Whenever I see someone walking around in clothes with big, visible branding, I can’t help but think they paid a fortune to wear an advertisement.
Whenever I see someone walking around in clothes with big, visible branding, I can’t help but think they paid a fortune to wear an advertisement.
This is especially true with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada. People are either trying to impress others with fakes, or they’ve actually paid full price to become walking billboards.
Similar thing with iPhone cases that have a cutout for the Apple logo. That's just hilarious.
They want me to wear that shit, their asses can pay me a monthly subscription.
And then still no lol.
I was literally just thinking this less than an hour ago. The idea of paying to be a billboard is wild to me I get bands, but brands??
Peacocking. It's called Peacocking.
Not only are you advertising how much money you've spent, but also how uncreative you are with your money.
Man I love Calvin and Hobbes
Yep. Some years ago, I made the decision to never wear logos or anything with a brand name on it. It's a silly thing to do and there are plenty of clothes out there that are just clothes.
I've always been this way for some reason. I even de-badged my car. Looks so clean with no model name IMO Always putting tape over the brand name on TV's and monitors, matching the bezel color of course
Is it a thing of prominence or in general? Since most clothing or most anything, really, has some form of logo on it, so maybe it's about size?
I just think it’s stupid to identify with a for profit institution.
With those luxury brands the bigger the logo the cheaper it is. The really expensive stuff doesn’t have a logo or is small and subtle.
Just look at the stuff Hermes makes. Almost nothing has a logo and if it has it just a subtle “H” They are one of the few luxury brands that hasn’t followed the luxury street wear fad and are growing in sales. While the more mainstream luxury brands like Gucci and LV are losing customers since those brands are being associated with trashy people, because of their focus on mainstream “luxury” street wear. Like in my country street thugs wear Gucci and LV.
Yep. Real high end clothing just looks like clothing. You have no idea that the person you are talking to has an $800 sweater on.
And it just looks very good, no flashy Blingbling and such, very subtle. Can't afford it tho. In Seoul and Singapore was a very high density of people wearing this kind of clothing
The funny thing is that the rich people know that those are 2nd class luxury. The real luxury clothes do not have big logos, they are made with expensive materials like silk, cashmere and other expensive hand crafted fabrics that most people can only afford exceptionally. Most Luxury brand sold their soul for profits by creating those 2nd class that wanna-look rich people can afford, but they still sell their actually valuable products to actually rich clients, without big logos.
P.S.: those 2nd class luxury are made in the same Asian sweatshops as the fast fashion like H&M, while real luxury are made by highly skilled workers, usually in Western countries.
I find the same to be true when people buy cars with illuminated insignia in the grill. Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, for example.
I would challenge you to find a modern automobile manufacturer who doesn't make their logo huge and illuminated. Also, you can no longer remove them, as they're often now build into the body-work or grille .
I'd snip the wires immediately if my car had one like that.
Though, interestingly on my previous car I tried a front mask without the logo on it and it looked weird. Like something was missing and I didn't like that. I then ended up just blacking out the logo like I did with my current one and I think it looks better that way. From the tailgate I did remove it along with other markings and I much prefer the clean look.
Generally, I agree with this. Not quite w/ regards to Nike and some other brands, (most of Nike's competitors, Apple) , since they put the logo on everything as part of their design asthetic. Whether you like that or not is personal choice, of course. Personally, I miss the old colorful Apple logo.
With luxury brands, yeah it's a blatant cash grab extracting money from poorer people by selling them the mirage of owning something luxurious. The stuff you buy at the mall isn't sold at their Rodeo Drive location! That said, some luxury brands do qualify for "buy it for life" status, though having the kind of quality isn't exclusive to luxury brands (see also: Zippo lighters, and many many other solid, reasonably priced brands).
I think with LV, specifically, it's things like wallets that just last forever. The rest of it, meh.
They are walking billboards.
Same sentiment here - but with the exception of band t-shirts and other merchandise - where in most cases you do want to show your support for the artist.
I definitely consider a band shirt an ad as well, but wearing one feels like a conscious decision to show your preference for that band and perhaps attract like-minded people. With clothing brands, however, it’s more about signaling wealth and status rather than admiration for the brand itself. You're wearing an ad and being oblivious to it.
Now we need an Ad blocker.
Maybe we already do and aren't aware of it?
Edit: /s if it wasn't obvious.
Yeah I think if you're going to be advertising their brand the product should be free or they should even be paying you to wear it out in public.
This is happening with non-luxury brands too. I was looking for a simple sports t-shirt lately and it's actually really hard to find one without a huge brand logo at the front. Do people actually like this?
I don't. I really dislike any type of letting on my shirts. Not merely advertising, but inane stuff like 'Hollywood' or something. If I do wear text I must agree on it and most clothing brands fail to come up with stuff I want my clothing to say
Some do like it, but I'm with you; I skip the logo'd clothing.
I've made an exception once or twice for a logo that actually looks good. I think that is, considering how many pieces of clothing I've seen and not chosen, something like a one-in-a-million chance.
This reminds me of "Back to the Future", where Lorraine calls Marty "Calvin Klein", after she had seen his underwear...
They are fulfilling their purpose though. These people are trying to announce their "status" in society so others know how rich and successful they are. They're not advertising the brand, they're using the brand to advertise themselves. The problem is that a lot of people in society are actually impressed by shit like that.
My Filipino wife is a big believer in brand names and having them plastered everywhere. Drives me fucking nuts. She equates looks with quality.
She got me hooked on watching videos about the Philippines. All the girls are sporting clothes with giant logos.
There's a lot of social programming at play and it is particularly difficult for women to push back against the enormous pressure. Men get an easier pass for not looking pristine or in line with expectations.
That being said, my wife has changed her outlook in the past 2 years. She has discovered minimalism and anti-consumerism. I myself am much more of an advocate for function above all else.
They are, in fact, advertising the brand though.
I wouldn’t criticize an athlete for wearing a jacket covered in sponsor logos - they’re the ones getting paid to wear it. With clothing brands, though, it’s the exact opposite.
I’m also unsure how well this signaling actually works. It feels a lot like name-dropping; almost everyone does it, yet no one seems genuinely impressed by it.
yet no one seems genuinely impressed by it
You're living in a bubble. Very many people are impressed, even if you and I aren't. I never cared or knew about these things before. But my wife does know about brands and will point out when someone is wearing over £20000 in their outfit. My parents push me to buy an expensive car "because of how it appears" to have the more luxury brand car (even when I don't care). My cousin says he has to go on holiday to fancy places to keep up with what other parents/kids talk about in their private school.
I think it is all nonsense as well, but the reason so many people still do it is because it absolutely works. Most people are certainly impressed even if you aren't.
There's plenty to learn about this if you want. But not understanding this at all and dismissing it is living in an ill-informed bubble.
The only other type of clothing with clear, visible branding I own aside from band shirts is tech vendor shirts from conferences. But those I get for free, so I didn’t exactly pay to become their billboard.
"Free"
The amount of money that those conferences cost my job and the amount of time I spend blocking cold calls from vendors that gave me shwag...
I have a hoodie that has "Moshed Potatoes" on it and you should get it too.
I get most of my clothing free (I’m not picky and I’m a common size), so at least in my case, sometimes I paid nothing to look like an advertisement. I don’t really care what’s on the shirt, and some of them are logos I don’t recognize, so it could be anything. It’s there to keep me from being arrested or kicked out, and my primary criteria are comfort in texture and temperature. If it’s comfy, has no holes/stains and fits well, I’m not worried about what design it has on it.
…To a point, I’m not wearing anything bigoted (though part of me enjoys the idea of a queer autistic immigrant getting use out of bigotry by wearing it inside out, but not enough)
My favorite sweatshirts are my uniform sweatshirts from the bakery I work at- they’re high quality and comfy as hell, plus I’ll never, ever wear them at work because it’s a bakery, it’s hot as fuck.
has no holes/stains
Snob
/s
It's a symbol of wealth. They want you to know the brand because it tells others they have the means to afford it.
I totally agree with you, though. It's tacky.
It is, but it doesn’t always work that way. Driving an expensive car is also a symbol of wealth, but my first thought is that there’s no way you paid cash. To me, it signals poor financial choices, which isn’t typically what genuinely wealthy people do.
At least an expensive car is usually a better product though, so many of these t-shirts are simply cheap cotton but the price is $$$$ because the logo of a company that also makes actually expensive products is on it.
there's a brand I like that sells fast fashion (sue me) with 0 branding on any of their clothing items
I have like a dozen sweaters from them, they aren't as cheap as they used to be but nothing is now
Sports jerseys are even worse. You pay a fortune, to wear plastic, and then you have 3-4 sponsors plastered all over the shirt.
And the next year the t-shirt is expired because the player changed number or club, ka-ching! It's like the football video games, they can sell the same low quality goods every year by just claiming that they updated the teams.
Have you seen music lyrics? They're full of advertisements.
People pride themselves to be walking billboards. I think it somewhat resembles wearing the coat of arms of your lord in the millennia before.
You’re probably talking about pop/rap? Because I’m pretty sure that there isn’t a single song in my music library that mentions products/brands.
See no problem as long as person genuinely likes branding, not because “flex”. For example i have Adidas Original hoodie and I like it has huge logo coz it’s iconic design of hoodie from golden era of hip-hip and break dance. I would never wear same from other brand or even “three stripes” logo from the same brand.
100% agreed, but this doesn't seem like a shower thought.
I was conteplating between Unpopular Opinion and Showerthought but it feels more like an thought than an opinion and I don't think it's very unpopular either.
LPT: Design your own generic company logo, and have it printed on a t-shirt.
AI logos look tacky
Which is exactly what I’m going for. The longer you look, the more it hurts your eyes.
I don't mind to be your walking ads as long as it looks nice and it's free, and i'm wearing that at home. If i paid for that i'd expect your brand is invisible, or at least barely visible and not the centerpiece.
You're right, they did.
What a Unique and interesting thought, you are so much better than those people.
