine on the back.
Instead Gris Pantin as shown in the calvi just after my post is a true gray and it’s very similar to Gris Mouette to my eyes.
It's definitely not a true gray to my eyes I'd say blue gray but less blue than bleu glacier and also a bit darker I think?

The blue is more obvious IRL for me. A couple photos from RED:

IMG_6946.jpeg


IMG_6947.jpeg
 
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How frequently do stores do "podium orders?" And which months? I heard Birkin sellier wasn't a podium order for this season and it's on my wishlist with my SA. My SA implied they are able to get me one but this was earlier and when I saw them recently they did say shipments have been slow but still implied the Birkin sellier could happen. I'm not sure if SAs are kept in the dark about podium orders and mine just didn't know?
 
How frequently do stores do "podium orders?" And which months? I heard Birkin sellier wasn't a podium order for this season and it's on my wishlist with my SA. My SA implied they are able to get me one but this was earlier and when I saw them recently they did say shipments have been slow but still implied the Birkin sellier could happen. I'm not sure if SAs are kept in the dark about podium orders and mine just didn't know?
They happen a couple of times a year and the Store Manager is the one that handles it. No one knows what will be available until they get there. Depending on the SM-SA relationship, some SAs are more clued in to what was available and what their particular store ordered. Some SAs are always in the dark, some are closer with the SM and help with the orders, especially at flagships where SAs are more likely to "own" inventory responsibilities for a specific department of the store. The most recent one was last month.
 
How frequently do stores do "podium orders?" And which months? I heard Birkin sellier wasn't a podium order for this season and it's on my wishlist with my SA. My SA implied they are able to get me one but this was earlier and when I saw them recently they did say shipments have been slow but still implied the Birkin sellier could happen. I'm not sure if SAs are kept in the dark about podium orders and mine just didn't know?

We're still in Spring/Summer 2025? :shrugs: Birkin Sellier wasn't available for podium Fall/Winter 2025. Besides as I mentioned in my post, there's still orders being fulfilled from previous AND current season. Your best bet is to speak to your SA/SM as the latter will definitely be able to affirm how many previous orders are still pending, to be fulfilled.
 
Hi Everyone, I posted a question, but I guess it was deleted and I was told to post here. My SA asked me recently about what bag he could help me find. I wanted something in green. I chose Vert Rousseau. Now I never have seen it in person and I have noticed that this is stitched with a blue thread.

Can anyone tell me if they have Vert Rousseau in Togo and what color blue thread is? I have seen multiple bags on reseller sites. But each time I look at the thread it's different colors on each bag. LOL

I just need a ballpark color of what you think it is. Or maybe I'll go with Vert Veronese, if that color is still available.

Thank you in advance for your help.
 
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For my defective SO, the store informed me that it is only the second time that it happened to them in 18 years (I’m so lucky 😅, it had to happen to me). The past one was 8 months ago and Paris decided to redo the bag, it is still pending.

I learnt what is the process if SO comes defective.

They didn’t let me buy the bag because we saw it in store. Bag was sent to after sale service, so it gets in that queue, it doesn’t get into any priority list as I thought it would.

There they review if they can repair or make another one. It will probably take more than a year at this point.

The store said they could offer me another MK in ostrich if I wanted it sooner, but would need to be what they have available when I go there. I really wanted vert Verone ostrich as my SO, but that color won’t come.

Does anyone know the ostrich colors that are available this season? Thank you ❤️
Sorry to hear that @Angiebbb. As far I understood (but please others chime in to confirm) ostrich should not be available this SO season unfortunately. Wishing you a quick (and satisfactory) resolution to this issue.
 
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Sorry to hear that @Angiebbb. As far I understood (but please others chime in to confirm) ostrich should not be available this SO season unfortunately. Wishing you a quick (and satisfactory) resolution to this issue.
Thank you, they said they could offer me another MK ostrich from their stock when I come, so I am trying to figure out which colors are available this season (not for SO, for stores). Do you know? I only saw MK ostrich Nata on posts. Thank you ❤️
 
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