April 26, 2013
Dear Coolibar,
I’ve never felt like writing a fan letter to a company before, but I do now.
Recently, when preparing for a Maui vacation, I entered panic city—I hadn’t been to Hawaii in 20 years and the thought of wearing a bathing suit suddenly horrified me! Local stores offered only boxy board shorts and blah rash guards as alternatives to the ubiquitous skimpy suits. I’d never shopped online for clothes before, but I was desperate!
Quickly, I discovered that only two sites, HyrdoChic and Coolibar, might fit my needs. I came across criticism about Coolibar in a few places, so I tried HydroChic first. I chose five items, though apprehensive about the ones on sale being nonreturnable. The $19 shipping fee was a shock, especially so when the items arrived, 5 days after ordering, stuffed in an envelope that barely survived intact. Unfortunately, none of the pants fit correctly (mainly because of the lack of drawstrings) but I didn’t return them immediately because at that point I had no alternatives. When I was ready to return them I realized they give you only 14 days from the date they were shipped to return them for a refund—my 11 days had long passed!
I decided to give Coolibar a try—and I’m so glad I did! I found none of the criticism I’d read to be true, save one—the fact that you don’t offer swim bras! Otherwise, I found Coolibar to be superior in every way! My 9 items were packed with care and shipped for free (they arrived 8 days after ordering; for my following order of 6 items, I opted to pay the $12.95 for 2nd day air.) All items were of the highest quality, the pants thankfully had drawstrings and the shirts had internal gripper strips as an extra feature. Also, I was amazed to find how the outfits totally withstood the abuse I subjected them to, with all the snorkeling I did and the many times I got smashed around into the powerful shore breaks and ground into the sand (I saw people in regular bathing suits practically stripped naked.)
My favorite outfit was the Ruche Swim Shirt worn with the Swim Tights (which I found versatile because with the legs pulled up they could be worn as capris.) Also, I was thrilled to find I could go swimming and then go straight to any store or restaurant (if still a bit damp it didn’t show, buy they dried fast!) It helped make my trip more carefree and easy.
Of course, your clothing’s most important feature is sun protection (having had melanoma I learned the importance of that the hard way.) It was great to only have to apply sunscreen to my face, neck, hands and feet, and never get burned. My travel companions went through bottles of sunscreen, and still got sunburned. Also, I learned on my trip that sunscreen is a source of pollution, that there are even days when the water in places like Molokini Crater are covered with oil slicks from their use!
Since I bought multiple sizes (being unsure how they’d fit) I’m very thankful that you have a customer-friendly, REALISTIC, return policy! And, it was great being able to wait until after my trip, when I was certain of what I wanted to keep, to return my unused items!
Thanks for everything, I’ll be ordering again!
Sincerely,
Deborah
