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.
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.
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!