Bike Shops Don't Stock Clothing, Why?

MST.ESQ

MST.ESQ

New Member
Looking for input from shop owners and employees. I hate buying bike clothing on-line for all the obvious reasons. However, I have found a few brands that I like and have been forced to purchase them on-line because shops usually only carrier Pearl Izumi, clothes from their bike brands, low price points or have literally only one style/level of bib short each.

Trying to find a bike shop that carried more than one model of bib shorts for my wife to try? Impossible. Had to order an awesome pair of Gore bibs for her on-line and thankfully got lucky with the sizing. I have been told that shops don't carry women's bibs because women don't buy them. Yet every woman I ride with loves to wear bibs and either complains that they can't find them or they buy them on-line.

I love Hilltop Bicycles' custom Capo house-logo jerseys and Marty's seems to have the largest clothing selection, but I still could not find a single long sleeve jersey and they only had one style of Specialized bibs in stock at the time.

Is there a missed marked to be tapped here? I feel like opening a cycling clothing shop that will sell everything from $80 bibs to custom clothing orders (i.e. having samples in stock to try on for sizing), assos, bioracer (my absolute favorite tech jersey). I assume getting people more comfortable in their riding gear would get them out on the road more and therefore benefit the bike shops in general.
 
I dont like bibs, makes it harder to pee in the woods.

As for clothing, Halters has a pretty good selection, but ..... I usually have a hard time finding the right SIZE. and that is in ANY store that carries athletic wear, even sports authority and dicks. they only have medium and small. Very hard to find large, even harder to find xl or xxl. So when someone is overweight and needs to exercise, but wants nice clothes to do it in...sorry! I had to go to jp penny's athletic clothing dept to find exercise clothes for the robust woman, or wear mens' clothes.
 
I'll second Halter's for good selection, they go outside of the PI/Specialized/Cannondale box on clothing. I think this falls under the same lines as walking into a shop that has mostly Trek or Specialized bikes on the floor. I'm not sure of the exact reasoning but I know it's partially brand/distributor pressure.
 
I'd take a wild guess it mostly has to do with space and cost to stock enough to please everyone. Clothing like bikes is subject to seasonal/annual turn over so their is additional risk there on product that I would assume is already fairly low margin.
 
ChrisRU said:
I'd take a wild guess it mostly has to do with space and cost to stock enough to please everyone. Clothing like bikes is subject to seasonal/annual turn over so their is additional risk there on product that I would assume is already fairly low margin.
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Correct however, the margin is as high or higher than bikes but at a lower price point so you have to sell more volume. Similar to accessory margin, but clothing is sold everywhere and tights aren't required to ride a bike so people don't buy it and shops don't stock it.
 
And as an fyi in a majority of consumer products the retail price for that $100 jersey was produced in china and shipped to the US for 25(max), sold to retailer for 50 and sold to you for 100, this is why I don't ever pay full price. 30 bucks for a bike seatbag? Markups are out of control
 
I suspect that "Show-rooming" has a lot to do with it. So much of the clothing is available on-line. People come in to try stuff on. Then buy on-line. Pretty frustrating for a shop. Factor in the seasonal fashion changes and the payoff is pretty minimal for the shop.

Halter's stocks a ton of stuff and women-specific clothing. They also get stuck with stuff and reduce the profits with seasonal sales to get rid of it.
 
Blair said:
And as an fyi in a majority of consumer products the retail price for that $100 jersey was produced in china and shipped to the US for 25(max), sold to retailer for 50 and sold to you for 100, this is why I don't ever pay full price. 30 bucks for a bike seatbag? Markups are out of control
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Nothing personal, but bike shops are not the devil. A 50% markup is the reality of retail. Period. The huge conglomerates can sell things at 30% off all the time and make a huge profit on sheer volume but your local shops can't. That 50% markup gets sucked up pretty quickly by rent and lighting and the salaries of the people working in the shop. And I guarantee you there isn't a shop employee in the state or even the country who is getting rich on selling anything in a bike shop. For the most part, owning or working in your LBS is a labor of love and if you love being able to come pick our brains and hang out with people who understand the love of the bike like you do, then you might consider forgetting the odd thing you pay 50% more for just to keep us all from being absorbed into Walmarts or Dick's.

In fact, if you want to pay cost for some jerseys, come on down to the Madison Bike Shop. We've got every single short sleeve jersey in the shop marked down 50% and we've got at least 100 of them. 50% means you pay our cost. We make nothing, nada, ziltch on any of them and would just like to get back the shop's investment to put into something we can make wages on.

And there's the reason most shops don't carry much selection, they get stuck with nearly half of it at the end of every season when you don't even want it at 50% off!
 
I was just generalizing and I know its the reality of NJ and our society so it is what it is. And the walmart, target, dicks markups are the same, might appear lower cost but the quality is crap, and there's a market for cheap crap so they do well. I haven't been to madison so I'll have to check it out. You have any of those puking unicorn jerseys? But like you said you end up with a ton at the end of the season because the market is small.
 
You can thank backcountry.com. & amazon. They have made it very hard for any shop to sell any clothing. The basis of this question was women's clothing, and I can tell you that women in particular barely buy any clothing in retail bike shops. The going trend is to buy 6 items on amazon and return 5.

Small local retail shops can't compete with this. We have no outlet for returns, and our vendors don't want the used clothes back either.

This is just the beginning, the future looks like there may be shops doing repairs and selling bikes & nothing else.

Every item we stock must sell 3-4 times over a year to make it worth stocking. The current atmosphere doesn't allow for this.

Give your local shop a reason to stock any item and they may respond. We all do this because we love it. We stop doing things because we hate it.

Become a loyal regular at your LBS and they might even ask your opinion on what to stock

Frankly ladies bibs are an oddball item and finding a shop that stocks more than 2 brands locally is unlikely. Most ladies will only try on bibs if you force them t do so.

As side note, brining in a pile of new parts that you got as a "gift" (online) for a lbs to install is a big FU. Try pulling that at your Ford dealer.
 
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jdog said:
This is just the beginning, the future looks like there may be shops doing repairs and selling bikes & nothing else.
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To be a devils advocate.. Is this necessarily a bad thing for bike shops? Wouldn't you want to concentrate on the things that give the greatest returns and do away with the things that are just headaches and generate no profits? I'm sometimes surprised more bike shops are not strictly repair shops like car shops. Maybe add some high quality coffee shop to it with wifi .. nothing generates profits like $5 latte in an industrialized hipster zone. I'd hang out there everyday.
 
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jdog said:
Become a loyal regular at your LBS and they might even ask your opinion on what to stock
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On that note....dont know if it had anything to do with me or not :rolleyes: but I wanted a bunch of socks from the sock guy, gave Jason a list and he ordered them for me. Noticed after that that his cute sock selection got more...interesting.

Then one day I walk in and LOOK there are NEW purple and black cycling shirts! I check and YES an xl! Love you Jason. Bought one. Its my fave. Love it so much I may need to go buy a second one.
 
I end up buying a piece at one shop and another piece at another shop and have found some good items. To be honest, bike clothes are not the type of thing that I enjoy driving around the state looking for. That being said, I get the on-line draw for many and understand the stock turnover issue that the stores face. But it almost seems like circular reasoning has kept the LBS out of the game.

I HATE buying clothing on-line. Buying that 50% off Capo bib on-line after getting used to Hincapie and Pearl Izumi sizing is a recipe for disaster. I suspect that our poor on-line judgment ends up costing us more in the long run - and more than we would like to admit.

My frustration (and the OP) stems from the fact that I just got stuck with a size L Castelli wind proof base layer. I have been looking for this since last year and could find anyone that had it in stock to try on. Bit the bullet and ordered a L since my Castelli long sleeve jersey is a Large and fits perfect. Ended up with a $50 mistake. I rode with it because I did not have a medium to compare it to. By the end of the ride I knew it was too loose. I try to avoid buying anything on-line, but have been forced to do so with some items since nobody carries them.

Another example. My son ordered a youth jersey on-line. Did not fit. He found a women's XS Marty's team jersey on the clearance rack and it fits him perfectly! I just don't have any luck on-line.

I do like the fact tha my local LBS only sells in-house custom jerseys. The downside is that not everyone likes to rock shop colors. However, the upside is that they don't have to discount last year's colors.
 
I can only speak from my own experience in the dirty south. My old shop in Cherry Hill, has a pretty decent selection: Pearl Izumi, Bellwether, Zoic, Bontrager, Fox, and some Castelli stuff. The shop predominantly sells road over mtn (maybe 65/35%). The buyer does a pretty good job of not overbuying, there's always gonna be some leftover but no too much. PI is to bike clothing as is Burton to Snowboarding, well known brand that makes a ton of stuff and good quality. As far as carrying Bike company clothing (like Bontrager, Cannondale, etc) you get better buying discounts when you buy more volume from one vendor.

Me personally, I really like what Zoic does from a dirt standpoint real high quality stuff with nice designs. IMO Fox clothing is overated, it's all bout the brand. I've owned 2 pairs of there shorts and they were built poorly. PI for road stuff and cold weather gear.
 
MikeP said:
PI is to bike clothing as is Burton to Snowboarding, well known brand that makes a ton of stuff and good quality.
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I'll disagree with this statement. Burton gear always ends with a call to their customer service department for a replacement. PI gear is solid.
 
MixMastaMM said:
I'll disagree with this statement. Burton gear always ends with a call to their customer service department for a replacement. PI gear is solid.
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I must have been out of the game for a while. I still have a ton of my pre 2000 Burton clothes (AK lvl) and they are still going strong.
 
MixMastaMM said:
I'll disagree with this statement. Burton gear always ends with a call to their customer service department for a replacement. PI gear is solid.
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I've been riding Burton gear for 24 years and worked at a shop for 11. There quality is top notch from my experience. Compared to other companies we had way fewer warranty claims with Burton. Of course they dont have the same quality as when the majority if hardgoods was made in VT/Canada/Austria. But even with there current batch of gear over the past few years still way better than brands like Yes, Capita, and Rome. Not a Burton zombie, been riding Mervin boards since B closed the main factory in VT. I try to buy American when able.
 
jdog said:
As side note, brining in a pile of new parts that you got as a "gift" (online) for a lbs to install is a big FU. Try pulling that at your Ford dealer.
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So I've wondered why shops of almost any kind of specialty haven't come up with an in-store kiosk where a customer could build a shopping cart to have delivered either to home as a drop ship or direct to the shop for install?

I get what you are saying all the way. I've worked retail and I worked for a tool specialty shop that got crushed by Home Depot and the web...couldn't compete.

The main reason I tend to online shop is that I am a nerd and I don't want anything generally that is almost the right item...I want "exactly" the black alloy hoohah with the bronze logo...not the red logo. In a generic sense, specialty shops of many kinds, cameras, radio, kayaks, bicycles are frequently hostile to getting a spec sheet and punching it happily out exactly as shown.

My Ogre build was done by a rather distant shop from me due to my being impulsive but also because they answered the phone, took a spreadsheet punch list of parts and were willing to just knock it out for me. If I had a way to punch down a list from the QBP catalog and have it drop shipped via my local shop so they get credit, or I could even walk in, browse complete inventory, punch the order and get it I would.

When I've tried this in many shops...motorcycle also comes to mind I just get flack for asking, they aren't interested in the business and I go online.
 
jdog said:
As side note, brining in a pile of new parts that you got as a "gift" (online) for a lbs to install is a big FU. Try pulling that at your Ford dealer.
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Just charge accordingly in these instances. Enough to either make it worthwhile for you or to discourage customers from asking you to do it.
 
MikeP said:
PI is to bike clothing as is Burton to Snowboarding, well known brand that makes a ton of stuff and good quality.
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I disagree as well. PI make some quality stuff but not on par with burton quality in reference to snowboard gear. PI is middle of the road in design and quality. Ok technical performance, decent quality and blah designs but by no means exceptional.

Burton once was a pinnacle of quality. Maybe not what they once were but still above average.
 
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