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Jeanius jeans are my favourite jeans too.
Mine also, but I was gutted when they stopped the darker colour version, (and there are still picture of the dark wash on the product web page!) Is the mid wash a decent colour, even once it's faded more in the wash?
Meh. Not entirely surprising. Their quality dive bombed a few years ago.
It's always been a little hit and miss.
I had some early camping gear, it was pretty poor. The seams on camping mats had pinhole leaks after a few uses.
I had some of the early UK made bikepacking gear (kanga bag harness and koala seat pack). The straps on the kanga pulled off, the koala felt like the straps pulled it tight at the wrong angles and would slip so needed tightening every hour or so.
Conversely the far east made bags have been great.
My Sonder Colibri (I assume the 10 year warranty is now gone) is mostly great. The cable routing was done wrong (crossed over in the internal bit behind the BB access plate) but apart from that it was well built. The catalogue finishing kit was a letdown, (road) bars were overly thin yet unforgiving, seatpost was incredibly stiff, bar tape was really light foam that offered no cushioning.
As others have commented their offering falls in between the low cost Go Outdoor/decathlon own brand stuff and more expensive brands such as Rab.
Sums it up. The problem is Decathlon's stuff like down jackets are actually really good. So being better than Decathlon is actually quite hard work. Decathlon has pretty much made itself the go-to place for 90% of my outdoors purchases. I only really go elsewhere if there's actually a really significantly better product. Being able to try things on and walk out with it trumps any slight incremental differences.
Their niche should have been similar high quality stuff across a wider range, sleeping bags, stoves, etc where decathlon aren't competing.
I also bought a Planet X Ti bike a week before they went into administration a few years ago, bit of an unfortunate coincidence.
I've got form here, Planet-X, Charge and now Sonder have all gone under within a year or so of me buying a bike😂
(I assume the 10 year warranty is now gone)
As mentioned in the e-mail from David Hanney, the Alpine Bond (10 yr Titanium frame warranty) remains.
We'll see. Karrimor used to sell some of their kit with a lifetime warranty. Try and claim on it now...
having screwed over investors
I'll say this again - regardless of what happens with the 'shares in the new company' thing, they have not screwed over the investors. The investors, er, invested, in a company that they thought would be profitable. However that company failed but it wasn't due to deceit or malfeasance, it was because of poor decision making on the part of the management. So, the investors' judgement turned out to be incorrect, and such are the perils of investment.
Fair point, as you say it is an investment and therefore element of risk. I'm presuming investment funds were utilised in the manner suggested in the 'brochure'.
I still think there will be an element of leaving the funders/creditors high and dry. Administration very rarely results in any significant recoveries for unsecured creditors. Also, the new investors are only taking it on without the burden of any creditors or otherwise it would have been bought as a going concern.
I don't know the owners and sure they are all decent people but I've seen far too many people who have had 'failed' businesses but remained incredibly wealthy whilst their smaller creditors and employees have been the ones that suffer.
Apparently "All existing crowdfund shareholders will be offered a stake in the new company. "
I'm not reading this as we will get a stake, rather we will be offered a stake, presumably if we put in some more money.
I'll pass this time I think! 🤣
Do we think the administrators were open to multiple offers of “investment” to save the company, or did the new owner come along and propose administration to get themselves a better deal (at the expense of previous investors and creditors)? Everything seems to have happened very quickly.
The problem is Decathlon's stuff like down jackets are actually really good.
I've got down jackets from Decathlon (Simond but it's owned by Decathlon and just label engineering) and Rab. I'd like to say the Rab is better, but it isn't. In fact the cut of the Simond is more in keeping with a lean mountaineer than the Rab. Both well made, loft well, the Simond is a little lighter, fits better and just as cosy. I wouldn't want to be trying to compete with either on quality and don't know how anyone could compete on price with Decathlon which has trains running to Europe from China full of tat (which a lot is) but also some very good kit..
I've just placed my first order with probikeshop.fr since the CRC and related failures. We'll see how that born from the ashes business performs.
Regarding the down in the Simond - is it ethically sourced?
I did read some horror stories that some companies just rip the feathers off the birds while they are still alive.
Regarding the down in the Simond - is it ethically sourced?
I did read some horror stories that some companies just rip the feathers off the birds while they are still alive.
They say it's legit.
What Is RDS Certification? – Decathlon
We'll see. Karrimor used to sell some of their kit with a lifetime warranty. Try and claim on it now...
As in, they went bust, were bought out, continued to trade as 'Karrimor' but don't cover any liabilities of the previous incarnation. It's very common so we'll see what Alpkit 2.0 actually do with liabilities from Alpkit 1.0.
Meet the new boss?
We'll see. Karrimor used to sell some of their kit with a lifetime warranty. Try and claim on it now...
As in, they went bust, were bought out, continued to trade as 'Karrimor' but don't cover any liabilities of the previous incarnation. It's very common so we'll see what Alpkit 2.0 actually do with liabilities from Alpkit 1.0.
yeah, sure, but we have is a statement the deal maintains the existing warranty, seems pointless having negative thoughts about it
I don't worry too much about warranty in that I rarely if ever use it. In the past 34 years I've had one wiper motor, and one chip replaced under warranty on cars. One Eastpack school rucksack repaired. One avalanche transceiver repaired. One telescopic seat post replaced. One capacitor in a guitare replaced (which I then changed for a better one as all the originals were crap).It's not really something I worry much about.
Share holders money grew the business for free. Lots of us wanted to invest in what was a great company once. The shares never held any value exc what you put in and if I recall you could only sell back at rhe base price.
Loans now defaulted and won't be repaid.
New investor in who will cover rhe next container of clothing coming in.
I would be confident in saying the one item that could be saved would be Sonder as this is an easy online business to continue. Simply few moan about the bikes and the price point but everyone else is moaning about the clothing.
Expect it to be reduced in volume but same price so purchase will be low.
Stores will 100% close as any investor is in it for a return and as soon as it starts to eat into the finances simply they have to reduce cost.
Im sure they were desperate to launch shoes and boots in the 1st wave of the share offering. Did they ever do it?
All of this is standard so nothing new here.
I think their Alpine bond and customer service depend on the person serving you which can sometimes be hit or miss.
The free hub on my rear wheel failed and damaged the hub in the process. I was offered a new free hub for free as it "should" be okay with the damaged hub or I needed to pay £90 for a new wheel. (The wheel was around 18 months old)
I paid £90 for the new wheel, fast forward 8 months and exactly the same issue happened again. I contacted the store and the management had changed, the new manager was great and organised a replacement in no time.
I purchased my first item from Alpkit around 4 years ago, I just don't think their items are good value anymore. I noticed a mini tool kit on their website for £30+ and a similar item on AliExpress can be found for around £10.
The inflated prices with constant offers is just frustrating, sell the items at the right price in the first place!
Jeanius jeans are my favourite jeans too.
Mine also, but I was gutted when they stopped the darker colour version, (and there are still picture of the dark wash on the product web page!) Is the mid wash a decent colour, even once it's faded more in the wash?
Same here and interested in the answer. Would 100% buy a pair of the dark wash if they still sold them, but have been unconvinced by the photos of the mid-wash.
To be fair: there's a shop 20mins walk so I could just go look! But invariably there's an offer online that isn't promoted in store, so I don't visit too often. There's also never any other customers so I wouldn't be surprised if that store at least gets the chop.
Mine also, but I was gutted when they stopped the darker colour version, (and there are still picture of the dark wash on the product web page!) Is the mid wash a decent colour, even once it's faded more in the wash?
I recently bought my first pair of Jeanius. I hate washed out jeans and I like the colour of the mid-wash. Having said that I haven't washed them yet, and if they were to fade significantly they would be heading towards too light in colour for me.
I was up in Ilkely over the new year and walked past the Alpkit shop. My brain went; "huh, I though Alpkit were an online company only". Not sure what that says about them/me, probably nothing of interest!
I really like their jeans - the articulated ones are almost the only ones I can wear comfortably due to a nerve problem I have.
However my mind is boggled at them taking in £3.8M of investment in recent years which has now been written off through their administrators.
I've got Alpkit jeans, and also canvas trousers (Kraft?) but didn't like colour of either. £10 Dylon black from Sainsbury; sorted
But invariably there's an offer online that isn't promoted in store,
As I found out yesterday.
Earlier in the week, I emailed the local store to see if they had a Tarpstar 4 in stock, as they were nearly 25% off. They did, so I went through to grab it along with the pole, saving nearly £70 in total. Get home later in the day and check my emails for the receipt, only to find the email after it declaring a further 10% off everything, which would have saved a further £23.
Bugger!!!
Do we think the administrators were open to multiple offers of “investment” to save the company, or did the new owner come along and propose administration to get themselves a better deal (at the expense of previous investors and creditors)? Everything seems to have happened very quickly.
Pre-pack administration was how Evans went to Sports Direct. The pre-pack process seems to be about the sale and new ownership being agreed, the company is then put into administration which allows a new owner to buy it from that state, perhaps debt-free or with reduced contracts and liabilities. It does happen quickly b/c the sale is agreed before the administrator is involved, so it avoids disruption e.g. loss of jobs etc.
'I noticed a mini tool kit on their website for £30+ and a similar item on AliExpress can be found for around £10'.
I have a suspicion that's the cost associated with taking any Chinese item, reselling it via a retailer in the UK and needing to pay any staff, expenses, taxes etc etc... and any sort of profit
Alpkit have a kind of Patagonia vibe, I like that.
A while back I got a nice "Birthday Special" - "Alpkit Outpost" kind of mag/ catalogue (on uncoated trendy paper) that made me smile, nice stories about use, so much nicer thhan just a listing.
Some of the products / descriptions were a bit hard to negotiate ( and wht SO many super similar waterproof coats?) but, I guess they were expecting us to go online for detail.
It didn't help that it had an overall 20% off offer ('ends May 2025') and arrived a few days after that expired.
However, I've enjoyed visits to the Bristol shop, although TBH rarely bought anything, I guess for the (Rab/Montane/Regatta/Mountain Warehouse) reasons folk give here - I can see why Regatta d and MW are so popular now I am retired)
Also I try go to the occasional DTV table sales at the FOD and there's often some amazing outdoor and bike stuff there at really bargain prices.
I had an Alpkit flask, which I liked despite being a bit hard/fiddly to clean, needing a bit of dismantling of the lid components.
Sadly part of the the lid cracked (old model now but still on sale when it happened - weak design, thin lip holding a seal).
I popped into Bristol hoping to get a new lid, basically - no chance of spares, bit disappointing to have to chuck the entire flask because of that - given their projected re-use, repair ethos. They and that flassk on the shelf and could have made me happy by giving me (or even selling me) the lid off one. I'm a bugger for rememberinfg stuff like that.
I do wish them luck, given the Rab designer they recruited has moved on and its the old management team I guess they'll need it.
I hopoe they look after the shareholders.
I wish Community Clothing (all made in UK, theoretically in factories which opreviously had downtime) would make a bit motre stuff I liked for outdoors. Good socks and jeans tho. Nice to buy UK made stuff especially as their factories are up North. UK made jeans starting at £99 anyone; https://communityclothing.co.uk/collections/mens-jeans?usf_sort=price - feels as bit like the original Howies in parts, but UK made
Got to love the Banana Industries nuclear sale page 🤣😎
https://www.bananaindustries.co.uk/collections/weve-gone-nuclear
All entirely normal in the Hathersage shop on Friday in the rain. Albeit very quiet and extra 10% off here and there - some of the stuff really is overpriced.
Last filed accounts £1.5m owed to trade creditors and £2.7m in loans…
My only experience of them was a Sonder Cortex Mk1 on sale a year ago. Fantastic deal until I realised how poor the QC was. They were basically flogging frames which they knew were defective and not as advertised. They could actually have been transparent about the seat tube issues which limited the dropper travel but they preferred not to.
But they were excellent at CS although they first tried to convince me that buying on eBay restricted my consumer rights.
They let me keep the frame and sent me a free Evol frame. Great for me but not sustainable.
You just can't build a business on frames that have inherent QC issues as it either costs you a lot of money or your reputation or both.
I wish them the best for the future though as I am sure they have learnt a lot in the process.
Their latest email suggests not much has changed - over a dozen new rucksacks... I'm guessing these would have ordered prior to the latest financial announcements but it still indicates a level of stock supply and maintenance that's unsustainable.
My only experience of them was a Sonder Cortex Mk1 on sale a year ago. Fantastic deal until I realised how poor the QC was. They were basically flogging frames which they knew were defective and not as advertised. They could actually have been transparent about the seat tube issues which limited the dropper travel but they preferred not to.
But they were excellent at CS although they first tried to convince me that buying on eBay restricted my consumer rights.
They let me keep the frame and sent me a free Evol frame. Great for me but not sustainable.
I (as I think several others here) also bought a bargain priced Mk1 frame at the same time and had no problems. To me it feels like yours was the exception rather than the rule, and not some sneaky attempt by Alpkit to offload shoddy goods to unsuspecting customer at a price little more than the cost of the shock.
They gave you excellent customer service - not sure what more they could have done really to turn you into a happy customer rather than a berater you seem to be.
Maybe it's time to let it go and recognise it for what it was ... a one off.
I like my alpkit stuff a lot, a gravel bike, a Ti hardtail and various bits of equipment like a MTB backpack and some T shirts. One thing that’s been a bit of a theme though is some poor QC that has been very promptly addressed by customer service, but generally by way of offering either free replacement parts or significant amounts of store credit back. Both of those are fine from a customer point of view but if they take that approach regularly to make up for poor QC then it must be bleeding them money.
A better strategy would be to spent a bit more to make sure stuff is of the right quality before it goes out rather than losing money on putting it right a lot.
So many decent brands have gone South that it seems building a brand and enhancing its desirability beyond the hardcore outdoors market (ie where the high margin/high volume sales live) is a fools errand.
I'm stumped by this... There's no way for example that The North Face gets its high margin and high volume sales from hardcore outdoors market.
They gave you excellent customer service - not sure what more they could have done really to turn you into a happy customer rather than a berater you seem to be.
Maybe it's time to let it go and recognise it for what it was ... a one off.
Maybe it's time you let go. I know for a fact it's a common issue on this frame and others, including Ti frames.
What berating? I said it was great for me, can you read? No need to invent stuff.
Really glad your outcome was better. We have had different experiences, nothing less, nothing more.
What berating? I said it was great for me, can you read? No need to invent stuff.
They were basically flogging frames which they knew were defective and not as advertised.
Nothing invented, your words. You had a QC issue rather than Alpkit misadvertising - you were unlucky rather than anything malicious or deceptive.
Really glad your outcome was better. We have had different experiences, nothing less, nothing more.
Absolutely. Totally contrary to your accusation.
Well, got my LoC and rang Gateshead store next morning - reassured normal ordering and delivery in progress.
Placed order, chased yesterday finally admitted is a delayed delivery of a container of parts delaying 100+ bike builds, including mine.
So maybe dont rush to order, not amused!
I've just had an email from Crowdcube saying
"The business and assets were sold for a total consideration of £690,000"
Considering over £500,000 was stock, that makes the brand basically worthless.
The attachments in the email are worth reading to understand the sale process and how they valued the 4.5m stock (basically as if it went to auction immediately). The old directors get new share holdings in the new operation and the personal guarantees they'd offered to HSBC are dealt with by the new owner. HMRC loses out, as do other shareholders and loan providers.
The old directors get new share holdings in the new operation and the personal guarantees they'd offered to HSBC are dealt with by the new owner. HMRC loses out, as do other shareholders and loan providers.
So the people who oversaw the brief collapse of the company are rewarded for their errors?
So the people who oversaw the brief collapse of the company are rewarded for their errors?
This is the fun part of pre-packs - pretty much everyone bar the directors and 'new'* buyer lose out. Don't know how they became legal - back in the late 70s my dad to liquidate his company. He lost everything and five of us ended up living in a small caravan for nearly a year.
*often a connection or relative of the directors.
It stinks. I won't be rushing to buy anything from them.
In a related story on the radio today investors who bought "Punk equity" in the Brewdog crowdfunding look like losing every penny of their "investment".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c795879x08go
To be fair, when I got the email about investing in Alpkit I binned it. Having been a customer since 2004/5 and witnessed their slow growth and then the alarming growth of retail shops, combined with the DFS style perma-sale, it looked like a silly investment.
Brewdog is very similar in that regard. This wasn't because I was Nostradamus or gifted with prescience, it just looked wrong. Anyone stumping up their hard earned cash should have done the research. It's bad that investors lost out but there is an inherent risk with these things.
Nothing phone were looking for investors recently and that industry is even more competitive. Most people wouldn't invest due to the perceived risk.
I've no problem with losing my investment because unlike Mr £12k up there I knew it wasn't a get rich quick scheme but I will find it difficult to buy anything further from them knowing they are carrying on as normal but washing their hands of owing £1k to the village football club, 3k to the local caterers, 10k to local councils etc. HMRC, PayPal, DHL and the other big boys can suck it up but the smaller amounts to the smaller people is really going to hurt.
This is the fun part of pre-packs - pretty much everyone bar the directors and 'new'* buyer lose out.
I read this with interest recently -
https://bikebiz.com/lios-bikes-founder-talks-administration-as-a-business-model-in-cycling/
"Over the last few years, the cycling industry has developed an uncomfortable pattern. A brand enters administration or an insolvency process, then reappears with new investment, a new structure or a pre-pack sale. The headlines talk about jobs saved and a fresh start. The reality is that suppliers, partners and customers often absorb the losses. This is increasingly normalised. That is the problem."
knowing they are carrying on as normal but washing their hands of owing £1k to the village football club, 3k to the local caterers, 10k to local councils etc.
Are they though? If that's just an example to make a point then it can read as quite unfair to Alpkit. They may well settle debts like that.
Administration means debts are wiped but that doesn't mean the new Co. doesn't settle any of them, either in part or majority of the amount if not in full. For the new Co. it's about relationships and a negotiation, key suppliers will have leverage and some relationships are more than just business.