The disappearance of cloth-backed Cushies continues to mystify me. When Old ABU came out with them, they seemed to be a hot seller. They quickly sold out, and the second batch became the subject of one of Old ABU's famously obnoxious pre-order schemes. Almost everybody on the forums who tried the cloth-backed Cushies seemed to like them, and for a number of us they were an instant favorite. When the new ownership swooped in, I was hopeful that the stock issues would be forever in the past, but instead the cloth-backed Cushies were discontinued. :frown:
And there's been no clear successor (IMO).
I did hear some lame, second-hand explanation--something about difficulties with the tapes? It made no sense to me. I mean, I'd never heard anybody complaining about the tapes on the cloth-backed Cushies. And if it was a production issue--gosh. Don't you try to
fix those? Velcro and Velcro-like materials are everywhere, and it's not like diapers are rocket science.
So I'm not buying that explanation. Presumably the cloth-backed Cushies simply weren't the hot-selling item they appeared to be, and New ABU did what most businesses would do: They followed the money elsewhere. As a member of the cloth-backed-loving minority, I could accept that explanation while still being disappointed.
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For me, the hole left by the cloth-backed Cushies has lately been filled by the Bambino Magnifico. It's not cloth-backed, of course, but the ginormous stretchy sides and Velcro tabs are another feature of modern baby diapers that I've long wished to have on ABDL diapers. My hope is that, sometime soon, Bambino or ABU will mate these sorts of stretchy sides and Velcro tabs with a one-tab-per-side, cloth-backed design. I'll make do with these silly "hybrid" diaper designs for a little while, but I expect better in the long term!