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A comment on What's a $4000 Suit Worth?.

Re:What's a $4000 Suit Worth? by nl on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @07:44PM (#4477111)
Even the richest customer simply has to wait — sometimes months — before the new suit is finished. No wonder so many pass up a $4,000 bespoke suit for a ready-to-wear Kiton version at twice the price.

Isn't it pretty clear here that he should raise prices dramatically?

Clearly the demand is there (people spend twice the price on a inferior product).

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Re:What's a $4000 Suit Worth? by mikescar on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @08:08PM (#4477184)
Huh?

The whole point of paying twice as much is that you spend a fraction of the time defining product specs, and don't have to wait.

If so many pass up a 50% discount to get immediate satisfaction, they aren't likely to change their preference for waiting once the product they already didn't buy becomes dramatically more expensive.

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Re:What's a $4000 Suit Worth? by nl on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @10:03PM (#4477545)
The whole point of paying twice as much is that you spend a fraction of the time defining product specs, and don't have to wait.

Raising the price stops you competing in the whole "I need a new suit" market. Now you are in the custom luxury good market, and there the time to buy isn't an inconvenience, it is a feature.

The whole pay-to-pick-my-Ferrari-up-in-Maranello takes a lot longer than the normal Ferrari ordering process (and is hugely inconvenient) and yet still is used by a reasonable number of orders.

You don't buy a Ferrari for transport, nor do you buy a luxury suit to cover your nakedness.

If people can sell $500,000 watches[1], then a $20,000 suit seems reasonable, especially when it comes with custom consultations etc..

[1] http://www.luxist.com/2010/04/10/richard-mille-rm027-rafael-...

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Re:What's a $4000 Suit Worth? by cynwoody on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @11:07PM (#4477775)
Kiton is in an altogether higher tier. According to the Wikipedia, their ready-to-wear line ranges from $5500 to $8000, and their bespoke suits command $20K to $50K. They sell about 20,000 suits a year.
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Re:What's a $4000 Suit Worth? by nl on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @11:14PM (#4477789)
That more or less proves the point.

Clearly pricing below their ready-to-wear line only gets customers who are looking to save money, and people trying to do bespoke suits in that price bracket will get squeezed from below (premium made-to-measure (not the same as bespoke) suits) and low-end ready-to-wear suits from premium manufactures like Kiton.

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