Not quite every time, but almost.
What follows is a terrific question, which came to us in an email from a potential customer in England recently. This question comes up regularly, mostly from riders in America, though it is particularly of interest to riders outside of the United States because of the higher shipping costs and added tariffs involved. It might be a good moment to share our experiences. Here’s how I replied:
On May 8, 2025, at 11:43 AM, Greg S wrote:
Hi Andy,
I hope that you are well. A question if I may; do you have any statistics that you can share about the number of UK buyers of any of your suits that have returned them for exchange or refund?
Cheers
Greg
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 4:40 PM Andy Goldfine wrote:
Hi Greg,
Thank you for asking about this. I’m cc’ing our lead customer service person, whose name is Stephanie. Between her and I we have around sixty combined years of experience managing UK orders and shipping, so we can give you a reasonable (?) guess.
First, note that we have become experts at getting the fit correct the first time, regardless of where the order comes from. USA, UK, Canada or Tasmania. Doesn’t matter. My guess is we make a fit mistake about once for every twenty to twenty-five orders. Probably even less for Stephanie and I. There are a lot of questions a rider must answer: Height, weight, jeans size waist x inseam, shirt size collar x sleeve length, suit coat or blazer size, type of riding most done, type of motorcycle, etc. (We have 61 graded sizes and do simple alterations like sleeve and leg lengths if needed at the time of manufacturing. About half the orders go out from in-stock inventory in one of the graded sizes and the other half are sewn-to-order with small fit alterations. Separately, about 1 in 200 are sewn to detailed body measurements like high-end road racing leathers or bespoke Savile Row business suits.)
Second, our sizing/fitting error rate goes up a little if the customer is either extremely small or extremely large. For riders in the middle of the human size bell curve, the fitting accuracy rate is slightly better than it is for people out on the ends of the size bell curve. Same for riders with “normal” motorcycle configurations. Our error rate is probably a tiny bit higher for riders with extreme low bars and rear set footrests than it is for riders with relatively ’standard’ riding position motorcycles.
Summary: 1 in 30 we get the fit wrong the first time, but the actual number could be 1 in 40 or 50.
Note to Stephanie, cc’d - What is your estimate?
Andy
On Friday, May 9, 2025 at 9:32AM Stephanie wrote:
Andy and Greg,
I would agree with Andy here. My estimate would be 1 in 35 we get the fit wrong the first time.
Stephanie
That’s about it, except this: Everything purchased by mail in the U.S. is returnable for a full refund or exchange within thirty days. This has been the law for at least as long as we’ve been in business, and it still is the law, unless it’s been changed recently.
We guarantee you’ll receive good-fitting, functional, durable, and comfortable riding gear, or your money back. We also guarantee that if you buy and learn to use an Aerostich suit, you’ll ride more than you did before you had it. It’s on our website here.
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