When did drysuits become so expensive?

[PuyallupCoug]

This may be a dumb question but why/how did drysuits become so expensive the last 15 years? (for context I was out of diving for about 15 years and recently got back into it two years ago but all in warm water diving)

Back in 2008 I purchased a Bare Nex Gen Pro drysuit for $645 and now I see they're $1,899. Even with inflation it should still be less than $1,000. I know everything is more expensive these days but the price completely shocked me. Did something happen in the dive industry while I was on my hiatus to justify a 3x increase in 17 years? I'm genuinely baffled.

 

[TalbotM]

My speculation: because people kept paying inflated prices. Same thing happened to computer GPUs.

 

[Badger7]

Just a guess - labor costs? Inflation would explain half the difference (materials) and the other half from the fact that no one would want to assemble drysuits for $10 an hour anymore. These are products that are made individually, by hand, and in low volumes really no differently or more efficently than 17 years ago.

edit - let me just go ahead and added the requisite "you can still get a base model seaskin for about $1k" post

 

[David Wilson]

I own a simple drysuit from the late 1950s and early 1960s, when such leaktight underwater apparel cost a fraction of the price of wetsuits:

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The last time I snorkelled with it in the North Sea, the suit still excluded water and retained warmth in the way it was meant to do when it was manufactured fifty years previously. My own judgement is that many modern drysuits are overpriced because they are overengineered. New technology often comes with a surfeit of unnecessary expensive features that few users need or even understand. When it comes to innovation, I choose whatever I really need and comprehend, the simpler the better. By way of example, just because I know how to word-process sufficiently for my own purposes doesn't mean it's ever been time to ditch the trusty ink pen I have been using for decades.

 

[happy-diver]

That's it yeah the industry is so brilliant at convincing the people of all the stuff they "need" to go diving

They can't afford to

 

[MB NZ]

Price of a top end drysuit isn't far off the price of a half decent secondhand car

 

[NothingClever]

For perspective, a Custom Works leather track suit from Dainese for high performance motorcycling is twice the cost of a Santi E.Lite+.

That’s before protective gloves, a helmet and a season’s worth of knee pucks.

Crashes happen to the best and generate suit repair bills (not to mention the bike repairs).

Diving is a bargain.

 

[broncobowsher]

Your 2008 purchase was a below normal price. Probably a recession induced deal.
I have not seen any spikes in drysuit prices.

 

[The Chairman]

That's it yeah the industry is so brilliant at convincing the people of all the stuff they "need" to go diving

What's this drysuit you speak of?

When you're built like a manatee, you get to dive like one.