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.
I find the same to be true when people buy cars with illuminated insignia in the grill. Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, for example.
Now we need an Ad blocker.
Maybe we already do and aren’t aware of it?
Edit: /s if it wasn’t obvious.
They are walking billboards.
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’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.
Some do like it, but I’m with you; I skip the logo’d 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.
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…
This reminds me of “Back to the Future”, where Lorraine calls Marty “Calvin Klein”, after she had seen his underwear…
I have a hoodie that has “Moshed Potatoes” on it and you should get it too.
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.
It’s the exact same thing, you just have different goals and values from the other group of people
A sports piece of clothing or equipment is still functional with or without the flashy branding; a piece of merch however is not (especially if it’s just decorative - like a pin, a sew-on patch or something like that).
A band is not the same as a luxury fashion brand.
One is exploited by massive corporations, gets a single digit percentage of the profits they generate, gets known by word of mouth (or T-shirt) among fans, and creates a piece of culture.
The other is a (usually massive) corporation, exploits low paid workers, is a status symbol for the rich and the people who want to appear as rich, and sometimes they make an item that could technically be considered a piece of culture.
Advertising for and/or showing your support for them are very different things that imply different things, for different reasons.
Wearing band merch implies support for their musical stylings, a connection with the creative output of the band, and possibly their world view.
Wearing a logo-festooned piece of couture clothing implies wealth and status, and (often) complicity with sweat shops.
While the two previous paragraphs seem to be similar, because of the first two paragraphs, they are quite different.
The concept is the same. You’re advertising your favourite band, they’re advertising their need for approval.
I don’t know how the brands exploitation of their workers is in any way relevant to this.
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.
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. For Lemmy nerds the status might not come from Gucci shirts, but instead might come from Thinkpad laptops, more difficult to use Linux distros and socially liberal virtue signalling. Portraying status is part of the human condition and takes many forms (most of which are very absurd).
my wife does know about brands and will point out when someone is wearing over £20000 in their outfit
Here’s the difference: that 20k outfit doesn’t have logos all over it. Your average SUPREME enjoyer isn’t going to recognize an outfit like that - only those truly informed on the matter, or other wealthy individuals, would. It’s like wearing an entry-level Rolex; it hardly impresses anyone. A true baller wears an unassuming Patek Philippe. There are those pretending to be wealthy who can only fool poor people, and then there are those who may not seem wealthy at a glance, but those in the know can tell.
African American culture is the antithesis to your argument. Even the most wealthy individuals sporting logos of all kinds, literally as status symbols.
I agree that people have become walking billboards, but I don’t think it’s always black and white in fashion, it’s much more complex than “rich people don’t wear logos”
“African American culture is the antithesis to your argument. Even the most wealthy individuals sporting logos of all kinds, literally as status symbols.”
Really you’re describing the difference between striking it rich and generational wealth.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
I thought that about my music collection. Apart from one of the tracks on ‘Selling England By The Pound’ I don’t think I have either ;-)
