Everyone has heard of Nike, Adidas, Pink, Aeropostale, Puma and many of other brand names that are tirelessly marketed to the common folk.  Do these people know that the reason these companies are so rich is because of the little money they spend on making their clothes? These companies can spend as little as a couple dollars to make their products and sell them for nearly 400% as much! The cottons and materials used to actually make the clothes are basically the same as a shirt on clearance at Walmart. This brings us to the big question: Is it really worth it to buy branded clothes?

Almost everyone has purchased at least one piece of branded clothing. What they haven’t done, though, is look at the tag on the back of the shirt. Comparing a crop-top sweatshirt from Pink (on clearance for $40) and an unbranded shirt from Walmart (on sale for $7), the sweatshirt is made of 60% cotton and 40% polyester, while the Walmart shirt is 50% cotton and 50% polyester. These numbers mean that the sweatshirt would be more comfortable than the shirt. The more cotton in a shirt, the softer it will be and also the more ventilated it will be. Cotton enables the shirt to be more comfortable, while the polyester is just sort of a shell around the cotton. Shirts that have more polyester than cotton are usually papery and uncomfortable. This means that the branded shirts are more comfortable normal clothes- but is it really worth the extra $30?

On most occasions, parents won’t spend much more than $15-20 on a shirt. Nowadays, parents (and kids) are willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a couple shirts from a branded company. The extra money really isn’t worth it. Although the shirt may be slightly more comfortable, the extra 10% of cotton isn’t worth that much money. The sweatshirt from Pink described before costs them a little over $11, which means they are making a $30 profit per shirt. Branded clothing brands have taken advantage of everyone’s urges to buy more expensive clothes to seem richer. It’s similar to how the government and other companies made the cost of houses, medicalization, gas, and electronics so expensive. These things are all necessities and in some eyes, branded clothes are on that same level of necessity.

Even though most companies spend a lot less money to make their products than they sell them for, some of the products are still worth the money. One of the few examples is Nike. They specialize is shoes that support the feet better. They may price their items quite a lot higher than they should, but Nike does do their job. Shoes at Payless, for example, are a lot cheaper and don’t support the feet. In fact, they may hurt you more than they help. Nike’s shoes do a great job with the design of the shoes and are better all around.

To conclude, branded clothes aren’t really worth the money. Even the brands that have quality products over price their items. In a general sense, branded clothes as a whole really aren’t worth the extra money, albeit the association of a recognized name. They may support the body better in some cases, but there still are unbranded clothes that are just as good as the branded clothes, if not better.