I admit it. I’m a big guy. 6’-2", 240#. Yes, a lot of that has caused me to be called a chubby-hubby, but there’s a decent amount of muscle under there too. Like I said, I’m big, but not huge. So why do I feel such a sense of dread and trepidation every time I see a product labeled “One Size Fits All?”
Case in point: Having a desk job in front of a computer during the week, and trying to get a week’s worth of around-the-house work done on the weekend has left me with a decent case of tendonitis in my left elbow and an up and coming dose of RSI in my right wrist. So I go off to Wally-Mart to get a wrist support and tennis elbow strap. I walk up to the display, investigate my options, and both the ones I want bear the dreaded OSFA stigmata. My choices are limited, so I buy them. Lo and behold, each has barely enough velcro to fit around my elbow/wrist. They work, but not without some effort.
Then we have baseball caps. Now, what I apparently never realized is that I come from a family of people with freakishly large heads (a fact my wife thankfully discovered after our daughter was born ). When my niece was born 27 years ago, the doctor was so worried abut her having a head-of-unusual-size that we had to measure all of our craniums to show him that there was nothing wrong that freaky genetics couldn’t explain. So whenever I buy a it’ll-fit-anyone hat, I usually end up with the little buckle grasping the last few threads of the band.
Sadly the trend towards body parts of unusual size ends there.
But who are these One Size Fits All products intended for? I’d hate to think what would happen if I was the type of guy that shopped in the big and tall shops. I think it’s time manufacturers revisited population percentiles and tried to come up with a little more realistic universal size.
so, given that you’re big, and you’re tall, why don’t you shop at Big and Tall?
You can buy velco strips at sewing stores to add to the prosthetics so you don’t have to work at it to fasten them. Likewise cloth strips to extend the straps on the hats.
I have had several diminutive girlfriends who also hated the One Size Fits All tag with the passion of a million oversized bathrobes.
'Cause “Big and Tall” is for the most part a euphemism for the really tall or the really … ummm… (do you remember the Simpson’s episode when Homer was trying to gain weight to get out of work on disability? He shopped at a B&T store called “The Vast Waistband”) that type of thing. I still manage to buy clothes just fine at most stores.
It’s the clothing accessories and non-clothing items I have problems with.
Way too much work.
See, I’m not alone.
Do you think I owe porcupine a royalty for this one?
[sub](yes I know where it originally came from)[/sub]
At one store, I saw a one-size-fits-all strapless bandeau bra (it was basically a ring of fabric; it didn’t even have any fasteners of some sort). What?!? It was stretchy, all right, so I guess it could fit people within a certain range, but it definitely didn’t fit my pathetic little chest. I don’t even think it could fit some of my friends’ bigger chests. Who was the moron who thought this up? Lesson for the day: breasts come in all different sizes. Size bras accordingly. (Especially strapless ones!)
Why is it that people think “Big and Tall” means “Horrifically Obese and Freakishly Long-Limbed”? I go to big and tall stores all the time, even though I’m only 6’-1", 250#. I find that they have a better selection for XL and XXL guys like myself. Yes, very large people shop there, but not exclusively. You say that extensions and adapters for OSFA clothing are too much work. Well, I find that trying to find XL and XXL clothing is too much work in a department store. Big and tall stores have plenty of that stuff, and it also (at least in the stores I frequent) happens to be slightly cheaper. YMMV, of course, but that’s my experience.
Really, Syzygy? I’ve tried big-and-tall stores for my oversized carcass (6’5", 240 lb). I usually take an XLT or XXL, and at least at the big-and-tall stores in my area, I could find plenty of clothes that’d fit I were a 3X or a 5X, but not a whole lot of XLT or 2X.
Ironic, that… clothes at normal stores are too small for me, and clothes at big-and-tall stores are too damn big. Looks like I’m stuck wearing a toga.
This is exactly why many retailers have started using the phrase “one size fits most” as, for instance, at this marketer of seriously ugly Christmas hats.
BTW, I enjoyed the thread title – but does one size really fit all your ass?
AMEN brother! Testify!!
at 6’4" and a beefy 300#, I’ve had terrible trouble fitting neoprene supports for my elbow and knee.
I wear a size large knee neoprene support on my elbow, and an XXL on my knee.
And, Ethilrist, The velcro strips are a good idea, provided the support goes all the way around the extremety to start with!
Yeah, I know. Guys can’t learn to sew or their peckers will fall off. So you’re stuck with ill-fitting clothes while us females can dress like godesses
). When my niece was born 27 years ago, the doctor was so worried abut her having a head-of-unusual-size that we had to measure all of our craniums to show him that there was nothing wrong that freaky genetics couldn’t explain. So whenever I buy a it’ll-fit-anyone hat, I usually end up with the little buckle grasping the last few threads of the band.
