Bonobos Questions

[nicholascrawford]

I appreciate the answers.


I've hesitated buying any pants from Bonobos in part because it seems complicated to buy Groupon deals and stack coupons until I feel like I'm getting a great price. Plus, the challenge of knowing whether to size down or not seems complicated. Not that I'll never order, but it seems like a process that I would have to think through thoroughly before taking the plunge and becoming a Bonobos customer.


For whatever reason, I'm not the kind of person who returns clothes that I order online. I've done it twice...ever. So no matter how easy it is to return something, I just won't.


Not trying to change or challenge your business model, just offering some feedback and appreciate your participation here more than you can imagine.

[TimBonobos]

Kenneth -


Transparency is a huge for us. It's always been a big part of our brand and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Thank You for appreciating it, means a lot. (If you think this is candid, check out the explanation of our Cyber Monday woes: http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Bonobos...er-Monday-2011)


We had a ton of clutter on the sale page making it a pretty bad experience for our customers - we got a lot of complaints. In an effort to both clean that page up and to offer some nice deals to the people that would be most interested in them, we created a separate landing page and emailed subscribers to give them access.


It's not navigatable from the normal website, but it's just a link so if you have it you can access the sale. We're happy for anyone to check it out and buy stuff from it, just wasn't worth advertising beyond our customers who opted into communication from us.


FULL DISCLOSURE: many of the items are very sparsely stocked and there's no great way to filter by your size (We're working on it!!!!!) so it'll be a lot of clicking around and seeing items that you want but can't buy. That frustration is a big part of the reason we took these off the site. None of the items on this page will be restocked.


Shop at your own risk. Good luck. Here's the link: http://www.bonobos.com/1352f3ddaafc2711-the-great-apes/


Tim

[TimBonobos]

Nicholas - I can 100% appreciate your hesitancy. You are not alone. No matter how easy we try to make it there will inevitably be folks turned off to the business model. Not even in like an annoyed way or anything, just that online shopping: buying before you try, isn't ever going to be in everyone's comfort zone.


While our channels to reaching guys like you are currently limited, they exist and are expanding; We're not giving up and sacrificing your business to our competitors without a fight!


We have The Store at our HQ here in NYC, which isn't a traditional store but has a good size run of our products and Guides to help you out. We're opening another in Palo Alto, CA in the next couple months and we'll keep expanding that if it continues to do well. We'll probably have some more tricks up our sleeves before too long but that's what we've got for now.


Caution - salesy pitch: I find that the potential hassle of finding your Bonobos size is mitigated by the fact that once you do: shopping will forever be easy. Nothing is perfect for everyone, but we have a strong majority of people that find that our clothes fit better than anyone else. After a return or two, or maybe even none at all, you'll be armed with all the info you need to fill your wardrobe without ever going to the mall again.


Once you've tried on one pair, the Ninjas will be able to compare it to everything else on our shelf. We can also compare from other brands. Hard to be exact, but we're pretty handy.


Tim

[nicholascrawford]

I'll take you up on that - I'm visiting NYC in August (Uniqlo, here I come!) and am moving to San Francisco in April.


I enjoy buying clothes online, just holding on before taking the plunge with Bonobos.

[TimBonobos]

Sweet. You can schedule an appointment online here: http://www.bonobos.com/getfit/ or through a Ninja. Walk-ins also welcome, worst case scenario you have to sit around for a bit. Uniqlo is awesome.

[jose_jackson]

Any explanation as to why the necks on the shirts are really large? Wearing one in M right now. Fits good through the arms and decently through the torso for an off-the-rack shirt, but the neck is just so freakin' large. Trying to imagine someone about my size with a tree-trunk neck. I might should size down to the S, but I'm sure I'd lose length in the arms.

[The Chang]

I just bought a blue button shirt from Bonobos in Medium and it fits me perfectly. I have the opposite issue. I find that shirts that fit me in the neck are way too big in the arms and waist. I go to the gym but I wouldn't say I have a tree trunk neck. I'm about 5'9" and 170 lbs with a 16.5" neck.

[MagM]

I find the necks on the shirts are great for me! I've got an oversized neck so if I buy something with my usual measurements (somewhere around 16.5-17") the body is massive. The size large in the daily grind wrinkle-free shirts is *excellent* for me. Just right at the neck and in the arms. I was worried about it because of the alpha sizing. Great at the neck and arms, some taper but not too much; works for me as I've got a little extra 'round the waist. I'm very satisfied. I own a small handful and I'll be buying more. After spending an entire day going through every store in my area without finding one satisfactory shirt, I've found my ideal dress shirt online.

[akosmowski]

Dear MagM,


I am with you on the Bonobos wrinkle-free shirts. I called ahead to get measurements, fearing something like: 16/36 and 17/37. The wrinkle-free L was 17/36, which is my preference these days. They are the best quality shirts I own. The cotton feels thick, the wrinkle-free stays wrinkle-free, and the sleeve keeps its crease. When the time comes, I will replace my other wrinkle-free shirts with Bonobos.

[SteveBonobos]

Hey Dappered,

Just got an email in from one among you, so I thought I'd cc my notes here. They were a bit all over the place because I'm listening to the D'Angelo Bonnaroo Superjam recording.


Here's what I wrote: Let’s see:


We are always trying to both improve and make more consistent our fit. A couple recent hires are focused entirely on fit. From line to line, run to run, and style to style there will be some small tweaks over the course of time. We were founded, though, around phenomenally fitting pants, and that’s not going anywhere (especially not the curved waistband.)


Rereading Dennis’ comments, they’re all pretty on point. In terms of the sizing down from JCrew, etc. to Bonobos, one of the things that was brought to my attention was that I, and most dudes, get nervous. We want to make sure we’re going to be comfy and never too tightly squeezed into our pants, so we buy with just a little bit of room. When I did my guideshop appointment in my first week, that point was made clearly to me- I don’t size down in Bonobos, I was just previously buying pants that were too big. You guys are a little more dapper than I, but it’s still pretty common.


Some other notes:


- The bull denim is now called the travel denim/jeans.

- He and I are pretty similar- sizing up on the dress pants to avoid the pockets sticking out. My colleague Mijon does not do this, though.

- I’m on the line of sizing down on travel jeans, but the ones I have are a size down from my Bonobos.

- With premium denim the pants will grow a little- it’s denim, after all. Generally, if you can button them, within a few wearing’s they’ll get really comfy and just right.

- A common question is about Boot Cut vs. Straight Leg vs. Slim Straight. The Boot and Straight Leg are identical through the knee, and the boot just comes out an inch and a half at the leg opening (for 32’s: 18" knee on both, 17.5" leg opening on Straight, 19" leg opening on the Boot.) The slim straights are a fraction of an inch slimmer down the hip/thigh/knee and go down to a 17.25" knee and 15.5" leg.

- I really love the fit of the slim straights- they’re available in a number of jeans, washed chinos and soon dress pants.

- For comparison’s sake, our shirts are a bit slimmer than a Brooks Brothers extra-slim shirt. I find those to be billowy on me, even when it’s been ages since I’ve exercised.


I should have added that we've opened a few more guideshops (see bonobos.com/guideshops). Chicago, NYC, Boston, Palo Alto and DC/Bethesda opens 11/5!


Regarding the necks, let me go try a shirt on and ask the folks in the guideshop what they know!

[SteveBonobos]

I wear a 15.5, and I just tried on a small Daily Grind (our alpha-sized dress shirt.) Small is my normal Bonobos shirt size- I'm really lanky and gangly. The small neck fit fine, though I have that under the 15" column on my spread sheet. The Medium fits 15.5" and 16" necks, but would be too baggy on my (see gangly, lanky, skinny, etc.).


One thing that you can do is order the two sizes that you think you're between and just return whichever doesn't work. The box will come with a free return shipping label, so it's pretty easy.


[email protected] and 877-294-7737 is your friend!


PS Hope this bumps. If it doesn't, let me know how to get it up there.

[greg_s]

Appreciate the input. We also have a bonobos thread stickied.