I’ve never really understood the appeal of paying more for a shirt just because it has a brand like Nike or Adidas or something with another brand that sells a product printed across it when a plain, unbranded one costs less.
If you think about it, walking around wearing a giant logo is basically acting as a walking billboard for that company. Usually, if a company wants to advertise on a billboard, they have to pay for the space. But with branded clothes, people not only provide the advertising space for free, they actually pay extra for the privilege.
It feels a bit backwards to me. For those of you who prefer branded clothing, what makes it worth the extra cost for you?
Edit: I’m not speaking of sports equipment. Just clothing you would wear to the movies, the store, etc.
If you count band shirts as branded (idk why you wouldnt), It’s because I want to support the artists. Almost all of my shirts are band shirts I’ve bought at gigs. Yes they’re expensive for what they are but that money is going to my favourite bands so they can keep making more music. Plus it saves me from ever having to go shopping for t-shirts. Win-win.
I might buy a brand because it’s good quality (like Duluth Trading Co. pants or LL Bean coats) but IDGAF about the brand name itself. In fact, I would prefer it to be subtle or even invisible.
Maybe I just had bad luck but I went through about 5 pairs of Duluth work pants in like 2 years before I gave up on the brand. The crotch seam would always start ripping from me crouching and doing regular work stuff. Got some pants from the army surplus that still look brand new years later
Huh, I’ve had great luck with their firehose flex triple stitched stuff. Nothing wrong with surplus though!
When I find something I like, I look for that brand in the hope of finding something else I like
Except docker and Levi. They fit differently by what country they were manufactured in. Maybe Malaysian Levi’s fit well but the “exact same” pants made in Vietnam’s wont
I don’t get it either. I can understand wanting to wear a shirt with a movie character to say “I like this character”. But walking around with clothes saying “I like this clothing brand” is a bit stranger
Yo, that’s fifty dollars for a T-shirt.
I got twenty dollars in my pocket
It’s not that I intend to have a sports logo on my shirt, it’s just this sporting company happens to make a shirt that breathes well without being a cheap, thin fabric.
I found out that the $130 name brand of a particular item lasted about 10x longer than the $35 no-name equivalent. Someone who’s pretty thrifty helped point me toward the brand. If part of what you’re paying for is sturdier materials and build, it might be well worth the extra cost.
For most things though, it’s not worth the price as far as I can tell. Nobody really cares if you wear no-name clothing, or if they do, they’re an asshole you want to avoid anyway.
Some of them are worth the money, last longer.
Not the famous brands of course. Those are revenue-optimized, also likely abusive.
My favourite shirt is a Nike one that just saying “running” with their tick
Every time I see it in my wardrobe I start laughing. Gives major background character vibes
Yeah im the same. I never buy clothes with logotypes ever. Not going to be walking around with an ad on me.
I usually pay about $3 for a blank t-shirt. I have a few that are over ten years old, and they’re still fine.
I have no interest in being a walking billboard for any brand. They should pay me to wear such clothes.
To the people saying it sends the signal “I can afford to buy name brand clothes” in my expeirence of this it more often signals try hards who can’t actually afford the brand but do it to give the impression that they can.
In my own experience in Europe, expensive visibly branded goods (especially luxury) are worn/carried by people trying to look wealthy who are no such thing or the nouveau riche (people who have become well of but did not grow up well-off).
The actual rich people wear high quality stuff with no highly visible branding.
Yeah, shit kills me. Like those Burberry trenches that are plaid all over. It’s like they said to themselves; “Someone occasionally seeing a little flash of plaid lining isn’t good enough! Everyone within 100 meters needs to know I can afford Burberry!” Those people are usually the least likely to actually be able to afford to dress that way consistently, and/or have the worst taste.
When brands start offering shit like that, it makes me much less likely to buy anything from them. It just cheapens everything they make by association. I’m even thinking I shouldn’t use Burberry as an example because their cachet has been reduced so much in my mind with the way they have catered to people like this in recent years.
True wealth is fairly quiet, just look how understated a Birkin bag is. No big logo, no patterned proprietary fabric. To me the posturing of luxury brand names in everyday aesthetic is very much a pissing contest/visual flex by people who dont understand that the really luxury shit is from places that make you wait to be invited before you can even buy it
Not saying I love any of that mess, I detest the concept of “upper class” vs “lower class” like that and I think 20,000 for a handbag is stupid when that’s someones college tuition but that is my observation.
The one Asian store that I love is where I get my backpacks from. No idea what the brand is but it held up to flooded tent on a camping trip. 12$
$12 is pretty cheap for an Asian who can hold up a flooded tent.
Especially for athletic gear, the ones with huge branding is cheaper when considering quality you get and how long it will last.
But I’ve dropped $50+ each on plain tshirts multiple times too. I’ve got some that are probably a decade old and some that are less than six months old but no idea which are which because that’s how well they hold up.
I’ve also got a bunch of cheap ones for stuff like yardwork.
But for people that buy heavily branded sports clothing for it’s intended purpose, the heavy branding actually makes it cheaper than competitors and everyone is aware of it.
The thing is those people tend to be in good shape and will wear that stuff out and about in town. And anything attractive people wear, is what everyone will start buying.
Like, yoga pants started being worn as regular pants by women who actually did yoga. They tended to have nice buts from yoga, so then other women just started wearing them expecting the same thing.
Or like how Carhartt made an entire new line of clothes that is nowhere near as rugged yet more expensive, just because people want the “rough” look.
It’s just people who are emulating others without understanding what they’re emulating, that’s why teenagers and 20 somethings are always the hardest hit by this stuff.
Fifty dollars for a tshirt, that’s just some ignorant bitch sheeeeeiiit. 🎶
Those brands that have lasted for you would make a good post on Buy It For Life.
American Giant, but it’s not like it’s a secret.
Back on reddit there’s almost definitely still a monthly post about their hoodies. I’m almost positive the original /buyitforlife is where I heard about them.
All their shit is expensive, even on their many sales. But its a ridiculous high quality, the only issue I’ve ever had was a zipper breaking on a 2-3 year old hoodie. They had me take a pic then sent me a new one.
Wasn’t even their fault, they use YKK zippers like everyone else.
The hoodies are 100% worth it. Most people though don’t want a solid color T-shirt that can last a decade, even when it’s cheaper in the long run.
But their hoodies are something a lot more people would be into. Back in the day it’s all they made, now they have all types of stuff.
I’m European, so I haven’t tried their hoodies or quality, but from what I can tell, their hoodies are about 450GSM. The European brand Velour Garments has hoodies that range from 400 to 1000 GSM. I have two 600 (waiting for my 1000 to come in the mail any day), and considering the thickness, I believe Velour Garments’ will hold for longer. And they’re 100% cotton.
Not to get way too in the weeds, but GSM isnt really the best metric for quality (or warmth). I’m just a noob in all of this, but the starting staple length of the fibers, the processing (combing vs just carding), spinning (open ended vs ring spun), fiber diameter, ply, and twist, and knitting technique come into play. Then for some fabrics, you have treatments added after the fact, so you could have a 300 GSM fabric with 75 GSM of wax on top. You could even have multiple layers of fabric in the final garment.
I’d mostly just try to look at the GSM to compare between offerings by the same brand.
Maybe they’re better.
But I checked my email, my first hoodie from them was 2013. I still got it, still unfaded jet black, stitching still great, cuffs still elastic.
Shows no sign of age and even tho I have more, it’s still in rotation.
It’ll easily make it to 15 years probably 20.
But yeah, if you’re not American the fact that it’s made by Americans from American cotton by a company that treats it’s workers well isn’t a big point.
There’s not many companies like that for Americans to support tho, which is why it’s one of the few products I’ll bother to name or even being up on social media.
It’s literally exactly what American consumers keep saying we want, it’s just to make what we want is expensive.
There’s not many companies like that for Americans to support tho, which is why it’s one of the few products I’ll bother to name or even being up on social media.
If you want some more companies like that, check my most recent post about the Crafted With Pride catalog.
After spending some time with it, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s actually a lot of high quality manufacturers that have garbage websites and probably abysmal SEO. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. To be fair, I’ve mostly been looking at sites for suppliers, not necessarily the end products, though.
Between this and your other comment, I think you’ll really like these channels:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheIronSnail
https://www.youtube.com/@RoseAnvil
The second one is mostly shoes/boots but they’ve got a good Dickies vs Carhartt video from the last couple days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxqlHJFwS8E
But, none of those videos are “fashion”, they actually break down not only which products are high quality or just good value, but also if a company is PE or if they’re ethical.
The first one does a lot of history videos as well. Like, just randomly going off about 80+ year old cold weather jackets and the mechanics of how they were effective with low tech.
It’s kind of weird that clothing is such a basic thing that we use constantly and most people (including myself) just really don’t even know what makes something good.
I’m actually a big fan of both of those creators. One thing that’s struck me from their work is that not enough companies who are doing things the “right” way are actually taking credit for it.
There might be a couple of statements about the material, but not much. I think partially they want to make sure they have flexibility as supply chain issues come and go, but it provides cover for PE to come in and hollow out a product and keep selling it under the good name.
If they told you all of the little details that drive the cost and lead to the quality, the moment those things start disappearing from the postings, you would know something is wrong. Like a canary in the coal mine.
I like dickies for socks and belts I used to wear carthartt jeans and light jackets back in 2011 but they got expensive.
I live from gildan to champion I stopped wearing Nike because fashion clothes suck I switched entirely to function clothes and those are durable and last long. On average, I wear gildan work shirts, wrangler jeans and fitville non slip leather sneakers, fruit of the loom underwear and dickies socks and belt. Eyebuydirect glasses and China brand shorts, if I’m wearing shorts and sweaters are the toughest thing to find that will last long.
They actually pay their workers? That’s awesome!!
I’ve had my hoodies for 2 years, still looks brand new after weekly usage (cold wash only!), but now I really want to try to get a hoodie from American Giant!
You can (and absolutely should) check what brands produce ethical clothing. I pay whatever the fuck it needs to not let people suffer because of my shirt.
And often times they are branded with that label, yes. But that’s absolutely what I want to spread awareness.
Another thing is subcultural identification. If I see someone wearing certain brands, I can often roughly determine what they identify with. It’s the same as wearing a jersey from a sports club I guess. You want to “belong”. And fasion is a huge pillar of culture.
Remeber, a first-hand 3 € shirt can never be ethical. There is no way.
Ethical clothing is twice as expensive. Usually for less fabric too because of the material and “less material = ethical” but you pay for that privilege too. You pay for less of everything.
You’re not just paying for the name, you pay for quality. Hoodies should be heavy, sweatpants shouldn’t have a draw string that will tear untieing it, t-shirts shouldn’t* shrink after the first wash and underwear should last three months before it bunches. Socks shouldn’t show your feet.
Yes?
I’m basically saying ethical can mean how it’s made or how it’s sold. If it’s made well enough people don’t think twice, if it’s made cheap you kinda wonder why. Then you read shit like this:https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/the-human-cost-of-fast-fashion/
And you then prefer not to buy anything off of Shein or Temu and buy something worth it like at the very least Gildan Heavyweight 50/50 cotton poly blend shirts.
Edit: I hate that I chuckle at the modern politically correct term of, “fast fashion,” instead of, “sweatshop worker.”
Edit: I hate that I chuckle at the modern politically correct term of, “fast fashion,” instead of, “sweatshop worker.”
I think “fast fashion” is more in reference to how some people buy complete outfits, which after they’ve worn once, pretty much never wear again; they’ll just buy a new outfit the next time. I knew at least one girl who did this.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This is only possible because these clothes are stained by the blood of sweatshop workers and thus are dirt cheap. But I’m pretty sure “fast fashion” was not coined as a pc way of saying sweatshop clothes. Or at least not at first
to be better than other people who can’t afford it.
