I read with great interest and hope the story of how teens are moving away from overpriced clothing with large logos -
- Susan Kapner and Erin McCarthy, "Abercrombie to remove logos from most clothing" Wall Street Journal, Aug 29, 2014
- Vauhini Vara, "Abercrombie & Fitch's No-Go Logo" New Yorker, August 29, 2014.
It seems that during the recent recession, teens began moving away from the high-priced logo clothing of the 3 A's - Abercrombie, American Eagle and AeroPostale'. They moved to cheaper brands with small or no logos. Now that the recession is receding, this trend is still persisting.
This is a big change from a few years ago when I was at a The North Face store (not of my own volition) and overheard this conversation:
Mom: Look at this sweater, it is reasonably priced.
Daughter: I really like the color and design.
Mom: Why don't you try it on?
Daughter: Oh, it does not have a North Face logo! Lets look for something else.
The peer pressure and desire to conform is so strong among teens that it is hard to believe that this antilogo trend is anything but a transient or a superficial phenomenon. Even reasonably savvy adults are driven by these forces when they purchase items like smartphones, laptops and cars.
Very early on, we are told not to judge the book by the cover. But we continue to believe that others will judge us by our covers, the logos we adorn ourselves with. We create our "Pseudo" identities on social media. We assume we can buy respect or admiration of our peers by purchasing a status symbol not realizing that all we generate is jealousy or diminished respect for our decision-making skills or superficiality. It clearly will not buy us happiness unless the product is something you really need and you would buy even if it did not have a logo.
Will we ever get to the point that people would stop and think about these words of Thích Nhất Hạnh, "To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
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