I'm seeking new warm-ups (track suit, whatever you want to call them) -- something warm and comfortable, yet quick drying -- something good to wear between events at a meet or to throw on after practice. The number of options available online is a bit overwhelming and it's hard to see the differences between them (if any). Suggestions?
Former Member
http://www.boathouse.com/
This is the brand of warm up my team bought in high school. It's expensive but really nice quality and I'm still using it today (4 years later).
The Chammyz line of products is warm and water-absorbent:
www.chammyz.com/.../
I ended up order a pair of pants and a zippered jacket from Chammyz. They seem nice and of a good quality, although I haven't had a chance to use them in "action" yet.
But I am pretty well dissatisfied with my dealings with them. On the positive side, they answered all my emails promptly and politely. On the negative side, the reason I had to keep emailing them was that it took them three weeks to ship my clothes, and then another week for the clothes to get to me. A full month is way too long to wait for this type of item, in my opinion, and there was no indication on the website that it would take that long (and they just kept saying "soon" in the emails).
Then, the pants are huge. I ordered the size that was specified for my weight. (In contrast, I ordered a size smaller for the jacket, because I have that pear shape, and the jacket fits fine). I was told I could exchange them, but then I'd have to pay the shipping out AND back. When I pointed out that this seemed unfair, given that I had waited a full month to get the items in the first place (and I never got an apology for that, by the way), they said they would "split" the return shipping with me, so that the maximum I would pay would be $10! Sorry, I don't see this as any great deal, and frankly, this is all more expense, work, and annoyance than I wanted, simply to get some warm clothes to wear out of the pool. The clothes are fairly pricey to begin with, imo.
I will say that the USMS logo on the jacket is nice. Am I supposed to be non-critical of them because they are a USMS sponsor?
Here is the (hopefully final) follow-up to my Chammyz experience. After I made the posting above, I received a new email from the Chammyz people, delivered to the email address I use on the discussion boards rather than the one that I used for ordering the pants:
We wanted to follow up in regards to your issues with return ship charges. We do apologize for any issues as we pride ourselves on customer service.
In 16 years of business, we never have a negative comment and we just wanted to follow up and offer to do exchange on pants for free as we, at Chammyz, are only happy when the customer is happy.
If you would like to arrange an exchange, please advise and we will send you the appropriate information.
When they sent this email, I am not sure if they realized that I was the same person they had said they would not do a free exchange for and who was clearly not happy, but in any case, I took them up on their offer, mailed them the too-large pants, and received the smaller sized pants today. They fit! And they are nice pants. The Chammyz stuff was all the rage at the recent Pac Masters Excel weekend -- many people were wearing Chammyz, and many were ordering them. I just wish that I would have been able to get them with less hassle.