All About Scubas

I recently posted about fakes, and I am passionately opposed to them. So, I want to take the time to talk about a few authentic Scubas I own and love.

 

These are photos of a Special Edition Scuba Hoodie in Paris Pink/ Black Swan Dip Dye. They were released in December of 2011, and retailed for $148. This one has removable fur trim, it zips on and off. It must be dry-cleaned separately, although the hoodie itself may be machine washed. I absolutely love this hoodie and I wear it very frequently. I have also taken a close-up photo of the pilling inside the hoodie to show how Scuba hoodies do pill over time. I’m also a bit of a sucker for the embroidered “you are beautiful” on the inside of the hood. It was one of the things that sold me on it, along with the fact that the fact that the fur is removable and the colors are unique. This Scuba has side panels & thumb holes, as well as a zipper garage, so you don’t hurt your chin!

Since this blog is about the resale market for Lululemon items, I will mention that these pop up on eBay often enough and usually sell but for how much is highly dependent on condition. New ones sell for upwards of $200, while used ones sell for around $100.

The next Scuba hoodies pictured are from the Cheer Gear collection that Lululemon released for the Vancouver Olympics.

I think it’s clever that Lululemon avoided paying royalties to the “Olympics” by avoiding using that word specifically. Instead of an “Olympic Cheer Gear” Scuba Hoodie, Lululemon created “Cool Sporting Event that takes place in British Columbia between 2009 & 2011 Edition” Hoodies. How clever. Well, sort of. VANOC, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, found the collection “disappointing.” That’s too bad- I find it adorable! Here’s an article about it!

The Scubas above had zipper garages but no side panels or thumbholes.

I hope you like these pieces from my collection. I hope to add more later!

UPDATE

I think it’s time to add a couple more Scubas to this post!

The first one is a Scuba Hoodie *Limited Edition in Coal Black Orbit Lace Print with removable fur trim on both hood and wrists. This one came out around the same time as the above Paris Pink dip dye one. In fact, I think I purchased both of them at the same time. This one retailed for $198. I can’t give an estimate on how much this one would sell for, but there were only 5,500 made. (I’m not sure if that’s a lot of a little in the Lululemon world) But I can tell you this: There was recently a used one on eBay (size 6) that sold for $250. This one also has a zipper garage, side panels and thumbholes.

Scuba Hoodie Limited Edition in Coal Black Orbit Lace Print with removable fur trim on both hood and wrists.

While I do love Scuba Hoodies, I don’t own too many of them. Here are some photos of a new one I bought recently.

The color of this one is called Blue Moon/ Hyper Stripe Blue Moon. It retailed for $108 and was released in August 2013. It has thumbholes, but no side panels. It’s hood is lined in Blue Moon Hyperstripe and it has the words “Shhhh… I’m meditating” embroidered on the outside of the hood. Again, I’m a sucker for embroidered words.

So, I think that these are the only Scuba hoodies I own. Like I said, I don’t buy too many. For me, August was a pretty boring up-load month. So, I kind of just wanted to buy something one week and ended up with this. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but if there had been anything else I liked that upload, I probably would not have gotten this.

The reason I don’t buy (too many) Scuba Hoodies: They don’t hold their value very well. The olympic ones, sometimes still sell on eBay for close-to retail. The Special Edition ones tend to do well, because they’re special edition. But on average, you’ll lose half your investment. The reasons Scuba hoodies don’t hold their value very well are: the French Terry degrades rather rapidly, and almost inevitably. The pilling shown above is nearly (if not totally) impossible to prevent. The cost to ship a Scuba Hoodie makes them difficult to sell. No one wants to pay $90 for a $70 hoodie, but in reality, especially in Canada, Scuba hoodies are expensive to ship.

That said, there are some especially gorgeous Scuba hoodies out there that deserve to be owned and loved on their own merits, regardless of resale value, March WAFS comes to mind.