Firstly I’m not shy on wasting my money on Triathlon trash and trinkets nor skimp on buying the latest carbon shoes (hello Cielo x1 2.0…) or garmin 1050 etc so it’s not that I’m tight or really have an obsession with buying cheap.
But the latest email from Surpas about their new collection really got me questioning the cost of what I think are disposable items - ie training T-shirts and shorts. They don’t last, labels / logos peel pretty quickly, colours fade etc.
80€ for a T-shirt / 70€ for shorts?
Seems a bit excessive to me.
Or is that the norm these days.
Seems like a, regrettably, standard practise nowadays. Especially for premium and premium-aspiring brands.
That being said, for me it’s a pass. I still pay more for functional things: shoes, helmet(s) and triathlon suit(s) (if we stay in the clothing area), but I see no point in paying much for running shorts nor shirts.
Can’t remember the last time I walked into a store…Might have been Decathlon in Pattaya before Covid…These days it is all online…Tri/sport clothing,Bike gear,Camping gear,you name it.
Kogan,Catch or the insanely cheap Temu
I remember now,it was KMart in Busselton after Ironman in 2022. I needed some gear for my ride across the country so bought a $1mug,a $1 cutlery set, a $4 butane cannister, a $13 tent and a $10 HiViz Tradie T-shirt to wear on the ride. (Aussie dollars)
The purpose of this pricing strategy is to make room for the “sponsored” price discounts they give out to connected athletes and make room on top of that for the inevitable 30-40% discounts when things are slow.
If the shorts were always 30 bucks, you might buy them, you might not. When they get marked down to 30 bucks everyone buys them all out right away.
So they make fat margins all year long, and when or if they still have a lot of stock when the next line is finishing production they can drop price.
Otherwise, if they sell at 30 bucks all the time, and it doesn’t sell out, they don’t have much room to discount if they need to cut their prices.
Add in the other stuff about being relatively small volume, increased freight costs, tariffs, etc. etc.
I’m with you. T-shirt and clothing costs now are pretty insane IF you go to name-brand items, like Lululemon, or specialty clothing (triathlon especially) like the brand you mentioned, Surpas.
My wife and daughter like to buy this pricey stuff, and they’ve bought me a few items from Lululemon etc. like $90 t-shirts and shorts. Dead honest, for MEN’s stuff, they’re barely any better than the cheap stuff on Amazon. The women’s stuff they buy however, is pretty nice, with cool stitching and patterns that I think are worth the premium - for the dead-simple men’s stuff though, it’s a total gouge (zero cool stitching, zero special materials or cut.)
If you’re not into getting a proven-aerodynamic suit, you can get a lot of them on Amazon for <$60, and even Aliexpress (from which most of these same Amazon items derive from) for <$30. Please be at least somewhat discerning and don’t try and support any blatant rip-offs from other name-brand companies, though if you go the Aliexpress route.
I wish I could say the Aliexpress suits (2 of 'em) that I bought were terrible quality, falling apart within a couple uses, or fading in the laundry, but they’re holding up WAY better than the Roka suit I bought, which tore a seam in the groin and had the armband elastics all fall out after a few uses - and I abuse the Aliexpress ones in training, whereas I sparingly use them pricey ones. You definitely don’t need the expensive stuff, I’m skeptical as to whether my Castelli suit is any faster than my tight-fitting Alisuit, honestly.
A lot of Aliexpress stuff just sucks (do NOT buy the cheap valve extenders!! They will snap off during inflation when you most need them not to fail on the road and you’re totally stuck since you can’t even use a tool to remove the stuck end!) but I think trisuits and tripads aren’t that hard to do at a functional level, as given my experience.
Unless I’m racing in it OR it is specialized like thermal bib tights there is no way I’m paying anything beyond the generics at the big box stores.
Even my shoes are off of eBay as I buy discontinued models and mostly slightly used store returns.
An elephant with the trunk up in some Asian cultures means luck,prosperity,goodwill,strength,etc,etc,etc. I used it for the logo for a couple of proposed events to be held in Thailand…Sadly,Covid put an end to those plans.
All apparel has gone up significantly over the last 18-24 months.
I was shocked recently when trying to replace my favorite pair of run shorts from Rabbit. Last time I bought them they were $50. They’re now $75. I paid – once I find a short I love, I’m going to keep wearing it – but sheesh.
50€/50$ is where I wouldn’t make much drama for shorts like you, as to T-shirts how they are more expensive seems odd as it’s less complex stitching and different materials than shorts.
@Lurker4 - yeah that is a good point. If they did have a sale day, going down from 80€ is a lot easier than 50€.
Thrift stores for the win! I’ve found an entire collection of cycling jerseys and bike shorts, not to mention just regular running shorts and tops. I’ve even picked up a couple wetsuits, and run across TYR tri suits once.
I rarely pay new for anything. About the only things I’ve bought new was a “sneek a poo” suit for when I did IMAZ. Glad I had it even though never needed that feature. And a Zoot tri suit at the vendor village at IMAZ. Wore that last Sunday for the Miami Tri.
