Will Denim Ever Die?

A common misconception is the Levi Strauss invented denim when he started making pants for miners in the 1800's however there are reports that George Washington visited a factory that produced denim as far back as 1789.

When Levi Strauss started he made overalls from a canvas material. He quickly found that the miners didn't like the chaffing that they caused so he substituted the canvas for a material called serge de nimes that was produced in France. The name was shortened to denim and the pants were nicknamed blue jeans which still endures today.

Denim products have enjoyed an incredible product life that is quickly approaching 200 years. The biggest question is how much longer can it go? A recent study by Cotton Incorporated shows that the trend is going strong with over 60% of consumers enjoy wearing denim. Germany now has the highest number of consumers that enjoy wearing denim with a whopping total of 88% percent while the US is in second place with 78%. India is the lowest of all countries polled at only 27%.

Even a quick glance at the numbers show that most people enjoy denim because it is a comfortable and durable material that lends itself virtually every type of apparel. So if you haven't already, you should embrace denim because it's going to be around for a very long time.

Bing VS Everyone: Round 1

Atypical of Microsoft's normal style Bing.com went on line with relatively little fanfare. This made me wonder if it was something that they didn't really believe in and just wanted to keep a presence in the market or were they just trying a new tactic. Either way I needed to check it out.

Balloons? Why would they put balloons on the front page? I know that it would appeal to some people especially those under the age of 6 but as I moved my mouse around I saw the information boxes pop up telling me more about the picture. The facts were short, concise and interesting. Well maybe balloons aren't as bad of an idea as I thought. I took the time to read every box and even clicked on one to find out where the picture was taken. I never would have guessed Turkey. Today were looking at windmills from the Netherlands and once again the facts are interesting. I think I'm going to enjoy the changing scenery.

So now that I've rambled on about the front page let's discuss what else is of interest. The first thing I noticed is that even with the graphics it rivals Google for speed and quality of results and is light years ahead of Yahoo. A couple of nice features that are located on the left hand side of the results are the related searches that may help you narrow your searches for even better results and the search history so you can easily redo a search.

Another feature that is very useful is having the ability to preview what the site is about before actually going to it. By moving your mouse to the right of the result a box comes up that gives you an idea of the site content and also additional links that are on the page. This should save a lot of clicking on the back button trying to find what you are looking for.

If you have ever done a generic search you are going to love the way that the search results are now categorized to make things even easier when trying to narrow down what you want. For instance if you search for shoes you get the paid search results at the top and then the regular search results. What makes it so useful is after the regular results then you the categories that has a few results under each of them but you can also expand to get a full listing of that category. It seems that the order of the categories are arranged by what most people are looking for when they search that term. This is purely speculative and more testing needs to be done but if I am correct then this becomes an even more useful feature.

I'll be honest about the fact that I have not had as much time to test and use Bing as much as I would like however I have to say by what I've seen so far I think Microsoft has definitively got it right. They have added tons of usability and time saving options without any major sacrifices of speed and quality. Since all search engines evolve I think that the future is very good for Bing.

Cotton, Polyester or Both?

We have all been to the store looking for new shirts and come across the three big fabrics. Ever wonder wonder what the difference between cotton, polyester or a mix of the two mean? Take a few seconds and read on to become an expert for your next shopping trip.

Cotton
Cotton is what can called a tried and true fabric. There are several age ranges for how long it has been around but it seems that cotton was first used for fabric around 5000 bc. Cotton has some excellent properties that has made it so popular.

• Soft on the skin
• Breathes well
• Releases perspiration quickly
• Some variations can hold up to 27 times it's weight of water

The biggest drawback of cotton is that it tends to wrinkle easily but with some finishes even that can be minimized

Polyester
Compared to cotton polyester is a young contender since the first patent was in 1941 but has played a major role in clothing for many years. Polyester has been an ugly duckling since the late 1960's because of the negative public image of the double knit fabric. Polyester has some excellent benefits that include:

• Strong
• Resists stretching and shrinking
• Quick drying
• Wrinkle and mildew resistant
• abrasion resistant
• easily washed

Polyester is less comfortable to wear than cotton and because it doesn't absorb water as well it don't breath as well either.

Poly/Cotton
What happens if you take two items that have advantages to one another and mix them? If done correctly you get the best of both worlds. That's what they have done with Poly/Cotton material. With these two blended you get most of the advantages of both cotton and polyester the biggest differences are:

• Don't dry as fast as polyester but faster than cotton
• May hold more stains than polyester
• Holds less water than cotton

There are several different blends out there and they will be tagged something like 65/35 which means 65% polyester and 35% cotton. There are many other blends like 50/50 or 70/30 but just remember that the first number is polyester and the second one is cotton. The more of one material it has means that the more of its benefits it takes on. So if you want something soft that don't wrinkle then a 65/35 or 70/30 might be right for you but if your looking for a shirt that will release perspiration quickly but is strong and mildew resistant then you would want to try a 50/50 blend.

The next factor that can make a huge difference in a shirt is the weave such as microfiber which is also polyester but we will cover those in a later article.

How Good Is That Sale...Really?

We all see those sales that look unbelievable so we got to go shop for everything we ever needed or wanted. They are especially prevalent in late summer and around the Christmas shopping season. Have you ever noticed how once you go to check out it still seems like your spending a lot? Are you really getting as good of a deal as you thought? Let's take a look at the three most common "huge" sales and see how good they really are.

Store closing sales
In my opinion these are one of the biggest rip offs out there. The store spends a ton of money advertising that they are having their sale and raise their prices as much as 50%. Here's and example of how they may run their sale:
Weeks 1 and 2: 25% off everything
Weeks 3 and 4: 50% off everything
Weeks 5 and 6: 75% off everything
Weeks 7 and 8: 90% off everything

Now let's say that the store only marked up 15% for their closing how much do you really save on a $100 item?

Pre sale price $100
Additional markup price $115
Week 1 and 2 price $86.25 13.75% savings
Week 3 and 4 price $57.5 42.5% savings
Week 5 and 6 price $28.75 71.25% savings
Week 7 and 8 price $11.50 88.25% savings

Now as you look at the above examples you may think that if you just wait until week 5 your still going to get a great deal but stores know people run to liquidations so most of the items you would want are already gone. Which is why their more than happy to raise the discount as time goes on because everything after week 4 is pretty much dead inventory anyhow.

Spend X and get Y
This is where you spend $50 and get $10 store credit that you can use at a later date. If this is being run with another promotion and their are other items that you need but can wait for this may be a great deal.

Let's say the store is doing a 25% off sale plus for every $50 you spend you get $10 store credit. Your interested in a $100 item so the sale price will be $75 plus $10 store credit and you need a $10 item that you can wait on. So your total purchase is $110 but you get the 25% sale and $10 credit you pay $75 this gives you a savings of almost 32%.

The biggest way to lose on this type of sale is to buy extra items to get the $10 credit and have no need for additional items.

X% + X%
I really hate how deceptive this sale is because it depends on two factors. First people do not understand how the sale works so they overestimate their saving and second the stores rely on people avoiding confrontation.

You may see a sign that says 25% off plus take an additional 25% off between 10 and 1. Here is where it gets deceptive since you were taught in school that in a word problem if you see the word plus it means to add. A lot of people will look at a sign like that and think 25 plus 25 = 50 and assume that means they get half off. They only realize the error once the check out and seem to spend more than they thought.

Lets use your $100 item again. Here's what you would pay on a 25 + 25 sale:

$100 Item price
$25 First 25% off
$18.75 Second 25% off
56.25 Final Price

As you can see you didn't get the 50% off they suggested and only got a 43.75% discount. These are especially deceptive on end of the season sales where it is not uncommon to see X%+X%+X% often times adding to 100% or more. 50+25+25 seems to be fairly common and simple math looks like 100% savings but in reality it's only 71.875% off.

There are great deals out there and lots of different sales. The biggest thing to remember is that the people who put these sales out are not trying to get you a good deal but to get you to spend more than you normally would have. Make sure you know how all sales work and judge for yourself how good a sale really is.

Going Green

Everybody knows that from an environmental stand point we are in a bad place that it's only going to get worse if we don't change our ways. Everyone's trying to come up with new and unique ideas that will save the world. Maybe what we need to do is look at how we used to do things to help determine our next step.

This won't work in every situation since I don't realistically foresee people abandoning their cars and start riding horses again but with simple everyday tasks that we all take for granted. A perfect example is using your clothes dryer. Often times it's not even that good for your clothes since it can be rough on the fabrics shortening the lifetime of your garments and it's also not that cheap since on average it costs about 35 cents for every load.

Maybe it's time we looked back and pull an old trick that will still work. It's one of the original forms of solar power known as the clothesline. The big question is can it really make a difference. The US census put the number of American households at 115,904,641 so if each household used the clothesline for one load per week it would save $40,566,624 in electricity costs every week and $2,109,464,448 every year. Now this is just a drop in the bucket but every little bit helps and as an added bonus your clothes usually smell better.

Anyhow that’s just my two cents let me know what you think.