I've put it out there before... if someone wants to do this (design a clip you think is the cat's meow), I'll supply the drawings and technical specs they need to get it done. We gave Your Little CNC shop the drawings for the bezel so they could make titanium tritium bezels. We even sent them the lens cushions to put in them for free. I offered Simon (Ozythemandias) the same with his HDSRB project (and he is learning the headaches of getting anything machined within spec as we speak... or write... or post rather). We recently sent the machining specs to another member in Europe who wishes to do a different bezel design.
If someone requests this info, and we think they are capable of making it happen, we have no problem with it. We don't want royalties or any such BS.
Up until 2.5 years ago, HDS was one guy... Henry. I just bitched long enough about delays that he told me to put up or shut up. So now HDS is two people, and one of them you DO NOT want engineering anything. Trust me. Hell, I'm supposed to be customer service and I tell folks to (edited as this is a family friendly forum) off all the time. It's a good thing I am also Human Resources as it makes it easy for me to talk to myself about my behavior and attitude on a daily basis. I have to read the emails that come in complaining about me, then sit down with myself and give myself a stern talking to.
If you think HDS isn't listening, you are not paying attention. We just don't listen to everyone. I say we, but really it is me. If I think it is a good idea, I pass it along to Henry. A lot of crap doesn't get by me. While I don't have a filter on my mouth, I do filter the suggestions. Most all the special emitters were suggested by someone else... Most, but not all. If I actually listened to everyone on the forum, there would be no NLT, which has been one of the best selling emitters we have had. Just go back to
THIS thread and see. The special metal runs, with the exception of the BeCu, were all suggested and requested by customers. People asked for the electronic lock-out back and look... it is back. Find ANY other flashlight company that listens even 1/10th as to what we do and I'll be impressed... but there are a lot of bad ideas out there as well.
Timing can also be a huge issue. Stainless steel switch cap... that was requested years ago. I had to wait until the right time to make it happen and in a way where it wouldn't be cost prohibitive AND make sure it actually added strength and value to the light that would offset the slightly higher cost of producing it AND convince Henry of all of this. And of course, the first thing that happened was some bitching about the color of black military nitride switch caps (on another place on the web) were not the same black as black hard anodizing AND complaints that 303 stainless (same as the bezel) was used and not some other stainless steel. It is like when a new emitter comes out, it doesn't matter what the temperature is, someone will always want a warmer or a cooler one. It isn't that we don't listen, but we cannot implement everyone's suggestions, nor would we want to. Too many cooks and whatnot.