Why overspend on 'designer' horse brands?

Lol I wear all my Joules stuff down the yard and everywhere, ive had one joules polo shirt about 4 years but its wearing abit thin now so only for really mucky situations now! I just love the joules range so much that I rarely buy any other clothes now, they are definately good quality and look soo nice, I love the jumpers with the zip at the top (have 3) and my scrummy rugby jumper with padded shoulders is sooo nice! OOH and the overtrousers are the best most warmest things I have, even when they were in a freezing car for 2 days I put them on and instantly felt 10x warmer!
 
I must admit to being Mrs Musto! My OH is Mr Musto too. (he is a boaty person). But their stuff lasts so well, and is warm and waterproof. I get it for presents (generally from OH). It doesnt look posh though - you cant see the logos for dirt and horse poo!
 
my riding coat was quite expensive, it was £55 and a dublin 5 in 1 so is a coat, waterproof rain mac, jacket and gillet all in one so will be wearing it all year round :D I get most my jodphurs cheap off ebay and go to primark and peacocks to get long sleeved tops and fleeces to layer up with. I would never comprimise on safety though, especially with hats, however i got a childs sized hat so didnt have to pay vat on it :)
 
The most expensive thing i have brought was my 5in1 Joules coat, but that was in the sale last year so cost me around £50 instead of £80 or something like that.

I buy most of my t-shirts from primark just to wear down the yard. I get jumpers and fleeces from anywhere lol
I get most of my jodhpurs from horse of the year show as they always have a few bargin baskets full of jodhpurs!!!

I have just brought 3 pairs of jodhpurs from ebay. They cost me £50 alltogether, however if i had brought them new i would have been paying
£100+

My jodhpur boots and my chaps were pretty expensive but aslong as I clean them regularly they keep in good nick and have lasted me for 1/2 years now.

xxx
 
The only time I really buy nice brands is for riding boots for show, hunt coats, ect......

As for other stuff, I got a nice waterproof muck jacket from Goodwill for $5.00......I'd say that's a deal!!!!

I also do like the nicer brends when it comes to leather items, gloves, saddles, bridles. I would much rather spend $1500 on a Pessoa saddle that will last me 30 years, than spend $300 on a Wintec that will fall apart in 5. Some things, it's better to invest in a better brand that will last you a long time, like my Ariat boots. 3 years and counting. And since it takes so long to break in a saddle, I would much rather only have to buy one and have it last me a while. The longer I can go without having to break in a new saddle, the better.

But as for jackets, and muck boots, things that are bound to get messed up, I don't see any harm in buying cheaper brands.
 
I have a Musto Combination jacket, but have to say I did fall lucky and got it for £60 in a sale. The chap just wanted to get rid of it, as it was last seasons colour.

Had it for three years now and it has lasted, washes really well every time, keeps me dry and warm and it is windproof. Before that I was using a walking coat I had from Millets, but to be honest it wasn't a patch on the Musto.

As somebody else said, have a look in the spring this is when a lot of shops are wanting to shift out winter stock for the summer stuff. Be cheeky see if you can do deals on things. A small shop may be happy to do a deal just to get rid of it.

I also have Muck Boot Co wellies, they have lasted 3-4 years, been stood on by horsey (ouch!:confused: ) and just keep coming up trumps, I much prefer them to wellies.

I'm a big one for you get what you pay for, but I don't just like paying for a name for the sake of having a name. I need to know it does the job I want and will last.

Must admit however, I wouldn't buy Joules or Toggi or GeeGee, just because they are 'designer' horsey labels. Think they are overpriced for what they are.

If you do like Musto get yourself off down the Bicester, there is a Musto clearance shop there, can sometimes pick up good equestrian jackets there for sensible price. Also a good excuse to do some 'designer' shopping!:D

http://www.bicestervillage.com/bicester/village/default.asp?vId=4&Brand=47
 
i tend to buy musto (but from ebay or out of season) and for the horses i love Fal rugs as they are light (compared to the Masta ones i have also) and very nice quality - the donks are done out in Fal and look like little show donkeys.

but i buy them on ebay, second hand, in sales etc never when i need them but put them away till they are needed.

i find that hunter wellies don#t seem to last that well as a pair i bought recently split in under 3 mnths - i once bought a very expensive pair of wellies, about £60 and they lasted for years. but i htink in future i will just buy as cheap as possible as the hunter ones i have just bought didn't last long at all.
 
nicolaj said:
Must admit however, I wouldn't buy Joules or Toggi or GeeGee, just because they are 'designer' horsey labels. Think they are overpriced for what they are.
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Agree, Joules stuff is overpriced to begin with but they do reduce their stuff heavily in their sale and its always free p&p if you buy from their website (sometimes people buy-it-now off ebay when its alot cheaper from their own website!). Its the only place I find that has a reliably good sale!
 
I couldn't afford all this over priced designer horse/rider stuff. I bought an expensive pair of jods (mauve) and an expensive hat and boots. The rest is just fairly cheap every day things. My cord jacket I used to wear to work is cut in a style that does very nicely as a hacking jacket.​
 
Only came across this thread now.. ;)

I tend to go for the high quality/expencive brand names when I am looking something that I need to be very good, like in the case of my hunt for the Musto jacket. I have looked through other similar kind of items that would suit my needs, but overall the ones that would be perfect have been even more expencive than the Musto jacket.. :eek:

Same with my yard boots. I am at least 10-12 hours on my feet when I work, so they have to be 110% good. Hence why I suffered and bought myself Ariat waterproofs, pricey but after 6 months I can say, best bought ever!

With horse tack I never spare in the expences, I get the best I can afford, will not going to take any chances with that.

Rest of my stuff I buy as cheap as I can, and even when I am buying a brand product I will do a proper background research to see which is the best and where I can get it cheapest from.

I have no idea what other people think of what I am wearing and couldn't really care less. As long as I am dry, warm and my horse is comfy, that is all that matters! :)

Nina x
 
Strongly agree with the comments here, and I must say previous experience makes me feel that cheap tack is to be avoided for sure.

I suspect people have been over-priced on riding wear for years, and perhaps from our recent experience at shows, finally the penny is starting to drop - literally! Polo shirts @ £39.95 etc. look overpriced in this day and age's market, especially when there's now so much choice as to what and where you shop. If it's worth forking out the premium for, then fine, but like a lot of things in life, more often than not, it ain't. :confused:

I think many people are more savvy to what they spend their hard-earned on these days, and that can't be a bad thing. :cool: There's still some way to go to achieve transparent pricing though, and not just in equestrian-wear.

It's not just the brands to blame though, bear in mind (sometimes hefty) mark-ups contribute to the higher end price you pay too. How do you think some sites can offer free P&P? You're still paying for it in there somewhere, remember stuff costs money to dispatch! Also bear in mind why companies can discount all their stuff so heavily at season end. Perhaps the RRP's might have been artificially high in the first place.

Yours price-consciously! :)
 
disagree re joules p&p policy. There stuff is the exact same price on their own website as it is on say Rideaway but you pall £3-4 extra for the postage at Rideaway. Same with ebay stuff, often I see stuff on there being sold for more than it is on joules own website - and then theres the ebayers p&p on top too!

Case in point - waterproof trousers recently reduced to £15 on joules. Selling on ebay for £25-30 + £4 p&p.
 
I suppose the argument is price vs quality. Alot of the nicer stuff is expensive yet is so much better quality, yet theres the other side of it where cheaper versions are often better quality. To me, horses are the only hobby i can get away with not caring what i look like, practicality is the key, and im sure a cheap coat you can get from an outdoor shop, specially made for the purpose of being outdoors, can easily meet our needs, without going for the fancy 'horsey' coats. I for one have 2 coats i have had for over 2 years. One pink coat which is designed for skiing, and one lilac coat which has a fleece you can attach - one of those 3 in one coats. Both cost about £20 each from a cheap catalogue. My other coat is black, and i got that from an outdoor shop about 3 years ago. Isnt hugely practical, just a simple coat yet with lots of layers underneath, it's done me proud.

Deary me though, you should see me at the end of the night having worn a pink coat all night :eek:.
 
I didn't mean Joules specifically; wherever you buy from quoting free p&p, the p&p cost will still be included somewhere e.g. I could sell a garment at £10 on our site plus £3 p&p = £13 total or I could sell it at £13 quoting free p&p.
Plus if a company works on a high enough margin, they can absorb the p&p and offer it as 'free' and still be quids in, however they dress it up. That's where the mark-up comes in, and it's a point of sale arguement really. Some people will find a mention of free p&p more attractive whereas others will take more heed of the lower lead-in price of £10 plus p&p on top.

Suffice to say we've taken all this into account in continuing to keep our prices down ;)
 
Have to be honest though cheap seems to be a fashionable word these days.

Problem is it relates to the 'losing small tack shops' debate. If everyone went to cheap shops or online shops to buy cheaper clothing, who knows what might happen to the tack shops which sell the 'expensive brands'.
 
In many cases it can be cheaper to buy things online but at the end of the day the risk is you sacrifice service plus many things (e.g. shoes) are difficult to buy online anyway, as you need to try them on. Plus you need to be canny as just because it's online doesn't necessarily mean it's the bargain you think. Look at Ebay as a case in point - the internet has succeeded in giving people the chance to benchmark prices rather than just go into a store and pay whatever without knowing if it's a good deal or not. But to many, as synonymous with value as Ebay may be, you still get premium prices on things. However that said, if you are paying a tenner online for some jods, you're more likely to take the risk and buy them online, as you stand to lose less if they aren't an exact fit etc. For that same reason I wouldn't just buy a car on Ebay (well, not again, anyway! Learnt the hard way there! ;) ).

The proviso for a tack shop - or any small shop really, as it affects village stores etc. too, is that they have to remain offering good service but also competitive, otherwise people will shop elsewhere. On the plus side the internet has seen a lot more choice emerge I think and this is meaning more choice in-store too nowadays.

I'm not sure 'cheap' per se will ever be fashionable as people still want quality and the cheaper the price, overall the more vagaries of quality can creep in. Affordable, however, sits much better :)
 
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