Australian Members

wurger said:

How much do you pay for a pair of CJ, are they bench grade or hand grade?

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IIRC, $495 from Double Monk.

Given that, ex-VAT the average price of CJ Oxfords is around 230-240 pounds ($400 or so AUD) from Pediwear without shipping (shipping being 18 pounds, which takes us to about $430), the mark up, in this case, seems FAR from extortionate. It's an extra 15- 25% to cover shipping, GST and profit margins. For a shoe that, you know, will actually fit.

******* $60 profit those wankers.

A business needs more than 15% net profit to survive, need a least 40% to 50% gross profit to be a good business to have.

LonerMatt said:

wurger said:

How much do you pay for a pair of CJ, are they bench grade or hand grade?

Click to expand...

IIRC, $495 from Double Monk.

Given that, ex-VAT the average price of CJ Oxfords is around 230-240 pounds ($400 or so AUD) from Pediwear without shipping (shipping being 18 pounds, which takes us to about $430), the mark up, in this case, seems FAR from extortionate. It's an extra 15- 25% to cover shipping, GST and profit margins. For a shoe that, you know, will actually fit.

******* $60 profit those wankers.

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they make more than that since their buy price won't be the same as RRP, but I would say that price of $495 is really a fair price for the Australian market.

I'd say that given my bush-maths each pair sold would be a similar % of profit as Pedi, etc.

__PG__ said:

Look, we all know that the price you pay for a C&J in Australia from a bricks and mortar store in Melbourne is comparable to what you would pay for it from a bricks and mortar store in London.

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Not if you're in Sydney and you want the ones in my signature below.

$260 and they're yours. They really are almost new.

PM me if interested.

(Please forgive my shameless plug).

I would like to thank everyone on SF for giving me the knowledge to dress better.
I'm so glad I found this site; no longer have to read articles like this one: http://au.askmen.com/fashion/fashiontip_200/205_fashion_advice.html

Speaking of C&J, they have their UK sale on now. But due to their recent price increase, slightly weaker conversion relative to the Pound Sterling and higher shipping, I think it's cheaper to buy from Double Monk RRP. I imagine Double Monk might have to have a price increase on their next round of stock.

Does anyone have any tips on when American Tailors or Double Monk might have some sales?

Superfudge said:

Out of interest, what do they say? I'm a long way out of uni and I'm pretty sure when I was I dressed like a poorer version of Dawson Leery (and couldn't have afforded to dressed better even if I had known how), and that was pretty par for the course. I doubt I ever saw a single person in a sport coat or jacket unless they were studying after work.

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I think most people who I meet for the first time are a little surprised. I find that women are more receptive to the way I dress, or the way many of you might dress -- they like it and find it refreshing or charming.

I do worry about becoming a character on campus; there is a confessional page on Facebook where people confess their undying love or sexual fantasies with other people on campus, several friends have pointed out that some of them may be directed towards me, so I fear it may already be too late, however I don't think I am as vulgar as Top Hat Guy, who peacocked around campus last year.

While not all of it has been positive, I did rub somebody who I had never met the wrong way with my mere presence -- I happened to be wearing a sweater, shirt, and tie. He found necessary to interrupt a conversation I was having with two other students to verbally abuse me and enforce a sweatpants uniform. It was very strange, but the two ladies I happened to be talking to put an end to it, for which I am grateful for as I didn't really have anything nice to say; he looked as if he rolled out of bed and put on yesterday's sweatpants.

It's probably worth pointing out that a Loake 1880 and C&J bench grade would be within about 10 pounds of each other at a wholesale cost, which would all be in leather quality. If you think about it they are both made in England, with the same technique, staff would get paid around the same and other manufacturing costs about the same. So to me it's not that surprising, and I think $400 AUD is perfectly reasonable for a B&M store where you can try them on. Loakes are very underrated shoes at the 1880 level.

I don't thnk we should speculate whether loake do or don't use a distributor here, probably not given they only have about 10 accounts in OZ but who knows.

If you think about it, it costs around $75 to ship a pair of shoes back to the uk if they don't fit, which blows the majority of the saving of buying from the likes of herring etc. of course if you know your size etc then that a different story. But it may surprise to learn that some people still value good service, being able to be fitted etc for shoes and are happy to pay for it.

At the end of the day you vote with your wallet but if B&M stores never get any support, then they won't exist at all, which would be sad.

In conclusion, your bank probably rips you off a hell of a lot more every month than your local loake stocking shoe store (DJ's not included).

So by "character on campus" you mean object of "undying love or sexual fantasies"? So you worry about becoming such?

It definitely is concerning..... At least your friends had the temerity to speculate about the inadvertent fuss you'd likely caused online.

Someone's bringing sexy back.

You signed up just to join in on that conversation?

Yeah, I googled "where can I be an effective tool?"

Chows Tuddon said:

So by "character on campus" you mean object of "undying love or sexual fantasies"? So you worry about becoming such?

It definitely is concerning..... At least your friends had the temerity to speculate about the inadvertent fuss you'd likely caused online.

Someone's bringing sexy back.

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I don't know how to respond to this, but I hope you bear no ill will towards me. Perhaps caricature may have been a better word to describe Top Hat Guy. He may have been known by many on campus, but surely not everything uttered after his name was positive.

Just wanted to say thanks to those who responded to my query about what I guess is a bit of an ivy league look.

I'm used to medicos - so suit and tie - this is related but more subdued. Going to experiment a little but I'm pretty confident I'll only new a few pieces to 'dress down' my conservative business dress wardrobe.

It's unlikely Double Monk will have sales. It's not really how they want to roll - their prices are about as low as they can go already and Chris can hold onto stock, nor does a sale fit into the kind of image they want to cultivate.

Tony and Sebastian at AT do sales once or twice a year, depending on stock. They had a huge one just after Christmas, sort of as a stimulus package for a slow winter. There were C&J hand grades for $399 and bench for $350.

I looked in at the Jermyn St and Burlington Arcade shops last weekend and it's still not really much cheaper than Double Monk. The Edward Green sale is more enticing. Many of the hand grades here in the UK are priced at upwards of RRPGBP475.00. Even with discounts, the falling dollar against the pound means that Chris' prices are currently pretty hot and will be till a majority of his stock has been purchased at the new and diminishing rate.


Yours,
Sweatpants guy.