Thread: Half price Lowa boots and others

Originally Posted by Titanium

One thing to remember is that any body buying boots on line are paying the full retail price from that country. I would almost guarantee that Lowa NZ will be buying them for a lot less than that.

I wouldn't say that. I don't have experience with the outdoors industry, but I do have a little in the mountain biking industry. We can't get the same deals from the manufacturer that the big EU/US supply chains can get. No one here in the bike industry is raking in cash, Quite the opposite. Meanwhile you can buy parts cheaper than wholesale out of the UK. I think it's just a function of our small size and remoteness.

How many Lowa boots do you think would sell in NZ each week? Bugger all I'd say. They'd need to sell the boot for a whole lot more than their euro counterpart due to higher buy cost, more expensive freight, lost sales from lag and unfulfilled orders due to being a low-priority wholesaler, and much higher overheads due to the small volume of sales. Lowa NZ would go under well before they could compete I'd say.