I bought myself an £85 pair of jeans from a major high-street retailer today. I have about 4 pairs of trousers, 3 of which I wear on a regular basis, and they are starting to show signs of wear and tear despite being in use for 2 years. The £85 jeans costs the sum of those 4 trousers put together, and I’m worried that it won’t last as long the price tag says – simply because I grew up thinking that money doesn’t always buy you lasting products.
Of course, not all clothes are designed to be industrial strength. But it should at least be able to hold my keys in the pockets. The pockets of the one I bought from Gap about a year ago gave way, and I’m having to patch it because I think it’s still wear-worthy. A pair of chinos, which I bought from Dockers, also saw multiple holes in the pockets. I’ve just thrown another pair of Dockers chinos into the trash after seeing frays at the edges of the pockets and at the rear-end.
I’m somewhat frustrated because I expect my clothes to last longer than that, and maybe I’m being too demanding. But I bought those trousers because I believed that was what the brands were promising. So I’m not frustrated that my trousers actually have holes – but I’m frustrated by the fact that the promise of the brand failed to live up to my expectations.
I expect this happens with a lot of people – they pay for the price on the tag because they believe in what the brand is promising, because it’s just too much work to go into the details of actually assessing the quality of the product to estimate the actual value of the purchase.
It would’ve been nice to know from these companies how certain types of trousers are expected to last X months/years based on certain usage. But no one seems to talk about such things, more so these companies that sell on such high promises.
Update: A good friend has just educated me on the benefits of paying for high quality denims, some of which cost almost three times what I paid for the jeans I bought today. His pair of Evisus have lasted him years, but you don’t get them for peanuts. It’s one of those rare brands that actually delivers on its promises, and they get to keep their customers for a lifetime.
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