Designer Duds

[BrainyBeauty]

What's the attraction to designer stuff?

I must be the odd one out here as I have NEVER understood the fascination with designer clothing (or anything with a 'famous' name attached). Why on earth would I want to advertise someone else's name? And why would I pay exorbitant prices to have someone's name on my ass or my purse?

I am wondering why people think it is the cool thing to do. Why do they think the latest trends are cool- when millions of other people are doing the same thing? Certainly they are not unique or carving out a niche in which to distinguish themselves.

Well, what made me think of this was an incident that happened here over the weekend. Not in my town, but in 3 different cities across the state. There were RIOTS in malls when crowds assembled early to buy the latest Nike shoe. For $175.

Are these people on drugs? I mean, I would never pay that much for a pair of gym shoes (ok I guess that shows my age!) I would not camp out in the mall to be the first in line to buy them. I would not get in a fight because other people were standing there waiting with me and then the store didn't order enough.

Does anyone else find this ridiculous? I blame it all on rap music! (j/k) Ooops wrong thread. Was this nationwide or just in my neck of the woods?

 

[Cheyenne]

It was here, too. On the news, showing a hoard of people waiting for these shoes. Just nuts.

When the alligators were first popular with the preppies back in about 1979/1980, I got a t-shirt with an alligator on the front and the saying "Eat a preppie, save an alligator." Or something like that. It was funny at the time, but that was more than 20 years ago.

 

[BiBabe:)]

That's rediculous- a riot over sneakers. I buy my shoes cheap. If I find a good deal and a good shoe, I'll buy it. I don't buy things for their brand name, I buy things for quality.

 

[Flagg]

Talking of Nike, I believe you can actually order personalised shoes from http://www.nike.com I guess the idea is that in the face of a homogenous consumer market, you can distinguish yourself by having a unique pair of Nike shoes with your very own colour and logo. How dreadfully exciting eh?

Anyway, there was this bloke in the UK that decided to order a pair of these shoes (for a price not too far of the GNP of a small third world country). He went to the interactive site and went through the various options, choosing colour-blue, size-9 etc... and when he got to the logo part he asked them to put the word "Sweatshop". He then proceeded to click OK and as far as he was concerned, the shoes were on their way.

Suffice to say, after several emails between their sales department and himself, the sale didn't go through.

They claimed that the logo was offensive. Isn't it just.

 

[BrainyBeauty]

Thanks folks. I thought this topic was worthy of discussion as a possible point of reference for the skewed priorities people have these days.

Isn't this all part of the philosophy that lots of folks have now- "Me me me." And "I want it NOW". And the knee-jerk reaction that they have that says that violence is the only outlet or reaction to deal with disappointment or stress or anger.

Cheyenne, I remember the Izod alligator and how it was the cool thing to own. Funny, I don't remember preppies looting and fighting with police to get one though!

BiBabe- I am glad I am not the only one who feels that way!

Flagg, now that was funny. I believe Nike was 2nd only to Kathie Lee Gifford in the number of stories about sweatshops and brutal working conditions for their employees. Who cares if the South American or Asian worker makes $23/month and has to work 18 hours a day in a cramped, hot building? As long as 'we' get our athletic shoes! Maybe they need to change their tagline from 'Just do it' to 'Don't sweat it!'

 

[SweetCherry]

$175 for a stupid pair of SHOES??? And I thought i was terrible spending $50 on a dress for a wedding I went to. That's just plain rediculous. Those people should have their heads examined!
.

 

[Cheyenne]

Might I fan the flames here by pointing out a fact that I noted when I watched the news but we all seem to be dancing around? When TV showed the crowd waiting for the store to open to get these shoes, every single face in the crowd was black. Is it a culture difference thing? Shoes are important vs. IZOD shirts, for example?

 

[Cheyenne]

No comments? No one else noticed?

 

[Bigdog]

I noticed, but what I noticed more was the black uniform of the 60 police officers that had to called in at a local mall. Four shoe stores in the mall were selling the new Nike offering, the crowds became so unruly that they closed the stores for the day and then closed THE ENTIRE MALL for several hours.

Now we have 50 or so stores that lost half a day of sales and the taxpayers get to cough up for the police salaries. All so some spoiled teenagers can have butt-ugly shoes made with child labor.

So much for being a civilized society.

 

[DarlingBri]

http://shey.net/niked.html

Here's a very funny and totally true email correspondence with Nike when a guy tried to order a customised pair with the word "sweatshop." ROTFL!

I think it's not that different than what goes on in a lot of life. The difference is that $175 (even if it's for a pair of sneakers) is attainable.

We saw huge waiting lists for the VW, the MGF and the Z3. Isn't that the same principal as Nikes?

As for the black part of it, without over-thinking this or opening my mouth on a topic I really can't speak to, I'd warrent a guess that it's a socio-economic thing. It's a reality that there are more black people than white people living below the poverty line in the US. Z3s are not attainable; Nikes are.

--Bri

 

[Flagg]

How weird is that! I heard a story just like that!

 

[Isabella Thorne]

$175 for a stupid pair of SHOES??? And I thought i was terrible spending $50 on a dress for a wedding I went to.

Cherry dear .... $50 for a dress for a wedding? me thinks you got away very very very very very inexpensively ...

i am not sure where you are from but you would have trouble here finding a semi-formal type dress for $50 even on bargain bin racks ... how much did you expect to pay anyways?

and well yea $175 for shoes is a bit steep but i know that kids will always go after fads ... no matter what the price ... but riots? pleeeeeeeeease that is bad ...

i remember when i was a teenager i wore this cool brand of jeans with the label UFO sewed on the back for all to see .... my mother commented when she saw me wearing them and she said UFO? i said yea do you know what that means? and she said yes it means "You Fuck Off" ... i almost died ... she never talks like that ... but that is what she thought i was wearing ... how embarrassing and how funny ... well i told her it stood for Unidentified Flying Object ... lol ... geez that was embarrassing ... i will never forget it ...

hey ... recently Oprah Winfrey had Tommy Hilfiguer (sp?) on her show ... now his clothes are really really expensive and very popular with kids .... (jeans here going for approx $100) ...

well did you hear what he said publicly on her show? he said that if he knew that blacks and asians were going to buy his clothes, he wouldn't have made them so nice .... damn ... WTF???? these are people who give up their hard earned money to buy his damn expensive clothes ... well Oprah kicked him off her show ... and really i think people should boycott his clothing ... i know for sure that i will ... not that i ever bought his stuff before ... lol ... but now i won't even be open to idea of looking at any of his clothes with the remote possibility of buying ... what a jerk! a designer jerk at that!