Interesting Question #1: Clothing Brands

I am always amazed where my lovely muse may strike...

If you've done any facebooking, you know about the various applications that come up.  And with that, comes hopefully a regular Sunday light writing:  Interesting Questions.  No brain busters, nothing that you're gonna regret in the morning (not those kind of questions!), but something simple and hopefully will inspire you to just consider the small things that make up our wonderful and complicated lives.

So, I get this update that says "Your Pick5 of the Day:..." and it lists a few lists that I could generate.  I click on the one that says "Favourite Clothing Brand" (guilty pleasure: I love "ou" spellings on certain words...dunno why...just do...back to the topic) and begin to peruse some of the latest entries.

It appears that American Eagle, Under Armor, Hollister, and Ambercrombie & Fitch are among the top ones, but there are others as well.  Seeing these and thinking about what many of my students where, I had to stop and wonder:  Why do we wear (let's just stick with clothing here...)the brands that we do?  

I'l get into my choices later, but for now, I guess we'd have to evaluate the purpose of clothes.  Obviously, they clothe us.  Most of us wouldn't want to go around naked or be around naked people at the work place, right?  While some may derive a really weird pleasure from it, for the most part, keep that stuff at home or the occasional hotel room, right?  This would also pertain to those that require certain attire for maintaining religious beliefs.  

Clothes also allow us a certain look.  We've all heard the phrase "Sunday best", "casual Friday", and "business casual".  We've professional obligations to maintain, even if we don't always agree with them.  Personally, I'd love to wear cargos to work every day, but I can't.  Jeans suffice two days a week for me.

But the third one is tricky.  Clothes allow for a bit of prestige.  Wear something nice and you get noticed.  But what makes that t-shirt nice?  Is it the splatter logo mosaic of a bird's silouhette on it that makes it cool?  Point is, that little check mark (makes a woosh-like sound...) is pretty cool and turns that regular run of the mill shirt into a $30 t-shirt.  Like that broken in jeans?  Spend $60 on a pair of "worn in" jeans that could possible tear on you in about a month for that more "broken in super cool" look. 

I know I sound jaded, but in the end, clothes are just clothes.  They shouldn't define you, but so often we see that it does.  Maybe that's okay, but I would hope that people could eventually grow out of that.  I'm trying not to judge, because I'm quite guilty of this.  One of my favorite shirts is that black Nike shirt.  The only thing on it is an embroidered swoosh.  Why do I like it?  It fits me like no other and it's been washed so many times that it's nearly ashy, but velvety soft.

So, in short, I do have five brands that I like, but it goes beyond the brand.  Many of these lack the obligatory highly visible logo.  They don't need them.  But then again...

1. ecco Shoes - My first pair of "good" golf shoes, I love them.  Nothing fancy in the design at all, black and white.  I got a super deal on them...four years ago.  They work just as well as the pair I just got three months ago.  
2. Old Navy - The clothes fit me, the shirts damn near perfect.  The jeans hold up (I still have my second pair, they are perfectly ripped up, circa 1999/2000) .  Prices are nice, but sales are the best.  What more is there to say?
3. adidas - I don't care much for the adidas brand (too much hype), but I do have to say that much of their apparel is really nice.  They've had some really nice golf team shirts and I can't say enough about their shorts.  Whether it be soccer, golf or basketball, adidas seems to put out some really nice stuff.  I've got a pair of adidas heavy workout shorts (I lost the matching top!) that are circa 1998.  They are my favorite.
4. Hanes - Honesly, this is only because I've had so many custom shirts made in the last five years.  The shirts were true-sized, a nice weight, and didn't shrink too much.  
5. dockers - Honestly, I usually don't care about the brand of my khakis.  I have so many and go through them like water, it's not a big deal.  Dockers tend to be expensive (even during sales) but they do hold up better than other brands...just barely.  Even then, it's number five.

That' s it.  My list.  Nothing fancy.  But the clothes fit physically and monetarily.  And my wife likes them on me.  Maybe that's the most important thing.  So, now, you get you leave your comments.  Go ahead; share with us.  Disagree?  Question me for buying foreign brands?  Want to know more about those foreign brands?  Leave a comment.

Final quote: If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby  ideas and shoddy philosophies...It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better thant eh meat wrapped inside it. - Albert Einstein