I wish there was a US distributor for Nuumed and LeMieux saddle pads. Love them but hate paying the shipping from the UK.
As a rep in the industry, and a rider, I get frustrated by what I see. So much of what is out there is driven by demand for a certain brand name and as a result, other companies may have a better product, but if it isn’t X brand, forget it. For example, Devon-Aire came out with a BEAUTIFUL field boot, actually made in Europe of Italian calfskin. All the features of a very expensive boot but it sold for $450. But customers don’t care anymore where their boot is made, they want X brand, even if there are less features and it costs more and store employees don’t want to bother showing other brands. As a result, we had to discontinue this boot.
I have been looking high and low for a field boot that will fit me. I have a 17 1/4" calf. I was lucky to get Devon-Aire to make a custom fit for me in the boot that was discontinued, but now I want a boot for every day riding. I can’t believe that many companies consider 15 and 16 inches to be wide!! When I mentioned this to several companies, they say, well, anything bigger than that makes up only 3% of our sales, so we can’t justify it. Well, maybe it makes up 3 % of your sales because you have lost that potential buyer to either a custom boot or another boot company. Devon-Aire used to sell a boot in XXW and sold a ton of them. I am pushing for them to bring it back.
So when you lament that you can’t find something, please keep in mind that there are other companies out there that do just as nice a job if not better, but if you don’t support their products, stores won’t buy them and that product will go away! I have seen this regularly in other lines that I rep for.
For those looking for new breeches, I say give the new Devon-Aire Signature line a try!
They have breeches that go to 36.
The new Signature, Madrid and the Signature full seats are affordable and come in many different colors. They are lightweight for summer riding.
In addition, their Versaille and All Pro line are moisture wicking, high tech fabrics.
Riding tops in prints! Kerrits have some good ones, and I wish there were more. Prints hide barn dirt and horse slobber better. Working student here, and one horse slime across a boob can’t be ‘hidden’ on a solid color shirt.
Riding tops that aren’t $60 and up—are the days of ~$30 shirts gone, unless I find them on eBay? See above re: working student.
Sun shirts that can take a day at the barn without snagging and getting pulls. Really, we’re not all models just standing around in a barn! (See above about prints, and working student needs.)
Pet peeve: companies that make changes in their products to “improve” them, when the original version was just fine, thank you! FITS, I’m looking at you— what happened to the zip front pocket on your full seat breeches? Now I find a small sugar pocket inside the waist band. And why did you discontinue the Duet full seats?
Second pet peeve: unrealistic sizing. Usually I find that sizes run small to teeny in SmartPak, Horseware and higher end brands like Arista. We’re not all slim twigs with A/B cup sizes, and many of us do have broad shoulders, since we actually do barn work. (IMVHO.)
For the larger-calfed riders, how about the Flex Plus field boot:
http://www.ovationriding.com/footwear/ovation-flex-plus-field-boot-468752
Goes up to a 20" calf.
[QUOTE=StormyDay;8697747]
THIS. I bike, so my legs look like soccer player legs. A XW calf is not 15 1/2 inches.
Also, where are the true XL shirts for the well endowed girls? I am looking at you, Joules. 14 is not a XL.[/QUOTE]
Kerrits. I am an XL in almost every other brand and Kerrits L fits my large chest just fine
To the OP, virtually all the companies who make sunshirts make non-pastel colors. Dover’s Rider’s one comes in bright orange, bright blue, red, etc. Kastel makes all kinds of dark colors and prints. So does Bette and Court. You’re not stuck with pastels if you don’t like that. B&C is targeted at golfers so they have a LOT of darker, more sedate colors.
[QUOTE=Lori T;8698067]
As a rep in the industry, and a rider, I get frustrated by what I see. So much of what is out there is driven by demand for a certain brand name and as a result, other companies may have a better product, but if it isn’t X brand, forget it. For example, Devon-Aire came out with a BEAUTIFUL field boot, actually made in Europe of Italian calfskin. All the features of a very expensive boot but it sold for $450. But customers don’t care anymore where their boot is made, they want X brand, even if there are less features and it costs more and store employees don’t want to bother showing other brands. As a result, we had to discontinue this boot.
I have been looking high and low for a field boot that will fit me. I have a 17 1/4" calf. I was lucky to get Devon-Aire to make a custom fit for me in the boot that was discontinued, but now I want a boot for every day riding. I can’t believe that many companies consider 15 and 16 inches to be wide!! When I mentioned this to several companies, they say, well, anything bigger than that makes up only 3% of our sales, so we can’t justify it. Well, maybe it makes up 3 % of your sales because you have lost that potential buyer to either a custom boot or another boot company. Devon-Aire used to sell a boot in XXW and sold a ton of them. I am pushing for them to bring it back.
So when you lament that you can’t find something, please keep in mind that there are other companies out there that do just as nice a job if not better, but if you don’t support their products, stores won’t buy them and that product will go away! I have seen this regularly in other lines that I rep for.
For those looking for new breeches, I say give the new Devon-Aire Signature line a try!
They have breeches that go to 36.
The new Signature, Madrid and the Signature full seats are affordable and come in many different colors. They are lightweight for summer riding.
In addition, their Versaille and All Pro line are moisture wicking, high tech fabrics.[/QUOTE]
I’m not sure if it makes sense for you to pass this feedback on to Devon Aire, but one of the reasons I don’t purchase products from them is because a lot of their fits need to be updated. For example, the all pro comes in a lovely dovegrey that I would love to buy, but the narrow waistband combined with stretchy fabric makes me look like a sausage. I tried the signature but they are not shaped through the legs at all and are hugely baggy in the knees if they fit my waist (and I’m pretty normal size 28/30)
If they could update their fits so that they aren’t the same Versailles breeches I wore when I was 12 (Dover is still using he same catalog image and I’m 29 now…) I would be much more willing to consider the brand.
Part of what you’re buying when you buy high end is the excellent fit that comes with better design and manufacturing. I’m actually wearing a pair of ovation breeches right now that are a dead ringer for my pikeurs in fabric and fit, and they were $85.
I think the market is open to it, but the product needs to be current/more advanced/more stylish now to command attention.
Like HenryisBlaisin, I would like a helmet that looks like an old-school velvet hunt cap. IIRC, the Pegasus is nice-looking but it was very heavy. Is it possible to get the look without the weight?
[QUOTE=beowulf;8698034]
scruffy the cat, ever try tredstep breeches? you might like them.[/QUOTE]
I haven’t tried them because until recently I was too fat to wear even their largest sizes. I’ve lost almost 40 lbs so now I can give them another go. I still have a booty but smaller waist- how do they do with that? TSes fit me perfectly, especially the longs. Any particular model I should try?
[QUOTE=soloudinhere;8698790]
I’m not sure if it makes sense for you to pass this feedback on to Devon Aire, but one of the reasons I don’t purchase products from them is because a lot of their fits need to be updated. For example, the all pro comes in a lovely dovegrey that I would love to buy, but the narrow waistband combined with stretchy fabric makes me look like a sausage. I tried the signature but they are not shaped through the legs at all and are hugely baggy in the knees if they fit my waist (and I’m pretty normal size 28/30)
If they could update their fits so that they aren’t the same Versailles breeches I wore when I was 12 (Dover is still using he same catalog image and I’m 29 now…) I would be much more willing to consider the brand.
Part of what you’re buying when you buy high end is the excellent fit that comes with better design and manufacturing. I’m actually wearing a pair of ovation breeches right now that are a dead ringer for my pikeurs in fabric and fit, and they were $85.
I think the market is open to it, but the product needs to be current/more advanced/more stylish now to command attention.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the feedback. We know that the breeches will not fit everyone the same way, but they have made changes! For example, the All Pro comes in a variety of styles, not just the narrow waistband. They have introduced a wide waist with a euro seat that is pretty popular. The reason that the images haven’t changed is because they stopped making a catalog in 2008, due to the downturn in the economy, preferring to put that money into inventory. They do have a new catalog coming out and a new website, all with new images of their updated products. The Versaille has gone through lots of updating, including changes to the waistband and sock style ankles (most of their breeches have lost the Velcro and gone to sock style or just an elastic one.) And this is where the problem lies, in that not every tack store is going to stock every product of every company out there, so depending upon where you live, it may be hard for the consumer to realize what is available to them.
I will have one store tell me that they can’t sell item A, they will insist that they don’t have the customer for it, but a store a few miles away will sell tons of item A. Many stores are reluctant to change, for whatever reason and the consumer needs to be up to date on what is out there and make requests…or else they go elsewhere, which is a whole other can of worms in this industry. I have one store that complains about how there are no more customers in her area, and the ones who do, go an hour north to Dover. Yet her merchandise is 10 years old and she won’t dump it and get new product. Meanwhile, another store opened 20 minutes away and is one of my biggest accounts in just a year, because she stocks what the customer wants!
Devon-Aire is big on customer feedback and I think Kerrits is as well. Devon-Aire actually keeps a book of customer requests. If you as the consumer want a product, I suggest contacting the company and let it be known. I for one plan on talking to several of the boot makers at the trade show in August to ask them why they think a 15 or 16 inch calf is considered wide?
I love DA a lot. They really should invest in some new stock images. It couldn’t cost that much and it really would catch people’s eyes when they look in the Dover catalog or on the website. It would be a worthwhile investment IMHO.
I would love it if riding apparel manufacturers finally recognized that a large percentage of the pleasure-riding market is women with PLENTY of money to spend who are over the age of 35. This means we no longer have boy-like teenybopper bodies with no boobs, hips or thighs. We need breeches that are cut generously, of fabrics and cuts that flatter a more mature figure. Shirts that skim and drape rather than cling like shrink-wrap, with COVERAGE suitable for mature women and in colors and fabrics realistic to keep clean around the barn. Screaming white and pale pastels just aren’t practical, and who comes up with these hideously garish prints and colors like a bad acid trip? The idea used to be that rider attire should both be dignified and flatter the HORSE!
It was a sorry day someone decided “riding” and “gym” clothes should merge.
I haven’t read all the posts but how about breeches with a gusseted crotch? The only ones I’ve seen are made by Fits. Anyway why not just do away with seams in that area? Seems like a no brainer to me.
Also a baby pad that is big enough to cover the entire pad. Mine are all too short so the bottom of my saddle pad gets dirty.
Also saddles need to be more easily adjustable (and not just the gullet). I’m talking being able to adjust the entire tree as well as easily adjustable padding. Such a saddle would need to be made “sandwich style” so we can get to the tree to adjust.
Re: sun shirts - Tailored Sportsman has some nice darker colors out right now, including a really lovely hunter green and a cranberry. Ariat has two patterned shirts out now and 4 (!!!) for next summer.
A bareback pad that has/ or can be used with an elastic girth.
Things I wish would change:
Velcro bottom breeches - sock bottoms please!
Euro seat breeches - all the feeling like your undies are falling off, none of the stick? A bit like decaf to me…
Breeches with implausibly tiny pockets. Pointless.
Garish and ugly prints on tops. Kerrits I’m looking at you.
I am done with velcro bottoms. I will not buy them for any reason. Elastic or sock bottom only for me!
[QUOTE=scruffy the cat;8698964]
I haven’t tried them because until recently I was too fat to wear even their largest sizes. I’ve lost almost 40 lbs so now I can give them another go. I still have a booty but smaller waist- how do they do with that? TSes fit me perfectly, especially the longs. Any particular model I should try?[/QUOTE]
The Rosa may do you well. DD loves hers, and I will probably get a pair myself. And we are curvy girls.
Rust breeches without Velcro or a gigantic price tag. Maybe with navy piping–looking at you, SmartPak.
[QUOTE=Peggy;8700108]
Rust breeches without Velcro or a gigantic price tag. Maybe with navy piping–looking at you, SmartPak.[/QUOTE]
Check out Ovation. We (the shop I work at) got a rust knee patch from them, sock bottom, that retails under $100.
