The answer to your questions about price

From time to time, we get a bit of less than stellar feedback on social media when people see the price of our clothing. In social media world, ‘best practise’ is usually to just hide or delete those comments, but here at io we’re all about Keeping It Real so we want to be completely up front with you - even if some people are happy to just leave a negative comment and aren’t interested in the truth behind the scenes. 

If you’re interested in why natural, merino clothing - including ours - costs more than most of the cheaper, usually synthetic or plain cotton stuff out there, here’s what you need to know. And some food for thought when it’s time to buy your outdoor clothing.

Are we making a ridiculous amount of profit?

First of all, our prices aren’t a reflection of how much profit we make, they’re a reflection of the high price of the premium materials we use, and the ethical labour we use to make our clothes. 

We can 100% guarantee you big brands like Nike will be making literally ten times (maybe more!) more profit on one of their Tshirts than we do on ours. So if their gear costs a bit less than us, it’s not because they’re great people just helping you out, it’s because they’ve made it so cheaply, from materials that are a lot cheaper, and still managed to make around USD$3.2 billion in net profit in 2024. You don’t need to be an accountant to work out they must be making a lot on each item they sell. 

So this isn’t about the 'kerching' for us.

Is our stuff even worth it?

Importantly, we understand not everyone needs, or can afford, our gear. If you’re looking for something to wear while you’re walking down the street on a fine day, our stuff isn’t likely to radically transform your experience. 

But as your activities get more enthusiastic, the more you hike or run, the more the weather gets a bit questionable, the further away from home you are, or the longer you’re out there with variable conditions, our stuff doesn’t just become more valuable, it becomes invaluable. 

Features like temperature regulation and moisture wicking won’t just keep you more comfortable, they may just keep you more alive.

It’s literally like insurance. We hope you’ll never need to really rely on the level of performance it’s capable of delivering, but our stuff delivers more comfort, more safety, and more peace of mind so you can enjoy your time outside even more. And we reckon that’s worth it.

Why would you pay more for natural stuff?

We know sometimes you don’t have a choice. You need to pay the rent and put food on the table. But let’s not confuse ‘affordability’ with ‘value’.

Even we’ll admit our stuff isn’t the sexiest, most fashionable stuff out there. And you’re definitely not paying for fancy, celebrity-filled ad campaigns. Hell, half the time we don’t even use real models, just our hiking, running, outdoor loving friends. 

Literally all our effort goes into making clothes that feel good and have incredible performance, and are as natural and sustainable as possible. 

That means an absolutely minimal use of plastic - or what you’ll more readily recognise as words like ‘synthetics’. Whether that’s ‘polyester’, ‘nylon, ‘rayon’ or any other number of words that are just code for ‘plastic’. Even companies coming up with make believe fancy fabric stories and names like ‘bamboo silk’ - which isn’t really silk, and is something that doesn’t really have much in common with bamboo by the time it becomes a fabric - are usually more plastic than fantastic.

The reality is synthetic fibres and fabrics can usually be produced at a fraction of the cost of a natural fibre like merino wool. But at a greater cost to the planet, the environment, and as more and more research around microplastics emerges, quite probably a greater cost to your own health. 

Have we all had the wool pulled over our eyes?

The sad reality is, whether we like it or not, at times we all fall for marketing in its various forms. 

If you find yourself scoffing at the price of a product like ours, please just remember - fast fashion, cheap fashion, synthetic fabrics, all come at a price. 

We’re people too, a smaller family owned business even, so we love a bargain as much as the next person. But before you write-off a company’s product like ours as being “expensive”, we hope you’ll remember that we choose to make a product that’s intentionally quite different to the cheaper alternatives. 

We know they’re not for everyone. We know not everyone can afford them. And if we could make them any cheaper, we know we’d sell more, so we’d absolutely do that. 

But we’re committed to natural, we’re committed to ethical production, we’re committed to doing the right thing by people and the planet we all live on. That comes at a cost. The cost to us is tangible, and means we’ll never be Nike. The cost to you is a higher price tag. 

Those things are different to us being ‘expensive’. It’s quite simply just how much it costs to do the right thing. Which should be the baseline. Not the unethically produced, planet-destroying stuff that releases microplastics into our water, and subsequently into our bodies, before ending up in landfill and polluting our planet even further for the next thousand years. 

It’s OK if io is not for you.

So if we’re not right for you either right now or ever, no hard feelings. If you’re one of the people that’s left a comment having a go at us for being expensive, that’s fine as well. At least now you know why. If that’s not important to you, or you’re still not interested, that’s what makes the world go round. Different strokes, or in this case clothes, for different folks. 

Whatever you do, whatever you wear when you’re doing it, from our family to yours, stay safe and well, and all the best on your adventures.