As you probably know Vic has played our strings for many years now and before that he played d"Addarios. He has now gone back to them. Before he did the deal with d'Addario he came and discussed it with us -- as a friend. Although he plans on "always" playing our instruments, the reality is that when it comes to strings, as a much, much larger company than Fodera, d'Addario has the ability to support the work that Vic is doing at Wooten Woods to a far greater extent than we are able to. They have global distribution and a huge marketing budget...we are just a little shop in Brooklyn.
"Leaving" our strings for d'Addario helps support the greater good and has our blessing (not that Vic needed it!). As someone that has personally experienced a week at Wooten Woods, this is significant. It is a special place doing some simply amazing things for people and musicians.
Thanks for posting this Jason. It's reassuring to know that Vic left for marketing & business development reasons and not because he was somehow dissatisfied with Fodera strings.