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Performance Gardenwear

All of our clothes have in-built functionality that doesn’t exist in an ordinary pair of trousers or top. The materials we use are “technical” fabrics so, for example, they may be shower-resistant or totally waterproof, have properties to wick sweat away from the body, be lightweight and stretch, fast-drying, or even thorn-resistant.

Most people wear old clothes, but once our customers start wearing Genus clothing, they can never return to their cast-offs. With Genus trousers, for example, you can always find your secateurs and they won’t make holes in your pockets. You won’t ever again get wet knees, struggle with strap-on kneepads that always slip down, or need to drag your kneeler mat from bed to bed. You won’t walk around with a wet bottom all day because you happened to sit on a wet chair. Your mobile phone won’t dig into your groin when you bend over because it’s safely tucked away in a special pocket in the small of the back. We could go on listing the very special gardening features of Genus trousers (and tops as well), but you get the idea that Genus Gardenwear is just that – clothing specially designed for gardeners by gardeners.

Product

We were definitely interested in manufacturing in the UK, but even though we spent a lot of time researching, we just couldn’t find a factory that could make our clothes. Either they didn’t have the skills, or they didn’t have the machinery, or they were too expensive, and the business wouldn’t have been sustainable. The Chinese have built up specialist expertise in technical outdoor clothing and the quality they produce is outstanding. The factory we use has a strong ethos of social welfare and looks after its employees very well. It also has an enormous fruit and vegetable garden which provides fresh, natural food for the staff canteen.

Early on in our business, we decided that we are going to focus on offering unique products specially designed for gardening. Our trousers for men and women have been refined over several years now and we believe that we have as perfect a product as we can achieve. We are adding new products every season, but only those that we are convinced make the gardening experience more enjoyable. We are always looking for customer input into our design process. If you have any ideas or thoughts about what clothes (or other products) you would like to see us develop and what features you would like to have, please contact us on customercare@genus.gs.

Sizing

Our trousers and tops are designed for gardening so they often have a generous fit. If you tend to buy your clothes in High Street shops such as M&S or Next in the UK, then we advise you to choose the same size.

That’s a worry we all have. Certainly, the problem is greater with trousers as everybody seems to be a different shape. Our sizing guides are designed to go some way to solving this problem, but if you do find you need a larger or smaller size, then our exchange process is very simple and speedy.

Pricing

The quality of our clothing is exceptionally high, and we use technical fabrics and the best quality zips and other trims. Customers tell us that our trousers are lasting them through several years of intensive gardening work. If you compare Genus to workwear which uses ordinary fabrics, tends to be poorly made and will typically last no more than six months, then Genus starts to look much better value for money. If you compare us with performance brands designed for mountaineering, hiking, and other outdoor activities (of course, gardening is an outdoor activity), then we don’t look expensive at all.

Delivery and Returns

We offer free postage on orders £75 or over for UK customers and send by Royal Mail Tracked 48 to addresses in the UK.  We also offer a next day UK delivery for a moderate charge.  For addresses outside the UK, we make a charge and send by Royal Mail or courier.

Unfortunately, because of the EU Rules of Origin, some of our products attract additional duties.  Payment of these is necessary to release your order from customs on arrival.

We offer free returns for customers in the UK.  For customers in the United States we have a returns address in Washington state. Full details are shown on the returns form that is included in your package.

Normally, we issue the refund within two or three days of receiving the goods back. However, it takes two or three more days for you to see the refund in your account.

On only two occasions have we refused a refund. One was when someone returned a pair of trousers that had obviously been worn. On the other occasion, the trousers were covered in dog hair, so we sent them back to the customer who managed to clean them sufficiently well, send them back to us and then get their refund. So many of our customers have dogs and we do ask them to make sure that Genus clothes are sent back to us minus the dog hair!

Stockists

At the moment, we don’t have any retail stockists. However, we have a small showroom and fitting room in our base near Cirencester and you are very welcome to make an appointment to come. Please call us on 0203 617 1166 to arrange. Whilst you’re here, you may enjoy walking around our beautiful garden, and if it’s in season you might want to try our strawberries, raspberries or stone fruit.

More About Genus

This is a question that we keep asking as well. We have been going for ten years now and we are still the world’s only brand of technical clothing for gardening. If someone can answer that question, please let us know.

It’s a very horticultural word and we wanted to make sure that gardeners know the brand is specially for them.