"Signature" dropouts vs Hooded dropouts

[sirvelo]

I recently had an interesting chat with a discerning gentleman on the topic of dropouts.

As you'd expect from someone who has had an extensive experience with various custom bikes, he had some fairly strong opinions, but what struck me the most was him regarding any builder that uses hooded (breezer) dropouts to be inferior than those using proprietary "signature" dropouts.

His point was that using third-party dropouts didn't quite make the bike "100% custom", and in his view, having a "signature" dropout was what set the so-called "master builders" (Kirk, Sachs, Serotta, Firefly, Vanilla etc etc) apart from the rest. He went on to say that, although he's had a few Pegorettis, he never regarded Dario to be in the same leagues as Kirk or Sachs for this reason.

I think his point is valid to some extent, and of course there is an increasing number of brands now using signature dropouts thanks to 3D printing (No 22, Breadwinner, Stinner, Moots etc).

But I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that the builders who don't have a signature dropout to be inferior, especially when there are so many reputable builders such as Baum, English, Mosaic and Bingham using hooded (or variants of it) dropouts.

So - is having a signature that an important and meaningful standard that sets builders apart, or is this another look-at-me-I-know-more-than-you custom bike wankery?