Quote:
Originally Posted by usuChakra  Why are they so expensive and what's so special or 'made for fencing' about them? |
A loot of the stuff is made outside teh US (there are NO blade forges in the Americas, for example), so you have international shipping and whatnot...import duties are killer on clothing items, and if you homolugate, that;s several thousand bucks out of your pocket tha you have ot pass on to the consumer in order to break even on the R&D...plus there's tooling costs on making metal parts...and the molds on plastic parts are a few grand as well...
Making the stuff ain't cheap initially....
Edit: Sorry....I misread the thread title....shoes are expensive because we're a niche sport with specific needs not addressed in other shoes...Nike or Adidas aren't gonna crank out 1,000,000 pair of fencing shoes when the KNOW they'll sell 1,000,000 pair of t=running shoes insetad. Smaller numbers means a higher production cost and a smaller profit margin to break even on.
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