Monday, July 27, 2009

What Is Going On?







I was surfing the web today and was checking out trends/styles and some designer clothes. I got to say I was shocked when I came across a pair of jeans by Current/Elliot. They are called "The Crop Skinny". I took a look at them and couldn't help wondering what commanded the $499 price tag. As I looked over the first picture I just couldn't understand why a pair of distressed pants, capri's at that, would be so expensive.


I checked out the additional pictures and almost died laughing since I realizied what all the hype was about. The waist and pockets have silver studs on them to give them their "designer" look. What is so comical about it is that if you were around in the 80's you'll remember the fingerless studded gloves that were worn by about every rock star at one time or another.
Now here's what I find so truly interesting is that when all the studded items were so popular you could but a package of 100 studs for 2 bucks or somewhere close to that. That way you could make your own unique items out of any item that you wanted. So I ran the math on it. The cost of making a pair of jeans is about $12 to $15 with another $4 to $5 to distress them. I was able to find 100 studs for $3.40 so this would cost about $10.20 in studs. Assuming you aren't using child labor it will cost another $5 to $10 to attach the studs to the pants. This brings the total production cost of the pants to about $40. This is a very generous estimate for them I would expect it to be maybe half of that.
So if your in $40 to make a pair of pants even with mark ups the retail price should be well under $150 but in this case it's almost $500! Why? Is a name really that important? Let me know what you think.

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