whiteryanc

The most predictable Pinkbike comment on earth. So fuckin build it and don't buy it. Do you yell at restaurants for charging money for food you can also just cook at home? This is the definition of Capitalism; person has idea, person makes thing and charges money for it, the market determines the viability based on what they're willing to pay. If they overshot, they'll correct or go out of business.

@warmerdamj: Sure, but I genuinely think the moron thought/thinks tariff's are a legitimate tool of manipulation and power. Why does he think that? Because he doesn't really understand tariff's, economics, soft-power and relationships, etc. Trump is a fucking moron, and while some things can be ascribed to obfuscation of his pedophilia, I think the tariff's are a genuinely held conception of good policy by an absolute dumb shit.

I'm willing to bet a not insignificant factor is the tariff policy on aluminum and steel was a big, if not the primary factor. For both their raw-materials cost and the reduction of purchasing by frame builders also hurting from increased material costs of their own, the combination is enough to sink any tiny business (or larger in Paragon's case). The history of this time will be of thousands of small businesses who went under due directly to the hole-in-the-head tariff war waged for literally no reason.

@TwoNGlenn: To be fair; he could have a stroke, maybe Marine 1 has a technical issue, etc

False scarcity! Nice work taking the Epic/Ikon model and applying it to festival tickets!

@tgr9: Never felt more seen, attacked, and relatable.

Could you guys try...at all to integrate these cross-promoted posts into the format of PB? This "here's a link" is pretty pathetic.

@Jshemuel: It doesn't mean Curious Creatures is gouging, while OrNot is fair, or any other combination of these things. Their businesses are different, their operating costs are different, their margin goals are different. As I've said, buy whatever you want I'm just pointing out the grey area that most people don't know about, or chose to ignore that exists in the apparel industry.

It's expensive, but making things in the US is intrinsically far more expensive than products made in Vietnam or China. I did a cost-analysis of an Asian made Poly jersey in another comment so I won't go through the whole thing. 200gsm cotton is quite heavy, and not particularly cheap. With more manual processing like tye-dye your costs will sky rocket. There's likely padding involved in the margin as well, but this is a tiny, new company that's trying to likely pay back start-up expenses (people, marketing, initial manufacturing development costs, etc) and also make a living which is extremely difficult to do at the cost of a commodity-priced tee you're used to seeing from Bella & Canvas or similar who makes garments by the millions. Scale is the name of the game in apparel. Now should they have picked a more special material to justify higher prices? Maybe, but their costs aren't that outrageous especially for the SS stuff. If you don't like supporting little businesses by paying a slight premium, they won't exist. Low, commodity pricing only exists because of the exploitation (I don't use that word to be hyperbolic, it's just factual) of every single person in the supply chain of big-box/main stream clothing including the sales staff in the US.

Do you manufacture clothing/work in sourcing/sell clothing? Curious what your context for costs are as it pertains to the value of clothes made of Polyester (most are now using recycled too). Let's do a costing exercise for direct to consumer: • Material (100% recycled poly, maybe a special knit or using a treatment): $4-6/Meter, average usage apx 1m including waste = $4-6 • Trims (decoration, zippers, etc) = $1-2 • Labor (cutting sewing, packaging, shipping, etc) = $4-5 in a Vietnamese or Chinese factory • Overhead (factories typically charge an overhead charge to cover electricity, rent, etc) = $2 • Shipping (bulk, by ocean) = $.50 • Shipping to distribution and distribution facility costs (warehousing and inventory mangement) = $1 • Shipping to customer costs (most people expect free or discounted shipping) = $3-5 ** So we're now at $15.50 at the lower estimate to have that item manufactured and shipped. This does not include all the costs to the company itself that have to be covered. Let's assume the company wants to continue to grow, innovate, pay their people well, etc, you'll need 55-65% margin in order to be stable and allow for both growth and security for the company. Now you're talking $37.50 as the most base price assuming decent margin. So sure, for DTC there's padding built in for better margin for myriad reasons (inject more into marketing, pay employees better, etc). Now assume you're that company but operate primarly as a wholesaler, you need to make your margin but the retailer also needs to make their margin. Let's assume more modest margin at 50%, we're already now at $75. Last, factor in the expectation of discount that the majority of consumers have, meaning it's now difficult to sell any item at full price you can expect some margin pad for that expected discount to move the product (show me a brand that sells everything at full price). So while I agree pure DTC is likely overcharging, most brands are a blend and have to cost-average margin meaning $50-60 final retail is what I would consider moderately reasonable as an average purchase price. See how not simple that is?