You might be wondering where this thread is going, but bear with me, it's not as weird as it originally sounds. So anyway this evening when I had returned from one of my regular swimming sessions (I'm an avid swimmer and swim quite often), I turned my black pair of Speedo Jammers inside out only for the label to catch my eye, with said label reading "boys size 32," and just to clarify I hadn't bought these as they were recently given to me as a gift, so I had no reason to suspect they were actually a boy's item of clothing.
Noticing this I spoke to my mother who had bought them for me, only for her to be surprised since she'd only been searching for my size when buying them online, hence she too hadn't noticed and who would blame her?
Here is a comparison of the two.
They're actually pretty much the same, same colours, practically the same shape, same make up of materials, the only difference is that the leg on the Jammer meant for men is 44cm, while the one on the boy's is 39cm, which for someone like me who isn't exceptionally tall, isn't that much of a difference. In fact the boy's size 32 fits me pretty well and isn't at all uncomfortable nor that different from a men's size 32, and while I'm not exceptionally tall I'm not small either, nor am I skinny as I'm quite well built.
So here's the really interesting part, having thought on this for a while I loaded up the Speedo website and found both products, only to find that the men's Jammer is currently priced at £20 while the boy's is currently priced at £11, making it £9 or 45% cheaper with hardly any difference between them RE the product itself. That's because kids clothes don't have VAT and are generally cheaper anyway.
Understanding this I asked myself do people know about this? Are there guys (Or even women doing the same with girls clothing) out there who are perhaps between sizes 30-32 who purchase say plain non infantile like clothing from the boy's section to save money? I mean how could anyone tell unless you bought something that was particularly cartooney or child like? No one's noticed my boy's Jammers which are identical in looks to the men's version, hell it took me a week or two to notice and I was wearing them! And I only did because I looked at the label which no one else would be able to observe.
So members of the Escapist, have you thought about this? Perhaps even done it yourself or known someone who has? Or would you consider doing it to save money? As for my self I personally wouldn't feel comfortable going into the children's section of a store, but with online shopping it wouldn't that hard to do.
Noticing this I spoke to my mother who had bought them for me, only for her to be surprised since she'd only been searching for my size when buying them online, hence she too hadn't noticed and who would blame her?
Here is a comparison of the two.
They're actually pretty much the same, same colours, practically the same shape, same make up of materials, the only difference is that the leg on the Jammer meant for men is 44cm, while the one on the boy's is 39cm, which for someone like me who isn't exceptionally tall, isn't that much of a difference. In fact the boy's size 32 fits me pretty well and isn't at all uncomfortable nor that different from a men's size 32, and while I'm not exceptionally tall I'm not small either, nor am I skinny as I'm quite well built.
So here's the really interesting part, having thought on this for a while I loaded up the Speedo website and found both products, only to find that the men's Jammer is currently priced at £20 while the boy's is currently priced at £11, making it £9 or 45% cheaper with hardly any difference between them RE the product itself. That's because kids clothes don't have VAT and are generally cheaper anyway.
Understanding this I asked myself do people know about this? Are there guys (Or even women doing the same with girls clothing) out there who are perhaps between sizes 30-32 who purchase say plain non infantile like clothing from the boy's section to save money? I mean how could anyone tell unless you bought something that was particularly cartooney or child like? No one's noticed my boy's Jammers which are identical in looks to the men's version, hell it took me a week or two to notice and I was wearing them! And I only did because I looked at the label which no one else would be able to observe.
So members of the Escapist, have you thought about this? Perhaps even done it yourself or known someone who has? Or would you consider doing it to save money? As for my self I personally wouldn't feel comfortable going into the children's section of a store, but with online shopping it wouldn't that hard to do.
