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

Bonobos is having a trunk show this Saturday, from 2 to 5pm, at the private home of our Chief Brand Advisor, Michael Spirito. The address for the show is 233 W. 14th Street #2R, which is in between 7th and 8th Avenues. Come check out our shorts, and pick up your Orange Crush, Turqs, Pink Panthers, and Capertons for the Hamptons. Rumor has it the new Super Soakers may even make an appearance.

When Brian moved to Chicago in the summer of 2007, I told him he would be one of the ten most eligible bachelors in the city, and that he should aim to be featured in the pages of Chicago magazine for exactly that reason.

Of course I didn’t really believe that it would happen.

Chicago magazine had different ideas. I’m now the one riding his coattails to the Chicago magazine singles party this Friday night… where he is a featured guest.

In the June issue of Chicago magazine, Brian is slated as one of the cities twenty most eligible singles. Congrats bud. Just don’t let your dating life in Lincoln Park get in the way of making our customers more beautiful trousers. Your latest, the Super Soakers and the Snapdragons, are selling like hot cakes.

At Bonobos we aim to please with awesome trousers and prompt, attentive customer service from our team of Ninjas. It bums us out, then, when we can’t serve customers who ask for our pants in a size 28. We’ve been taking notes, and we’re now ready to serve guys like Will.

In Will’s own words:

“Just wait ten years, then you’ll still be thin and all of your friends will be overweight.” That’s what they say. But what if I would like to wear pants that fit my body sometime in the next ten years? Sure, I can find size 28 jeans. Khakis? Hopefully you are short enough to fit into boy sizes. Dress slacks? Forget a tailor, you need a construction worker to mangle those size 30 slacks to fit your unnaturally slim waist. One day you will say, “that’s it, I’m a size 29 and that’s that.” Wearing your brand new 29″ khakis you look down to find the cinch in the waist your belt created - time to face the facts and embrace the 28. But maybe there is an upside to the 28″ waist. In a world of heavily constricted choice, every single pair of pants that actually fits is a prize that brings true happiness. And now that Bonobos has brought a high quality, casual pair of non-jean trousers to the market, I, for one am smiling. And I’ll wear them gleefully, eating my bacon cheeseburgers… without concern.

So to Will and to all of the other size 28s out there, enjoy. Check out the Brothers Grinn in 28.

We have built it, will you come?

In the finance world, you short when you’re nervous about a company’s prospects, an index’s strength.

At Bonobos, we make shorts because we’re going long. We’re going long on you. You are our first 2,000 customers. We thank you for your patronage, your business, your enthusiasm, and your candor. We love it, we take it to heart, and we’re working hard to build a brand that you can love back.

And so when you asked us for shorts for this summer, we took that to heart, and started working overtime to translate the signature Bonobos cut into a revolutionary pair of shorts.

We hope you like our initial foray.

Bonobos shorts are made with the better-fitting Bonobos curved waistband, the pattern that has led to our trousers to be referred to by Uncrate as “the holy grail of pants.” The shorts are cut to a 9 inch inseam, short enough that you won’t be accused of wearing shants but long enough so that they land just above the knee. They include the polished chrome, soft-tooth zippers and slide-snap closure that is now standard on all of our trousers.

We’re starting with some colorful and boisterous styles, the Flip Fantasias, the Navy Palms, the Kid Nikis, the Sunscreens, the Aquemini, and the Jungle Kings. They’re kind of like our Bonobos pocketing and waistbands: loads of personality and energy. Expect some more traditional core color offerings to follow, but we lead with fireworks and our signature line to get you fired up for summer!

So order them up, and take advantage of our no holds barred return policy. And as always, your feedback is valued and enjoyed so let us know what you think.

Bonobos is coming to Chicago! Details below:

What: Bonobos spring pants party

When: Saturday, May 17, 2pm to 5pm

Where: 350 W. Dickens #3, 60614, Dickens & Clark

Be sure to arrive early . . . pants sell quickly.

Dear Andy, Brian, and Rob:

I was fortunate to take my maiden Bonobos voyage on a fine Friday
afternoon in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. I was a part of
one of the many soon to be inebriated bachelor parties that take to the world’s finest sporting venue to watch the loveable losers and take part in the ballyhoo that often accompanies the event. But being my first game of the year, it was imperative that I attend the game in style. Still smelling like last night’s bourbon beverages, I stood in front of my closet scouring it like Lou to a lineup card for the a shirt to accompany my baseball lined, red stitched, Cubbie Blue lightweight cords– The Clarks.

Armed with my day old beard and hangover providing an uncanny Piniella impression, I walked out into the 73 degree Spring Chicago afternoon and made my way to the bachelor party at the ball park. The Cubs jumped on Pittsburgh early, their bats making the Pirate staff  look as foolish as Orlando Bloom’s thespian skills in Disney’s three installments of Pirates of the Caribbean.

After seven innings of Old Style and Budweiser and a comfortable Cubs lead, my bachelor party compatriots were taking to the neighboring coeds with as much delicacy and grace as a German panzer division on a poorly defended Belgian town. It was time to stretch and head over to the adjacent watering holes. Little did I know a walk down the Bleacher catwalk and a kingly strut as royal as the hue of my fine pants to nearby Sheffields (a fitting place for pants called Clarks) would cause such a raucous. Sporting my Clarks, I was the dapperest dude in Wrigleyville, garnering the wanton attention of lascivious ladies and the equal chagrin of jealous males wallowing in their stonewashed denim misery.

I was a celebrity at the bar. “Where did you get those pants?”, “I need a pair of those!!” were as frequent as a the “Go Cubs Go” sing alongs. In my presence, fellow male bar patrons felt as comfortable in their inferior britches as Steve Bartman in a box seat. Girls couldn’t help themselves from pinching my fanny–now if this is a result of their curiosity on the soft feel of the light corduroy or the look of my posterior as result of the fine craftsmanship of the Bonobos pant, that remains to be argued.

The day was a complete success. A “W” flag was flapping above the scoreboard, the Northsiders remained atop the NL Central, my fellow bachelor party mates were over served, and my bottom looked as if I had made good use of a spray paint can in a Singapore parking lot. One may not be able to sport pinstripes within the Brick and Ivied hallowed grounds of Wrigley, but any fashion conscious, beer drinking, fun seeking guy can privy himself to the comfort, fit, flair, and panache of Bonobos.

Warm regards,
Jim Dowd

Once upon a misty time, the land of Nippon was a realm of warring, feudal kingdoms. It took a wise and powerful man - a shogun, as a matter of fact - to unite the clans with a clever combination of sticks and carrot-flavored shrimp chips. As commanding and mysterious as Tokugawa himself, allow us to present to you the Shoguns. Your denim shivers at the mere sight of these navy midweight corduroy trousers, complete with a Japanese floral design liner that has inspired more than a few haikus. These are the pants that take authority of one’s wardrobe, pants that go with just about anything. As majestic as Mt. Fuji, yet as soft as a chilled glass of Bishonen sake. The Shoguns.

If one thing haunted Jacques Cousteau in his sleep, other than the inscrutably fickle embrace of the sea, it was his inability to find trousers suitable for snorkeling. That having been said, can one snorkel in one’s Bonobos? Well, our high-tech pant testing facility in Baja is soaking our cotton twills and corduroy in saline tanks as we speak, and saltwater certainly is corrosive, so the verdict isn’t in yet. But that didn’t seem to stop our good friend and customer Tim - just look at him frolicking in the waters of St. John in his Congos, delighting in the laughter of seahorses and chortling of King Neptune himself. Maybe it’s worth a little salt to the old hemline.

As many of you may know, New York is hosting a very special guest today - His Holiness The Pope. What some of you may not know are the details regarding what occurred last night at Bonobos HQ*. It all began when we took a quick dinner break at The Melting Pot - our usual Swiss Fondue neighborhood hangout. You can imagine our surprise at finding four Swiss Guards sans trousers weeping quietly in the corner. Being the sympathetic humanists that we are, we pulled up chairs and asked them what was wrong. “Our uniforms,” Pierre whimpered between strings of melted fondue cheese, “we lost our pants and cannot march tomorrow with The Pope. What will we do?” Well, we put our heads together and came up with a simple solution - Bonobos. It wasn’t easy replacing the brightly spangled breeches of the Swiss Guards, but we were able to throw together a nice simulacrum with a pair of Clarks, some red party streamers, and masking tape. Their frowns turned to jubilant smiles, and they raised their halberds triumphantly. “We did it!” shouted Pierre with a vigorous fist pump, “we’re gonna march with The Pope!” And so they did. We watched them go by from the window of Bonobos HQ and couldn’t help but smile. And you know what? From their honored position alongside the popemobile, I swear they smiled back.

Disclaimer: story may or may not have actually occurred