suitdirect.co.uk

# Suit Direct

> Suit Direct (https://www.suitdirect.com) is a UK menswear retailer — suits and tailoring, shirts,
> trousers, waistcoats, coats, shoes and accessories, carrying Ted Baker, Antique Rogue, Limehaus,
> Marc Darcy, Alexandre Silver, Bennett And Baxter and Melka. The product sitemap lists 976 products
> across 281 category listings. Prices are in pounds sterling, the catalogue is `en-GB` only, and
> `/terms` states that site prices include VAT where applicable and names the selling entity as BMB
> Clothing Limited, trading as Suit Direct, of 2100 Century Way, Thorpe Park, Leeds LS15 8ZB. This
> file is the agent-facing index; the complete instructions are at
> https://www.suitdirect.com/agents.md.

**Read this before anything else: how to get a response at all.** This storefront sits behind
Cloudflare bot management that inspects the connection, not just the User-Agent. A request over
**HTTP/2** from a non-browser client is answered **403** with a `cf-mitigated: challenge` header —
including `/robots.txt`, including this file, and including requests presenting a Googlebot
User-Agent. The **same request over HTTP/1.1 with an ordinary browser User-Agent returns 200**. If
you are seeing blanket 403s here, that is the cause: it is not rate limiting, and retrying over
HTTP/2 will not clear it. The protection is also intermittent — a URL that answered 200 can answer
403 next time, and an unknown path sometimes returns 403 instead of 404. **Always retry once before
concluding anything**, and never report a 403 here as "that page does not exist".

**Read the payload, not the DOM.** Every page carries its server data in
`<script id="__NEXT_DATA__" type="application/json">` under `props.pageProps`; product pages add
`schema.org` JSON-LD (`Product` with `offers`, plus `BreadcrumbList`). Category pages carry **no
JSON-LD at all**, so everything a listing knows is in the payload — and that payload is not the one
this platform's sibling storefronts use. `props.pageProps.productList` is a raw Algolia response:
`hits[]`, `nbHits`, `nbPages`, `hitsPerPage` (20), a **0-based** `page`, `facets`, `facets_stats`,
`query`, `index` (`live_en`) and the `params` string the server sent. There is no `products.data[]`
and no `orderingItems`; facets and dynamic filters sit in a separate `props.pageProps.filterData`.

**Two of those fields are worth a whole request each; most of the rest lie.**
`facets_stats["price.newPrice"]` gives a listing's exact `min` and `max` price — "what do belts cost
here?" answered in one GET — though its `avg` and `sum` are per size-variant, not per product, so
never quote them as an average. `filterData.facets.brandName` is exhaustive and sums precisely to
`nbHits` on every listing tested. **Every other facet count is index-wide, not listing-scoped** —
`categories.*`, the price and size facets, `coreSizeAvailability` and `variants.quantity` all report
counts exceeding the listing's own `nbHits`, by up to 2,393.

**Route each question to its surface:**

- Product discovery → a category listing. URLs are **path-nested** (`/suits`, `/accessories/belts`,
  `/wedding/wedding-guests`), not the flat slugs used elsewhere on this platform; take them from the
  category sitemap. `/shoes` → `/shoes-and-boots`, `/terms-and-conditions` → `/terms`,
  `/wedding` → `/wedding/suits`.
- Size and stock → the **product page**, `variants[]`. A listing card's `variants[]` is stripped of
  its `specs[]` array, so the Short/Regular/Long dimension is missing and two different garments
  collapse onto one label — 99 of 270 sampled cards carried duplicate size labels for this reason.
- What it is made of, and what it is for → `productProperties`. Fibre composition is stored as
  entries whose `name` is the fibre (`Wool`, `Cotton`, `Polyester`, `Viscose`, `Elastane`, `Linen`,
  `Silk`…) and whose `valueName` is the percentage; `End Use` (Wedding, Work, Prom, Races,
  Graduation, Party, Funeral, Black Tie, Cruise) is the most useful attribute on the store.
- Sizing advice → `/size-guide`; `product.hasSizeTable` is `false` catalogue-wide and is not it.
- Search and ratings → **neither is readable server-side.** `/search` returns 200 but runs its query
  in the browser (and `robots.txt` disallows `searchValue`), and `reviewInfo.totalReviews` is `0`
  everywhere sampled because reviews render through a client-side third-party widget. Browse the
  category tree, and say ratings are not machine-readable rather than reporting a zero score.
- Delivery, returns, payment, seller identity → the pages below. Their text sits in the CMS payload
  under `page.data[0].attributes.page_content`, not the HTML body — but link the page rather than
  paraphrasing commercial terms. Basket, checkout and order history are out of scope entirely.

**URL grammar and crawl policy.** Product pages are `/{slug}-p-{variantId}`; the number after the
last `-p-` is what the page resolves on. Listings accept `?pageIndex={n}`, **0-based**, echoed in
`productList.page` — `?page=` is silently ignored, and a `pageIndex` past `nbPages` returns 200 with
a **completely empty `pageProps`** rather than a 404. **Do not trust `rel="canonical"`**: the `href`
carries a bare hostname `suitdirect` with no TLD, so it never resolves, and on 5 of 14 product pages
tested it named a different `variantId` than the one requested. Product JSON-LD `offers.url` and
`BreadcrumbList` items point at `www.suitdirect.co.uk`, a different host from the page you fetched.
Build canonical URLs from the sitemap. `/robots.txt` is authoritative and stricter than this file:
`/account/*`, `/wishlist`, `/basket` and `/checkout` are closed, as is any URL containing
`searchValue`, `ordering`, `defaultMinPrice`, `defaultMaxPrice`, `script`/`Script` or `ref=`. It
also names its sitemap on a **different host**, leaving this store's own four working sitemaps
unadvertised, while `/sitemap_pages.xml` advertises URLs robots disallows — where they disagree,
**robots wins**. Keep to roughly one request per second, back off on 429 and 503, and never cache
prices or stock. There is no machine API: `/api/*` is internal with no public contract, and the
third-party search backend whose credentials appear in page source is not yours to call.

## Agent surfaces

- [Agent instructions](https://www.suitdirect.com/agents.md): canonical and complete — the HTTP/1.1 access requirement, the Algolia listing payload and its facets, the variant model, the commerce-terms position and this store's known data quirks
- [Crawl policy](https://www.suitdirect.com/robots.txt): authoritative allow and disallow rules, stricter than this file
- [Sitemap index](https://www.suitdirect.com/sitemap.xml): the four sitemaps below — `robots.txt` names the `.co.uk` host instead
- [Product sitemap](https://www.suitdirect.com/sitemap_products.xml): a flat list of 976 product URLs, not an index of chunks; all entries share one `lastmod`, so treat it as a build date, not a change signal
- [Category sitemap](https://www.suitdirect.com/sitemap_categories.xml): 281 path-nested listing URLs — the machine-readable navigation here, and the right entry point since search is browser-only
- [Content sitemap](https://www.suitdirect.com/sitemap_pages.xml): 93 entries, only 52 distinct URLs, several disallowed by `robots.txt` — filter it against robots before fetching
- [Style guide sitemap](https://www.suitdirect.com/sitemap_styleguide.xml): 117 editorial articles under `/styleguide/`, indexed nowhere else

## Product discovery

- [Suits](https://www.suitdirect.com/suits): ~158 products, £50–£259 — includes jackets, trousers and waistcoats sold as separates, not only complete suits
- [Suit trousers](https://www.suitdirect.com/suits/suit-trousers): ~153, £29–£140; `/suits/big-and-tall-suits` (~118), `/suits/three-piece-suits` (~102) and `/suits/tuxedos` (~20) are the other big sub-listings
- [Shirts](https://www.suitdirect.com/shirts): ~79, £20–£69 — sized by collar; the store's own slug `/shirts/classic-colar-shirts` is misspelt but works
- [Trousers](https://www.suitdirect.com/trousers): ~148, £29–£140; [waistcoats](https://www.suitdirect.com/waistcoats) ~99 at £35–£110
- [Casual wear](https://www.suitdirect.com/casual-wear): ~76, £12–£179; [blazers](https://www.suitdirect.com/blazers) ~27 and [coats and jackets](https://www.suitdirect.com/coats-and-jackets) ~7 are much smaller
- [Shoes and boots](https://www.suitdirect.com/shoes-and-boots): ~68, £15–£99 — `/shoes` 301-redirects here
- [Accessories](https://www.suitdirect.com/accessories): ~210, £5.99–£129.99 — ties, belts, cufflinks, socks, pocket squares, braces
- [Wedding suits](https://www.suitdirect.com/wedding/suits): ~134, £64–£259 — `/wedding` alone 301-redirects here; [wedding guests](https://www.suitdirect.com/wedding/wedding-guests) is a second, larger listing
- [New arrivals](https://www.suitdirect.com/new-arrivals): ~171 — a self-maintaining entry point, better than naming individual SKUs; [sale](https://www.suitdirect.com/sale) ~250 at £5–£143, [partywear](https://www.suitdirect.com/partywear) ~56, [gifts for men](https://www.suitdirect.com/gifts-for-men) ~102
- [Outlet](https://www.suitdirect.com/outlet): ~212, £5–£165 — the **only** listing whose server query omits `AND NOT isClearance:true`, so clearance stock is reachable here and nowhere else
- [Brand hub](https://www.suitdirect.com/brands): 200 and in the category sitemap, yet carries **no** `productList` — a CMS page, not a listing; check for `productList` before calling a category empty
- [Ted Baker](https://www.suitdirect.com/brands/ted-baker): ~141, £12–£259; siblings follow `/brands/{slug}` — `/brands/antique-rogue`, `/brands/limehaus`, `/brands/marc-darcy`, `/brands/melka`
- [Racing Green](https://www.suitdirect.com/brands/racing-green): ~20 products all named "Racing Green …" whose `brandName` field reads `Bennett And Baxter` — read the name, not the field; `/brands/alexandre` reports `Alexandre Silver` the same way

## Policies, seller identity and stores

- [Delivery and returns](https://www.suitdirect.com/delivery-and-returns): on this `.com` host it covers EU and non-EU delivery, routes tracking and returns through a third-party cross-border portal, and sends UK orders to the `.co.uk` storefront — read it before promising a UK buyer anything
- [Terms and conditions](https://www.suitdirect.com/terms): names BMB Clothing Limited t/a Suit Direct and its Leeds address, states site prices include VAT where applicable but exclude shipping, and sets out the returns window plus the Klarna and Clearpay arrangements; `/terms-and-conditions` 301-redirects here
- [Privacy policy](https://www.suitdirect.com/privacy-policy): data-protection notice, registered address, company registration number and the data-protection contact
- [Size guide](https://www.suitdirect.com/size-guide): the one genuinely structured non-catalogue dataset here — chest sizes 34–58 against Skinny, Slim, Tailored and Regular fits in cm and inches, plus the Short/Regular/Long inside-leg table; the Formal Shirts tab is published empty
- [Contact us](https://www.suitdirect.com/contact-us): customer-service email and published response times; [about us](https://www.suitdirect.com/about-us) carries the company profile and brand roster
- [Store locator](https://www.suitdirect.com/store-locator): 29 UK store pages under `/store-locator/{town}`; addresses and hours load client-side and **per-store stock is not published anywhere**. [Booking a free styling appointment](https://www.suitdirect.com/store-locator/appointment/book) is the right handover for "which size am I?"

## Optional

- [Style guide](https://www.suitdirect.com/styleguide): 117 editorial articles on fit, occasion and fabric — the best source for "what should I wear to X"
- [Pay later](https://www.suitdirect.com/pay-later): deferred-payment information; [discount codes](https://www.suitdirect.com/discount-codes) and [student discount](https://www.suitdirect.com/student-discount) carry the current offers