Hideously Overpriced Casual Cycle Clothing

Boneidle24Seven

Hi,

I'm all for casual cycling kit. especially when commuting or just popping down the shops. I wish here in the UK we had the same approach as they do in the Netherlands, where most people just wear their everyday clothes. I know from experience though that if you are cycling more than a few miles then some kit, like padded shorts under normal shorts make life a little more comfortable.

So I welcome certain brands who are developing an 'urban' range of clothing for those who don't wish to look like they've just dropped off the back of the peloton!

However, there is one UK brand who make some nice looking kit, but their prices are hideously overpriced in my opinion. I'm talking £80 for a merino t-shirt and £55 for a pair of padded underpants. Not to mention a range of jackets, all coming in at around the £300 mark!

Does anyone else think that some of the brands out there are overpriced?

daddy0

Yes.

dhope

Boneidle24Seven wrote:

Does anyone else think that some of the brands out there are overpriced?

Daddy0 wrote:

Yes.

End of thread :twisted:

mrfpb

Are you talking about Vulpine by any chance? I just got some of their trousers from Sport Pursuit reduced from £115 to £45. Worth the £45 as the waterproofing is so good - the mud just falls of them if I go through any puddles (I tend to commute along canal paths). But £115 for a pair of trousers? No chance.

Rapha did a very expensive City range for a while, but I don't look at their website very much anymore. Ted Baker also did a cycling range last year, but it all eventually ended up in the sale at Wiggle. The shorts were nice, and reasonably priced compared to the other brands.

The issue I have with a lot of cycling brands is the lack of size ranges. A lot of them don't offer a decent range of lengths, for example. So Vulpine have two lengths, but the shortest is slightly long for me. I think Rapha offer three lengths now, but there was a time when there "tailored" trousers only came in one length. When I'm paying a premium price, I expect a decent fit.

Hinaultscrapcousin

Why not just name Vulpine? I'm guessing that you have signed up for their newsletter considering you're quoting the prices of their new collection that was released yesterday/today?

The simple answer is if you think it is overpriced then don't buy it. Their prices for their merino products are pretty similar to other brands out there like Rapha, Velobici, De Marchi, Cafe Du Cycliste etc. and the rest of their range seems similarly priced, I think it's a little unfair to single them out.

The market will dictate if their products are worth the money they ask. As with all things clothing related there is the high, low and mid-range parts of the market. I own a few things from Vulpine I have managed to pick up in their sales. Their rain and summer shorts are brilliant, the quilted gilet I bought as a general thing to wear is excellent when out on the bike in cold, dry weather, their merino jerseys are pure merino and work better for me under a jacket than a Rapha or a Torm sportwool jersey and they merino and silk socks are the most comfortable I've ever owned. I will be very upset when they wear out if I can't replace them. Would I have bought their kit at full price? I'm not sure. I commute by bike and I'm lucky enough that I can wear smart shorts in my office. In this regard the rain shorts are possibly one of the best bike purchases I've made. The gilet really is great for riding round the west coast of Scotland (on the admittedly few dry days we get in winter!) when a full jacket is just too warm. Their kit lasts as well. My road riding rain jacket was around £200 in the sale and I don't regret that purchase at all. It keeps me warm and dry in some horrible weather and has lasted a long time. I would expect the same from a Vulpine jacket and if it delivered I don't think I would be any less happy. I happily pay a fair amount for Pactimo bib shorts and club jerseys that are probably a lot cheaper to produce. I'm ok with the tyres on my bike costing more than the tyres on my car.

fat daddy

Boneidle24Seven wrote:

Does anyone else think that some of the brands out there are overpriced?

yes, but then you are paying for a label are you not ? ...... so if its for wearing under other shorts surely a pair of £14 Tenn padded shorts from Amazon will suffice ?

or is the more expensive gear, better quality / comfort ?

I dunno .... I only have cheap stuff off amazon ... the nearest I have to a named brand top is a Boardman Jersey ... it has Boardman written on it which keeps the price down a lot

DrLex

Zenith/nadir for me was the Paul Smith 531 collection a while back.

http://road.cc/content/news/134444-paul ... ing-range-£550-jacket

Link borked due to £ sign

veronese68

I bought a merino t shirt in Aldi for £5.99 about a year ago, sold as a walking base layer. I bought a long sleeve merino cycling base layer in Aldi last year for £12.99 I think. Depends on where you shop I guess.

dhope

Is Vulpine a premium brand?
Surely if you're thinking of spending £80 on a t shirt or £300 on a jacket you'd just pick Assos, Rapha etc.

Hinaultscrapcousin

dhope wrote:

Is Vulpine a premium brand?
Surely if you're thinking of spending £80 on a t shirt or £300 on a jacket you'd just pick Assos, Rapha etc.

The jackets Vulpine offer are pretty different to anything Assos offers as far as I know. Some are fairly different to Rapha stuff and the ones that are similar are similarly priced. If I were making the choice I would personally go with Vulpine.

Hinaultscrapcousin

DrLex wrote:

Zenith/nadir for me was the Paul Smith 531 collection a while back.

http://road.cc/content/news/134444-paul ... ing-range-£550-jacket

Link borked due to £ sign

Some of the original 531 stuff looked awesome. Much too rich for me but then it is Paul Smith and I can't afford any of his clothes.

To be fair to him, Paul Smith has been into cycling all his life.

rubertoe

My aldi merinos (about £12.99) are some of the best kit i own.

veronese68

rubertoe wrote:

My aldi merinos (about £12.99) are some of the best kit i own.

Indeed, wish I'd bought more than one.

rubertoe

Double post

the_hundredth_idiot

To be more like the Netherlands in this respect, we need to buy more "Dutch bikes".

If you have a comfy saddle, full chainguard, full mudguards, etc then you don't need special clothing. When I ride my Brompton, my only concession to special cycling clothing is trouser clips because it doesn't have an enclosed chain.

If you go down the typical UK route of thinking a front suspension MTB is a sensible utility bike, then you need the special clothing to go with it.

DrLex

Hinaultscrapcousin wrote:

DrLex wrote:

Zenith/nadir for me was the Paul Smith 531 collection a while back.

http://road.cc/content/news/134444-paul ... ing-range-£550-jacket

Link borked due to £ sign

Some of the original 531 stuff looked awesome. Much too rich for me but then it is Paul Smith and I can't afford any of his clothes.

To be fair to him, Paul Smith has been into cycling all his life.

True, but then the thread is Hideously overpriced casual cycle clothing, and not Hideous casual cycle clothing.

mattsaw

It depends if you're comparing like for like I guess?

I don't think you can compare a Chinese made mass market cycling product with something that is designed, branded, made in much smaller quantities and possibly/probably to a higher quality using higher quality fabrics.

£100 for a pair of trousers isn't that crazy. I mean if you're buying your jeans from M&S and then comparing those to a label like Ted Baker, Nudie or Hugo Boss you're probably going to feel the same.

MrSweary

Potential to be the new "I'm shunning discs" thread..?

Perhaps not.

cookeeemonster

I had an aldi merino baselayer once...hideous thing, took it straight back. Everyone on here was raving about them but I found them horrible against the skin...unlike the rapha and vulpine tops I pick up in the sale. But if it works for you then hell yeah, go for it, I would if I got on with them!!

Regarding the dutch thing...how many of us live within a few miles of work? And have a safe segregated cyclepath to ride there on? That's literally it. The time and effort to ride a heavy dutch bike for many of us (on this forum) for our higher distances on dodgy roads make it impractical with normal clothes.

veronese68

Mattsaw wrote:

£100 for a pair of trousers isn't that crazy. I mean if you're buying your jeans from M&S and then comparing those to a label like Ted Baker, Nudie or Hugo Boss you're probably going to feel the same.

Exactly, there are cheaper options out there if people look. The thing is cycle specific casual clothing is quite a niche market so prices are bound to be high.

kingstongraham

Mattsaw wrote:

It depends if you're comparing like for like I guess?

I don't think you can compare a Chinese made mass market cycling product with something that is designed, branded, made in much smaller quantities and possibly/probably to a higher quality using higher quality fabrics.

£100 for a pair of trousers isn't that crazy. I mean if you're buying your jeans from M&S and then comparing those to a label like Ted Baker, Nudie or Hugo Boss you're probably going to feel the same.

And then you can compare those to the expensive brands. Jacob Cohen from £300 upwards, Balmain "destroyed skinny jeans" - yours for £1055. There's something for everyone out there.

itboffin

has the kicking off thread been alerted yet?

pblakeney

Stop beating about the bush. Do your shopping here -
https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/city/ca ... ens%20City

roger_merriman

The Hundredth Idiot wrote:

To be more like the Netherlands in this respect, we need to buy more "Dutch bikes".

If you have a comfy saddle, full chainguard, full mudguards, etc then you don't need special clothing. When I ride my Brompton, my only concession to special cycling clothing is trouser clips because it doesn't have an enclosed chain.

If you go down the typical UK route of thinking a front suspension MTB is a sensible utility bike, then you need the special clothing to go with it.

I've never had a issue with reasonable distances in normal clothes, the issue generally is if your going to need to change etc.

Previous bikes where racy and didn't have mudguards so if the weather was poor I did Lycra up for going into head office which is 20 odd miles away. Present bike has mudguards though it's a old MTB, nor does have chain guards.

Perfectly comfortable to be honest.

I have a number of cycling urban stuff which I use on the MTB/CX.

awavey

PBlakeney wrote:

Stop beating about the bush. Do your shopping here -
https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/city/ca ... ens%20City

but then atypically for rapha, umpteen options for jackets/tops/trousers in city menswear, but a measly 5 in total for the women :roll:

at least Vulpine provides a wider range and choice...albeit yeah the price makes you wince and whilst I can just about convince myself that Rapha/Assos is generally worth the money (still not spending 170quid on a pair of shorts though), but theres nothing that grabs me in the new Vulpine range sadly.

but interestingly though no Hoy Vulpine anymore it looks like on their website ? so are they just going down this high end casual stuff now.

pblakeney

awavey wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Stop beating about the bush. Do your shopping here -
https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/city/ca ... ens%20City

but then atypically for rapha, umpteen options for jackets/tops/trousers in city menswear, but a measly 5 in total for the women :roll:

at least Vulpine provides a wider range and choice...albeit yeah the price makes you wince and whilst I can just about convince myself that Rapha/Assos is generally worth the money (still not spending 170quid on a pair of shorts though), but theres nothing that grabs me in the new Vulpine range sadly.

but interestingly though no Hoy Vulpine anymore it looks like on their website ? so are they just going down this high end casual stuff now.

You took my post seriously? :shock: :shock: :shock:

Boneidle24Seven

So maybe we need the likes of Aldi or some other cheap and cheerful retailer to launch it's own urban range and drive down the prices of this 'niche ' market?. That probably won't happen though.

I managed to get a pair of Vulpine Merino pants for £15 in their flash sale. Very nice they are too. Not sure they are worth £55 though!..... £55 for a pair of skiddies, come on!?!?!?! :shock: