Buying Gear Online

Bit of a rant, curious to see if others have had similar experiences. Does anyone else ever just get fed up with buying gear online? Recently I've tried to update my collection with some new cycling kit, and have had the following things happen: - sellers screwing me on postage (I live in AUS) - sizing being completely different to what's listed - the wrong suits showing up - stuff never showing up - quality just being poor This seems to happen across a variety of sites, private sellers and commercial. Weirdly, aliexpress seems to come out on top in terms of delivering on expectations lately. Where I've contacted sellers for returns it's generally not been worth it due to postage costs, or they've just screwed around to avoid any responsibility. Has anyone else experienced more issues recently? I'm at the point where I've been really put off buying new gear because the last few things have been such a disappointment. I'd love to be able to walk into a shop and buy skinsuits off the rack but I think those days are gone...

I agree with what you said about ordering suits. They're either insanely expensive, or finding the right sizing is an adventure on its own. so you end up importing them from another country, which makes returns a pain, especially since sizing can vary so much between brands and even between different models. That said, I'd love to improve this part of the spandex gear landscape. Spandex Party is planning to open an online spandex shop in March, with a main focus on guys who are just getting into lycra. The idea is to: – make the search much easier for gear that "pro"s would also search – lower the entry hurdle – make getting into spandex feel accessible, not like something only longtime collectors can pull off At the same time, I'm confident that more experienced guys will get plenty of fun out of it too. And by making spandex more approachable overall, we hope to improve its visibility and acceptance, so spandex guys actually have a seat at the fetish table and aren't forgotten when fetish dress codes are listed.