It’s the million-dollar question we’ve been asking our customers – and anyone else whose ear we can bend on the topic of affordable swimwear – since the concept of Bon+Co was but a twinkle in our eyes.
What makes swimwear affordable?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of ‘affordable’ is:
affordable
af·ford·able | \ ə-ˈfȯr-də-bəl \
Definition of affordable
: able to be afforded
: having a cost that is not too high
- products sold at affordable prices
- an affordable purchase
A cost that is “not too high”.
Clear as mud!
And when it comes to affordable swimwear specifically, the most common answer is exactly as vague as the dictionary definition.
“It depends.”
Turns out, quantifying affordable swimwear has proven quite the conundrum for sustainable swimwear brands like Bon+Co – who are dedicated to creating unique, high-quality swimwear garments that are priced affordably for the average tween and teen-raising family.
Boys Tentacles Racing Jammer
Understanding the Quality-Cost Scale of Affordable Swimwear
Essentially, finding the right piece of affordable swimwear for individual customers boils down to striking that elusive perfect balance between cost and quality.
It sounds simple on the surface, but the complexity comes in understanding that the quality-cost ratio for affordable swimwear is objectively measured on a sliding scale. And that sliding scale can be quite a slippery little sucker!
When individual customers weigh up purchase decisions from different places on the quality-cost scale, they can come across different sets of issues.
Common traps customers face when shopping for Affordable Swimwear
If you were to make a judgement call on if a piece of swimwear is “affordable” by a lower price tag alone, you could fall into the trap of false economy, ending up with cheap swimwear in terms of both price point and quality. Finding out that your bargain swimwear falls apart, fades or pills after a few dips in the pool and needs to be replaced two or three or ten times as quickly as you anticipated isn’t’ just frustrating. It’s uneconomical, harms the environment by generating “fast fashion” waste and doesn’t make it an affordable swimwear choice at all.
On the flip side, you might choose to splurge and pay top dollar for a coveted luxury brand, premium material or perceived value of an on-trend-new-season-limited-edition-must-have piece. It might deliver a hit of instant gratification, but you could find yourself resenting the sky-high purchase price when life happens: children hit unanticipated growth spurts, bodies change shape, trends move on or swimwear is lost on holidays…
Girls Kiki Flounce Frill Bikini
Welcome to Bon+Co – the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ of Affordable Swimwear
Just like a certain golden-haired home invader likes her porridge, we strive to serve Bon+Co customers a range of affordable swimwear for tweens and teens that are “just right”.
Too hot for us would be a “churn & burn” fast fashion model. Where super low-cost, low-quality, unsustainable seasonal swimwear is made “quick & dirty” and sold at a price that couldn’t possibly come close to ethically valuing the time, skills, hard work and passion that every single person in the Bon+Co supply chain pours into making our sustainable swimwear.
Too cold to us would be super high, exclusive (exclusion!) pricing. Pricing that would put our sustainable swimwear out of reach of an average family budget and only be considered affordable for families with a certain income. Brrrrr! It gives us chills just thinking about it. We’re in the business of making swimwear, not status symbols!
Just right for us is a quality-price ratio that protects our team, our family, our suppliers and our retailers…so we can make sure that our business of making sustainable swimwear stays…sustainable! From our fabulous fabric suppliers who weave actual magic by turning plastic bottles into fabrics; to our seamstresses, to our in-house artist and designer, to our sales & marketing manager…all these professionals deserve to be valued and paid for doing what they do – affordable pricing at our online store allows for that.
Through lots of helpful customer feedback (thank you!) over the past few years, we’ve discovered that Bon + Co customers are pretty much smack-bang in the middle of the quality-cost scale when shopping for affordable swimwear…right in that warm ‘Goldilocks Zone’ of affordability.
So drizzle on some honey, grab a spoon and dig in!
(And by that, we mean, CLICK HERE to check out the brand-new collection of affordable swimwear by Bon + Co that’s just dropped!)
Bon…Appetit! 😉
Modest Teen Swimsuits with Wow Factor 😉
