Wetwear Custom Hood - Review

[scjoe]

If you go over to the Decostop or Spearboard, you'll see that Wetwear has gotten mixed reviews for years. Customer service and ownership attitude have been a regular theme. The few people I know who ordered suits from them at the Long Beach Scuba Show were very unhappy with the fit. They were ordering 7 mil suits.

Rubatex went into bankruptcy in 2000 and 2004. It shut down operations for a time in 2004 and again 2010. During this period, Wetwear seemed to be the only custom wetsuit manufacturer advertising Rubatex. One custom wetsuit maker in So Cal told me years ago that once he exhausted his current inventory, he was no longer able to get Rubatex because it wasn't then being produced. At the time, Wetwear was advertising Rubatex. It would seem that Wetwear was probably selling off old supplies. Now, they still seem to be the only custom wetsuit manufacturer that makes Rubatex suits. I find that odd.

 

[LiteHedded]

If you go over to the Decostop or Spearboard, you'll see that Wetwear has gotten mixed reviews for years. Customer service and ownership attitude have been a regular theme. The few people I know who ordered suits from them at the Long Beach Scuba Show were very unhappy with the fit. They were ordering 7 mil suits.

Rubatex went into bankruptcy in 2000 and 2004. It shut down operations for a time in 2004 and again 2010. During this period, Wetwear seemed to be the only custom wetsuit manufacturer advertising Rubatex. One custom wetsuit maker in So Cal told me years ago that once he exhausted his current inventory, he was no longer able to get Rubatex because it wasn't then being produced. At the time, Wetwear was advertising Rubatex. It would seem that Wetwear was probably selling off old supplies. Now, they still seem to be the only custom wetsuit manufacturer that makes Rubatex suits. I find that odd.

They have Rubatex for sure.

Story time:
I had my last hood sent back to them because one of their seams was poorly designed. On long dives it would rub my chin and I would get a scab on the bottom of my chin. So I sent it back to get it switched with a wider panel (turns it into two seams on ether side of my chin) anyway they were supposed to use g231n here but they screwed it up and didn’t. (I didn’t complain because JFI who cares) So that panel on my old hood is squished like paper and the rest of the hood is thick still.

So they definitely have the Genuine article

 

[scjoe]

Poorly designed seams and they don't use the neoprene that you order? I can understand why they get mixed reviews. I still don't know why they appear to be the only custom wetsuit maker using Rubatex when others did before.

 

[LiteHedded]

Poorly designed seams and they don't use the neoprene that you order? I can understand why they get mixed reviews. I still don't know why they appear to be the only custom wetsuit maker using Rubatex when others did before.

I’m not sure. If anyone knows another dealer with rubatex neoprene I’m all ears

I’m just glad it wasn’t a 1000 dollar custom wetsuit. I would’ve lost my marbles

 

[LiteHedded]

Wetwear custom wetsuits review FINALE!!

So my hoods finally arrived last weekend and I wore one on a dive at wakulla on Tuesday. They’re fine.

For two hoods that are meant to be identical they are not. The seam change I requested on the chin only exists on one hood. The other hood has a totally different seam situation. They both fit slightly different. And one of the hoods has a small piece of neoprene spliced in on the neck I guess because it was too small and they needed to add some neoprene without remaking the hood?

All in all my experience with Wetwear was HORRENDOUS and I would heavily recommend no one ever does business with this company.

Ever since they took my money 1.5 YEARS (!!) ago they have treated me like a nuisance and repeatedly ignored phone calls, voicemails and emails. Only after I had a friend say something in public to them at a trade show did they ever seem to give a **** about my transaction. Thanks Kate!

All I needed them to do was take the hood I gave them (that they made) and cut it apart and duplicate it, add one inch to the neck and make two of them. This took one and a half years to accomplish. And when I got the first round of hoods that weren’t anything like what I asked for, the guy that works there (Gene. maybe connie’s husband?) lied to me and told me he did duplicate my hood despite the seams being all wrong and the forehead being way off. I had to send them pictures of me wearing the old one to confirm. No apology was offered (a running theme with wetwear). It would be another year before they could make this right. And after it all they tried to charge me even more money for shipping while claiming they charged me half of what they actually did. I’m scared to look at my credit card statements to see if they’ve been charging me for shipping every time, as they tried to do this without my knowledge and only called when the card was declined (they had this card on file from the original order and it actually expired in the time it took to deliver my product) Connie actually told me she only charged me for one hood as a courtesy for taking so long. I showed her my credit card receipt proving otherwise, another email ignored and I have been offered no refund.

All in all I’m glad I didn’t need the money or the hoods or I would’ve handled this a lot differently. If it was a 1000$ wetsuit I’m not sure how I would’ve reacted.

BUYER BEWARE

 

[kelemvor]

Wow! Glad you got your hood, but what a crazy story. I thought for sure with the amount of time that had passed they would try to deny that they had failed to send your product or something.

 

[LiteHedded]

Wow! Glad you got your hood, but what a crazy story. I thought for sure with the amount of time that had passed they would try to deny that they had failed to send your product or something.

Small miracles I guess

 

[ericfine50]

We should Pin this post .... this is a thread that is buyer beware issue for sure.