Unpicking the price-performance ratio
Not only because we have nothing to hide, but also because we think it goes hand-in-hand with sustainability.
Occasionally we will receive a question about the price of our products, and we get that. We also entirely agree that you should know what you’re paying for so that you can better understand the value of the garments you buy. With that in mind, we wanted to provide you with a bit more insight into what goes into calculating the cost of our products.
Calculating the cost
The final cost of our products can be broken down into four key areas: Design and Development, Production, Company Administration and Social Impact.
1. Design & Development
At IRIS, we are incredibly proud to design & develop all of the products ourselves, and in fact this work is done solely by founder Iris.
We do things this way so that we have complete control over the materials, the fit and the design and can create items that don’t compromise on performance or style. We see this as a key benefit to the IRIS community, as this autonomy over the process differentiates us and our products from a lot of other cycling apparel on the market. For example, some brands will use customized design programs with standardized cycling wear rather than designing and developing their own products.
For us, the design work itself takes place in the Netherlands, and in the development of the final product we work closely together with our manufacturer in Italy. Besides look and style, product development includes fit, fabric choice, sampling, fitting, and testing which is influenced by the IRIS community and the feedback we receive on our products.
Ultimately, all of this means that we are able to create the product that we feel best suits the wants, needs and desires of you!
2. Production
As a small business, we produce around 1500 items a year opting to create limited collections principally for Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter alongside specific collaboration projects. Thanks to the control we have over our design & development, every new collection is created with those that have gone before it in mind, so that new items can be remixed with products from previous collections. The reason we do things this way is as part of our commitment to minimise waste created through overproduction.
The production costs themselves (largely talking about material and labor here) go to our production partners. Logistics are also included in production and comprise the handling and transportation of goods, fees and packaging costs. We have made the conscious choice to use Vela paper packaging to reduce use of plastic, which ultimately costs slightly more than other packaging solutions but is important to us and the IRIS community. Finally, we do a big part of our business online, but if we sell via a retail partner then we also have to account for this in the profit margin ensuring that they are fairly remunerated.
By far the biggest proportion of spend when it comes to production goes on our material and labor costs which include the purchase of fabric, zippers, threads, labels, elastic bands, chamois, etc. Naturally, some items in our collection have a higher material cost due to the technicality and construction of the fabrics. We actively choose materials that we are confident will last and we also design for ease of repair offering a lifetime repair guarantee on all IRIS products. Alongside this we source leftover deadstock material for our Revamp range to once again minimise waste and also fuel our creativity!
We are proud that all of our products and fabrics are made in Europe and we use OEKO-TEX and Bluesign certified materials to ensure sustainability and safety standards in fabric production. Production in Europe does come at an increased cost, but it has some really important benefits for us:
- We still have the possibility to produce on a relatively small scale, reducing waste and our environmental impact.
- We can trust and have confidence in fair labor conditions for all workers in the supply and production chain.
- Materials and garments don’t have to be shipped all around the world which not only avoids extra fees and import duties (reducing the final economic cost) but is better for our planet reducing the environmental cost of our garments.
3. Company Administration
These are typical things that as a consumer you might not think about too much, but are critical to IRIS functioning such as: Insurance, office space & warehouse, travel to visit our suppliers, website, transaction fees, photography and marketing, accountancy and of course any wages for employees and freelancers. We currently have one full time employee, and two part time freelancers that support our activity on a regular basis keeping costs as low as possible!
4. Social Impact
At IRIS we want to create long-term sustainable change in the world of cycling from grassroots through to the professional peloton. We do this by donating a percentage of our sales to non-profit organizations through dedicated projects like ‘Pedal for Pride’, the ‘Lynx Trail’, the ‘Super Future Females’ and ‘The School of Rocks’. Not only that, we work with various partners to bring activations to the local community encouraging more people to get onto their bikes whether that is our own ride initiatives, the Women’s Weekenders we support with Komoot or local groups such as the Cyclits and Frauenrenradbewegung that affect positive change in their area. We also support a small ambassador program that serves to inspire the IRIS community and is primarily made up of individuals and groups invested in the betterment of cycling, making the sport a more inclusive and accessible space for everybody.
Get out the calculator!
After all of this, how do we then reach the price that we charge you, the customer? In plain terms, the difference between the initial production cost and the final retail price serves to cover the cost of design & development, company administration and social impact outgoings. As we are a small business, with a small production run, all of these costs are unavoidably more concentrated on each product than if we were a larger business producing ten times or even one hundred times the amount of items.
So what’s left?
The eventual profit that is left on a product, is not going straight into the pockets of those who work at IRIS but instead we use most of this money to re-invest in creating the best possible items for the next collection. As we are a small business, and believe strictly in financial responsibility, we also don’t use creditors or loans to cover our future costs. This means profit from sales is used to fund the design & development and production costs for the next collection which have to be paid months before the product is ready to sell to you, the customer.
The final word
Creating sustainable, ethical and high quality garments is not cheap and nor should it be. Our aim is to keep our apparel accessible, provide it to the customer at a cost that is fair to everybody and use any profit to affect social change. By being transparent we hope to give you a better understanding of the true cost of your product and also give you confidence in our processes and choices as a brand. With that said, we’ll leave the final word to our founder, Iris Slappendel:
“I’m proud that at this moment IRIS is now a profitable brand, mostly thanks to a very lean company structure and very little spend on marketing. I’m also proud that we are fully independent and have been able to grow the brand organically without any external investments. For me, the most important thing has always been to design and develop cycling apparel I would want to wear myself. Creating products that stand out and enable you to express your own personality on the bike and have fun with every ride.
We hope that by giving you more insight on what goes into making a product we can enhance your understanding and create more value in the item for you. We encourage you to buy consciously and choose high quality and durable products. And of course we hope you choose small and independent businesses like ours, so we can keep being around and make more garments that enable you to have more fun on the bike.
Iris”