Independent buying guides
For readers in the UK deciding whether a coat or a pair of boots is worth its shelf price. One buying question per guide, figures sourced and dated, and a cost-per-wear calculator that shows its own working.
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
Measurements, sizing systems and how to check before ordering.
What things are made of, and how long that lasts.
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
Budget and prices
Cost per wear for a UK winter coat and boots: price spread over the seasons you keep them, dry cleaning, one resole, and the 14-day right to cancel online.
Photo: Peter Griffin · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
How to choose
Choosing a coat and boots that last past one winter: reading the fibre label, the construction you can inspect, and the pricing rules that changed in 2025.
Photo: Steffen Mokosch · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fit and sizing
Buy UK clothing and shoe sizes by measurement: what the BS EN 13402 size system is based on, the four numbers to record once, and how to cost ordering two sizes.
Photo: Retired electrician · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
1
Photo: Retired electrician · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Measurements, sizing systems and how to check before ordering.
1
Photo: Peter Griffin · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
What things are made of, and how long that lasts.
0
Photo: Steffen Mokosch · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
1
Photo: William Murphy · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Keeping it usable for years instead of months.
0
Photo: N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What changes with the weather and the shopping calendar.
0
Photo: N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
Price divided by the number of wears you realistically expect, with cleaning and repair added.
cost per wear = (price + cleaning cost per year x years + repairs) / (wears per month x 12 x years)
Compares your own measurement against a product's stated measurement and shows the gap.
difference = product measurement - your measurement; ease = difference / your measurement x 100
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
This site earns money from advertising and, where disclosed, from affiliate links. That does not change the order of a comparison or the conclusion of a guide.
Advertising is not enabled on this site yet. When it is, ads will be labelled and kept visually separate from the guides.