Ray Mears new Shirt

[Lurch]

Still if someone's daft enough to pay that then fair play to them, but that's one serious amount of lure.
On t'other hand don't forget that some Swannis go for that sort of money, they likely figure if were daft enough to splurge that cash on a wooly night shirt then a smart looking shirt should be no problem.

 

[pibbleb]

I was stunned when I saw the email. For a £125 keep it!

Shame I was looking for something like it as well!

Pib

 

[dtalbot]

Yep, take a ton of the price and it'd be good, till then craghoppers kit is fine by me!

 

[ArkAngel]

That is beyond a joke

£125 for a thick shirt with some logo impressed buttons

I thought a 5.11 shirt was pricey, but they are good kit and really hard wearing.

Even the RM t-shirts are only screen printed, our own BCUK ones are far superior to that in every respect.

Whoever is advising Mr Mears on his marketing stratagy really needs to be given their marching orders. I have been a stalwart fan for years, but this is getting silly. At least the outer shells are all high quality gore-tex....this is just.....cotton!!!:tapedshut

I am tempted to send Woodlore an e-mail asking what sort of mushrooms has Ray been eating recently?!

 

[Toddy]

Wet cotton is miserable to wear, better with linen or hemp or even ramie if you're working in it.
I hand sew, made to measure, 100% linen shirts, and even I don't charge that much (and I'm not touting for business, my order book's bursting at the seams again )
It's just fashion clothing gone nuts. I do note though that the Woodlore Team is being given credit too for the idea.....somebody out there must have done some market research surely, but I don't think it was among bushcrafters; we might like kit, but we do like a bargain
Maybe they don't need to sell very many to make thier profit though and it'll become like the Woodlore knife.....no doubt we'll hear all about it when the first one will turn up on ebay

cheers,
Toddy

 

[OzaawaaMigiziNini]

125 quids for a cotton shirt???????????

I'm sorry, but I'd rather pay 20 Canadian dollars for a Poly-fibre synthetic material shirt! At least it'll be dry by the end of the day!

 

[jojo]

Golly The sad thing is: the waiting list is already 18months

 

[Simon1]

Not for me

 

[Tadpole]

Ray Mears is not the only one jumping in the clothing line bandwaggon. think of almost any famous person, and either the clothes they wear suddenly become the "in thing"
Neo from 'the Matrix' wears a brand of sunglasses and suddenly they jump from £100 a pair to £400 a pair. People cash in on their famous name and open up a clothes line of their own.
Steve Irwin daughters Binti, has her own line of children’s clothes and a tee-shirt is 49AUD (£20.37) and a kids fleece is 79AUD (£32.85) clothes that kids will grow out of in three weeks to a month. The rap star Missy Elliot’s Adidas’ shoe and clothes line ‘Respect ME’ sells a pair of plain black shoes for $1890.
People pay £450 for a knife they are never going to use,
Paying £125 for a good shirt that you will wear and wear, seems a bargain by comparison.

 

[traderran]

I have my shirts Taylor made. But 125 for a shirt.:: I:togo: need some of whatever he is drinking.

 

[hammock monkey]

dont get me wrong - its not the kind of thing i would wear because i wouldnt wear things that make me stand out - but if you cost everything it takes to make a few hundred shirts from beginning to end with some kind of ethics, i.e made in UK by people that are paid properly it soon adds up.
A company like Howies seem expensive at first, but if you want clothes that arent made by kids in the 2nd/3rd world for nowt - you pay at least double, if not many times the price of a Tesco t-shirt. Best choice is obviously to buy far fewer things, be sure that you know are well made and will last. less energy to make + less waste and all that.

i dare say the man doesnt really have a say in how much they cost, he just specs the thing and after everyone down the line has added their 30% it costs whatever it costs.

The thing that he's said for many years is that you dont need the fancy gear, just go out there and do it. Good Point.

 

[KAE1]

I must admit I like the shirt. I have always spent more on outdoor kit than 'streetwear' because it has to be functional and functional materials cost money. I like the button style, like the Swannie Ranger, it keeps the draughts out more than fully buttoned.

Would I pay £125 - NO WAY - maybe £60. I think the Ranger and Ranger Extreme are great shirts but would not pay more and with those you are getting water resistance, warmth, strength, breathability.

Is Ray taking the P**S?? - I think so - I think we are funding his chance to spend the rest of his life doing the things we dream of.........and having a nice piece of real estate to come home to. He is simply being a businessman, no more no less.

Does the shirt cost more than £40 to produce????????? I very much doubt it.

 

[KAE1]

And dont £15 Norgies take some beating.........

 

[slamdunk]

"The thing that he's said for many years is that you dont need the fancy gear, just go out there and do it. Good Point."

But he appears to be, or at least has now become, first and foremost a businessman, taking full advantage of the 'brand' that he is. Sadly our society creates 'celebs' who then run the risk of losing credibility, moving further from where they actually gained recognition and believing the hype. Like many on here, my interest in all things outdoors was rekindled and given a name, if it needed one, to a large extent by Mears, but as my experience and knowledge have progressed I have looked much further afield for more knowledge. I have de-Rayed my kit and it is the better for it; back to functional basics.

£125 (+p&p of course) for a shirt; utterly ridiculous. Would you find Mors Kochanski flogging that sort of thing or singing the praises of a £10 knife?

We live in an expensive country and I suppose no-one can blame someone for making as much dosh as they can while they can, but man, that has made me laugh. A lot.

 

[pibbleb]

Maybe it's all that rubbing shoulders with Graham Norton at the BAFTA's that did it!

Whilst I'm sure it has been designed as an 'outdoor' shirt the marketing pitch will most surely be aimed at the Ray Mears groupies who will buy anything Mears.

Not to belittle them, I'm sure we have all done it in one form or other but by doing this it does mean that they can charge what they like. It's a little sad, but at the end of the day they are running a business.

All that said I wouldn't be buying one! I'd rather give my money to the likes of Toddy for that hand made finish!

Pib

 

[JURA]

"The thing that he's said for many years is that you dont need the fancy gear, just go out there and do it. Good Point."

But he appears to be, or at least has now become, first and foremost a businessman, taking full advantage of the 'brand' that he is. Sadly our society creates 'celebs' who then run the risk of losing credibility, moving further from where they actually gained recognition and believing the hype. Like many on here, my interest in all things outdoors was rekindled and given a name, if it needed one, to a large extent by Mears, but as my experience and knowledge have progressed I have looked much further afield for more knowledge. I have de-Rayed my kit and it is the better for it; back to functional basics.

£125 (+p&p of course) for a shirt; utterly ridiculous. Would you find Mors Kochanski flogging that sort of thing or singing the praises of a £10 knife?

We live in an expensive country and I suppose no-one can blame someone for making as much dosh as they can while they can, but man, that has made me laugh. A lot.

I have not bought ray mears stuff but i am full of admiration for what he has achieved. He has clearly helped to popularise a geeky activity towards the mainstream...Lots of purists seem to dislike this. I applaud his marketing and see no difference in paying £125 for a shirt or a knife..... Popular opinion suggest this would be better spent on a particular justifiably superior knife... Personally i wont buy either but we do live in a consumer society where we are taught from an early age the importance of money. Ray mears is only satisfying a demand that society has created......Live and let live...

 

[slamdunk]

I am disputing neither what he has achieved nor his undoubted knowledge; just a sad fact that celebrity can bring with it a change in perception.

Live and let live as you say, I'm sure someone will buy one

 

[oilyrag]

I think you're more likely to see this shirt on the streets of Chelsea than in a woods near you. As he wears Swanndri himself, can he honestly say this represents better value than a Ranger shirt?

 

[leon-1]

Well folks, let's put it this way. The pattern costs £7 at the most, the material is no more than £10 meter (this cost has been heavily overestimated), if you want one go out and make it yourself, it won't cost a fortune and you can add the features that you want that you believe are missing. The next time you make one you save yourself £7 as you already have the pattern. If you want a good hard wearing fabric try hemp, hemp linen costs £9.95 a meter.

I have shirts made from ventile that have those features and they cost me far less than half of what he is asking so he can't say that it is material costs.

You can buy a long sleeved collared hemp shirt (which is far more enviromentally friendly) and it'll cost you £22 or as some of the others have mentioned (I have a couple of these also) go out and get yourself one of the Craghoppers shirts.

As far as you "can't beat a Norgie", yes you can, in fact very easily just have a good look around. Norgie's aren't bad as a bit of kit, but you can get warmer lighter smaller kit that does the job far better for the money.

 

[jon r]

In my opinion, it looks like Ray is mis using his 'name' to bumper up the prices. Im suprised at this! It could be reputation damaging for him.