sverrefehn

botto, how do the base layers stack up against other brands? Good enough to justify the cost?

botto 

considering my costs? certainly.

compared to the descente sleeveless, they breathe MUCH better (they're basically a high-tech hollow core polyester string vest). you'll never feel damp wearing one.

don't see much point in comparing it to my ls craft base layer, seeing as it's for winter, and the assos is for the heat.

fwiw - during the mountain stages of the TdF, if you ever notice a rider, with his jersey unzipped, wearing a baselayer with a hole cut out below the neck, then it's probably an assos baselayer with the logo cut out.

Second Mouse

Has anyone tried the S-Series bibs? $80 - $90 and they say an "XLG" will fill tall folks. Not so sure about that fit, if previous posts are any indication.

botto 

considering that they're not even mentioned on the website, i'd pass. i'm guessing that assos outsources those.

Jose R

Or Castelli.

(The Castelli logo is round and center right where the Assos logo is.)

Second Mouse

Hmmm. This is the spiel from most of the websites that sell this stuff:

Assos S-Series Bib Short
Bib shorts featuring Assos' Elastic Interface Technology chamois, this is an intentionally affordable bib short manufactured by Assos under the name "S-Series".

Maybe it's the current version of what Assos was doing with Gore or Craft or whatever.

Mayonnaise

I live down the street from Cbike and fell into the Assos hype 4 or 5 years ago. I bought a full winter kit over the course of a month or two. In the summer I bought their shorts. I’ve put thousands of miles on Assos products.

My team also supplies me with shorts and jerseys that I have to wear when racing.

The difference between the two is remarkable.

On a hot day the racing jersey feels like cellophane and the racing shorts hold more moisture than they should.

In the winter my Assos tights fit great and are very warm. The jacket also is great. I wouldn’t use anything else but Assos winter gloves. Many times having the Assos clothing has made the difference between riding or not on a cold day.

If I’m commuting to work or doing a few easy miles, then I don’t care what I wear. Basic stuff is good enough for me.

When performance matters, then I would only wear Assos. If I were riding a century, I’d only wear Assos. Or a long training ride. Or a cold day. Or a hot day. When you need your clothing to do more than pad your crotch for half an hour, you want Assos. You put this stuff on and forget about clothing. No itching, no adjusting, no crimping.

Is it worth the money? Man, I don’t know. My tights are starting to wear and they’ve got a few tears in them, same with my knickers. Which means they’ll have to be replaced soon. The tights run $300. That’s a lot of money. I’ve seen other high end tights by other manufacturers for about half that amount.

Maybe the cheaper tights are good enough and I could live with the difference. Or maybe I’d get halfway into my ride on a 25 degree day and discover they suck and I should have got the Assos.

I don’t know.

An old friend used to say “quality is cheap”. You buy something good and take care of it and it’ll last a long time. I’ve gotten 5 good years of use out of those tights. They’d’ have lasted longer but I put them in the drier too much. Don’t put your cycling clothes in the drier.

botto 

well, i know for a fact that one team was wearing assos baselayers (mine came from the extras that the team didn't need).

DScott

Ninja for sure...

query

Did Onkey ever explain his nonsense statement?

oilman_15106

It's called a weak US dollar.

botto 

it's not that simple sport.

F1.13 S2 bibs

USA $274.99

EUROPE 185€

at todays exchange rate, that puts the EU price at 239.57$

F1 Unos

USA 159.99$

EUROPE 99€

at todays exchange rate, that puts the EU price at 128.20$

etc, etc, etc

clausen

The extra cost is probably from importers or tariffs. Or the "it's European we can charge that little bit extra". Still worth every pennie in my book.

slowandsteady

Oh stop now. People complain about the cost of prescription drugs that cost less than that sweatshirt and it takes us a couple hundred million dollars and a decade to produce an efficacious drug.

Seriously how much R&D does it take to make a sweatshirt? What, like a month and 85 cents?

Sweatshirt scientists must make a ton of money at Assos. I am submitting my resume now. Of course, I have no actual sweatshirt scientific experience, but I can be trained.

botto 

since when are we discussing sweatshirts?

you've shown that you posses a sound mind, and a sharp wit, but statements like the one above also illustrate that you're prone to commentating on things that you obviously have no prior experience or knowledge of.

ft_critical

You don't have to buy ten outfits, just buy one pair of knicks and one jersey. It is expensive but save up or get it as a Christmas present (probably the only one you'll get given the price.) Having got it, you will not need to ask this question.

It really is that good.

There is also something psychological about it, you do feel great riding in it, which makes an enjoyable sport more enjoyable.

BTW - wearing Assos does not make you rich just committed to cycling
BTW 2 - some of the Assos products are no more expensive than other brands - socks, hats, gloves etc. It is mainly the knicks and that is because it is these that are that much superior to other brands

slowandsteady

Uh, since the first post.....


My point is the same regardless of clothing type. It is just as ridiculous to claim R&D expenses for shorts, socks, shirts, sun glasses, ear plugs, whatever. It is $250 because that is what the market will bear. When a company decides on a price they have to balance profit margins with total sales. Apparently a three digit number provides Assos with the total net sales that they are looking for.

jburnsdo

Pardon my Ignorance, but can somebody tell my how to prounonce Assos--I don't want to sound too gheh if I tell people I'm really excited about Assos. Especially if I've just been riding my Mannschaft. . .

domestique

Think "a" then sos. A-sos. NOT ASS-os

slvoid

If they're forking over the cost of the r&d of a fabric, you bet your ass its expensive.

Hell one of the smallest things I've ever designed is this tiny plastic piece about the size of a AAA battery that required a multi-cam mold, the mold itself was 50 grand. Every time we realize something doesn't work out and we need to say, EDM off a couple thousandths off the surface or something, that's another 3-4 grand, per revision. Every time we need to check the spec, we've gotta run a bunch of shots, another 3-4 grand in materials and set up time. That's for 1 tiny piece of plastic.

I'm not in the business of fabrics but let's imagine you need some type of magic fabric that has incredible stretch, semi-good durability, color fast, withstands washing, withstands sweat, sun, heat, etc. So.. you need the chemist to synthesize the polymers, the reagents, , the machines to actually create the polymer, lab time to test the polymer for chemical, physical, properties (assuming you don't just buy a mts machine). So we're talking full time salary for at least 1 chemist and all that jazz. If you buy used equipment, be prepared to fork over 200-300 grand at least. Then there's time involved to get the polymers to condense correctly to get the correct bonds and chain lengths, getting it to spin correctly, then getting it to weave correctly. Now assuming you get all this right, you've still gotta custom make lab grade samples to test and we're talking hundreds of iterations. So another 200-300 grand.

Great, you got lucky and this poly does everything you need it to do. Now... you get your hands on some production level equipment and a bunch of slaves. Fork over another 800-1000 grand, you manufacture a few batches and have someone actually make a jersey out of it. Then test it for form, fit, and function.

Now, count overhead, marketting, logistics and support. Another 500 grand or so.

So you're talking 2-3 mil easy. Now you look at markup, the retail price you see is probably 3x what retailers get it for which is probably 4x what they make it for. So on a $180 pair of shorts, they sell it for 60. So out of $60, amortize the R&D, equipment, inventory cost, taxes, production, salary, overhead, and so on.

I'm no plant manager so I'm probably forgetting a lot of things, but you can see, it's not easy as it seems. Hell even if they pay someone else to develop the fabric, now they're paying for someone else's livelihood too. Now, don't get me wrong either, it takes all of about 10 minutes to design one of those $200 christian dior t-shirts that's basically a hanes. On the other hand, you also have to balance what the production sizes are for Assos. Go back to the example above, a plastic plug, simple plastic plug, took 60 grand to design and about 40 grand in time and labor. It costs 25 cents to have someone make it (we don't have the machine). We use about 15000 a year. Assume the design/mold's good for a 10 year run, leaving interest and inflation out of it, that's 10 grand a year alone. Tack on 25 cents, that's 50 cents plus 65 cents or so. So that's a buck and change for a cheap little piece of plastic. Plus remember, not all profit's profit, we also need money to pay for the next generation of products.

DrPete 

Doesn't exactly hurt to sell a couple million doses of said medication as opposed to a couple thousand "sweatshirts."

pigmode

I have 7 sets of FI-13 S2s, 3 still in their boxes. Will probably buy 3 more this year before a model/style change happens. I can't hardly justify the cost of a new jersey, but will also get the Swiss Nat. jersey to go along with my 12 year old Assos Swiss National. Assos will sate both vanity and performance.

jemoryl

While they certainly play up the Swiss thing, a tiny little tag under the main tag on the jersey side seems informs us that the jersey is 'Made in Slovenia'. Not that there is anything wrong with that....

jamiewilson3

I am in R&D for a textile company. I can assure you that the R&D cost for Assos or any other company is not anywhere near several million dollars. What you are paying for are:

Materials
The materials in a top of the line product are cutting edge and top of the line. Assos will pay a premium of several 100% over conventional lycra and probably even more than that for the chamois, since the market for chamois is so small (stretch fabric technology is no big deal, as the market is huge).

Construction
Paying for Italian wages and slow production practices for top quality and maybe more quality control for products leaving out the door (maybe). I dont know if Assos actually manufactures any textiles. Almost everything you buy is purely a label. They dont actually make any materials. They may do cut and sew. Assos probably sources the construction as well as the materials.


Development
Basic comparative testing for new products against the replacement product and competition. Not that expensive to do the testing, but starting your own lab has substantial upfront cost. This is depreciated across 10 - 20 years, depending on the equiptment. Up front cost is easily in the low millions. I dont know their sales #'s to spread this out.

Name
Self explanantory. X%. Who knows.

That is what you pay for to actually produce the product. Sales, marketing, sponsorship, all other stuff is spread out across their sales levels, compared to other companies. Where you can get nailed is that this relatively fixed cost can make a premium product, which really has say 20% more in actual cost to help performance, cost 100% more due to the smaller market size.

A Ferrari wouldnt cost so much if they sold 100000 of a model each year.