I'm just wondering why you guys and gals buy a particular t-shirt over another. What is most important to you: Design, Brand, Quality or Price? When I buy a t-shirt, the design is the most important followed by brand, quality and lastly price. However, no way would I ever pay more than 50+ for a t-shirt but I'm sure some of you wealthier individuals do. So what do you guys look for?
BTW, Im a graduate student at U.C. Irvine and I'm just doing some market research on trends. I also created a short 6-7 question survey. If you guys have the time please help a fellow struggling student out!
You're talking about branded, decorated apparel, like buying retail from the mall, correct?
It takes ALLOT to capture my attention & get me to lay down money on a retail t-shirt. The graphic has to really speak something to me that I can relate with, and the fit and feel are very important - the "sickest" graphic won't get purchased by me unless it feels great & fits perfectly.
Frankly, I just don't purchase t-shirts at retail anymore unless they are very, very special.
Oh, and I don't know about posting the link in your message - that's generally not allowed, but you can move it to your signature.
thanks for the input, I hope the survey won't get taken down. I'm afraid that if I move the survey to my signature, people won't see it.
Also, I was talking about the less mainstream t shirts, shirts that you can either only find online, or at small independent boutiques. Some of these brands include "The hundreds, 3Sixteen, Johnny cupcake, Supreme, Foreign Family, and Crooks & Castles." I'm curious as to why consumers choose to purchase these brands, is it because of quality (fit), design, price, or brand?
Those are some great questions - I'd like to know the answers, too!
For me, buying from online stores is even more rare than from brick-n-mortar, so I'm probably not a good sample. But if the design really grabs me, and I feel I can trust that the fit & feel will be what I expect, there's really no reason I wouldn't / shouldn't buy online. I don't think I'd ever pay over $30 online, though, and even then it'd have to be really extraordinary.
It's up to Rodney, but I figured he's used SurveyMonkey before and it's a neutral third party site, so it might be okay. Although on the other hand maybe not, because we wouldn't really want the precedent of surveys opening a million market research floodgates.
Quote:
Originally Posted by B-School Cat
I'm curious as to why consumers choose to purchase these brands
It's worth bearing in mind that we're not consumers. Obviously many of us buy t-shirts, but even then, consumers second - owning a t-shirt business tends to warp what you look for in other brands. On top of that, with the demographic here many forum members won't even have heard of the brands you list, let alone buy them.
Personally I don't think it's any one thing that makes brands in the category succeed: each characteristic has a hurdle requirement, and can fail on any one of them. Being weak in one area can be made up for by being strong in another though, so long as the weakness isn't an outright deal breaker.
Ultimately the brand is more important than any other feature, but the brand is built up of those other features. But other brands who look the part get a certain amount of instant cred, so long as they fit into their place within the consumer culture. Innovation is rewarded, so a new brand gets a chance just for being new (and knowing its roots). To continue beyond flavour of the month, that's where building lasting brand name recognition comes in.
Ultimately the brand is more important than any other feature, but the brand is built up of those other features. But other brands who look the part get a certain amount of instant cred, so long as they fit into their place within the consumer culture. Innovation is rewarded, so a new brand gets a chance just for being new (and knowing its roots). To continue beyond flavour of the month, that's where building lasting brand name recognition comes in.
Thank you for taking the time to share your input with me. I know this may not be the best forum to survey given the demographic (sellers vs buyers) however I figured the larger the sample size, the more accurate the results may be.
I have conducted other surveys on "streetwear" forums and have received incredible feedback. I also seperated the surveys, one for this forum, one for the other forum. So far, it appears that consumer preferences towards the issues mentioned above are pretty much the same.
So far, it appears that consumer preferences towards the issues mentioned above are pretty much the same.
Including price paid? The rest being similar (or the same) wouldn't surprise me, but that does. I suppose it could be a factor of quantity (I know personally I am significantly less likely to buy anything than I was in the past, but more prepared to pay for it than I was).
i think people like for the clothes to speak for them and they like to be placed with 'someone', thats why celebrity endorsement is so valuable.
e.g when Jay-Z was seen in 'Crooks and Castles' alot of people bought it because they wanted to be part of the movement with him, silly perhaps but i believe it to be true,
I buy streetwear products because I like a lot of the designs. I couldn't give a **** about celebrities and what they're wearing because I don't like mainstream ****. I wear a lot of the underground streetwear brands and the lesser known ones, but I'll still rock mainstream gear if the design is tight.
i see what you're saying but if we take a brand like A Bathing Ape which people still see to be 'exclusive'?.
Lets face it, BAPE would not have experienced such success without the help of a handful of music artists, Pharrell, Lil Wayne, Clipse, Young Jeezy,Swizz Beatz,Jay-Z all made it popular through their videos.
But people still think they're being cool and unique by wearing it.
The creator 'Nigo' even set up his own musical poster for his brand with the Teriyaki Boyz supporting the argument that celebrity endorsement works.
Hey man,
I definitely buy shirts based off design. When I am looking for some new clothes, I will most certainly look for my favorite brands online (digitalgravel.com elmercadoonline.com etc) like 3Sixteen and Crooks and try to see if their new lines are something that I like. But no matter the brand or popularity, I want something that I like... and matches my Nike's haha.
Hope your research goes well.
Streetwear/Fashion Brands: Why buy them? 
