Just wanted to give public thanks to Emilio De Soto for amazing customer service. This happened a couple months ago, before I joined this forum. I ordered directly from his closeouts page (http://www.desotosport.com/wetsuits/salewetsuits.asp) and somewhat to my surprise got personal attention from Emilio in ensuring proper fit and my satisfaction through the whole buying process. It was an odd experience for me, because I had thought, when buying directly from the last-year’s model bargain basement, that I was giving up the layer of expertise and customer-service I’d expect paying full retail at a local shop, but Emilio took better care of me on this low-margin deal than any shop ever has.
The irony is that my wife (the suit was for her) just couldn’t stand the pullover top, so after all Emilio didn’t make the sale. It broke my heart to send it back to him–but again, he was extremely nice, and took it back even though at first he thought she had gone out and raced in it. (She hadn’t, I promise!)
I know that the T1 already gets plenty of good press on this site, and honestly I can’t speak for it–have never even tried one on, much less swum in one. (I did notice that the stitching and seams and the rubber were all flawless on this suit.) But I can say that dealing with Emilio was one of the more pleasant customer experiences I’ve ever had, even though I was a bad customer. So I highly recommend dealing with De Soto, and would buy a T1 myself if I didn’t already have a perfectly good QR suit.
I have two tribibs, a zip jersey, power tri shorts, that cool bucket hat, and a power skinsuit on the way - you can get some great deals on the desoto website right now…my wife has tri shorts, gloves and a support tri top on the way - - oh yeah and one of those hats too
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Ditto the props for De Soto.
A few years back, I ordered a T1 from their website. I was pleasantly suprised when they called to verify my fit and went through a series of questions to make sure it was the right suit for me.
I’d definitely buy another suit from them if I was in the market.
I have a T1, bib shorts, running hat, arm coolers and I now have a new neoprene seat cover that I haven’t tried yet. The only complaint that I have is that I feel the center seam on the bibs on a longer ride on my tri bike.* (or any trishort-except my older Sugois) I wish he had the seamless crotch on the men’s short like he has on the women’s. Maybe next year.
Not a problem on my road bike.
When a wanted the legs on my wetsuit shortened, I happened to be going to San Diego for vacation and I called ahead and they fixed them on the spot. NO CHARGE. I was expecting to pay.
Oh! yeah. I got a Tres sleeveless top for warmer, wetsuit-legal swims.
Add yet another ditto. When I bought my first (and only) tri wetsuit in 2003, how surprised was I that Emilio called me personally (twice) to help me make sure I got the fit right. I was even buying a mismatched suit at sale prices (Dos Top & T1 bottom). Fit was perfect and I’ve made many more DeSoto purchases since then.
I can’t resist piling on here. The only clothing I wear that isn’t made by DeSoto are some favorite jerseys, but I do wear DeSoto jerseys, too. Last Saturday I did my first race in my new skinsuit and new T1 wetsuit. Both worked wonderfully.
I’ve talked to Emilio on a few occasions about fit, and his advice has always been spot on. Indeed, I once e-mailed him about how to clean my rec.sport.triathlon singlet, which at that point I had worn in every race I’d ever done, which amounted to about six years’ worth. He wrote back saying in so many words, “Get a life.” He was right.
