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Clothing Size Guide

Sizing for clothing is a big issue and its getting worse. The big question I am asked every day, is "Is this true to size". Never has a more loaded question ever been asked. The true answer a customer wants to know is, will it fit them!. If it doesn't, its NOT true to size as far as they are concerned.

Women's and Men's clothing are totally different.

Men's clothing is by and large fairly similar across the board with only very minor variations. The brands we sell are pretty good in the way the sizes are pretty similar. Chest and waist sizing is fairly accurate as a 40 inch chest is a 40 inch chest in any ones language. Order with confidence.

Women's clothing. The real problem lies with the fact that every manufacture has their own interpretation of sizing and size breaks. The High St is a total shambles. What has made matters worse is that sizes have been increased year on year yet the numbers on labels have remained unchanged. 

In my humble opinion, this has happened as many women do not like the idea that they have to wear a size larger than they "used to" as they get older. For reasons that are too long to go into here, people are by and large getting bigger. Crafty retailers have cottoned onto this and have simply increased the sizing and kept the label the same. Customers having got used to the new physical size and the same label size,  will purchase more from that brand as they still fit into the size they have been wearing for years. As its such a cut throat business, many retailers have followed suit and now sizes can be anything. The waist size of a size 14 ladies trousers can be anything from 32 inches to 40 inches. An 8 inch difference from store to store. How is this possible!!!

Now what has this got to do with ski-wear. Well unlike the local High Street size wars, ski clothing is international., Ski-wear manufacturers tend to work on historical sizing. So with that in mind, here is my general take on the various brands that we sell, based on customer feedback and my own observations.

DARE2B - Sizing is in my opinion good, compares well to M&S sizing.
ICE PEAK - Sizing is very small. Sizes 8-10 are not too bad but get progressively worse as the size rises, so by the time you are at size 20, its lost nearly 1-2 sizes. An Ice Peak size 20 is comparable to a 16-18 sized Dare2b product. Ice Peak sizing is based on UK sizes 30 years ago.
FIVE SEASONS - Sizing comparable to Dare2b
PROTEST - Sizing is smaller than Dare2b, but generally larger than Ice Peak.

With all our clothing we measure the garment to give you an idea of the actual sizes. If in doubt, always measure a garment at home .

Leg Lengths

We are the Short Ski Shop. Its a popular misconception that we are called this as we sell a lot of short leg ski pants. That assuption is incorrect. We named our store because we started out selling short skis and blades only back in 2005, since that time we have added just about everything to wear or use in wintersports to our range of goods that we sell. During this time, we noticed that shorter people were poorly served, I myself have a 29.5/30 inch inside leg and was sick of having a bunch of ski pant hanging around my ski boots. We now sell possibly the largest range of short leg ski pants in the world.

So whats the issue with ski pants, why the need. Well skiwear is an international business and people are generally getting taller, certainly in the skiing nations of the world. USA, most of Europe. etc. The average Mens ski pant is now 32-33.5 inches long for a regular leg pant, the average ski pant for women being very similar at 31-33 inches long. Therefore there is a need for shorter pants. Many people that consider themselves "Regular" are now finding many ski brands too long for them. Welcome to the club.

When browsing our store, please make  a note of the different leg lengths as they will vary considerably between brands and models. We try to give the correct details in the item description.


Plus-sized ski-wear -
Men. Again men's ski-wear is pretty good for all plus size ski clothing. 
Ladies. You have a further issue in that many plus sizes ladies clothing stores have invented there own sizes and size breaks. Normally there is a 2 inch size break between sizes, so lets say size 16 has a 36 inch waist, size 18 = 38 inch waist, etc. So it does not take a rocket scientist to work out that a size that 4 sizes larger will be 8 inches larger (2 x 4 = 8). Unfortunately, some manufactures have started to make size breaks, 3 or even 4 inches larger when they hit a certain size. This makes all charts and sizing wrong. Please refer to the measurements in the item listing.

At the end of the day, a label is a label and what fits, fits. You are still the same size. Just because the odd shop on the High St makes a size 18 (for example) that fits you, when other stores 18's don't fit. Its simple, you are wearing a larger size but with an 18 label sewn into it. Sorry to break the bad news to you. As a general rule, M & S sizes are fairly standard and a lot of our ski-wear corresponds well (not Ice Peak). if you are a 14 in there, our 14's should be pretty close. 
I have always wanted to be 6 foot tall, If I made a tape measure where an inch was a fraction smaller than it is now, by the time it gets to 72 inches, it would be a few inches shorter. I haven't grown but would measure 6 foot!, That's what the High St stores do, they lie. As there is no certified "standardised" measurement for each size.Sizing for clothing is a big issue and its getting worse. The big question I am asked every day, is "Is this true to size". Never has a more loaded question ever been asked. The true answer a customer wants to know is, will it fit them!. If it doesn't, its NOT true to size as far as they are concerned.