If it were 853, it would be worth the premium price. But 531 is just not going to cut it.

Well....it's the first time Rapha has looked like being good value!!!

Did some nice stuff years ago summet to do with the Bontrager 24-12 if i remember right (which I proabqbly don't)

But that stuff is 'orrble. (well more meh than horrible but once you've included the price - horrible)

no multi coloured stripes i'm out.

Seems that the fashion industry has noticed how much cyclists are prepared to spaff on bikes and associated stuff, and we've officially been moved into the box marked 'gullible half-wits'

550 dabs for a plain black waterproof that just looks as plain and unremarkable as anything you'd get from Altura/Endura et al, and will just be made from the same material 😯

£85 for a T Shirt?!

4 cough.

The new golf

Oh my word ! £550 for a jacket.... Jeeez.

Quite like the waterproof jacket but £550! That's mental.

Paul Smith is an interesting character and quite a rider in his day.

I can think of one person I know who's probably ordered a selection already.

He's a preening, sociopathic, self-absorbed tit who happens to (occasionally) ride an expensive road bike (when the sun's out), since it became fashionable.

Right up his street, is this stuff. In fact I've probably just inadvertently summed up the target market, after Paul and friends had the marketing meeting 😆

😆 right ye are paul!

I don't get it.. Paul Smith jackets are always that sort of price aren't they? What's the hoo hah?

I used to errr... 'procure' the occasional PS item when I was an impressionable teenager and such things mattered..

Lovely kit, good quality and nice tailoring.. I couldn't spend that knd of dollar these days though, even if I wanted to, and I'm a bit long in the tooth for procuring stuff

The packable jacket looks ok. If it was 50 quid I might be tempted.

[img] [/img]

They actually have a 'sort by - Price lowest first' bit on the drop down!! 😯

He obviously thinks that te wimminz should be back in the kitchen. Well, I would be if I was cooking for David Millar. 😉

S****s at the picture of the guy on the track bike with pedal reflectors.

Strewth, £450 for a windproof?

This is where my comprehension of branding/fashion/labels falls down...

I struggle to believe that anyone out there would spend that sort of money on cycling kit - especially as it doesn't look any better than stuff you can get at a fraction of the price.
Who buys this stuff? I know about the argument that if you are loaded and can afford it, then why not? But, even if I had ooodles of cash, I would look at this stuff and wonder what it gives me over other riding kit for the extra money. And all I can think of is the 'name' and perhaps bragging rights if that is your thing. Oh, maybe exclusivity?

A cotton cycling t-shirt for £85?! It's just a t-shirt. And cotton isn't that good anyway for wearing while undertaking sweaty activities.

I just don't get why people would pay for this stuff, over more sensibly priced decent kit....

[img] [/img]

Not in this lifetime.
i'll wait for it all to come into TKmax 😆

He's a preening, sociopathic, self-absorbed tit who happens to (occasionally) ride an [s]expensive[/s] very ugly road bike (when the sun's out)

HOUNS, Houns to the forum please...

(It all looks fine to me, it's actually quite nice, clean and modern looking especially compared to Endura/Altura stuff which has been designed with little consideration for how it looks, or Rapha stuff which is mostly retro nonsense. I'd not pay that much but there are folk who earn a lot of money, wear a nice suit and ride a nice bike that'll be happy to spend that much.)

[quote=munrobiker said]He's a preening, sociopathic, self-absorbed tit who happens to (occasionally) ride an expensive very ugly road bike (when the sun's out)
HOUNS, Houns to the forum please...

Harsh.

OK. I [i]really[/i] like a lot of Paul Smith stuff. And I get that it costs money.

I'm struggling with quite how much money that stuff is though. It's making almost anything else you can think of look really cheap...

EDIT:

there are folk who earn a lot of money, wear a nice suit and ride a nice bike that'll be happy to spend that much.)

For a given value of "lot", "nice" and "nice", I'm in that category. I'm baulking at the £350 hoodie to be honest.

🙂

Makes the [url= http://www.brooksengland.com/catalogue-and-shop/clothing/ ]Brooks Clothiog range[/url] looks positively bargaintastic! and I know which I'd rather spend my money on when commuting.

Review in this months mag of rain jackets, most seemed to be over the £200 mark.

Having said that, the PS stuff look like the Aldi stuff, black with one colour pannel.

Very nice, if you're an oligarch or a football player.
I like the stuff, but it's like they've pinched the Rapha website and applied a x2 premium to everything.

Paul is s very keen cyclist and has been doing collaborations with Mercian and Rapha for many years. It might be expensive, but he has a long standing relationship with cycling and is not simply cashing in on the recent surge in interest. I'm a great fan of Paul Smith shoes and clothing and the quality has always been excellent.

needs more stars

The prices are as they are to do a job, a job I hope they do well, to stop me having to look at any of you riff raff wearing the same apparel as me as I ride my bicycle.

While I may be joking in regard to myself I think it's very much a factor for the target market of the more expensive clothing market.

stumpy01 - Member
I struggle to believe that anyone out there would spend that sort of money on cycling kit - especially as it doesn't look any better than stuff you can get at a fraction of the price.

it's not cycling kit, it's Paul Smith clothing (with associated prices) that's been designed to cycle in and turn up at your destination looking smart*

*open to interpretation

People can buy what they like it's their money. He does seem to have some neck on him though.

We spend how much on our bikes and sniff at expensive clothes 🙂

People can buy what they like it's their money. He does seem to have some neck on him though.

He deserves the Duraglit order of merit 🙂

😡 @munro

I wouldn't buy it even if I could afford it, I don't like the look of any of it

I'll wait til Wiggle come out with something very similar 🙂

Some of it looks good but the prices are not for us mortals.

At least it doesn't have any of his "trademark stripes" which manage to make almost every collaborative project he does look sh**

Jacket + shorts + t-shirt = more than I paid for my bike... 😕

there are always 'halo' items that sell only a handful of, and the main product lines that operate the majority of turnover

guess which ones these are

Paul is s very keen cyclist

That's why it's so disappointing.

The styling is one thing, you like it or you don't, but the price is beyond stupid.

He's a cyclist and a world class clothes designer. It's a real shame that he didn't design well made, well though out clothes at a reasonable premium price. You can buy a pair of Paul Smith jeans for £100, maybe 30% more than Levis, a perfectly respectable brand. His cycling stuff is crazy money, it makes Rapha look reasonable.

Luxury brand = luxury pricing, people buy it because it's expensive as it's deemed exclusive. Takes all sorts I suppose.

The styling is one thing, you like it or you don't, but the price is beyond stupid.

He's a cyclist and a world class clothes designer. It's a real shame that he didn't design well made, well though out clothes at a reasonable premium price. You can buy a pair of Paul Smith jeans for £100, maybe 30% more than Levis, a perfectly respectable brand. His cycling stuff is crazy money, it makes Rapha look reasonable.

This is fashion though. 'World class clothes designer' and 'makes well thought out stuff at a reasonable price' are mutually exclusive.

Anyway, as someone said earlier, this isn't Paul Smith's attempt to get a bit of the cycling clothing market away from Rapha or whoever. It's just a theme for his collection. (That's not to say it wouldn't necessarily be any good for riding, but that's not the point here IMO.)

I like paul smith clothes and shoes. And I like cycling, but it's a tad spendy even VS Assos which is proven cycling gear.
I'm sure the paul smith stuff is great BUT, it would never be on my list due to the people who will splash out and buy it.
I'm thinking it will be the same folk who squeeze themselves and their aeroguts into sky team kit.

I wonder what Rapha think of this - there was quite a big tie in between Rapha and Paul Smith and also with team Sky and Pinarello with Paul Smith limited edition versions of Dogma bikes and ranges of Rapha clothing. I wonder if this stuff is actually independently Paul Smith, or just Rapha sourced and marketed under the Pal Smith name to extend the market base.

$195 for a t shirt, Paul [i]really[/i] has seen you coming 😉

"Paul Smith Reflective Shirt - We're not the only one's who'll see you coming. £195"

Paul is s very keen cyclist and has been doing collaborations with Mercian and Rapha for many years. It might be expensive, but he has a long standing relationship with cycling and is not simply cashing in on the recent surge in interest. I'm a great fan of Paul Smith shoes and clothing and the quality has always been excellent.

Your sincerely
P. Smith

Well, it's a lot more understated than I was expecting...
Definitely from the Department of How F***ing Much! Even were I the lucky recipient of a very large lottery win, I couldn't justify to myself spending what is really an obscene amount of money on some average-looking cycling gear.
Most of my RaceFace, Endura and Sombrio kit was bought in sales to get it as cheap as possible.

Maybe he's identified that no other real fashion brands have yet got involved in "the new golf" so he thought he'd make a claim on the top end. If other fashion brands were already there I think PS stuff would be on a par with Rapha pricing wise as he only really commands an approx 50% premium over high street but this is proper premium Prada-esque money.

Good luck to him but I've got to say it's a bit half ar$ed without any proper shorts/bibs/etc on offer.

Ted baker now also have a cycling range taking the middle ground with M&S & H&M doing the lower mid level with cycling specific jeans etc.

It was only a matter of time they saw cycling as their new target audience.

We don't have to buy it thow 🙂

He's a cyclist and a world class clothes designer.

And one of his biggest markets? Japan. Where clothing is taken very seriously. And where they too love cycling.

This seems a very sensible business decision. Whether they are veblen goods, I'll leave to others to decide. But probably not STW's "Men at Aldi"....

All rather bland looking kit innit...

I do quite like the idea of riding to work in a jacket worth more double the value of my bike seems like a fantastic reversal of "Value" IMO...

I'm sure DHB will be bring out [s]copies[/s] similar looking but separately inspired garments...

meh, PS is probably a very astute business man. he'll know what it costs to make, how many they'll sell, what margins they want to make. if they don't sell enough they'll drop their prices, if they sell plenty they probably won't.

just because its the bike industry, it doesn't mean they have to act like a charity.

I couldn't afford it (or theoretically many high end bike bits and pieces) but I'm not bitter about it - i just wouldn't buy them.

would be ok if it wasn't in such D.U.L.L colours!

fail!

The website looks very similar to Rapha's (last time I looked). I wonder if marketing and sales are being handled by Rapha, and they're taking a cut.

I did a quick search for Schoeller C-Change fabric and came across a review on road.cc for a Mission Workshop Orion jacket. The reviewer reckoned it was pretty good, but there are a few comments complaining about the plain look and price of £285. Paul Smith's jacket made from the same material is £550. I think it looks good, and it seems to be a decent fit. The model is 6ft 1" and is wearing a small jacket, and sleeve length looks fine on him. I'm 6ft and would normally wear a small, but usually find sleeves are too short. If performance, fit and quality are top notch then it might be worth splashing out. However, the 'name' and fashion-side of it isn't something I aspire to, and I think they're charging a fairly hefty premium for it.

Wonder where this stuff is made? I have just bought some Lusso bib tights for £50 that are made in the UK.

I don't believe much Paul Smith clothing is made in the UK, certainly the jacket I bought a few years ago (which was Collection) was made in Belgium. Very nicely made, but in Belgium. And cost quite a lot more than the cycling stuff.