Shopping

pink rider

So, I've been told us ladies are supposed to love shopping, yet the majority of women that come into the bike shop I work at (with a reasonable amount of ladies kit) are with their OH's and have no interest in bikes.
Heres the crack... We're undergoing a re-fit and I'm on the verge of pitching for a budget to re-design a specific women's area - and I don't mean just shrinking and pinking it!
But after taking a day to watch who comes into the store I'm not sure if it'll work and I need your help..
Do you ladies buy kit from local bike shops? Do you care where it's placed and how the shop looks? Would a female-friendly designed area be inviting or patronising?

I'd love to show the boys that us girls are worth investing in but I also don't want to be pissing away valuable riding time on something that wont pay off so your thoughts and comments would be huuuugely appreciated.

Cheers
Sarah x

benpinnick

Sarah, heres my tip - Based on your assertion that most women entering into you shop are OH's, how about broadening your range to include more of the fashion items that some of the manufacturers make. My wife for example doesn't ride, but will always happily accept a Howies t-shirt, or similar as a bribe when I want to buy something.

On the actual riding kit, you'll need a female comment I am afraid, can't help you there.

suzyb

I think it may depend on what you mean by female friendly. By trying to deliberatly target the area towards women you may end up patronising them although you do say you're not pinking it.

For kit though yes I would shop at a LBS for it. Mainly because with clothes you need to try things on, or at least I need to try things on as one size from one manufacturer is completely different then the same size from another.

I think it could be a good idea mind you. If all the ladies model bikes were in the same area as the ladies clothes but without the shopper types being the main focus.

I know that's a bit of a brain fart but I'm just out of bed.

grant43

whats an OH??

wheelygood

I don't usually shop for clothing at the LBS cos they don't carry a broad enough range of stuff and in sizes a normal woman needs. I despair of finding sufficient technical stuff. I had one shop tell me he didn't wnat to get into women's clothing provision cos we ladies apparently spend too long over choosing stuff!!! I think offering women ' fashion' cycling items is very patronising and it would put me off - we girls need good quality useful kit like our men folk get - shorts that don't come up to your waist are very fashionable but u/s on a bike! And it is no good offering us stuff as 'unisex' - have you ever seen a unisex person? On saying that I recently got a great pair of ladies road shoes from an LBS - but I had to order them and hope that they fitted ok and that I liked them! But please do persist in getting a good range of ladies clothing and shoes and once the word spreads I would imagine yuor shop will get a good name - and especially if there is a lady member of staff to assist.

miss notax

I agree with the comments above, although I personally wouldn't mind the more fashion stuff as well as good technical clothes. I like buying casual stuff too, and you often see it in more male-orientated cycling shops so why not

I would like to see a lady cyclist in the shop too who was knowledgeable about the kit, and a wide range of sizes etc. If that could be achieved I would be prepared to travel so that I could try and buy kit in one go (as opposed to ordering online and sending some back).

Good luck!

climbingpixie

benpinnick wrote:

Sarah, heres my tip - Based on your assertion that most women entering into you shop are OH's, how about broadening your range to include more of the fashion items that some of the manufacturers make. My wife for example doesn't ride, but will always happily accept a Howies t-shirt, or similar as a bribe when I want to buy something.

On the actual riding kit, you'll need a female comment I am afraid, can't help you there.

Please can you NOT do this!!! There is little enough space devoted to women's stuff as it is, without a load of it being devoted to fashion clothing rather than technical gear.

FWIW I don't understand why you would need to 'design' a women's section, why not just stock more clothing for women? I would like to buy more clothing etc from my LBS but it tends to be a constant disappointment that the vast majority of bike shops have a tiny token amount of women's gear, most of which is decidedly bottom of the range. I went to my LBS today, looking for a pair of bib shorts and they had one single pair in stock for women, in one size (luckily the right size for me). If I'd been a bloke I could have taken my pick from about 8-10 different pairs, in a range of prices and sizes. And this is from probably the most female friendly bike shop in West Yorkshire, most other shops I've tried don't even have bib shorts for women! The limited selections available in most shops ends up pushing women towards the internet for shopping, which then feeds this viscious circle that bike shops don't see enough female traffic to justify selling more women's gear.

supersonic

I'd love to show the boys that us girls are worth investing in

Buy yer own! Why rely on HIM to buy it?! ;-)

DanielleT

I tend to buy online when it comes to getting biking clothes. LBS just do not cater for ladies in my area, they have one or two select items if at all. The items they may stock do not appeal to me what with me being more into DH rather than the lycra clad clan!

It would be nice to see LBS stock more for ladies, I don't think a specific area in the shop is needed with blazing signs and pinkness flashing. Just a good selection from all areas of cycling, not just road stuff, and a bit of fashion wouldn't go amiss. I do also like to buy hoodies and t-shirts such fom brands such as Fox, IXS, O'neil etc etc.

I think the problem is the area that I live in, there aren't many girls that like riding at all, so bike shops don't see it good buisness sense to stock a large amount of ladies kit as its just going to sit on the shelves! And for that reason i'll probably continue to order online, plus it tends to be discounted which helps when you have to send stuff back.

Thewaylander

To be honest you have to ask yourself,

In the shops area is there enough women to support a solid trade in womens gear?

And sadly with the number of women involved in the sport the answer is probably no. i'd like to see more people of both sexes getting into the sport but simply most women are not interested for some reason or the other. And the simple thing for a shop is to make money, if you can appeal to an audience of hundreds of people or 5 what do you choose to make a profit?

.blitz

One of our lbs mixes the products instead of having a separe section for the ladies e.g. gloves - waterproof, windproof, thick, thin, mens, ladies - they are all displayed alongside one another. Same with lids, shoes, clothing etc. it seems to work quite well.

The ladies products have their own err...unique styling so there's no chance of getting mixed up 'Ere Dave come and look at Bazza in this top it really suits 'im

Konalisa120

Not sure if this helps but out of lots of biking kit, I have just one ladies t-shirt, a ladies jacket and a gillet. The rest of my kit is guys stuff including shoes, shorts and tops.

I always have a gander at the ladies section in shops but to me it is limited and the clothes are ill fitting / not practical and not great colourwise.

IMHO you'd be best getting smaller sizes of the guys stuff. If this were the case I'd defo buy more from shops rather than the thinterweb

suzyb

Or larger sizes of the guys stuff depending on the fatness of the women you intend to cater for.

ddraver

My local shop in the UK, Certini Cycles, has a separate section for womens clothing but this is in the Specialised concept store area of the shop (which is where all the clothing is) so I don't know who does the shop designing and such...

I took my friends in to show it off as it's a good shop but my mate's missus was still reasonably dissapointed in the options there, however this may be the fault of the companies just not doing enough stuff....?!

pink rider

Wow thanks for all the replies folks.
So it looks like what the shop stocks is the most important thing, I like the idea of some casual gear as personally I love all the girls fox and sombrio etc. hoodies and Tees. I even prefer riding in a normal tee at the mo as it hides all my wobbly bits a bit better than all those technical fabrics.

Thanks for all your help so far, just another quickie that might help me with stock... Whats your favourite piece of cycling clothing (casual or technical) and why?

Cheers x

miss notax

I'm a big fan of Altura and Endura, but also Loeka from Canada and Ground Effects from New Zealand :shock:

I think Ground Effects only sells direct, but Loeka is available elsewhere and is very well designed ladies specific MTB clothing. It's not cheap but I would rather pay a bit more for really well designed kit that doesn't make my bum look the same size as a family car

MissBint37

Konalisa120 wrote:

Not sure if this helps but out of lots of biking kit, I have just one ladies t-shirt, a ladies jacket and a gillet. The rest of my kit is guys stuff including shoes, shorts and tops.

I always have a gander at the ladies section in shops but to me it is limited and the clothes are ill fitting / not practical and not great colourwise.

IMHO you'd be best getting smaller sizes of the guys stuff. If this were the case I'd defo buy more from shops rather than the thinterweb

This ^^ The women's stuff often doesn't fit me anyway!!!