I am racing my first IM this Sunday in Cozumel. I have never been to a WTC event, and was wondering what is my best bet for buying merchandise? At the expo, or wait a while and buy online through http://ironmanstore.com/, perhaps at a discount?
Was curious if there are things offered at the expo that I would not be able to purchase later.
Thanks.
For a lot of items, they print so many shirts/hats/cat booties/tire wrenches/etc. The leftover items are what is offered online. So if you see something you like, you should get it this weekend.
Best of luck! Enjoy the race.
Echo the previous comment. At IMFL recently, there were some cool (warm!) beanies with the logo at the race. When the temp dropped, they sold out, and there were none to be had online afterwards. If you see something you want at the race, get it!
And good luck. Did the race in 2011-loved the swim!
Unless things have changed recently, any discount on-line will be DESTROYED by their insane shipping prices.
Echo the previous comment. At IMFL recently, there were some cool (warm!) beanies with the logo at the race. When the temp dropped, they sold out, and there were none to be had online afterwards. If you see something you want at the race, get it!
And good luck. Did the race in 2011-loved the swim!
And buy BEFORE the race. I wanted some stuff at Tahoe and waited until after the race. Well, everything had to be thrown out because of the smoke so I guess I saved some money.
.
every so often nice discounts are offered online.
Buy it there. Unlike the NA races, the merchandise from Cozumel or Los Cabos haven’t been available online - at least not in the years that I’ve done them. Also, I found in the 2 years that I raced Cozumel that if you want to buy any finishers stuff you need to buy it race day after the race. I did the race last in 2012, so maybe it’s changed, but in the 2 years that I did the race they pretty much sold out of finishers stuff by the morning after the race. The expo is much smaller and different then a NA IM. If you see something you want get it before the race!
Don’t go crazy buying too many things before the race. The day after, or sometimes the evening of, they put out all the finisher shirts, jackets, etc. So you may want to buy a couple things before and maybe some finisher stuff after.
Another thing to consider is that, in my experience, the line ups are really long on registration days (Thu-Fri) and not too bad on Sat (assuming a Sun race).
Wait a month or two for that crap will be half off.
Wait a month or two for that crap will be half off.
x2 but only if you are size Small or 2XL…
and if you are size small, some items maybe too small, some too large, some just right. I picked up tshirt, polo, hoodie on clearance. polo fits like large, tshirt xsmall, hoodie just right. Just because it says IM doesn’t mean it was QC’ed per the sizing chart.
here in mexico we have learned that if you see it and you want it, you buy it because you will never see it again. i have actually asked stores, “why don’t you carry x?” and been told “too many people were buying it - we couldn’t keep it in stock.” (now that just makes sense to me, so i have obviously been here too long. :))
so, long story short, if you see it and you want it, get it. don’t wait.
one year (2012) there was a mexican company selling some finisher stuff online but it came out many months afterwards.
Wait a month or two for that crap will be half off.
x2 but only if you are size Small or 2XL…
Last years finishers jackets are in all sizes at $39 down from $99. Heck, if a shirt or jacket are too large, cut them to shreds and add some style by tying knots on the sides to size.