Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Economics of Pants

As a professional person, I normally wear business or business casual attire (i.e. suits, dress pants, dresses, skirts, sweater sets, etc.). Such attire is not inexpensive, but I generally do a good job in buying good quality clothes on sale. Furthermore, much of my business collection consists of classic clothes such that I can generally wear pieces from year to year.

Recently I have found myself with 8 pairs of pants which, while they look good and fit good, require repair of the inside lining. So I have priced the cost to repair the pants, $30 each (includes a $5 volume discount of three or more) and I am trying to determine if it is worth it.

On average, the pants I am looking to repair probably originally cost between $60 and $100. Some of these pants I have, again on average, worn once a week or once every two weeks for the past 3 or 4 years. Accordingly, my per wear price, on the high end is $1.20 and on the low end is $.75.

At least three of pants are part of a suit which both increases the original investment cost and increases the replacement cost. If I paid $150 or $180 for a suit and the pants need to be repaired it makes more sense to invest $30 to be able to continue to use the suit for another 2-3 years. As a result, I've made the decision to repair the pants that are a part of a suit.

But what about just the pants, does it make sense to pay 50% of the original price of the pants, when they are three years old already? Should I just go out and buy some new pants? What would you do?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

shop for new, but be prepared to repair. If you have something you love its always difficult to find new ones that live up to your expectations