derek guy Profile picture
Aug 25, 2023 17 tweets 5 min read Read on X
WHY ARE SUITS SO EXPENSIVE?

Whenever I post a link to a suit or sport coat, many people respond in shock bc of the price. Let's break down why tailored clothing costs so much money. 🧵 Image
For this, I'm going to assume that the suit was made in the United States, largely because I'm relying on information given to me by a friend who works at a high level in the US suit manufacturing industry. These are simplified numbers but are generally reflective of reality.
The first thing to understand is that suits and sport coats are not made like casualwear. They are built up from many layers of haircloth, canvassing, and padding, which are carefully sewn together using either specialized machines or human hands (needle and thread) Image
Let's break down the cost of making a suit.

A garment worker at a US suit factory makes about $15/hr. The total number of minutes spent on making that suit (in terms of actual operations) will be about 260 mins. Image
The factory also has to pay for worker benefits, which, spread across the total production, adds about $23 per suit. And then there's the cost of overhead (e.g., warehousing, administration, etc.). That adds an additional $26 per suit.

So now we have spent $114.
There is also the cost of materials. A factory may spend about $30/meter for fabric. They need 3.5 meters to make a suit, which brings the price per suit to $105. Now add $30 worth of trims (haircloth, padding, canvas, buttons, and such).

So now we have a total cost of $249. Image
$249 is how much it costs the factory to make a suit. To make a profit, they do a gross margin markup of 40%. That means they sell it to a brand for $415. The brand has to pay for a bunch of other expenses (e.g., marketing, administration, etc). Image
The brand also has to make a profit. So they sell the suit to a store at a gross margin markup of 60%. (This store, too, has its own expenses, such as sales staff, warehousing, marketing, etc.).

Now, we have a retail price of $1,037. Image
The above is a rough sketch of what it would cost to make a fully machine-made, fully canvassed suit in the United States. The price could go up on a host of factors. The factory could spend more on nicer fabric. Or they can include some hand-tailoring details. Image
Alternatively, the price can go down. The suit could be made in China, where the avg garment worker in a suit factory makes just under $4/hr. They could buy cheaper fabric. Or they can do a fully fused or half-canvassed construction, which may be less durable or not hang as well.
One of the ways to cut costs is in the patternmaking stage. Remember, a suit is made from many layers of material. Each of these layers has to be cut according to a pattern, which is a term for the architectural blueprint for the garment.
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If a factory is taking the time and care to make a good suit, they will draft the pattern a little larger than what they need, then lay those internal pieces—haircloth, canvas, padding—on and carefully stitch. Then, they trim away the excess material—trim, adjust, trim, adjust. Image
However, if they're trying to cut costs, the components of the suit are cut exactly as they're supposed to be, laid on top of each other, and just sewn. There is no trimming or basting, you just sew everything together and hope for the best.
The problem is, cloth moves and linings shift. So things, sometimes, these lower-end garments don't come out quite right. Everyone along the stage is trying to maximize money, so the garment goes out to the sales floor as-is, and you hope a customer doesn't notice.
However, even at the lowest level—garment made in China, cheaper fabrics (but still natural fibers), fully fused or half-canvassed construction, no trimming or adjusting during the manufacturing process, etc.—you are looking at a retail price of about $500.
So, the answer to the original question: Why are suits expensive? They are more complicated to make than casualwear. They often require more expensive fabrics. If they are made in the UK, Italy, or the US, there are wage and labor laws.
There are many ways to look good; you don't have to buy tailored clothing. But tailoring is a beautiful thing, and the price paid goes towards supporting workers who are skilled in a special area of manufacturing. You can also end up with a garment you love and look good in. Image

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More from @dieworkwear

Apr 8
How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

I'll show you. 🧵 Image
In 2014, Steve Bence served as Nike's Program Director in Footwear Sourcing and Manufacturing. He pulled back the curtain on manufacturing in an interview with Portland Business Journal. He said that, if a sneaker retails for $100, it generally costs them about $25 to manufacture Image
This is the FOB cost. In the industry, "free on board" is the shoe's cost at the point when it's loaded onto a vessel at the port of origin. "Free" refers to how the factory will pay to deliver a finished product up to the point when it boards a ship—the rest is your problem. Image
Read 19 tweets
Apr 8
"China makes crappy clothes anyway, so who cares?"

This is a very outdated view. Let me show you just one shop in Beijing, which I think makes clothes that surpasses Loro Piana, The Row, or whatever luxury ready-to-wear brand you can name. 🧵 Image
Atelier BRIO Pechino started as a multi-brand store that held trunk shows with bespoke tailors and shoemakers from around the world. Over time, they've developed as their own tailoring house, which I think excels bc of the proprietor's high taste and their craftspeople's skills. Image
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For example, on the right is your typical hand padded lapel, where a tailor has picked up multiple layers of material with needle and thread, and shaped them through stitches. This is sort of workmanship is pretty standard, even on Savile Row. Image
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Read 21 tweets
Apr 6
I support the US garment industry. I don't believe in making life harder for immigrants or erecting crazy high tariffs. So how can we reshore some of our US garment manufacturing without xenophobia or protectionism? Here's my view. 🧵 Image
This thread starts with three ideas:

First, garment manufacturing has always been done by immigrants—first Germans in the late 19th century, then Jewish immigrants from East Europe, then Italian and Polish, and now East Asian, Latin, and Caribbean. Image
Image
Such immigrants gave us our cultural language. The soft-shouldered Ivy style look—popularly associated with WASPs—was formed by Jewish tailors. One of the leading shops for this look, J. Press, was founded by a Latvian immigrant who eschewed rabbinical studies to sell clothes. Image
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Read 25 tweets
Apr 6
It's true there's a lot of automation in garment production—and there stands to be a lot more. Let me show you some of the technologies. And what this could mean for American labor. 🧵
I want to start with this video, even though I've posted it before and you may have seen it. It forms the basis for an idea in this thread.

Long ago, before the advent of ready-to-wear, tailors made things by hand, some using a pad stitch.

YT bernadettebanner
As you can see in that video, a pad stitch is a way to pick up multiple pieces of fabric, shaping the material as you go and turning 2D cloth into 3D form. The incredible sculpted chest and lapel roll you see here was formed through a combo of pad stitching and ironwork.
Read 18 tweets
Apr 6
This is a very misinformed view of clothing manufacturing.

Tariffs can drive up prices, shrink variety, and lower quality. Let me show you how. 🧵
People often equate Chinese manufacturing with low quality, cheap, sweatshop clothes. And they assume that US manufacturing is high quality, ethically made clothes. Thus, if tariffs brings back US manufacturing, we'll all be wearing higher-quality clothes. This view is wrong. Image
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Maybe in the 1980s, you could have characterized Chinese vs US production in this way, but this has not been true for a long time. Jeffery Diduch is the Senior VP of Hickey Freeman, a leading US suit factory (now called Rochester Tailored Clothing). He said this in 2011: Image
Read 24 tweets
Apr 3
Let's look at how Trump's recent round of tariffs could impact your spending on clothing. 🧵 Image
I should note this thread makes two assumptions. First, that tariff will be fully passed down to the consumer. This may or may not be true, but is likely true in the long run. Second, that the manufacturing info I found online reflects current sourcing.
According to their public filings, 39% of Adidas shoes are made in Vietnam, including these Sambas.

Currently, they sell for $100. With the new 46% tariff, they will cost $46 more—or $146. Image
Image
Read 16 tweets

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