Anyone know a good place to get a decent deal on ski gear (clothing) around Melbourne? First-time buyer, novice skier (I've only ever rented in the past) so I'd like a place that's not going to try and up-sell me stuff I don't need…
Cheers!
A good place for reasonable ski gear in Melbourne
mad__llama on 30/01/2013 - 12:53
Last edited 30/01/2013 - 16:38
Last edited 30/01/2013 - 16:38
Comments
Sorry, should have said. Clothing.
In terms of clothing, I would recommend Sierra Trading Post on the internet. Yesterday they had a code for an extra 35% off everything in the shop. Search online for sierra trading post codes and you will always find a range of different voucher codes for extra discount. Postage to OZ can be a bit expensive, maybe $50+ If you are wanting the ski clothes to ski in the US, have the items delivered to your hotel, ask at reception when you are checking in and you'll save that $50 on postage.
Another website that is normally great value is www.levelninesports.com They had some great cheap Spyder stuff but it is pretty picked over by now. Have a look as they had great prices on some of their Cloudveil and Spyder stuff. I have also had a good experience with www.outdoorsportsguys.com in their sale section.
If you are happy to use a mail forwarder the sky is the limit. I use the price comparison site www.thefind.com but you have to be specific, search for a spyder rival jacket or a cloudveil four pines jacket etc dont put in ski jacket and sort by price, you'll be buying copy counterfeit jackets from china otherwise.
I would recommend you get a jacket that is at least 10K for breathability and 10K for waterproofness. If you can afford better then great. If you shop right you can get Gore Tex (very good) jackets for about the same price that Northface Shop in melbourne will sell you thermal longjohns!!
On the 'off chance' you are heading to the US on your trip, there is a good Spyder outlet shop at the Las Vegas outlet shops, you'll get great gear there. If you are going to Orlando on your travels there are Northface, Burton and Columbia outlets there. I bought a Northface fleece jacket there (to wear under my ski jacket) for about $25 last year, stuff was dirt cheap.
If shopping online some of the bigger better online shops are Backcountry.com and altrec.com both apprently give vreat service, I wouldnt know, only bought from Altrec once as both have diabolical shipping rates to oz and most of the time there are cheaper shops elsewhere.
I agree levelninesports.com is great especially for beginners.
Managed to get boots, board and bindings for about $220 delivered - it arrived in 4 days from the US
Never bought from them and I havent checked postage but this looks like a good deal for a 10k/10k jacket mail order from the UK http://www.sportsdirect.com/nevica-ski-jacket-mens-409005 These guys will take off 19% VAT at checkout, if you have a 28 degrees card you can get a great exchange rate as well.
Not to hi-jack thread but if anyone knows good places to buy ski clothing in Sydney, you can share them here.
I don't want to make another post.
I dont know much about ski gear but this place near me might be worth a look - http://store.coalitionbrands.com.au/
their ski sale was over end of Aug last year. but they do a ski sale every year close to the season.
Stomp Pads and goggles, not much else
Do you have to buy it from a b&m?
Otherwise, if you do a forum search for "ski" there was a really good thread on online stores.
Torpedo7, sierratradingpost and a few others.A shop?
Check Auski for their clearance. However their price are still a little on the expensive side.
There is also Torpedo7. See what they have on discount.Aldi do sell snow gear yearly around April or May (close to the start of our season)
Their gear is decent.My favourite place for ski gear is Amazon. However you do have to be patient looking through their gear because not everything is available to be shipped to Aus. Make sure you look for AmazonGlobalEligible if the option shows up. Amazon is good when you know what brand you want.
In Melbourne CBD there is also Northface store in the Gallaerie(?) plaza (corner of elizabeth and bourke st)
When I was there the last time (about October) they had some things at 30%-50% off. Northface stuff are not cheap but they are good.WHHOOOAHH!! Watch out for that Northface shop. I wrote the long post referred to elswhere on the board. I was in that Northface shop last week and unless you like burning $$ bills I would stay well clear.
I am a very keen skier and have bought thousands of $$ worth of kit, from cameras to skis to clothes. I am heading to Niseko in a fortnight's time chasing powder. A couple of questions:
what kind of ski stuff are you after? Clothes are one thing, if you want boots, poles, goggles, helmets, cameras, thermals, mid-layers, socks, skis, snowboards, bindings etc etc
what do you want it for? Some beginner lessons at a ski resort, a cold weather coat for a backpacking trip or some hard core survival gear for a 2 week cross country adventure in antarctica.
If you are stocking up for the Australian winter i would say wait, when the season in the US winds down (Mar/Apr)the shops over there have massive online sales. If you are going to the US to ski I would buy online and have the stuff delivered to your US hotel room (i have done this for a jacket that was $700 in the melbourne B&M shop and was $150 delivered to my US hotel with free US postage, also bought skis that way).
Stuff in regular shops at ski resorts in the US is probably similar to the crazy prices in Melbourne
If you want to buy bricks and mortar, there is a couple of ski shops on Hardware lane just uphill from the Bourke St mall in the city. I wouldnt expect a bargain though, right now people are buying stuff for their northern hemisphere ski trips. B&M you might find an odd pair of ski/board pants or a jacket in the back corner of one of the Quicksilver or Billabong shops.
Be careful if you want to try eBay. There is some bargains there but anything that looks very cheap, has an advert in broken english, shows the same model jacket in 5 or 6 colours, steer clear from it, it will be a counterfeit.
Good call on Amazon, postage is normally cheap, as mentioned make sure to look for Global eligible. I also normally set the seller to amazon.com when i have bought from others through Amazon the postage costs normally blow out.
Thanks for all the info! Sometimes I wish there was something more than just a single +1 for posts - like a "good/great advice" flag or something similar.
Just after a jacket and pants for a one week beginners trip to Bulla or Hotham. I've been a few times before but only ever rented in the past. Figured if I owned some gear i might be more inclined to go more often.
Honestly I guess I don't need more than the Aldi gear but i seem to keep missing out on their sales…There is a 45% off sale at Sierratradingpost.com at the moment, Marker GoreTex ski pants are going for about US$100. In my opinion, GoreTex is about the best stuff you can get, you could take a shower in the stuff and not get wet. You would find it hard to find goretex ski pants for $100 here in OZ. They have matching jackets and pants if you have a look.
The url for the sale is http://email.sierratradingpost.com/dm?id=72D15A5156BF79FC252… other option is to wait and watch and pick over the best of the online sales when they start to happen.
We bought the Aldi gear for the kids when they were toddlers. It is OK as long as it isnt too cold, too windy or too wet. There will be some folks that swear they climbed Everest in an Aldi Jacket and it was great, facts are, the gear is very low end and if it rains, like it often does at Australian Ski resorts you will either be indoors not skiing or outdoors cold and wet. If you want somehting to keep the worst off whilst running from the lodge to the pub an Aldi jacket might be OK, if you are planning to explore the resort with the chence the weather might turn, personally, for probably a little bit more mail order from the US I would go for the better stuff.
My recommended gear would be:
if you can find it on Sierra Trading Post or somewhere else on special for $50 ish I would look for a Merino wool baselayer, Icebreaker is the brand I love and wear. In stores here the stuff is diabolically priced ($150 for a t-shirt etc), every once in a while you can get a great deal on one of those % off sales at Sierra.
If you buy anything at Sierra, have a look for some Ski/snowboard socks whilst buying. Special socks cost $30 ish here in the shops, they can be had for $5 ish in those sierra sales. Postage kills the discount but if you were buying something else anyway I'd add them in.
Have a look online for a helmet in the online sales. I love my helmet now, used to ski in a beanie for years. helmet is much warmer and more waterproof, not to mention much safer if I stack. They cost $200 here but can be had for $30 - 50 for a good one from the US.
Goggles, once again…online, same for gloves.
Jacket and Pants, as I said earlier, i would go for 10K/10K at least if you want to stay warm and dry.
I wont recommend buying a helmet without trying it first. different head, different shape. I bought 2 helmets online without trying and it hurt my head. I bought one at 1/2 price in Auski last year
I was in the Northface store last year end of season and I saw a few stuff on their clearance rack for 50% off.
I saw a pair of chatter pant which are goretex for $160 and a few other jackets for decent price as well.
The trick is to NOT buy at full retail price. not even 30%. its 50% or nothing.Right not, Torpedo 7 are having sale on some of their stuff. check out their site
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/division/snow/home.doI recommend getting Oakley goggles on ebay.
good icebreaker deals on http://www.natureshop.com/
I am a big fan of icebreaker.If you are worried about fit, try one on in the shop and then buy online. I bought my son a new snowboard helmet last season. Jetty Surf wanted about $220 for the one he tried on, I ended up buying him the exact same one from outdoorsportsguys.com for about $50 delivered (I bought snowboard bindings as well so hard to separate out the specific postage cost). There is big debate about whether it is right to use the local shop as an unpaid fitting service and then buy online cheap from overseas. I didn't feel good about doing it and if the local price was maybe $70 I would have preferred to buy locally but with more than a 400% difference, I couldn't ignore it for the exact same item.
I think the best is online. Go to few shops and try on the stuff you want and then look for them online. Just as a courtesy to the shop make sure to buy something small from them as well. lol
like check this skis:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Volkl-2013-Kendo-Bonus-Salomon-ST…
what kind of gear? hardware or clothing?