Thinking back to my days of
middle school. I remember this one girl who was one of the first to be wearing shirts from some "
Aeropostale" place. This company had an amazing marketing strategy for its time. Basically, I have never seen an ad for their clothing, not on
TV, not on the
radio, not even on the
web. Suddenly, one of this girl's friends begins to wear the clothes, with
AEROPOSTALE written across the entire chest. Then another, and another. Kids would look
fashionable by bringing their
gym clothes in bags from them.
The blatant logoing of clothing has resulted in a company being able to charge money to advertise for them. The kids think they are being cool by wearing the latest fad and letting everyone and their uncle know about it, but in reality they are little more than mobile billboards for these companies, directed right into their target markets. This concept is also used by American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Structure, and it works.
I'll admit to owning apparel from most of those companies, but you wouldn't know unless I told you, I get sweaters from Structure because they fit well, not because of where I got them, and they have no logos aside from a little tag on the side. My t-shirts come from Copyleft or are just solid colors, my shorts have a small logo on the back, not a huge patch.
The concept doesn't bother me much, although it makes finding well made clothing without free advertising difficult, and that's the way they want it. Walk through your local mall and look what's in the windows of these stores. Gives "Propery of GAP" a new meaning alltogether.