Just months after MINI_motion apparel and accessories became available on the web some of the collection have now gone on sale. The sale ranges quite widely and not everything is on sale but enough is to make one wonder about the success of the line thus far. For instance the Motion Jacket regularly $638 is now down to $383 and short sleeve T-shirt is now “only” $55, regularly $92. Also most Puma outlets seem to have some limited stock of the $150 “Motion_2partshoe” for the low price of $35-$40!

Certainly it's cool gear. The shoes are as hip a pair of Puma driving shoe you'll find and the watch (while not official released yet) looks incredible. But what about the prices? Can the MINI market sustain $100 t-shirts? I believe that MINI may have run into some problems by forcing a premium brand at owners who are already trying to justify the moderately pricey MotoringGear. What's worse they give it very limited availability and thus haven't really got the word out. To my knowledge MotoringFile is the only MINI specific site to talk about the line on a regular basis. Generally you only hear about it in design or culture magazines and that was last year – way before it was available to the general public. Don't get me wrong MINI_Motion all looks like hip gear and if money where no object a lot of it would be in my closet now. It just seems as if MINI didn't organize the launching of the brand as well as it could have been.

So where does the brand go from here? Do they stay the course or introduce some lower-end items that appeal to a broader spectrum of owners. Time will tell.

In the mean time I count the days until my MINI_Motion watch comes to my door 🙂