winter coats would you really spend £100 on a 4 year old?

[pombears22]

Was talking about this with a mum friend this morning - around us most kids wear coats that cost around 100 quid. To me that just seems a bit mad for a pre-schooler when others are so much cheaper. I mean how much technology does a pre-schooler need for a British winter. Same with waterproofs etc etc - somehow I just thought that kids dont really need this stuff but I've only just moved back to the UK so unsure whether am totally off the mark here

@Valkyrie40

It's all relative isn't it? It depends what you can afford.

I wouldn't have spent that on a 4yr old personally as I wouldn't have thought it necessary (ie a 4yo doesn't give a shit what he/she is wearing) but now mine are teens they all have £250 puffa jackets!

Seems a ridiculous price...I wouldn't but myself a coat for £250, let alone my dc, whatever age they were. I have a teenage ds...his coat usually ends up thrown to the side of a muddy football pitch to be trampled on

£30 winter coat, basic waterproof jacket for Cubs/Scouts, both to last a couple of years.

I’ve bought mine PoP coats for years. Well, my eldest 2 are too big now, sadly, but my youngest still wears them.

They are expensive (although do good sales), but last really well, and are roomy. Eg I bought my eldest one that she wore for over 2 years, then the next one wore it for 3 more. It’s now waiting for my youngest to grow into it, and he’ll wear it for at least 2 years I expect. 7 years wear out of an £80 spend is not at all bad, if you ask me, and it’ll still be good enough to pass on or sell.

Dd2 had a PoP coat for her school coat for 2 1/2 years - she said it’s the warmest she’s ever been at school. She’s now too big for PoP, and so has a different brand, and she says it’s neither as comfortable nor as warm/water/wind proof. It’s good enough, but not as good. She isn’t particularly into labels, so it isn’t that it didn’t cost as much, or isn’t cool enough, it just isn’t as comfortable or as warm.

Ds is still wearing PoP, and has a good few years of hand me downs left, and is happy with that. He too says his home coats are much warmer and more comfortable than his school coat (has to be a branded one, but it’s roughly equivalent to M&S storm wear), and definitely more wind proof.

I always went for something that I absolutely knew was more than enough for British winters - all 3 dc have communication disorders, and so when they were young were unable to tell me if they were uncomfortable. The habit just stayed, but as I said before, I didn’t need to buy each child a new one each year, so the cost saving there has been quite large too.

@Valkyrie40

It's all relative isn't it? It depends what you can afford.

I wouldn't have spent that on a 4yr old personally as I wouldn't have thought it necessary (ie a 4yo doesn't give a shit what he/she is wearing) but now mine are teens they all have £250 puffa jackets!

I actually dont think it is relative, knowing the value of money and having money dont often go hand in hand. I actually would be more likely to put a 4 year old in a expensive jacket than a teenager....£250????!!! surely that makes them a target to be robbed.

Absolutely not.

Boden and Frugi in the sale. Fine for our mild winters and if it’s really cold, I put a jumper on them underneath.

There’s very few places in the U.K. that need the insulation and features of a £100 scandi kids coat.

I buy my five year old's winter coats from places like Mountain Warehouse and Trespass in their sales. I've never paid more than £35, but they are good warm waterproof coats that will see her through walking to school in a Scottish winter.

I live in one of the most expensive parts of the uk.

I've never seen kids in coats except mountain warehouse, local supermarket, boden at a push.

We lived in Eastern Europe when DS was small and I got all his winter coats, salopettes etc from either H&M or C&A. They were perfectly fine in very cold temperatures. Most of my friends did the same.

I couldn’t imagine spending so much on something they will grow out of very soon.

@pombears22

In terms of where we live, London and I guess quite a mc area where absolutely everyone wears say Polarn O Pyret which are at least 90 quid plus other brands

I've just been looking at the PoP website this morning - lots of coats reduced from £80 down to £40/50 (though I didn't check sizes. I've never paid full price for a coat from there. Just bought my DD a lovely puffer jacket from Lidl (£11 I think!) - it's great quality and she loves it (aged 7).

if i had the money easily and loved it then yeah but i dont. right now I wouldn't pay more than £30 but if i made a high wage then yeah

Elfdragon

I would believe all of that. But then I got DS mountain warehouse coat for £30, reduced from £48. And would say all the things you say about quality and longevity and lasting as a hand me down.

I do think paying a bit more can mean better quality but there comes a point where you are also simply paying for a brand. PoP are a terrifically successful, private equity owned brand. A lot of what you are paying is just profit, as opposed to wholly superior materials and manufacture.

There are quite a few in the PoP sale for not very expensive - cheaper than the Boden and Joules sale ones I bought DS. They're not very attractive though! I struggled to find one I think would appeal to DS (nearly 6).

Yes, I regularly spend this amount on my eldest child (3) for an individual item like a coat. However I have 2 younger boys so I like to think of the cost divided by 3 😆

That's a crazy amount of money for a kids coat. Mine has had Boden and Didrikson coats but they were always bought in the sale. We went to Lapland this winter with my daughter in a Uniqlo parka that was plenty warm enough.

No, not at that age. They'd only be in it ten minutes! I'd buy from M&S and they were always great quality and passed on through a further 5-6 boys.

Nope. Supermarket or Primark for us, maybe £25 max.

For that age I normally spend about £25-35 e.g. Tesco, Sainsburys or Next. This year we got one from Matalan for a similar price. They've all been just fine, kept DD warm and looked nice.

Yes. I work in the outdoor industry and have done for years. The quality really is different & the cheap stuff is made in ways that are pretty horrible environmentally. Waterproofing is really hard to do in a good way & for something to be legally waterproof, it is barely ACTUALLY waterproof. I also have major concerns about buying things that are basically throw away quality. DD’s snowsuit was a little more than £100 (Patagonia) & she has a winter coat & and a rain suit. Rain suit was probably more like £30, winter coat close to £100. That said, try to buy used as much as poss and have a close friend with kids a year older and a year younger so we tend to rotate buying and then the gear goes through all 3 kids (and then on to other family members). Also Patagonia has extendable sleeves and trouser bottoms so we’re on year 3 for the coat & expect to get another year out of the snowsuit.

We are both very active families though, bike as main form of transport, ski a lot in winter, 2 mile round trip walking to school etc. cost also isn’t a huge deal, if it was I would hunt hard for secondhand & choose a good quality brand even if it needed repairing.

We spend I think £40 on each child's coat (my dc are 9 and 10) and they will hopefully last at least 2 years. Both coats are warm and shower proof and high visibility. We bought them from the Mountain Warehouse discount store.

We've never bought snow suits or separate wet weather stuff, even when they were toddlers, simply because we don't go out in bad weather that much so there's no point.

Depends on lifestyle. A proper waterproof jacket and trousers will save many tears when out walking, but we layer with a fleece and base layer rather than buying a puffer jacket separately (you can buy them as 3 in 1 and they zip in too). Mine only had one proper coat at that age plus a folding mac for summer than fitting in the changing bag

Most of my kids jackets were mountain warehouse or blacks (Peter storm) own brands basically but they come in different levels of waterproofness higher the better, mine is 10,000 for instance

This year for the first time I spent more than £50 on my 12yo because she needed something in a specific colour for school and has outgrown a lot of kids brands. Usually I buy a Mountain Warehouse or Decathlon ski jacket, in the sale. Warm, waterproof, brightly coloured and often under £20 if you buy a year ahead.

You can get great stuff in sales - and like people say, later up and get some waterlogged salopettes and boots. Small children will find water to jump in and will get soaked at the furthest point away from home/car.

I used to get outer clothes from a Norwegian ski company - I forget the name. Also got items from the US - so much cheaper. The stuff was brilliant and it went to older cousin, who passed it down to younger sibling - and still looks absolutely great.

Where I live many children of a similar age tend to wear £100 coats but they are nearly always passed from one family to another. Second hand clothes are very much the norm here.

does anyone have any tips on how to make one coat last two years? mine invariably grows out after a year