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Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 5:28 pm
by speedoboi
What's going in with the price of swim wear, particularly swim briefs? Whether you pay in US$, Canadian $, Euros or Britsih pounds, it's expensive.

Check out this link: https://www.proswimwear.ca/clearance-sa ... black.html

I would like to buy it, but it's a bit high in my opinion.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:48 am
by Speedoaddict
I know what you mean. It all depends on the brand, the material they use, prints, and how much they can get away with charging.

If you go for brands like Arena, Speedo, Adidas, Nike, Funky Trunks etc you will expect to pay £20-£30 for a pair of trunks.

Then there are what I call a fashion brands. Hugo Boss, Armani, Moschino, Etc the. Expect to pay £40-£75. Mainly it is the name you are paying for.

Next tier is the “you are out of your tiny mind”. Versace, Vilebrequin, these are £95+. How ridiculously priced are these.

I don’t blame the companies for charging it I blame the fools for paying it. I tend to look around for mine.



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Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:00 pm
by DaveSpeedoEvans
SpeedoBoi,

I completely agree with you mate. There are lots of speedos I would love to buy but I'm not paying US$50 or higher for a pair of speedos.

I really like the look of the Aronik speedos (https://aronikswim.com/salvation/solid-red-bikini) - that is US$85 (AU$120) for a red speedo. Crazy!!!

Dave

PS - You can join my site www.SpeedoFetish.com for $4.95. That is way better value - hehehe.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:56 am
by geauxboi
Look at these!

https://foursixty.com/charliebymz/188688320/

I had a friend spend $800 on 7 pairs of charlie swim briefs. Can someone shed some light on why this company charges $165 for one swim suit!?

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 5:01 am
by Speedoaddict
A lot of the time it’s not about the swimwear it’s the name they put on it. It’s ridiculous.


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Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 6:54 am
by SEASPEEDO
geauxboi wrote:
Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:56 am
Look at these!

https://foursixty.com/charliebymz/188688320/

I had a friend spend $800 on 7 pairs of charlie swim briefs. Can someone shed some light on why this company charges $165 for one swim suit!?
I really like some of the styles, but too expensive for me!

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:29 am
by Solar73
Yeah I don’t understand how swimsuits are priced theses days either. I mean a brief is less material than any boardie of jammer and yet they still costs as much or more, what gives?? As I also prefer smaller briefs and even thongs for my underwear too, over the years I have found several women’s brands that have styles/cuts that easily pass for men’s yet cost a fraction of the price. I hope to someday find the same thing for my swim briefs as I’ve heard some bikinis can pass for men’s suits as well.
All that being said I’m not to brand loyal so I buy most of my suits from www.swimoutlet.com. Their best sale of the year is during Memorial Day I’ve picked up Speedo Solars for under $20 and Sporti Euros for less than $10. My current “designer” brands if you will I learned of from members of this board (thanks guys) are Gary Majdell and Desmitt, less than $15 each and fit/look great.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:56 am
by Thom
I suppose it's because certain name brands can get away with it.

Speedo brand has huge advertising costs and endorsement payments to athletes. Still, people are willing to pay for the name.

Brands like Sporti and Desmitt don't have those costs, so their suits are less.

Designer brands like Armani have advertising overhead, and some people are willing to pay for the name.

I buy on sale whenever I possibly can.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:01 am
by Thom
geauxboi wrote:
Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:56 am
Look at these!

https://foursixty.com/charliebymz/188688320/

I had a friend spend $800 on 7 pairs of charlie swim briefs. Can someone shed some light on why this company charges $165 for one swim suit!?
Holy Cow! Rich people are willing to pay a lot of money for stuff they think is better, I guess. I wonder if a lifeguard has actually bought and worn one of these....

I've bought some designer suits on cheap undies at steep discounts. One is a brand that was
made here in Florida. I have to give them they're due. The fit is perfect, the print on the suit is beautiful, and the fabric is super comfortable. But like a lot of high end brands, they went out of business.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:15 am
by Thom
DaveSpeedoEvans wrote:
Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:00 pm
SpeedoBoi,
I really like the look of the Aronik speedos (https://aronikswim.com/salvation/solid-red-bikini) - that is US$85 (AU$120) for a red speedo. Crazy!!!

Dave

PS - You can join my site www.SpeedoFetish.com for $4.95. That is way better value - hehehe.
Wow, that's a beautiful suit. Of course, if I had a butt like the model, I'd look good in a Sporti.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 11:41 am
by MrMusik
It is, as they say, the cost of doing business.

Boardies are cheap because they are made in massive quantity. Swim briefs could be as inexpensive if they were made in similar quantity.

"...but this suit can't be more than $2 in material and 5 minutes for someone to sew up!"

Yes, but a business that is going to survive must also include the overhead costs that are involved. I'm not just talking about advertising, though that is part of it. I'm also talking about real estate (warehouse or shop or both); utility services like electric, water, sewer, and trash; employee's salaries and other compensation (like health insurance in the USA); business licenses; insurance; taxes; and I'm sure there are more that I'm not thinking of at the moment. Adding all of that up, plus being a small, niche industry, means that you must have all your ducks in a row if you want to succeed at this business.

There are a lot of ways to help control a lot of those costs. One of the biggest things is location. If you are in a big city, space and the cost associated with that space is expensive! However, if you are such a small operation that you are just sewing some stuff up in the spare room you turned into a manufacturing facility in a county that is not so expensive and does not require burdensome licenses, your total cost of production will be considerably less.

I can't imagine those huge brand names (like Armani) selling anything for less than 20x to 50x their actual cost of materials by the time you add up all the associated production costs.

Situations like this are why so many start up businesses fail. They often do not take into account ALL the expenses that go along with what they are trying to do. If you think you can offer a service or product for considerably less money than what someone else is already providing, you may want to look a bit closer to be sure you have actually considered all the real expenses that are involved and remember that someone has to pay for it.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2020 9:44 pm
by Sluggers
OK so here's my two cents.

Pricing is difficult to decide. The understatement of the century. I set a retail price to aim for. I didn't let the product cost dictate the retail price. It's a little crazy, but I felt that the price would help land Sluggers in a certain place on the swimwear landscape. We're not premium and trying to be on the cover of magazines. We're just your dependable, honest product for an easy going bloke. But we're better than products you'd find in a discount store.

I have been selling Sluggers for just on 6 years now. We have increased our pricing by $1.05 since then from $48.95. Now we retail for $50. We take a bit of a hit on postage, but it's still a fair price.

The rule of thumb is generally that a product should retail for AT LEAST 4 times the make price. That's why you see a lot of new swimwear brands - particularly the Aussie ones - launch for around $75 a pair. Lots of them have twitchy beads on the end of the string or tack on a logo plate to seem premium, but those things don't actually cost much.

We know the name of everyone who works on a pair of Sluggers, and we pay everyone properly.

By rapidly increasing the volume we make and learning some tricks and tweaks as we built the business Sluggers has managed to reduce the per item cost and fix the price at around three times the make price. I did this because I felt that was a good price - and this is why we don't do % off sales.

Fabric is not expensive - but you're looking at least $5 per pair for the fabric. We use fabric from the same factory as other brands who use 'italian lycra'. It's just fabric you purchase by the roll.

Marketing is the real killer, as is fulfilment. Warehousing was a big cost for us in the beginning. Marketing wise, you're paying for models ($200 an hour minimum up to $1500 an hour for a 'face'), magazine ads (which is how you get magazine editorial because that's not free) and billboards. Not to mention the photographers to get shots and the travel to the location. They can be really pricey! It can literally cost as much to do a shoot in a new range as it does to create the range.

Knowing how much it costs to produce a pair of swimmers I have some idea why brands can be so expensive. I wish I could charge $120 for a pair of swimmers! haha. Maybe I should :P

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 12:06 am
by geauxboi
Another example of expensive!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dsquared2-Swim ... 4352878817

I noticed everything dsquared2 makes is extremely expensive. Why are there clothes so expensive?

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020 8:28 pm
by Aircat
Because most have become a fashion label, rather than just mass market clothing.

Fashion prices are based on what the market will pay, and when it comes to fashion there is also some psychology involved with price exclusivity actually being the thing which makes a brand desirable.

Kmart here has $5 briefs all year, and they clear old stock for $2, I bought a bunch at $0.50 a couple of years ago.
Quite a good 5cm side cut too, not grandpa diaper cut.
But no desirable logo, anyone who knows knows you are dressed by Kmart and that's not cool.

People buy the $40 Speedo(tm) for that logo (or I wait for the $5 runout clearance online).

They will always cost more than underwear.
The material which can survive chlorine, sun, sitting on concrete is more expensive than underwear.

Also economy of scale, minority even own dedicated swimwear, those who do only have one or two pairs mostly.
People have 10 pairs of underwear, but them in multi packs, wear them all day every day so they replace them more frequently.

Re: Why are Swim Briefs Expensive?

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020 10:57 pm
by ...:::sam:::...
Sluggers wrote:
Wed Aug 05, 2020 9:44 pm
OK so here's my two cents.
Thanks, its great to hear from a good aussie manufacturer and that you're on this forum.