First Impressions
People come to GearGuide expecting outdoor gear reviews. For good reason. We focus on sports like skiing, biking, hiking and more. We evaluate products like tents, sleeping bags and running shoes. But we often get out about town. Business meetings, dinners, that kind of thing. We often find the need for a suit or jacket. After doing a bit of offline shopping recently, we decided to check out the growing number of online custom clothing retailers that have emerged around the web. We researched a bunch and ultimate decided to lay our own money down at one called – interestingly enough – Own Only. Here’s what we experienced.
Features
The Own Only website is straightforward and clean. They offer two and three piece suits, blazers, shirts, coats, pants, vests, and shoes. Their selection isn’t as varied as some vendors but they hit all the high spots with grays, blues, blacks and browns, and patterns that include stripes, herringbones, and plaids. We opted for the Classic Deep Blue Striped Blazer for a list price of $209.
Specs
Fabric:100% Wool
Weight:250g/㎡
At Own Only, they give you two options for purchase. You can Buy It by simply picking a standard size from 36R to 48L. Or you can Customize It, choosing everything from the collar configuration to the lining, and adding your own specific measurements. We chose the latter.
We chose a number of pretty standard options including notch lapel, single breasted, two button, etc. Most of those options are pre-chosen for you in a standard configuration but you can override them with your preferences. You’re also able to select linings, buttons, monogram and a number of other details for a completely custom final product.
Once that’s all done, it’s time to enter your measurements. This requires a tailors measuring tape and the help of a friend. No fewer than 16 measures are needed but the process is pretty fast. No more than 10 minutes in our setup. Once that’s entered into the Own Only site, those measurements can be used for all subsequent orders. The Own Only staff checks them thoroughly as part of the ordering process and did ask us to recheck several before they sent the order to their tailor. Nice customer service. We also interacted with their reps several times during the ordering process asking questions and asking for changes to options which they handled quickly and easily.
Fit
The process of ordering was cool and quick. Customer service delivered ahead of expectations. What about the product? Well, I must say, it was pretty impressive. Fabric was of nice quality. The fit was spot on. Everything was good through the shoulders and chest. Jacket length was right on too. The only issue might have been the sleeve length which as just a tad longer than necessary. I could have remedied that easily as the company offers up to $79 of additional tailoring after the product arrives.
Final Verdict
So our first adventure into the world of online custom clothing was a success thanks to Own Only’s approach and customer service. The product definitely met expectations. Delivery was prompt. And their prices are definitely reasonable. They even gave me a friends and family discount to share. You can get it by clicking on this link.