3mm wetsuit for £20 (US$31)

Hey Guys,
Just wanted to see if opinion on this is the same as mine (and from a discussion I had in a job interview the other day).

If you were in a shop and had two options of wetsuits available - Would you buy a £20/US$31 3mm Osprey wetsuit OR would you prefer to purchase a Scubapro 3mm wetsuit for circa £125/US$196?

What would initially influence your decision? would it be down to the brand name, the quality or the price?
If you could give some explanation as to why you chose the option you did, that would help me out enormously :)

TIA

It would be pretty hard for a dive shop to make a decent gross margin on a $31 suit, so from a sales standpoint, the more expensive suit would seem to win hands down depending on the margins. I don't think you could make up for the loss of a gross margin via higher unit sales of the $31 suit...so you would have to look at historical similar suit sales numbers and then crunch the numbers.

The Pinnacle suits I dive with are very high in quality, they work great yet they are not inexpensive.

I'd buy the one that had the most stretch i.e. the most flexible. The cheaper suits don't usually fit too well and tend to restrict movement. If you gain a lb or a more flexible suit will still fit :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Publisher

It would be pretty hard for a dive shop to make a decent gross margin on a $31 suit.

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This $31 wetsuit is being sold by a general merchandiser over here - probably akin to Target(?) for the US..

Thanks for the answers so far... anyone want to add their penneth worth?? :)

In the U.S., those who try to "upscale" the Target shopping experience pronounce it: Tar-zhay. ;)

I would most likely go with the $31 wetsuit or neither of them. I would never spend close to $200 on a wetsuit. That being said, comfort and fit is very important, if the cheapy fits and feels good who cares what brand it is. I also have purchased brand name wetsuits on sale so cheaply it really didn't matter. I bought a 2mm shorty Bare wetsuit and it had all of the cool features I wanted and I paid $39 for it.

Brand name and quality usually go hand in hand when it comes to diving