What a great article and so true! I have to agree with William a hundred percent. I have never been a trend seeker….I actually despise the word “trendy” because to me someone saying I am “trendy”, means I must look like someone else because I am following the direction of what society says is cool at the moment.  No thank you. I see shoe companies do this same thing and feed the trend to the masses that don’t know any better. As I walk the trade show floor, I am sure to see the same shoe displayed in at least 10 different brands as if it’s their fashion forward new shoe.  It takes all the fun out of what you in-vision a designer doing on a daily basis. That’s why I always stop and acknowledge brands that are distinctly their own and stay true to their core no matter what the trends are. If you make a shoe that is well designed, fashionable, and has it’s own distinct style, then it will have staying power. -Julia

Notes From The Field – The Intrinsic Value of A T-Shirt, and What Price Authenticity?

So… I’m in Old Navy with my son this summer, desperately waiting for it to be over (I despise shopping) when he yells, “Dad – check it out!”  He is holding up a black t-shirt, emblazoned with the unmistakable image of the cover of AC/DC’s “Back In Black” album.  It was a note-perfect representation, complete with pre-processed signs of “wear” approximating the results of long nights of beer foam and bongwater.  “Can I get it?”

I must say I was torn.  Do I sit Young Simba down on a pile of zipper hoodies and explain the place that Angus and Co. hold in the pantheon of rock and roll?  Do I impart years of detailed analysis on the pros and cons of the two lead singers?  Do I simply rhapsodize on the subtle grace of a group of men who managed to work the phrase “American thighs” into song?  No — it was not the time or place, and he would have rolled his eyes anyway.  So I bought it.  Eight bucks – can’t beat that.  I drove home, feeling really old.

Then, last weekend, I go to a family function  — and there’s my 20 year old nephew wearing a “Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1977” t-shirt.  The kid was BORN in 1989, for crying out loud.  He got it at The Gap, I think.  I lambasted him mercilessly for hours – how DARE he sport a shirt like that…who the hell does he think he is … do you know what that shirt even MEANS, man…etc., etc, ad nauseum, ad nauseum.

The eye-rolling I anticipated from my son? I got it from my nephew.  Again, feeling really old.

Both these events made me think of something I read recently – it was by a guy about my age, with a son about my son’s age.  That young boy came home with a Gap-purchased t-shirt with the logo of CBGB’s, the venerable punk rock club in NYC, across the chest.  The writer goes on a diatribe about how, back in his (and my) day, a black CBGB’s t-shirt represented something.  If you wore it, you stood for something DIFFERENT, that you bucked the establishment, that you groveled in the beer-and-cigarette swill that was the club, that you might have even used the storied urinal in the back (look it up…it was legendary).  It was simply NOT something you could just get at The Gap.

A long time ago, in a land far away, I made my first pilgrimage to CBGB.  I had heard and read so much about this place, I decided I had to see it myself.  I went, all alone, in the  middle of the day, when I was about 15…I left my sheltered suburban home and Went To CBGB, like a pilgrim travels to Mecca.  As I approached, I spied a Serious Punk Rock Guy out in front – Mohawk, leather jacket, face-stomping boots, the whole bit.  He was drinking beer, looking sullen, and quite intimidating.

I spun on my heel and got the hell out of there.  Why?  Mostly because I was a wimp.  But, much more poetically, it was because this place was clearly A Forbidden Zone, and I wasn’t meant to be there. 

Yet.

Over the next couple of years, my friends and I gradually made it closer, then venturing inside, and ultimately enjoying some of the most memorable musical, social and mind expanding experiences of our lives.  By the time I got out of high school (and a couple of times during college) I ground it out many times on that sticky floor.  My experience in that complete and total cesspool of a building means something to me, and to have a t-shirt from there (I don’t have one, regretfully) would be a symbol of victory, of youth, of coming of age.

(I do, however, have a “Jackie The Jokeman” t-shirt, given to me by the man himself…almost as good.  It’s 19 years old, threadbare and salmon-colored – in other words, perfect)

What is contained in the act of wearing a t-shirt, be it of a band, a place, a person?  It’s making a statement to the world – and whether your statement is the same as mine is completely irrelevant.  Shoes, like t-shirts, are also powerful statement-makers.  Many first impressions are made by looking at footwear (that’s a truism – it’s not just in the minds of shoe people) and people use their footwear to announce their intentions to the world.  Who can forget David Letterman, back in the day, coming out to do his show wearing a suit and tie…and running shoes?  That said “yeah, I’m ‘establishment’, but I’m hip, also”. 

So it’s no surprise that the current popularity of “authentic” products in the marketplace, and the number of brands “returning to their roots” is not by chance.  People want to make a statement that says “I’m REAL”.

And this is regardless of age!  This idea goes hand in hand with my son wanting to sport a t-shirt of a band with  whom  he is only loosely familiar.  He doesn’t really know AC/DC, but he’s heard a couple of tunes – and he hears that they are raw-sounding with screeching vocals that are sure to annoy adults (a major plus!).  Plus, they’ve got a cool logo, and he instinctively identifies with the badass image.  It all adds up to “cool” in the 11 year old mind.

(I should mention he also digs the “Glee” soundtrack, but we won’t address that here.)

Shoe brands like Red Wing, Sperry, Wolverine – they’re all capitalizing on the consumers’ desire for “real” and “authentic” by reclaiming what their core competencies are.  Determining what they do best, and doing it.  People respond to that.

Want proof?  Dumb-old Red Wing boots, the kind you see on some guy named Jethro on a bad sit-com, ARE IN THE J CREW CATALOG.  Need I say more?  Some guy shopping in J Crew is buying a pair of happening pants, a cable knit sweater … and Red Wing boots.  Why? They’re the “real deal”.  They’re a CBGB’s t-shirt for a J Crew dude.

So what’s the takeaway for a brand?  A product that is “real” — with tangible features and benefits, the right look, and good value — over time will develop an unbreakable image, one of authenticity, strength, and heritage.  And that’s what will make it last, and keep consumers coming back again and again.

As far as branding goes, AC/DC should start a consulting business – their brand is pure, authentic and untarnished after more than 30 long years.  You know what they are, what they offer, what they sound like, and what they’re going to sing about (American thighs) – it never, ever changes.  And that’s real – even to an 11-year old.

William Weiss