Review: TheTieBar.com neckties

Read enough menswear blogs and the question always comes up from someone about where one can find cheap — but good! — neckties. And almost always the answer that’s given is TheTieBar.com.

This is the response I gave my roommate who asked where he could find skinny ties and I pointed him to TheTieBar.com’s wide selection. I’d had a good experience with their bowties and knew that others had come to the same, relatively positive, experience with the site’s offerings in the past.

He bought three of them, one knit, two regular silk ties. For $15 a pop, plus $6 flat shipping, I think this is a pretty good deal if you’re not the kind of person who can justify spending a lot of money to choke your neck and collar.

The knit tie was of particular interest to me. Skinnier silk knits are obviously having more of a trendy moment right now and not everyone can afford Drakes, J.Press, etc. How do these stack up? They are extremely thin and lack that hand-made feel that you get from a higher-quality tie. Certainly, they look better than some of the polyester/silk blend knit ties out there, but they don’t have that heft and thickness that I prefer. In the past, I’ve caught the Lands’ End silk knits on sale for $13-$25 and the LE ties are a much better deal in terms of quality construction, even at their full retail price.

The look of the ties, however, for that price is just fine. They don’t look bad at all, even up close and if you’re going to build a wardrobe on the cheap of a few colors of them, then this is an alternative. It’s your call if you think $15 is a fair price to have several of them, or if you want to just spend $70-$150 for just one super nice quality silk knit (and this goes with all the ties here). Certainly, I think the silk knits will be the ones that put most people on the fence about TheTieBar.com’s quality and value.

For TheTieBar.com’s regular silk ties, I think it’s a very different story. I think they have a good thickness and hand to them for the price. Again, don’t go expecting a super-high quality construction and feel of those Italian or English-made neckties you have, but for this price point in comparison to other retailers that sell neckwear for 2-4 times the price, I think these stack up.

I think the easiest comparison to how these feel being tied and in hand would be Tommy Hilfiger’s neckties. For ties in that price range, I like TH’s ties for how they knot and have one I wear quite frequently. TheTieBar.com’s silk ties feel almost exactly the same minus the retail markup.

Again, I feel like these ties are good for when you want to build up the basics in your closet quickly and at a low cost. If you’re the kind of person who thinks neckties in the $30-60 range at full retail is what you are willing to pay, then just use TheTieBar.com instead. Honestly, if you’re buying made-in-China ties with branded names on the back, then you’re overpaying and could be getting the same thing for much less.

My final verdict on TheTieBar.com would be to use them if you’re not willing to pay the full prices for Italian and English-made neckwear and are paying for the made-in-China range branded neckwear. You’ll save a lot of money and have a huge selection.

I’m not blown away by these ties, but I do think they charge an extremely reasonable and unbeatable price for the quality you’re getting.

I will add the caveat that you could find much nicer neckwear at greatly discounted prices if you spent the time thrifting and on eBay, but I do understand not everyone has that kind of time. If you’re just trying to get the basics and be done with it, then TheTieBar.com will do the job quite well. And it’ll make you really rethink all those retail prices.