Looks like Sombrio are in trouble. Hope they find an investor as I’ve loved their kit for years.
Sombrio Halt Operations

Oh no! There won’t be any cheap shoes on CRC next year!
Seriously though folks, it will be a pity if such an old established (by MTB standards) outfit goes to the wall. Mind you their stuff has been very expensive lately and what I have bought has been at discount.

Oh noes. Sucks for all involved and sombrio is my favourite riding gear as it always fits me perfectly.

Shame. My favourite too. Their water resist epik shorts are the business. Maybe they should launch a crowd sourced funding round. I’d take a punt on that…

Another Sombrio fan here and that is a shame. Well-made clothing with some innovative features.

“The consultants had a grand vision of making Sombrio into a big company very fast with a network of our own retail stores. It seemed almost too good to be true but they were convinced it would work. In 2012 we raised funds from an investor, added staff to a great team, invested in systems, products, and began to execute on this growth strategy.
Sadly, it went sideways, as the retail expansion plan was way more expensive to execute than we were led to believe, barred with issues, and stores never opened”

What the f***?

They need to go and read Yvon Chouinard’s book – the bit where they loose Black Diamond in the space of a few days, and some bankers/lawyers try to get Patagonia to make some really dumb decisions (basically ‘borrow lots and grow quickly, promise…) – Yvon and his wife choose to walk away and take the Patagonia staff on a retreat. There they all agree to slow down, grow as and when they can afford it, and ignore the ‘experts’.
Seems to have worked out well.
.
Shame for Sombrio – they are still the best shorts I own.

It was good gear but I don’t think I ever paid full price for anything.

great different designs where everything else looked the same.
shame if they’re no more.
sometimes expensive, but what isn’t these days?

I wonder how much the consultants charged for such awesome advice?

Needed a few more riders with some imagination, to buy some robust, hardwearing kit, rather than the fashions that the “quick racer kids” are wearing…

🙁 just seen this (I’ve been hiding) love their kit. This is a problem the retail sector always gets itself into, it’s always so much better to ride the organic growth chart, than try and plot out some massive plan for dominance. Unless you have massive PR budget you will fail. There’s another Candadian company that is about to embark on setting up stores in the UK, and I see it going the same way..

Paid about £60 on Wiggle for 3 pairs of Badass shorts about 6 years ago and they’re all going strong apart from the odd bad zip. Make a mockery of the Fox crap I’ve bought since.

Awesome kit but eye wateringly expensive at full price, it fits me well but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it outside of the sales. Sorry to see them go though.

Shame, hopefully they’ll “do a RaceFace” and rise again…

One of my favs too
Shirts and shorts are epic
This sounds like bloody private equity firm involvement wanting a quick exit when things go wrong
If only I had a few mill going spare…

Damn – a few more years and their shoes would’ve been eclipsing 5.10 – they might even have been able to sell them at RRP.