New Team Leo's-How often to switch?

[Beekeeper]

This is a general question. But how often does your club switch Team Leo's? What is the average amount of time to keep a team leo before changing the style? In our area seems like the average is three years. I have seen some teams change them out every two years and one other club keeps it forever. I know there are different philosphy's to keeping team leo's vs changing them. Cost could be a factor, leo being discontinued, etc. What is the benefit of changing leo's, if cost is not a factor?

 

[bogwoppit]

Our team seems to keep leos for about 5 years. They are all handmade locally and we have two styles in the gym for the two different types of team we have. THis means the suits can be sold on, and the head coach is amazing about making that work. She buys them back at 50% of the cost and then sells them on at the same price. There is no mark up on the suits at all.

 

[Bella's Mom]

I don't know how often we will switch because we got a new owner/coach last year and she (thankfully) switched our team colors. I know that the new team girls are using outgrown team leos from last year's team but I don't know the mark up. Our owner tries to minimize cost for leos and warm ups.

Our old owner switched every other year. But I don't know how much swapping and re-using there was since Bella wasn't on team track then.

 

[cher062]

in my area it seems like its every 3-4 years for the leo. the warm up suit also goes for about ecery 3-4 years but most try to have it so there is time between the leo and the warm up suit so you aren't purchasing them in the same year.

 

[B Gymnast]

We normally switch every four years.. But the coaches liked the leos we had before so much that they kept them for like 6 years!

 

[GymDuck]

Wow, my team switches leos every year!! Our cost is never really high, averaging about 50-80$. I dont think thats a very bad price to pay once a year for a brand new leo, and you can get any size you want, in case youve grown since last year. Also, my gym likes to switch its colors up alot, haha.

 

[Optionals United]

about every 2-3 years. some gyms in my area keep their leos for like 5, because when you go to comp you see that leo and your like so and so gym is here.

 

[lhmom]

Ours is every 2 years. DD will be getting a new one for next season, but they are going back to GK (which I like better). They keep the warm-ups longer, but I suspect I may be replacing the pants (growth spurt).

 

[marie83]

We keep ours for as long as possible - we like to keep our costs down as much as possible! We changed our leo last year, but only for our seniors. A lot of the juniors had only just purchased brand new competition leotards so figured before we change them they had better get some use out of them!

We had our previous leotards for 6 years. They cost around £40 and each gymnast purchased their own.
We have decided to hire out our new ones - they cost us £55 each to buy, but we had a credit note from the company due to some faulty kit we had to send back, we also had a 10% discount and free scrunchies. We hire them out for £15 each time - therefore we will make our money back pretty soon and hopefully we will be able to upgrade every 3 years or so, depending on whether they look outdated or not.

Hiring out leotards is pretty much the done thing here - that way at least they all get washed the same amount of times, they only used for competitions and don't start to look old and faded too quickly. Most clubs tend to keep theirs for 3 or 4 years and most have a different one for their juniors and seniors.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

We change leos about every 2 years. It is expensive but I do enjoy having videos and pictures that are not always in the same leo! lol!!

 

[Beekeeper]

Thank you for everyone's replies! I too, don't mind when our gym changes Leo's. Also like having pictures and videos that are different. But my DD usually has outgrown the season's before and end up buying a new one anyway. I have sometimes been able to resale the one that no longer fits.

 

[All Chalked Up]

We've had ours for about 12 years from what my coaches told me. The fabrics change slightly if they're itchy, etc. but the design and colours have stayed the same.

 

[MaryA]

My dd's team changes leos every other year. However, they also have a different leo for optionals than the do for compulsaries (optionals are sparklier... and more expensive!) so if your DD changed to optionals in a year when they weren't switching leo designs anyway, you'd have to buy a new leo two years in a row... when your DD switched to optionals and the following year because it is the year for new leo designs. Hopefully, in that case, the parent can find someone who either left the team or outgrew their leo so that they don't have to pay for a new one... and/or are able to sell the compulsary leo to a new girl or one who has grown out of hers. We had one teen optional girl who washed her comp leo in hot water and then put it in the drier... had to order a new one with rush shipping to get it there in time for a meet. Now that must have been expensive!!!

We haven't changed warm-ups (this is the 2nd year Kathy has had this one and I suspect she could make it last for another 2 or more because, for whatever reason, they ordered them HUGE and Kathy has about a 4 inch hem in her pants plus the waist is rolled over twice) but the YMCA has a new logo so theoretically all of our YMCA stuff is supposed to have the new logo on it. The coach is hoping that nobody notices that the warm-ups don't have the new logo because if someone makes an issue out of it we could all have to buy new ones.