Half price and free shipping at patagonia.com

If you're in to Pattagucci, half price everything & free shipping doesn't hurt. Having a hard with sizes in stock though.

patagonia.com

Hey Nick,
Thanks for the tip ( I think- down $400 now). I've been wondering whether MP might add a forum for posting sales, coupon codes etc. Any chance?
Scott

Houdini jackets are not on sale. :(

I bet they are getting slammed right now.

How is it possible that for basically every kind of apparel made ever, there are way too many XLs and XXLs while smalls and mediums sell out?

This isn't that hard people. You have your sales records. You know what the distribution of sizes is for your customers. Make the right amounts.

shoo wrote:How is it possible that for basically every kind of apparel made ever, there are way too many XLs and XXLs while smalls and mediums sell out? This isn't that hard people. You have your sales records. You know what the distribution of sizes is for your customers. Make the right amounts.

Ha! I was just wondering that same thing... my most annoying example: REI has never had anything in stock in my size that I actually wanted to buy. Not once.

REI: "But its free shipping from store to store"
ME: "I came here (grudgingly) because I need the damn thing now, not 4 days from now"

JLP wrote: Reality is that all the ugly stuff and odd sizes are 50% off, the rest is gone.

Yeah, I end up with some funky colors in my wardrobe. Fortunately, I'm not a slave to fashion. :^D

Kathy

shoo wrote:How is it possible that for basically every kind of apparel made ever, there are way too many XLs and XXLs while smalls and mediums sell out? This isn't that hard people. You have your sales records. You know what the distribution of sizes is for your customers. Make the right amounts.

Keep in mind a couple things here:

1 - 90% of these styles require a 3,000 unit minimum to even produce them. Sales histories are different every year and it's brutally hard to correctly buy that much product.

2 - This is an end of season sale and it shouldn't be surprising that they're out of key sizes.

3 - They don't want this stuff anymore and are probably really happy to be out of sizes at this point in the season.

Being a demand planner/buyer for any of the larger companies out there is one of the toughest jobs in the industry. Thinking about the millions of dollars worth of product they have to correctly produce/buy is absolutely mind numbing to think about.

Most of the production is pre-sold on orders taken at Outdoor Retailer, etc. Then they have six months to get production finished up and shipped out to the stores.

Also they estimate what they will be able to sell based on previous years sales and the feel on the demand/response from the retailers at trade shows and by the reps showing prototypes and samples as they travel around the country visiting their retail partners. Then at the end of the season all that is left is the wacky stuff and sizes that were harder to predict sale on including the minimum order or production run required to fulfill the pre-orders.

As a manufacturer if you have product left at the end of the season, you don't have or want to waste money to warehouse the product as you are receiving the next seasons styles etc, Where are you going to put it? It is better to sell below cost than to loose out on the new stock by getting buried in stuff. Money left in old stock is dead money. it ties up your resources and the cash you have tied up in it stops you from being able to order new product to sell. You have to keep things moving.

Sorry for the long schpeel got carried away. But the same thing happens at the retail level so that's why your local store does the same thing at the end of season on a smaller scale. but that's also why things like cams and biners don't go on sale unless there is a change in the model that only happens every few years. Kind of like to B.D. tents were never on sale for ages until this year when they changed the materials.

Crikey that tooo long a post

It is obvious why a company needs end of season sales. I do economic modeling for a living. I understand the need for liquidity.

What is not obvious to me is why there is a systematic overproduction of very large sizes in apparel all over. I find it hard to believe that established gear companies would make such a consistent error if not for some other reason I'm not seeing yet.

I am not particularly familiar with the inner workings of apparel or really consumer goods in general (I do health econ). The minimum order idea is interesting. Is that really it?

I've had great luck getting clothes at thrift stores--especially wool sweaters, climbing pants, just found a garish green patagonia fleece ($4). Win-win-win economically.

shoo wrote:It is obvious why a company needs end of season sales. I do economic modeling for a living. I understand the need for liquidity. What is not obvious to me is why there is a systematic overproduction of very large sizes in apparel all over. I find it hard to believe that established gear companies would make such a consistent error if not for some other reason I'm not seeing yet. I am not particularly familiar with the inner workings of apparel or really consumer goods in general (I do health econ). The minimum order idea is interesting. Is that really it?

Yeah, the minimum orders are really interesting. Lots of really cool, innovative styles are left only going as far as making a few samples simply because companies couldn't sell enough of them to justify the costs. Keep in mind that most clothing companies made their major buys for the Spring 12 season in early July, and the OR Show means rather little to them at this point.

Same thing happens with footwear, but to a more extreme example. Lets use the running world as an example. For a company to debut a new type of running shoe on a brand new last/outsole/technology/footbed, they have to end up making roughly 20,000-30,000 pairs of shoes before they break even on that particular machinery and process. It's that expensive to create new styles.

It's one of the main reasons I'm always entertained by the guys out there that claim they'll buy 3-4 pairs of their favorite shoes if they're brought back. And that the companies are stupid for canceling the shoe cause it was the best shoe ever. In fact I think there's a similar thread going on right now about the Sportiva Exum Pro.

Everyone seems to love the Houdini jacket. Never tried one, but just curious - what's so great about it?

Sirius wrote:Everyone seems to love the Houdini jacket. Never tried one, but just curious - what's so great about it?

Light weight, stretchy, breathable, caffein free, AIDS resistant.

Ray Pinpillage wrote: ...AIDS resistant.

I hate it when my jackets get AIDS.