Blog Post N°5 - Quality When it Matters

Hey everyone and welcome to our first blog post of the new year! I know it's been a little while, but as I'm sure we can all agree, things have been hectic. Even if things are not as busy as they were before Christmas, life is still hectic, just in a different way.
For today's blog I will write about how important it is to get bang for your buck when it comes to buying clothes, and how making the right choices may save you money in the long run. This is the classic 'quality over quantity' bit that I'm sure you've heard in your lifetime. The two biggest reasons that people stop wearing a garment are either because it is no longer trendy or because it gets damaged and deteriorates over time. I'm going to highlight a few products or brands that will give you staying power. The Naked and Famous Denim Jeans, the Colorful Standard Brand, and the Herschel Bags will be outlined throughout this post as examples.

If you've ever owned a pair of Naked and Famous Denim Jeans, then you already know the deal with these. Simply put, they're great. What happens with raw denim is that, as you wear it, it forms more and more to your body. This gives your jeans a one-of-a-kind feel that you will only be able to replicate from another pair of broken-in Naked and Famous Denim Jeans. What else is so great about them? They fade in accordance to how you wear them. If you always have your cellphone in your right pocket (like I do) then you will get a more defined fade where the outline of your phone would normally be. This is also very common for people who keep their wallets on them. Each person's pair of jeans will look different, and not only that, but the same pair of jeans will look different from one year to the next. As the jeans break in more and more, they develop thigh fades, pocket fades, and a 'honeycomb' pattern behind the knees from bending. They also never go out of style.

So, you may be thinking that "This is cool and all but what does that really have to do with quality?" To that my response would be that with raw denim, the Japanese cottons that are used are much stronger than the synthetic cottons in jeans you may find at any regular retailer. Denim that has more stretch tends not to fade as much and tends to tear faster, whether it be in the knees, crotch, cuffs, or wherever else. In addition to all that, we've chatted with some customers who have used these jeans as work pants, because they're just that durable, and we've heard some rave reviews. Customers have mentioned that they would buy Carhartt work pants from a retailer and have to replace them every 6-8 months, if not more frequently depending on type of work and how often they are worn. These same customers, among others, have said that they can wear their Naked and Famous Denim jeans nearly every day for YEARS without having to replace them! One individual is up to 7 years with the same pair of work jeans and he still wears them on a weekly basis. Not to mention the fact that after a while they fade and start to get more comfortable and more personalized, whereas other jeans just bag out after more use. I seriously can not think of a time that I have had someone come in with a pair of jeans and complain about them, plus you can wear them for an office job, labour, retail, teaching, and so much else. 

Not that I want to get all mathematical here, especially considering I'm not a math guy myself, but lets just do something quick.
If you have a pair of jeans that cost $80, and they last you 8 months, thats $10 a month. Now if you have a pair that costs $200, but they last 2 years, and thats being conservative, that works out to just over $8 a month for 24 months. In the case of the customer who has been using his pair for 7 years, he spent more for even higher quality. So if we assume he spent $300, but has had them for 7 years (84 months) that comes to approximately $3.57 a month. With all that said, you could continue spending $80 every 8 months, and you would end up spending $840 after 7 years; $540 more than the customer in the example. When you think about what you could be doing with that money, such as investing in crypto, that difference becomes more and more.

Next, we have Colorful Standard. I didn't pick a specific product or type of product for this, because nearly all products from this brand are both durable and always trendy. We're getting in more product types from this brand as well, so be on the lookout for posts or future blogs about what's new in the coming seasons. Basically, the reason I love this brand is because I'm lazy when it comes to laundry. I don't sort, I don't want to hang stuff, I just want to throw it in the wash and forget about it until it needs to be taken out. The Colorful Standard tees, hoodies, and crews that we have are all anti-pilling (good), anti-fading (nice), pre-shrunk (great), and they won't bleed onto other clothes. This brand is perfect for people like me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one like this. In a way, it helps with the durability of your other clothes by not bleeding onto them in the wash. Win-win for all the clothes.

The other part of this equation, as previously mentioned, is that these are always on-trend. Partially because they're just made of organic cottons and plain colours that are all beautiful, but also because people are always going to need basic t-shirts and sweaters. Similar to the situation with the jeans, someone could buy a graphic tee that is currently 'in' but it'll likely go out of style in some time. Whereas a plain tee, be it white, black, navy or whatever, will never really go out of style and will always be great to combine with layers. I personally have one specific Colorful Standard shirt that I have now had over a year and a half, and it looks the same as it did the day I bought it. Had I bought a graphic tee or something at the time, I'm sure I would've either outgrown the graphic or gotten tired of it, or it wouldn't be cool anymore. Pro tip: white shirt and blue jeans is always good. To add to this, we are also hoping to bring in matching pieces. Sweatpants to pair with a crew or hoodie, considering that has been requested by many people. The sweats will also fall under the category of "durable and on-trend" as they share the same features as the items listed above.

This seems to be getting pretty long so I'll keep this last part brief, but let me just bring up Herschel Bags for a moment. Every year Herschel releases basic yet high quality bags in an array of colours and patterns, but we're here to talk about the staples. I'm talking about the grey crosshatch, the black, the black crosshatch and whatever other basic but elegant colours they may have. These bags will do the job for you, and it'll be several years before you need a new one. I'm not saying you won't want a new one because they're so nice, I'm just saying the quality these are made with will keep you from having to buy one. Whether it's a duffle, backpack, travel bag, or even a wallet if that counts as a bag for your cards and money, it'll last you. Some of them are made with tape-sealed zippers for water resistance, some are ripstop to prevent tears, but they're all great. Honestly, they're not all that expensive either. The basic backpacks are very competitively priced with other major brands and are even less expensive in some cases, and the duffel bags are slightly above average duffel price but they feature the exclusive shoe pouch that you won't find anywhere else. If you've never owned a Herschel product, try one out and I'm sure you will be more than happy with it.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read our blog today. I hope this was able to give our readers a new perspective on value for money, and how purchasing higher quality, slightly more expensive items can really pay off in the long run.