cart 
Why do our shorts cost $95?
dave — July 10, 2008 @ 4:22 pm
I’ve been getting a few emails, questions & comments about why our shorts cost what they cost, so this morning I decided to post my response to one of these comments from a potential customer.
“Dear Customer,
Let me open the kimono a little bit to explain how we arrive at our pricing. There are a few elements at work here that cause our products to be priced where they are–no higher, no lower. Just what we know is fair, and more appropriately priced than anything that you’ll buy in a retail store. Our pricing is a function of the quality of our raw material inputs and the labor costs of high quality cut & sew shops right here in America.
The reason that our shorts are not substantially less expensive than our pants is that the process to make shorts & pants is almost identical!
Our materials:
- all of our shorts are made of the highest quality (organic when possible) cotton from Belgian & Spanish mills, same as our pants; it’s not cheap to get the best fabric when you’re not that big of a company, yet
- our buttons are custom made metal pull/slide buttons from Italy– we have the same buttons on our shorts & pants
- our zippers are soft-tooth metal zippers (the zippers/buttons are among the highest quality you can find in the world); again, same on shorts & pants
Making the shorts:
- most of the costs involved in the construction of our pants are replicated in the production of our shorts. Our waistbands are still hand-sewn to mirror a man’s waistline better than a machine cut option (a la Banana republic and others). The contours around the rear/thigh are still the same in our shorts as they are in our pants. These custom elements to our product production, along with the high quality of our fabric, are what drive our prices. When we make pants, compared to making shorts, the only additional costs that you are seeing involve the additional .2-.3 yards of fabric from the knees on down and the cost of finishing the pant bottoms. This explains why it’s hard to make high quality shorts much cheaper than high quality pants– you’ve usually got to skimp on labor costs, a path of poor quality and ethics.
What you are NOT seeing in the pricing of our pants is what you DO see in comparable brands (Zegna, Paul Smith, Theory, Armani, John Varvatos, etc.). In their pricing they include the costs of expensive retail space, expensive models, advertising in print magazines, launch parties, etc. It’s the reason our pants are priced at $120 as opposed to $250 or higher. It’s the reason our pluperfects are $350 and not $900. It’s the reason our shorts are $95, and not the prices seen on this page here: Saks 5th Ave. shorts. 90% of the shorts there are more expensive than ours, even before you consider their hugely marked up shipping and handling costs that will hit you at checkout.
(Redacted), I apologize for the length of this email but it’s really important to us to effectively convey this information appropriately–it’s our core philosophy and central to what we believe is wrong with the retail system. We don’t charge you a cent more than what we’re charged on shipping from FedEx, while a company like Brooks Brothers does the total opposite.
We price our pants fairly and we have a unique return policy, “any pair, any time, any reason.” We do this so that there’s no risk to a customer like you. If you wonder why our shorts are priced at $95 we encourage you to try them out, knowing that we’ll take them back at any time for a full credit. We’re a really small company right now, but we hope that with our maniacal focus on changing the retail paradigm from one that largely punishes guys like us to one that recognizes that the customer is everything, we can effect a men’s clothing revolution.
Moreover, if our shorts are too expensive because you’ve chosen to take a career in public service, or some other position that is radically underpaid relative to the amount of good you do for the world, feel free to check out our Band of Brothers program where we sell our wares at cost to these inspiring individuals.
Thanks for taking the time to ask a probing question and I hope my answer is satisfactory. If it isn’t feel free to call or email me at any time.
Best regards,
Dave
Well said.
Question: Do you have any pants for straight men?
So Bonobos are a true piece of art…
Band of Brothers is a great program!! all brands must learn from you guys, actually I dont know if I qualify for Band of Brothers, because the economy in my country (Dominican Republic) is below the line, here I earn as a proffessional (Grafic Designer) I am, the same salary as a guy that work serving fast food in the US… but i love the way bonobos looks, I will have some maybe in the future…
Keep the good work!!
Gretings from the Caribbean Island Dominican Republic!
Hi Dave,
You simply don’t have to justify the most wonderful and the best fitting pants in the world. One pair of Bonobos is enough to know you never need to submit to the corporate world of pants terrorism again to get what makes you feel great, makes you look like a sexy man and just is right. And your customer service is beyond the stars, it is amazing. I will never settle for anything less than Bonobos and I tell everyone I meet about them. Amazing, and I don’t offer that compliment lightly.
Brian Hammerich
Mike Staunton! Yes, we do have pants for straight men. All of them, in fact.
A few people have commented that our website can look a little gay. Maybe it’s the brightly colored pastel pants pants, the prominent display that Spaly’s butt gets on our website, the rampant literature out there in the world on bonobos penis fencing, or the special edition leopard print pants which we wear with joy.
For those who are curious, we are not gay nor are the vast majority of our customers. But we are not proud of that fact. It just is what it is. And we are thrilled with the gay customers who we have.
To be clear, we think most gay men dress better than their straight counterparts. We think gay marriage is one of the final frontiers of civil rights. We think John Rawls had a great point: design a society from the viewpoint that you could be born as any of its members. Its amazing how long it takes human beings to figure that out. We think that comfort with your sexuality is a part of the Bonobos lifestyle, regardless of your preference.
And we are proud of all the straight men out there wearing pants like the Shore Clubs and Pink Panthers who aren’t worried about any antiquated, insecure male notion that because they wear colorful pants they must be ‘gay.’
The pants are worth every penny and the customer service that backs them up is something special that should help alleviate any concerns one may have with price.
Mike Staunton-
I can personally attest that in donning my Pink Panthers, I have never drawn as much attention in one night as I did a few weeks ago in Chicago. Whether it was from girls I hadn’t yet met, guys I didn’t know, or just my friends, I was asked countless times what designer made my pants, where they could get some and why they look so good. While spending the night casually sipping on a Stella, or 7, I also managed to show that any guy, regardless of orientation, is able to rock a pair of pink pants. I whole heartedly recommend you ditch your Lucky’s, put away your BR khaki’s, and go for a night in a pair of Bonobos.
Wow. Great site! Are you guys a subsidiary of Cordarounds? The pants have the same details and everything! Great to see the Cordarounds business expanding!!!
[…] I wrote a blog post on why our shorts are priced where they are here, which goes into our pricing in a lot more depth. I just poked around on Brooks Brothers’ site […]
FYI: The prices of the shorts on the Saks Fifth Avenue page don’t really make the point you were going for with your link to their page.
But I definitely agree you have some great looking shorts.