Well, to be honest, I'm sitting here going through your website trying to think of a way to summarize my reaction to it...I'm now reminded how much I hated your website the first time I visited it. I dislike it because it me it's a bunch of uncoordinated and not-thought-through design ideas thrown together, and it hides the real information. The navigation and navigational cues are inconsistent throughout. Things like the site directory pop up in odd places and have odd names. There is an over-emphasis on the "cute" instead of the explanatory. What I really hate about it that it seems so unlike your company's products -- which to me are about tradition, ruggedness, honesty and transparency.
Let me just give you one example.
There is a section on your website called "Company History." It begins with a dictionary definition of "history" (which I have to wait for to scroll up on my screen). That was a trick we all used when we were 12 years old when we didn't know how to write an essay.
Then, it begins with "Legend has it..." and proceeds to tell a version of how the Brooks company was started. But I'm left wondering -- is it "legend" or is it real? Surely you know but aren't saying? And then, after the briefest bit of details about the "legend," the "history" devolves into a kind of glossy statement of nostalgia or feelings or beliefs or something; I really can't bear to read it.
It's just awful, and so dishonest it makes me suspect what you are up to on the website. A section on company history, in my view, should just directly tell us the history of the company. Sure, throw in some lofty statement of goals and ideals, but can we get the real history of the company? Was it really started by a person named Brooks? Surely in the past 150 years the company has gone through many changes -- made other products -- been bought, sold, restructured many times -- etc. You don't need to write a book, but please, be honest -- who owns Brooks? It makes me wonder if you're hiding something (I doubt that you are, but I think it tells me that I am in a website that is not going to play straight with me...instead, I've landed in hype-land. So, do I believe in your tips on maintenance of my Brooks saddles...or are you just trying to sell me more Proofhide? I think credibility matters.)
(BTW, in 30 seconds of searching, I found this: here's an honest, straightforward company history:
http://www.philwood.com/phistory.htm )
My advice to you is fire your design staff and go out to the factory and get 5 people on the line to tell you whether they can find their way around the website; ask them what they would like to see on the website; and have them diagram it for you. Then build exactly what they tell you to build, and throw all the glitz away.