P2JW324000-0-D00100-1--------XA CMYK Composite CL,CN,CX,DL,DM,DX,EE,EU,FL,HO,KC,MW,NC,NE,NY,PH,PN,RM,SA,SC,SL,SW,TU,WB,WE BG,BM,BP,CC,CH,CK,CP,CT,DN,DR,FW,HL,HW,KS,LA,LG,LK,MI,ML,NM,PA,PI,PV,TD,TS,UT,WO STYLE & TRAVEL The Joy of Gronkowski For an Architect, Ideas Are a Ferry Ride Away JASON GAY D6 DREAM SPACE D3 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. © 2014 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. Thursday, November 20, 2014 | D1 Frequent Fliers Look for Ways Around Stingy Miles Awards Let Out Those Slim Suits Retailers Add Room to Modern Silhouette for Bigger Builds; Shirts ‘You Can Move In’ Thomas Pink and J.Crew are targeting men who ﬁnd their slim ﬁts too tight. BIG-SHOULDERED: Measures ¼ to ½ inch broader across the shoulder than Thomas Pink’s slim-ﬁt shirt. BY SCOTT MCCARTNEY J.Crew Crosby suit CHEST PUMP: An inch bigger in the chest than the Ludlow suit. Thomas Pink Athletic Shirt TAPERED SHAPE: An inch smaller in the waist than than the label’s slim-ﬁt shirt. BACK ROOM: Measures ¼ to ½ inch larger across the back than than the label’s slim-ﬁt shirt. NOT SO NIPPED: Has a slightly bigger waist than the Ludlow suit. BY RAY A. SMITH After persuading men to squeeze into slimmer-fitting clothing, from suits to polo shirts, some retailers are waking up to a stubborn reality: They have alienated men who are well-muscled or carrying a few extra pounds. Now, some slim-fit clothing is getting a tad looser. The idea isn’t to revert to the baggier suits that long held sway in America, but to keep men dressing in slimmer, more European and British silhouettes—just more comfortably. J.Crew launched the Crosby suit this past summer for men who found its popular, slim-fitting Ludlow suit too tight. Frank Muytjens, head of men’s design, says the retailer found “a lot of people liked the Ludlow and wanted to fit into it, but they were just too big.” J.Crew added more room in the shoulder, chest and biceps “so that a more-built guy could fit” but tried to keep the slim Ludlow silhouette. The retailer also loos- Bulking Up A window display for Thomas Pink’s new Athletic Shirt, meant to appeal to men with a defined physique. LEG PRESS: Slightly bigger in the seat, thigh and leg opening. Cara Howe for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Alejandra Samper (2); Thomas Pink (below) Loosen Up a Bit ened up the seat and thigh on the trousers. Thomas Pink, the British brand known for its dress shirts, introduced its Athletic Shirt this fall to appeal to men with a defined physique. The fit falls between that of its slim-fit and its looser classic-fit shirts, says Alyssa Mishcon, president of Thomas Pink North America. “We found our customer needed a little bit more room in the arm and shoulder.” The shirt is still slim and tapered at the waist “to create that V-shape guys are working so hard for,” she says. Store window displays that featured the shirts during the launch cheekily blared: “Six Pack Required.” Retailers are heavily invested in slim-fit clothing, and it has proved to be big business. Scores of men, even ones with no interest in fashion, have had no choice but to slim down their clothes or look hopelessly out of date at work and on the weekends. The slim-fit trend also has provided the industry with a rare Please turn to page D4 That’s My Bike! Online Clues to a Theft BY REED ALBERGOTTI fessionals. Within weeks, I had moved on to a new bike. But I couldn’t get my beautiful Ridley out of my head. Every week or so, I’d search for it online. I had all but given up when, on June 15, I googled “Orange and Blue Ridley Noah” and did an image search on my phone. There it was, in an ad for an eBay auction. You couldn’t miss my last name. I was so incredulous that I posted a link to my Facebook account. A day later, friends who had clicked on the Please turn to page D4 Michael Hill San Francisco In the early morning hours of March 13, thieves broke into my apartment building. They broke into a locked bike room and walked out with several expensive rides. Among them: my old racing bike, a 2008 Ridley Noah that retails for thousands of dollars. It has a custom paint job, with my last name clearly printed on the top tube. A couple of months later, someone sold the bike on eBay to a guy named Douglas who lives in Dallas. The search for my bike highlights the underside of e-commerce: The same technology that lets us efficiently buy and sell used goods is also an efficient way to unload stolen property. Policing the online marketplace for stolen goods can be a Sisyphean task. Thanks to my responsible wife, renters insurance makes the loss a lot less painful. I called the police the day of the theft. While investigating, they told me bike theft is rampant in the city, and often the work of pro- The author’s bike was stolen in San Francisco, sold at a flea market in San Jose, Calif., and sold on eBay to a buyer in Dallas. Business-school professor Garold Lantz travels to Asian universities several times a year and earns about 30,000 United Airlines miles on each trip. Starting next year, his mileage reward from United will plummet to about 12,000 miles a trip. He may take the same trips as before, but he’s considering payTHE MIDDLE ing United’s partner SEAT Singapore Airlines to get more miles. “I anticipate switching as my resentment builds,” says Mr. Lantz, a McGowan School of Business marketing and international business professor at Kings College in WilkesBarre, Pa. The frequent-flier mile world is about to be rocked. Delta Air Lines will start giving out frequent-flier miles based on ticket prices instead of distance traveled beginning Jan. 1. United will make the same change March 1. People who fly on expensive business-class and first-class tickets and have top-tier status in frequent-flier programs will see their accounts flooded with miles. At Delta and United, a frequent flier at the highest status level will earn 11 miles for every dollar spent, excluding taxes and government fees, up to 75,000 miles per trip. Most travelers riding in economy will earn a fraction of the frequent-flier miles they used to get. A traveler with no high-level status gets 5 miles for every dollar spent, so a $1,000 base fare for a 10,000-mile round trip gets half as many miles as it would earn today. The radical reshaping of one of the most cherished consumer benefits is driving many frequent fliers to cook up new strategies. Some are loading up on extra trips before the rule changes to stuff accounts. Others are booking tickets through Delta and United partner airlines that still give out miles based on distance. “No one is sure how all this is going to play out,” says Carl Ciochon, an Oakland, Calif., lawyer who travels frequently for work and fun. When Delta and United announced the changes in how they’ll reward customers with frequent-flier miles, they didn’t announce changes in how their miles will be earned when their frequent fliers travel on partner airlines. Typically travelers can earn miles whenever they fly an airline that has an alliance or partnership Please turn to page D4 P2JW324000-0-D00100-1--------XA Composite MAGENTA BLACK CYAN YELLOW