WAG How often do you update your Competition Leos/Warmups?

[Deleted member 18037]

Fairly industry standard to get new every 2-3 years. There will always be new team members who fall into the "just got mine" category. As others have mentioned you can rotate getting new leotard/warmup style so not buying both new at once.

This, except our bag. It’s a standard bag. No need to change it. My kid is on year 5. It’s still in good shape

3rd year on our jackets. They have collars and zip. Black with our colors, gym name on back, their name on front. Pants black legging type pants again name on those. So warmups don’t get passed on.

Leo, 3 years on first style. This current one we will only get 2 because GK is discontinuing. I’m still puzzled as to how they can discontinue a custom Leo in a very standard color but don’t get me started on that one.

As others of said. New folks will always get caught in a one year thing depending on the buying cycle. As will the kids who have a growth spurt.

As far as style and when to change. Coach/ manufacturers drives that bus, not the parents. Our gym is sensitive to trying to keep costs to us parents down. So they try to alternate years of warm ups/Leo’s.

 

[sce]

Leo, 3 years on first style. This current one we will only get 2 because GK is discontinuing. I’m still puzzled as to how they can discontinue a custom Leo in a very standard color but don’t get me started on that one.

The color has nothing to do with it being discontinued, it's the style that is discontinued. Usually, due to lower interest, or possibly just to force gyms to buy a new one. Little known fact, it can still be ordered by gyms that have already ordered it, but it goes up in cost 5% each year after it's discontinued.

My dd's gym had a leo get discontinued after 1 season. We ordered it and paid the higher coast the next season, just so not everyone had to get a new one again.

 

[sce]

We changed warm-ups after 3 years. No one liked the ones we had. We went with a stock jacket form GK, and embroidered logo but had bling around the logo and on some of the shoulder seams. We had been using capris pants form Target but started having trouble getting them, so switched to stock GK black capris pants. Price for the capris pants was about the same for GK as Target.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

The color has nothing to do with it being discontinued, it's the style that is discontinued. Usually, due to lower interest, or possibly just to force gyms to buy a new one. Little known fact, it can still be ordered by gyms that have already ordered it, but it goes up in cost 5% each year after it's discontinued.

My dd's gym had a leo get discontinued after 1 season. We ordered it and paid the higher coast the next season, just so not everyone had to get a new one again.

This is how we got a second year this year, but next year will be a no.

I kind of figured it’s a racket to make money.

 

[sce]

This is how we got a second year this year, but next year will be a no.

I kind of figured it’s a racket to make money.

Definitely makes one want to be cautious about ordering an older style.

 

[Aussie_coach]

We have had our for over 10 years. It is very different around here, gyms don't replace their gear every few years. Most keep their design for years and years and years. Club become known by these designs, it must be confusing with them changing so often.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Definitely makes one want to be cautious about ordering an older style.

It was custom, standard cut

 

[RTT2]

Our gym stays with the gym's color scheme, just changes the style of the leo. I assume other gyms do the same with having a team color, although I haven't paid enough attention- or been around long enough, to be sure.

 

[eucoach]

We keep the leos at least 2 years but try to get 3 years out of them. Anything below 2 years is excessive IMO. Anything above 3 years is also excessive because most gymnasts have to get a bigger size after 3 years at the latest anyways. However, some of the current gymnasts's parents made a really big deal about the new leos and we promised to try and keep them for more than 3 years. I'm sure however, that some of these exact same parents will complain about the leos in 3 years time and want new ones. So my take on this - don't listen to the parents. Ever. :-D

For warmups, we have a plain white jacket that we are planning to keep for many years to come. Even if the design changes a little, it won't be a big issue. I can see getting different kinds of pants after 2-3 years because they are very cheap anyways.

 

[profmom]

Every couple of years for us. I think people tend to be more unhappy when it changes too soon because no one likes having to buy the whole kit after the initial excitement has worn off. I liked our previous warmups for the girls much more than the ones they currently have. I'll take dated over ugly any day.

There was this one in-stock singlet that GK had that many, many boys' teams had adopted, including us (we were one of the first adopters). This year, GK discontinued it. They'll be raking it in from all those gyms that have to find something new -- we had a brisk resale market. But our coach designed a custom singlet because he's tired of not being able to pick his guys out in the crowd.

We have two guys graduating this year. You can imagine their parents' delight at the thought of buying an entirely new kit.

 

[sce]

It was custom, standard cut

Not sure what you mean. We always went with a custom style from GK, as in the styles you can customize. GK is always coming out with new ones and discontinuing older ones.

 

[sce]

Our gym stays with the gym's color scheme, just changes the style of the leo. I assume other gyms do the same with having a team color, although I haven't paid enough attention- or been around long enough, to be sure.

Lots of teams seem to greatly vary their leo color. Some stick with a gym color scheme but not all. One area gym wore baby blue fur acouple years, now they are in pink.

 

[RTT2]

Lots of teams seem to greatly vary their leo color. Some stick with a gym color scheme but not all. One area gym wore baby blue fur acouple years, now they are in pink.

I was a little disturbed by the image of a baby blue fur leo, til I realized it must be a typo!

 

[sce]

I was a little disturbed by the image of a baby blue fur leo, til I realized it must be a typo!

Wow, sorry. Yes, typo

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

About 2-3yrs for comp leos, 3-4 for warmups. We usually "update" the Optionals a year before the compulsories, to allow a year of buying/selling used ones. We did update the pants to slim capris recently but kept the same (lululemon style) fitted jacket. The warmups we had before these were pretty bad, very outdated design in horrible fabric.
Someone is pretty much always going to end up with the short end of the stick and have to get something new every year, it stinks but it happens. One of DDs teammates has grown a lot each year for the past 3yrs and had to get all new gear every year even when the design was the same...

 

[raenndrops]

Little known fact, it can still be ordered by gyms that have already ordered it, but it goes up in cost 5% each year after it's discontinued.

The year we had the GK rep come in (when choosing our 2nd leotard) we ordered one that we didnt know was going to be discontinued the next year... and it was already at the top end our budget. For the 2nd year, we did have the girls pay the extra 5% (coach felt terrible) ... and then we needed 2 more in December, but GK said they could NOT be ordered anymore after December 1.
Luckily, OG could go up a size... a former gymnast had given her leo to the gym... and one of the new gymmies needed the size OG was currently wearing. For the other new gymmie, OG gave her her old style leotard so she at least had the same main color.

The part that I was angry about with the discontinuing was that we got them for the 2011-12 season and they were discontinued in the 2012-13 season (December 2012) AND it was one of the leotards worn on the Season Finale (the Olympic trials) of Make It or Break It... in 2012.

 

[sce]

I really don't understand how they decide which leotards to discontinue.

 

[raenndrops]

I really don't understand how they decide which leotards to discontinue.

Me either... Our style that was discontinued wasn't an "old style" ... It was an Olympic inspired design. Lauren and one other girl wore it on the MIOBI Finale.

 

[CoachAlex]

Me either... Our style that was discontinued wasn't an "old style" ... It was an Olympic inspired design. Lauren and one other girl wore it on the MIOBI Finale.

I'd be more pissed off that the GK rep didn't mention this when you picked them out.

 

[raenndrops]

I'd be more pissed off that the GK rep didn't mention this when you picked them out.

We were! HC was so mad that she decided we would NEVER get GK leotards again! We have had AF since then. Our leotards arrive ON TIME, AS ORDERED, and the previous one, we had for 3 years and were told it would be discontinued the following year, so we changed them before that (we had more than half the girls needing new leotards - including several that needed larger sizes than we had before... gotta love that we are keeping girls longer, but they tend to grow).