UnionMade is a US-based fashion store that says they want you to love the clothes they sell you. You definitely will not love items that are of poor quality, classless, or overpriced.
UnionMade is a legit fashion store. It is not a scam because they will not steal your money and will never receive payment without sending out your order.
But do they offer quality materials?
This UnionMade review will examine the store to know if they deliver quality products or not.
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Thus, the promise is to provide high quality, trendy styles, and at the right price.
Does UnionMade offer the styles, quality, and prices that you’ll really love? If their clothes are loveable; what about their service? Do they offer efficient fashion retail service that makes the overall experience in the store memorable? In the first place, is the store legit?
This Union Made review will examine Union Made, and provide the information that’ll help you determine if Union Made has the items you’ll love, as well as the service to go with the items.
UnionMade is a fashion stores that was established by Todd Barkett in 2009 with the opening of their flagship shop in San Francisco, which means that they are pushing a decade in the fashion retailing business. The website (www.unionmadegoods.com) started in 2011 following the opening of another Union Made store in Los Angeles.
All the while Union Made was exclusively a men’s fashion store selling men’s clothing, shoes, accessories and grooming product. However, they opened a women’s line in September of 2012.
Union Made operates three physical stores: their flagship San Francisco shop (493 – 495 Sanchez Street); another shop in the Marin Country Mart, Larkspur, California; and a Union Made Women shop at 4035 18th street also in San Francisco.
In August of 2018, Union Made remodeled; their flagship shop and the Larkspur shop moved from selling only men’s products to selling both men and women’s wear.
Thus, Union Made now operates as a men and women fashion shop. However, they’re still better known for their selection of men’s products.
They offer more than 80 brands from 6 countries; you’ll find popular brands like New Balance, Shinola, Golden Bear and more. Union Made says they won’t offer what they wouldn’t want to wear themselves; and that must pieces that are well-made, that looks good in more than one setting, and that will last a long time.
Unionmade is a legit fashion store. It’s a no-brainer that you should only make your purchases from legit online fashion stores. If you walk into a fake/ scam online store and make payment for an order, you’ll be “lucky” to walk out losing only the payment you made. So if you don’t want to lose any of your hard-earned money, you should make sure to visit only legit stores. However, since fashion stores don’t come with the legit plaster, telling the legit ones from the scams takes a little work.
We’ve done that work, and can unreservedly state that Union Made is a legit online fashion store. First, they’ve been operating for close to a decade; no scam store can continue ripping people off for that long without being called out.
The hallmark of a legit store is fulfilling orders; and there’s no doubt that Union Made fulfill orders. They don’t just operate virtually, they have physical stores and fulfillment centers holding thousands of units of merchandise which gives them the capacity to fulfill orders. Apart from having the capacity, they actually do fulfill orders. In 2017 alone, while still operating independently, the men’s stores sold 75,000+ units to over 25,000 customers worldwide. That you will receive your package when you order it makes Union Made a legit store.
Also, Union Made is a recipient of multiple awards and award nominations. They received an uptown/Downtown Award from MR Magazine in July 2012; the store has been voted one of the US’ 10 best independent Men’s store by GQ Magazine, and San Francisco’s best Men’s store by SF Weekly. Suffice it to say that a scam store will not receive these recognitions by industry watchers.
Unionmade is a safe fashion store. It’s not enough to be satisfied that a store is legit and will not rip you off. You also want to make sure that the legit store is safe. That is; the information you’ll share with the store will be protected and prevented from getting into the wrong hands (read as cyber fraudsters). To use an online fashion store, you’ll share information such as your credit card details and personal information such as your contact details. If you wouldn’t mind that the latter is not protected, you definitely should mind if the former (credit card details) is not protected because cyber fraudsters will intercept it and defraud you. Thus, the ideal store should be safe.
In this regard, Union Made uses the highest technical measures to ensure the security of customers’ data. First, they use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which is a technology that creates a secure link between your device and their servers to ensure that any data that is shared between the devices cannot be spied on. Also, SSL uses encryption to ensure that even if your data is captured, it cannot be read. Union Made goes for the most secure encryption protocol (AES 256 bit) which is the same encryption level used by top financial institutions. The commitment of Union Made to security of customer’s data is shown by their using the most secure encryption protocol, while many other fashion retailers use the shorter bit (but still secure) AES 128 encryption.
Product range is used in rating online stores because a store with a wide product range allows you to get all your related items in one place. Buying your items from one place is preferred to getting items from different stores for many reasons. First, it offers convenience; and secondly, it offers cost savings. The cost savings comes from qualifying for high order discounts, and paying to ship one order instead of paying multiple shipping costs from different stores.
In this regards, Union Made ticks the box. The store offers a wide range of products in two categories – men’s wear and women’s wear.
In the men’s section, you’ll find:
The women category also holds:
Going through the products in the different categories, you’ll easily see why the store has consistently received nominations and awards for best men store. In the men clothing section, you’ll find classy, trendy pieces for every occasion and season. However, in the women section, you’ll find more reserved styles, and not the party and special occasion styles/ pieces.
Apart from a wide product range (that is different products) in the store, you’ll also want to see a large number of each product type. With a large inventory of each product, you’ll be more likely to find something that you like when searching through the listing.
Union Made ticks the box somewhat in this regard. They have hundreds of styles in many section of their product offering. For example, in the men’s apparel section, you’ll find over 230 styles of outerwear, as well as over 250 styles of shirts.
However, you’ll find that they do not hold as large an inventory in the women’s category. For example, in the women’s apparel section, there were about 70 styles of women’s tops, about 50 styles of dresses and playsuits, and only 6 styles of skirts
Even more important than product range and inventory size is product quality. The ideal store should hold items that are of high quality. Quality means different things to different people; but one area of convergence when defining quality clothing is durability (that is, clothing that last long).
Union Made comes out flying in this regard. They say that their clothes are well made, and have the long standing quality of designers clothing. No jokes! Customer reviews shows that items from Union Made are timeless pieces that you’ll use for a really long time. You won’t find their clothing giving way after a few wears, or changing shape/form or color after a few wash. You’ll also find that their clothing is made from the best fabrics, and the tailoring is on point.
The ideal shop should have prices that won’t burn the wallet. Even when a store is reputable for having high quality products, the products should be perceived as reasonably priced. Union Made says that their clothes have the long standing quality of designers clothing without the normal price tag. This would mean that their clothes are not as expensively priced as most designers’ clothing. At least they did not claim that their prices are low and affordable. Because in our opinion; items in Union Made are over-priced.
For example, you’ll be hard pressed to find outerwear less than $100; even many of the final sales (discounted) outerwears were in the $200 – $400 range, while there were some that were selling for four figures. In the same vein, most of their shirts are selling for $150 – $400; you’ll need to shop in the sales section to get shirts under $100. Even the men’s vests were selling for $400 – $540.
In the women category, none of the tops (not even those sales items) was available for less than $100; also the only skirts, playsuits and dresses less than $200 were the final sales discounted items.
That said; if you are looking to buy classy styles on the cheap, Union Made will not be one of the first names on your list.
Customers are always on the lookout for promotional offers, because promotions allow them get items for free or for less than the full prices. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should offer a lot of big promotions.
In this regard, Union Made ticks the box because they run a lot of promotions, and their promotions are big. At the time of writing, the landing page of their website screamed “End of Season Sale: 40 – 60% off”. This gave price discounts of up to 60% on many of the items in the store, both in the men and women category. Another promo was that was running was to sign up for newsletter and get 10% off your next order.
From digging in the internet, one thing was clear, and that is that Union Made does not shy when it comes to offering frequent big promotional offers. Given that their prices are on the high side, this is welcomed news, as you’ll be able to get very fine deals by taking advantage of their promotions. However, there is a catch; items whose prices are slashed by promotions become final sales items which cannot be returned.
If after purchasing an item at full price you notice that it is marked down in the site, you don’t need to bemoan not waiting a few more days before making your purchase in order to get the best value. This is because Union Made offer price adjustment for items marked down within 7 days of the original purchase. As long as the item marked down is the same style, color and size with the one you bought, you’ll only need to contact Union Made about it, and they will refund you the difference.
However, price discounts cannot be in play, the item must have been bought at full price, and the listed item must also be at full price. But there’s a catch, the refund is issued in store credit. While it’s good to find stores that offer price adjustments, we like it better if the stores issue the price difference to the original method of payment.
You’ll want a store with an international focus to support a wide range of payment options so that customers can easily find a means to make payment conveniently no matter where they are resident. Making Payment for Union Made orders will not difficult because they support global options that can easily be accessed. The supported payment options are: Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover card, PayPal, Affirm, and Apple Pay.
There’s no support for crypto currencies, web wallets, checks (cheques), or COD (cash on delivery). However, they are not alone in not supporting these payment methods; you’ll hardly see online fashion retailers that support any of them.
Shipping is one of the most important considerations in online shipping. The aspects of shipping that you’ll want to check when rating any online store are: shipping destinations, shipping cost, and shipping times.
You’ll want to know where the online store ships to. If the shop does not ship to your location, or where you plan to take delivery of the package, then there’s no point buying from the store. Thus, the ideal online store will support a lot of destinations across the world. The more destinations the store supports, it is more likely that your destination will be covered.
In this regard, Union Made ships to only the following countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, Saint Barthelemy, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
If you’ve seen reviews of other online fashion stores, you’ll find that Union Made ships to fewer countries than many of the other stores. In our opinion, a true international fashion store with a worldwide focus should cover significantly more than 17 stores. That said; if you’re resident in Africa, South America, the Middle East, and any other place outside the “hallowed 17” of Union Made, you’ll have to look (and make your purchases) at another store.
You’ll want to know how much it’ll take to ship your package from the store’s fulfillment centers to your pickup place. You’ll also want to know how long it will take your package to get to you after placing the order. Thus, the ideal online fashion store will have shipping costs that are as low as possible, as well as shipping times that are as short as possible.
Because Union Made is US based, when shipping to the US, there are a couple of shipping options that are available; and the chosen option has a direct impact on how much you’ll pay for shipping as well as how long it will take for you to receive your package.
First, there is In-Store Pickup where the package will be delivered to their physical store, and you’ll go there to pick it up. The good thing about the In-Store pickup is that it is free and fast. If you need shipping cost to be as low as possible; it cannot get lower free shipping. Union Made gives you free shipping with their In-Store pickup option. Also, it’s fast because the package will be ready for pickup in at most 2 business days. Orders placed before 12pm PST (Monday – Friday) will be ready for pickup by the next business day; while orders placed after 12pm PST or on weekends will be ready within 2 business days. The one big kick to the head of the In-Store pickup option of Union Made is that there is only one store that supports the service (located at 493, Sanchez Street, San Francisco, California). So if you’ll not be around the location, using In-Store pickup is not an option. In-Store pickup runs well for stores that have a lot of pickup locations scattered all over the country. Thus, it’s a no-brainer that for the in-store pickup option to have good ratings, Union Made should increase their physical stores, or better still partner with and use the stores of other businesses as pickup locations.
Other US domestic shipping options are Ground Shipping, Next Day Air shipping, 2nd Day Air shipping, and 3 Days Select Domestic shipping. The Domestic Ground Shipping will cost $10 for orders moving to the lower 48 states, and $20 for orders moving to Hawaii and Alaska.
The Next Day Air Domestic Shipping is expedited shipping that, as its name suggests, will get you the package the very next day following order placement. However, the order must have been placed before 12pm PST (Monday – Thursday). All Next orders placed on Friday will be delivered the following Monday. This expedited shipping option cost $60. For the other domestic options; the 2 Day Air Domestic shipping cost $40, and it will take 2 business days to get you the package, while the 3 Days Select Domestic cost $30 and will take 3 business days.
For international shipping, orders going to Canada cost $30, while orders going to the other international locations cost $40.
If you’ve seen reviews of other online fashion stores, two things will jump at you. You’ll notice that Union Made does not offer free shipping for Home delivery. Their free delivery option requires you to leave your home to their sole pickup location. We like the home delivery option, and were disappointed that Union Made doesn’t offer it. We’ll like to see it, even if it comes with the usual catch of a qualifying order amount. The other thing that jumped at us is that the shipping costs (especially the domestic) of Union Made are relatively high. In fact, there’re some of the highest US shipping costs we’ve seen coming from US based fashion retailers.
Before buying from an online store, you’ll want to check their return policy. This is because there are many reasons why you may choose to return something from your order, and you’ll not want to be faced with no-returns or impossible return terms.
If you’re wondering why someone would want to return an already purchased item; remember that this is online purchases where you don’t get to physically assess the item before the purchase. Also, there’s the possibility of ordering a size that does not fit; and there’s even the possibility of having a wrong or damaged item delivered to you. Whatever the case, if you have to return an item; you want a store that have no qualms about that.
In this regard, Union Made does have a return policy, and accept back any item from your order that you choose to return under some conditions.
This is how much time you have (from the date of receiving the order) to return it back to the store. Note that if your returns do not get to the store within the window, the returns will be rejected and you won’t get another item or a refund. Thus, you want a return window that is as big as possible.
The return window of Union Made is 20 days for US Domestic orders and 15 days for international orders. If you’ve checked other reviews, you’ll immediately notice that the industry average returns window is 28 – 30 days. This means that the return window of Union Made is smaller than that of most of the online fashion retailers. Thus, when you purchase from Union Made and you have reasons to make returns, you’ll be closer to your calendar than necessary.
If you make in-store purchase from Union Made, the returns window is 7 days. Though this is still smaller than the offers of some other stores, we won’t even fault any store that doesn’t allow returns for in-store purchases, since the buyer could physically assess the item. That said; we’ll score Union Made well for allowing up to 7 days for such returns.
It is not enough that the returned items get to the store within the returns window; to be accepted there are other conditions that must be met.
The item(s) must not have been worn; they must be free stains, odor, or any other condition that will prevent them from being sold as new. Also, all tags and labels must still be attached. Shoes must be returned in the original undamaged shoebox. Lastly, a copy of the receipt must accompany all returns.
However, there are certain items that cannot be returned. These include magazines, books apothecary items and undergarments. With regards to undergarment, it should be noted that there are some stores that accept them if the hygiene seal is not broken.
Lastly, Union Made does not accept returns of items marked “Final Sale” or of items purchased using promotional codes. This means that only full price items can be returned. It’s no secret that many customers shop in the Sales section of stores or jump at promotional offers. What it means is that, there’ll be no returning of any of such purchases.
Granted, many online fashion stores have this policy, but there are a few stores that allow returns of sales/ discounted orders (albeit with a smaller returns window).
Exchanges simply mean returning an item in your order and getting another item in its place. Many stores do not allow exchanges; you’ll have to return the first item, get a refund, and place a fresh order for the wanted item. This lengthens the time of getting the wanted item. Thankfully, Union Made allows exchanges. However, exchanges are allowed for only domestic orders; and it must be for similar items but of different color or size.
In fact, the only way to get Union Made to accept a return of a sales item is if you’re exchanging for a similar item of different size.
Even where returns are accepted, you’ll not want the process to be herculean or cost prohibitive. For easy returns we love stores that provide returns labels. These are usually pre-addressed and pre-paid; and all you’ll do is package the items appropriately, attach the returns label to the package, and drop it off with the carrier. Thankfully, Union Made provides returns label for domestic returns. For international returns, there’s no provision whatsoever, and customers will have to take full responsibility and use any carrier.
In terms of returns cost, it’s also different for domestic returns and international returns. For international returns, it’s whatever the chosen carrier charges; but for domestic returns, how much you pay is determined by how you want your refund. If you want an exchange, you’ll not be charged for the returns label. That is you get free returns. If you want your refund issued as store credit, you also get free returns. However, if you want your refund issued as cash to your original payment method, you’ll be charged $10 for the returns label.
It’s frustrating when you return an item to a store and have to cry out loud before receiving your refund. Thus, the ideal online fashion store will process returns and issue refunds as fast as possible.
Union Made says that they once the returned item(s) is received, it’ll take them only 7 business days to process the returns and issue the refund. If you’ll be receiving store credits, you account will be credited immediately; but if you’ll be receiving cash in your original payment method, you’ll allow a few more days depending in your bank. But whatever the case, you should have your refund in your account in two calendar weeks. If Union Made lives up to their 7-days returns processing promise, it will make them one of the fastest stores in terms of getting refunded.
I think it’s Murphy’s Law that says “whatever will go wrong, will”, meaning that things will go wrong in any given situation. That said; you need a store that will provide the necessary assistance when things do go wrong. Thus, the ideal store should provide different channels for addressing customers’ concerns, and the channels should be responsive.
In this regard, Union Made has provisions for addressing customers’ questions/ complaints. There is a “customer care” page on their site that’ll answer many of the questions you’ll have about Union Made and its service such as shipping, returns, security, privacy, payment options, and more.
To directly contact a customer support agent, they provide live chat and email services. The live chat can be accessed from their website. The live chat is active between 9am and 5pm (PST), Mondays to Fridays. However, Union Made warns that when they have a “high volume of customer outreach”, the live chat may be unavailable even in its supposedly active time.
However, you can reach them anytime using the email service. For enquiries pertaining to order, you may use orders@unionmadegoods.com; while for general enquiries, you may use info@unionmadegoods.com. Union Made promises to always give speedy response, and the evidence shows that they reply within 24 hours, which is relatively fine.
However, it’s disappointing that the direct contact options is missing a key member of the trifecta – telephone support. It also does not help that the live chat which is the only available instant feedback support channel is not active 24/ 7.
Union Made is a legit online fashion retailer. With almost a decade in the fashion retailing business and a rich history of fulfilling orders worldwide, there’s no doubt that the award winning store is legit. Union Made started and operated for many years as an exclusive men’s wear store; but after opening and running a women’s wear line independently for a few years, they merged the two stores, and now stand as a fashion store for men and women clothing.
However, due to the long focus on men’s wear, you’ll find that their men line is more robust than the women line. Thus, Union Made makes a find destination for your pick of quality men clothing, accessories, and grooming products.
There is no doubt about their quality. Their items are well made. Their prices might hit you hard as they are on the high side; but you’ll find large price slashing promotions that’ll cushion the effect of the price hits. There’s no free shipping; except you’ll go pick up your package in their flagship shop in San Francisco. Also, you’ll pay relatively more for shipping than in most stores. However, there’s comfort in knowing that you’ll get your package in time.
If you have to return any item in your order; they allow returns, but with a smaller window than most stores. And if after returning an item, you’ll be getting another item in the store, you’ll have free returns. You’ll meet a responsive customer support service when you need help; but contacting them is only by email and live chat.
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