Theory.com Review : Is Legit or Scam? 2024

A theory is a set of principles that explains something. Theory.com is an online fashion retailer; and they explain that the design principles that make the perfect clothing piece are fit, fabric and style. They promise that their men and women apparel are built on these principles, so they have only versatile and sophisticated styles, featuring expert tailoring, and made from the best materials.

Theory is a legit fashion store. It is not a scam because they will never steal you money. And all purchased items are delivered to the orders without a problem. But does Theory.com deliver quality materials?

The big question is whether these statements are just marketing blurbs or the items in Theory.com are actually built to those lofty principles. In other words, does Theory.com actually offer perfect clothing pieces? Do they also offer affordable prices and excellent service?  In the first place, is Theory.com legit? This review will examine Theory.com and provide the information that will help you answer those questions.

Theory.com review at a glance

• US-based online fashion retailer
• Provides both men and women clothing, and accessories
• Operate almost 230 stores (and almost 500 if you add franchises)
• Ships to only the US and select US Territories
• Offers free Standard shipping to all US addresses
• Allows returns within 14 days of delivery
• Payment is via credit/ debit cards, PayPal and Theory Gift cards
• Customer support is available via email, live chat, and telephone

What is Theory.com?

The fashion store theory was founded in 1997 by Andrew Rosen and Elie Tahari. When it started back then in New York, Theory was exclusively selling women’s wear with a focus on stretch pants that fit perfectly and was also comfortable. The company claims that these pants “changed the way American women dress”. The success of this innovative collection only led to expansion, and a men’s line was added in 1999. The men’s wear was built on the same principles that saw the women’s wear succeed; the collection was innovative, highly functional, and stylish. In 2003, bags and shoes were to the product offering at Theory. Currently, Theory stands as a one-stop fashion store holding every fashion for both men and women from clothing (dresses, tops, bottoms, suits, blazers etc) to accessories, shoes and more.

The company started a global expansion way back in 2000; so apart from the many stores they have in North America, they also have stores in Asia and Europe. Their brick and mortar stores (including franchise) are almost 500. The company is owned by Link Theory Holdings which is a Japanese company.

Is Theory.com legit?

Theory.com is legit, not a scam. You want to make sure that an online store is legit before proceeding to do business with it. There are just too many scam artists on the internet; and unless one makes sure to identify the legit platform from the fake platforms, one could fall prey and be ripped off by these fraudsters.

In this regard, Theory.com comes strong – legit. The first test is legal recognition. Theory is a duly registered company, which means that it is 100% legal. Also the owner of Theory.com (Link Theory Holdings) is not only a duly registered company but also a public company. This shows that Theory.com is legit because it’s unheard of that a fake company trades in a Stock Exchange.

Another consideration is the test of time. Theory has been existing for over two decades; and in that time the company has only expanded, adding a men’s line and accessories, and opening more shops both domestically and internationally. Generally, scam stores go the other way because they can best be described as “hit and run”. If scam store succeed in ripping off a few people, the information will be out, and with such exposure, the store will close up and disappear. Theory’s over two decade of operation proves that the store is legit because no fake store can operate for that long.

Also one thing that led to the success of Theory was that they fulfilled orders with high quality and functional products. Currently, Theory has a lot of physical stores all over the world with the capacity to fulfill orders. This shows that Theory is legit because fake stores do not fulfill orders. To the average buyer, a fake store is one that does not ship to him/ her when he/ she place orders causing him/ her to lose the payment. The fake stores do not fulfill order because they do not have the capacity to since almost of them operate only as a fancy website, without the backing of a production center, warehouse, store or showroom. That said, the many stores of Theory.com prove that the online store is legit.

Is Theory.com safe?

Theory.com is safe. A legit store will not rip you off, but if it is not safe, it will simply leave you exposed to other fraudsters. This is because you share sensitive information (such as your credit card details) with a store when you register and shop with them; and fraudsters can wipe you clean if they get this information. Thus, a legit store should be safe and ensure that the information you share with them is protected.

In this regard, Theory.com makes the right promises. They say that protection of customers’ data is a top priority of theirs, and that they use “commercially reasonable measures to keep your financial information private and safe”.

They give details of some administrative measures that they take such as limiting the number of people that can physically access their database servers, not sending credit card details via email, as well as employing electronic security systems and password protections that guard against unauthorized access. However, they fail to give detail of the encryption standard that they use. Such details will give assurance that they are safe. For example, I’ll rest easy knowing that my retailer uses the same encryption protocols used by banking institutions. That said, it is safe to say that Theory is safe.

Product Range

Theory Dresses:

Theory Bags:

Theory Shoes:

You’ll want an online store that holds a wide product range. As a fashion retailer, you’ll expect the store to be a one-stop store for fashion needs, and offer everything from apparel, accessories and beauty products. The one advantage of this is that it leads to significant cost savings. Where the store offers flat shipping rates, you can get all your fashion needs, and get them deliver as one order. This will be cheaper than having to ship different orders from different stores.

In this regard, Theory.com ticks the box. The fashion retailer specializes in both men and women wear, and their product categories show that they offer the gamut. The product category and the items in each category are as follows:

• Women: This hold women clothing, you’ll find

Outerwear – The choice is by length (Short or Long) or material (Wool, Shearling& Faux Fur, Puffers)

Jackets & Vests – Anoraks, lightweight jackets, denim jackets, moto jackets, leather jackets, suede jackets, and bomber jackets

Pants – Skinny, Slim, Leggings, Relaxed, Flare, and Cropped

Dresses – shirt dresses, wrap dresses, crepe jumpsuits, cocktail dresses, occasion dresses, maxi dresses and more

Sweaters – cashmeres and cardigans

Tops – tanks and camis, short sleeve, long sleeve

Accessories – Gloves, Hats & Scarves, Jewelry, Sunglasses

T-Shirts, Jumpsuits, Skirts, Denim, Swim wear, and more

• Men – This is the category to go to for men’s wear; you’ll find Outerwear, Pants, Sweaters, Suits, Shirts, Blazers, T-shirts & Sweatshirts, Denim, and Shorts
• Shoes – This include pumps, ankle-strap sandals, ballerina flats, kitten heels, short boots, and winter boots
• Bags – Crossbody Bags, Duffle Bags, Clutches, Bucket Bags, Totes, and more

It can be seen that Theory.com hold the gamut of women and men’s fashion; that is, all types of clothing, the accessories to compliment the dressing and the beauty products to bring out the shine.

However, apart from the different product categories, it’s also important to examine the number of particular items in each product category. This is very important because a large number of items mean you are more likely to find something that you like as you scroll through the selection. Unfortunately, Theory.com fails in this regard because the actual number of items held is relatively small. Thus, while they have all the different types, they don’t have enough items within each type. For example, at the time of writing this review, they held only 19 women’s shoes. The women clothing category was also no different. It held only 16 jackets, 21 dresses, and 34 women pants. It was no different in the men’s collection. For example there were only 12 items in the suits section, and 10 items in the blazers section.  We can go on and on, and only one conclusion will be reached. Theory.com has a small inventory. Thus, you will be severely limited in terms of making choices.

Product Quality

However, in terms of quality; you’ll find that the quality of clothing in the store is really top notch. The design principles of Theory.com are: fit, fabric and style, and true to this they provide expertly tailored pieces made from the best materials, that that are highly functional (comfortable and fits well). You’ll find that all dresses are fashioned from the highest quality fabrics, and also impeccably tailored. Their jackets are made with all-season Italian stretch wool and come with modern silhouettes. This innovative stretch fabric is also used in most pants, and the clothing pieces can undergo heavy stretching without bagging.

Product Description and Images

Buying products online hold some risk as you do not get to physically assess the items before making the purchase. To reduce the risk inherent in blind purchases, online stores provide resources to help one assess the items. These include product descriptions and images.

As a legit online store, Theory.com provides detailed product descriptions and clear, high quality product images to help you assess their products. The detailed description includes the material composition of the clothing (such as the type(s) of fabric), and measurements including the size of the models (on-model items). The images are high quality pictures. Many of the products include both on-model images and stand alone images. The images are shot from different angle (front view, back view etc). Interestingly, Theory.com also uses video technology to show most of their products. The slow motion video features the clothing piece on a model, and you’ll be able to see how the cloth in ways that no picture can convey. Very few online fashion retailers use video technology; thus, Theory.com use of it put them a step ahead of many stores.

Price, Promotions and Payment Methods

Price

Price is the most important element in any purchase. You don’t want to pay over the tops for an item no matter its perceived quality. Thus, it’s important to determine whether the items in Theory.com are competitive/ affordable.

First, it should be said that low prices for high quality clothing is a selling point so retailers that do offer low prices make it known. Theory.com says a lot of things about themselves but none included offering low priced quality items. That was the pointer that their items are on the high side in terms of pricing.

However, we dived in and checked all their items to make sure ourselves. That we could check every item in their inventoryconfirms what we’ve established earlier;that their inventory is small. Upon going through their items, what we find did not make for good reading.Theory.com does not talk of offering low prices because they do not. Every item listed is on the high side.

For example:the women jackets in the store were price $395 – $995; the cheapest shoes (flats) went for $320; the cheapest dresses was priced at $295; and the women’s pant wereall above $200. It was no different for the men’s wear. And the painful thing is that many of their items were excluded from their promotionswhich would have soften the price blows.

You’ll have to steer to their sales page to get a cut off their steep prices. Though the cuts are substantial, final prices are still on the high side. That said if you’ll be shopping on a budget, Theory.com is probably not the store you should be looking at. However, they provide top quality, which some will argue, requires paying top dollar for.

Price Adjustment

Thankfully, Theory.com offer price adjustment if an item is marked down on the site. This happen if you’ve ordered an item that happens to be out of stock, and when available it is listed for a price lower than it was when you ordered it.

If you reach Theory.com (via email or telephone) within 14 days of your order placement, they’ll give you the item at the lower price. The price difference will be refunded through your original payment method. However, price adjustment is a onetime offer; and it will not be given on sales merchandise or promotional purchases.

Promotions

The promotions offered by a store cannot be left out of any review because they give customers the chance to get items for less than their full price; some promos can even net customers free products. Online fashion retailer offer promotions; and Theory.com is no exception.

The promos are usually time-specific, which means they run for only a specified period of time. Thus, you’ll have to continually check their website to know what promos are being offered at any point in time. In fact as you get to their landing page, you’ll find many of the promos that are being offered.

At the time of this review, one promo that was running is 25% Off Select Styles + Extra 25% Off All Sale by using the promos code: 25EVENT.

As mentioned earlier, there are not a lot of items in the inventory of Theory.com, and many of the items are clearly marked “Excluded from Promotion”. This means that this promo can be applied to only very few items. Also, since the items have very high prices, 25% off sales items does not do much to bringing the items to affordable range. Also the first thing I saw as I got to the landing page of Theory.com is a pop up, that invited me to sign up for their newsletter to get 15% off orders.

I looked around but didn’t see a student discount anywhere; I also couldn’t find any reference to a referral program that’ll reward a customer for bringing someone to the store; of a loyalty program that’ll reward a customer for continuous patronage. That said, I think it’s safe to say that Theory.com can do a lot more on their promotional packages. I’ll like to see a lot more options such as student discount, referral bonus, etc. Also, the promos currently offered are too conservative. Some of the top fashion retailers run promos that knock off as much as 50 – 70% from prices.

Payment Methods

You have to pay for your order; and you need a payment method for that. Thus, the ideal casino should support a wide range of payment options so that you won’t have issues with finding one that you can use to conveniently make payment.

In this regard, Theory.com is no different from many other online fashion retailers. They accept payment from all the popular Credit and debit cards such as American Express, MasterCard, Visa, and Discover. They also accept payment using PayPal, as well as Theory Gift cards and eGift Cards.

With these options, making payment will be a breeze. However, with crypto currencies becoming very popular for online transactions and threatening to overtake fiat money soon, I’ll like to see online fashion retailers embrace it as a form of payment.  Some E-wallets could also be thrown into the mix.

Shipping

Shipping is second only to cost in importance when shopping online. What is considered is how much it takes to ship orders (shipping cost) and how long it takes order to arrive at the destination (shipping times). The ideal online fashion retailer will have shipping cost that are as low as possible, and will deliver orders as fast as possible.

Another important consideration is the destinations that the shop ships to; this is because stores do not ship to some locations, and if you are based in a location that is not supported, you shouldn’t worry placing any other in the stop. In this regard Theory.com does not score many points. This is because the ideal store should ship to a lot of worldwide locations, so that no matter where you may be based, you can buy from them. However Theory.com ships to only the United States, P.O. boxes and select U.S. Territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands). They do not ship to international addresses or to military addresses (APO/ FPO).

In terms of shipping cost, Theory.com scores some high points. This is because the lowest possible shipping cost is zero (that is free shipping); and they offer free shipping. Not only do they offer free shipping, it applies to all orders. This is an unusual but welcome development. Usually, online stores have order that qualifies one for free shipping; and some tend to put high amounts so that customers will spend much in order to get free shipping. However, in Theory.com there is nothing like free shipping for orders above $XYZ. Whatever the total amount of your order, you’ll get free standard shipping.

This takes us to the subject of delivery times. There are different shipping options that a customer may choose; and these determine how long it takes to receive delivery of the orders. These options include standard shipping, expedited shipping and express shipping. The standard shipping is done with two services – UPS SurePost and UPS Ground Post. With either service, the orders will require a processing time of 3 – 5 days before being picked up by the shipping service. After pick up, UPS SurePost will take 5 – 7 days to deliver the package while UPS Ground will take 3 – 5 days.

Expedited shipping takes 2 business days and cost $18. Express delivery is an overnight delivery option that should get you the package the very next day, and it cost $25. For the expedited and express delivery options, orders are processed the same day if placed before 11am (ET). These shipping options are not available for shipment to Hawaii and Alaska.

What the order processing times mean is that delivery will be delayed for the standard shipping. The addition of the order processing time which can take up to 5 days, to the actual shipping time which can take up to 7 days means that it can take up to 12 business days (over two weeks) to receive delivery of your items. This long waiting time can be reduced if Theory.com works to reduce the order processing time.

Returns and Exchange Policy

Returns

Online purchase is characterized by blind purchase. The ideal online fashion retailer understands that there are risks inherent in such purchases such as not being satisfied with the item when the customer finally receive it; so it’ll take steps to reduce the risk for the customer by allowing the customer to return the item if he/ she is not satisfied with it.

Fortunately, Theory.com allows returns. Merchandise purchased online at Theory.com may be returned to them within 30 days of receiving delivery of the item. If the returned item is received within 30 days and meet the conditions of returns, they will issue a refund in the original means of payment. The conditions include that the returned items must be in the new original conditions; they must be unused, unwashed, and must have all tags and labels intact. Items that are bought in Theory retail store or Theory outlet store may also be returned to the respective stores; but that must be done within 14 days of original delivery. However there are certain items that are final sale items and cannot be returned; this include Gift card, all sale items, swimwear, intimates, jewelry, third party items and special order items.

Upon receipt of the returned item, Theory.com will process it, and only if passed will they issue the refund. The returns processing can take up to 21 days; and after the processing, the refund will take 3 – 5 days to appear in your account. It can already be seen that a customer that makes any returns may have to wait for nearly a month to get the refund; and this is in addition to about 7 days returns shipping time. This is very poor by every standard. Theory.com should do well to reduce this by significantly driving down the returns processing time.

Another thing that should be noted is that all sales items are final sales that cannot be returned. It’s been established that because of high prices in the store, people will more likely visit the sales page, which means that they will not be allowed to return the items.

Exchanges

If you’ll rather return the unwanted item and get another item in exchange for it instead of getting a refund, you can do that. Theory.com allows exchanges of items. This makes for better customer experience, as you’ll be able to get the desired item faster.

Customer Support Service

Needing help is inevitable in any service. There’ll be questions you may need answers, or issues with orders. Whatever the case, you’ll not want to be left hanging when you need help. Therefore, it’s good to consider what provisions the online store makes for assisting customers.

The first bus-stop in seeking help is usually a self-help FAQ page. Theory.com provides this, and you’ll see a link to the FAQ page on their homepage. The FAQ answers some of the question you may have about the company. However, if you want to directly contact the company and deal with a customer support agent, they provide three means for that – email, telephone and live chat.

For the mail service, the address to send your enquiries is: clientservice@theory.com. Theory.com endeavor to answer all submission within 24 hours. While this is good enough, there are many customers that’ll want instant feedback. If you’re one, you can pick up the phone and call (877) 242-3317. It’s a toll free line so you don’t have to worry about charges when you place your call through. However, the telephone service is active only between 8am – 9pm ET, Mondays – Fridays. You can also use the live chat feature for instant feedback; the can be accessed on their website. Also, the live chat is active only between 8am – 9pm ET Mondays – Fridays, and 8am – 5pm ET, Saturdays – Sundays. The good thing is that during its active periods, there is always an agent available.

Summary

Theory.com is a legit online fashion retailer based in the US. They have over 20 years of seamless operation and over 200 physical stores spread across Europe, Asia, and North America, so there’s no doubt that the company will fulfill your orders and deliver to you.

There are many reasons to want to visit the store, but for every reason you’ll find another to stop and think again. For example: They have a wide product range that includes both men and women wear and all the fashion accessories to complete the look. However, you’ll find that the actual number of items in each product category is few which will limit choices. Also, the quality of items in the store is also top-notch, as every item is features expert tailoring and made from excellent material. However, you’ll find that prices are on the high side, and the promotions that would have slashed down prices are few and too conservative. Again, they offer free standard shipping on all orders; but you’ll find that they ship only to the US and select US Territories.

That said, Theory.com comes out as an ideal fashion store for the busy, high-end American shopper. If you’ll have the time to search through a selection, or would want to shop cheap, or will want to ship outside the US, you’ll have to look at another online fashion store.

I liked

• Offers a wide product range that includes all the clothing types and fashion accessories for both men and women
• Use video technology
• Offer onetime price adjustment
• Exceptionally high quality items
• Free standard shipping on all orders

I didn’t like

• Very small inventory
• Prices are on the high side
• Very few promos and bonuses; and the ones offered are too conservative
• Ships only to the US and select US territories
• Long order processing time for standard shipping (up to five days)
• Long returns processing time (up to 21 days)
• Customer support is not available 24/ 7

Do you have any experience with Theory.com? Use the review section below to give us your brief Theory.com review.