Brooks Brothers Bankruptcy Thread

[mebiuspower]

Sorry if I believe American jobs are worth fighting for. And traditional quality. And there are still lots of great products made in USA. England and France produce excellent quality products. Italy produces many products of quality. When you purchase a quality product and it gives satisfaction. Junk is always junk. If you take an Chuchs or Crockett and Jones shoe and divide the cost by number of times you can wear it,the cost per wearing will be less than that of a cheap shoe and it will fit better,feel better and look better. Same for Alden as far as an American product. So yes,quality and country of origin do matter

You should watch this.

American Factory (2019) ⭐ 7.4 | Documentary

1h 50m | TV-14

www.imdb.com

 

[Phileas Fogg]

You should watch this.

American Factory (2019) ⭐ 7.4 | Documentary

1h 50m | TV-14

www.imdb.com

ah yes! The enlightened communist Chinese trying to bring modernity to a middle America, too obsessed the guns, god and the Bible.

But hey, they can just become coders. Pretty simple actually.

 

[smittycl]

Anyway, if people want to truly see traditional and high-end businesses survive, they have to shop at full retail. I still think that's one of the biggest disconnects among consumers. For all the talk about English made shoes at Brooks Brothers, how many people bought those at full price? And how many waited until their mid-season or end-of-season promotions?

I was thinking about this last night. What if the retail price is completely farcical? I feel I can trust certain stores to have fair retail prices. No Man Walks Alone for sure, the Armoury and Sid Mashburn, sure, but Brooks Brothers? Asking $1200 retail for an 1818 suit? Definitely overpriced for an entry-level suit.

The fact that they always seem to be two-for-$1500 now with plenty more seriously marked down in the sale section indicates they likely are not very costly to make.

 

[clee1982]

It might be over priced, but that's the reality of the pricing if you want MiUSA goods, no?

edit: I mean for same quality at those tier, MiUSA tailoring is more expensive than Made in Italy, so even if you ignore China etc., MiUSA still can't compete without deliver some new value proposition in tailoring

edit2: and even if they do $750 every day, you're likely to see the italy ones can have better margin?

 

[Proleet]

It might be over priced, but that's the reality of the pricing if you want MiUSA goods, no?

edit: I mean for same quality at those tier, MiUSA tailoring is more expensive than Made in Italy, so even if you ignore China etc., MiUSA still can't compete without deliver some new value proposition in tailoring

edit2: and even if they do $750 every day, you're likely to see the italy ones can have better margin?

i don’t agree. If I look at miUSA stuff from say epaulet I think the pricing is fair and the absence of huge sales supports that. I’m sure there are enough people in the country that would pay a premium for it as well. It might just be that an additional large brand premium becomes too much to swallow for consumers.

The other issue with places like this is that they’ve trained their customers to expect everything to go on sale (which might mean regular prices to go up). For a place that has a lot of basics in their assortment this is a huge mistake. They shouldn’t ever put huge sales discounts on say a basic navy suit.

 

[clee1982]

i don’t agree. If I look at miUSA stuff from say epaulet I think the pricing is fair and the absence of huge sales supports that. I’m sure there are enough people in the country that would pay a premium for it as well. It might just be that an additional large brand premium becomes too much to swallow for consumers.

The other issue with places like this is that they’ve trained their customers to expect everything to go on sale (which might mean regular prices to go up). For a place that has a lot of basics in their assortment this is a huge mistake. They shouldn’t ever put huge sales discounts on say a basic navy suit.

What's Epaulet's price on suit, just under $1k? That's a lot competition from made in italy for half canvass at that price no? And just on fit picture I can't see a strong reason to go Epaulet vs. lots of generic stuff from Italy

edit: and could Epaulet's model scale? Isn't Epaulet MTO only these days.

 

[clee1982]

On the sale point I definitely agree though, but just about every big guy in this industry is guilty of that.

 

[Viral]

Notably, many of the people working in these American clothing factories are immigrants, often from countries whose labor you deem to be low quality.

You mean "American jobs" doesn't mean a preppy workforce of people from well-to-do-families?? Well aren't you the fun police =)

 

[Proleet]

What's Epaulet's price on suit, just under $1k? That's a lot competition from made in italy for half canvass at that price no? And just on fit picture I can't see a strong reason to go Epaulet vs. lots of generic stuff from Italy

edit: and could Epaulet's model scale? Isn't Epaulet MTO only these days.

no idea about scaling but typically that obviously helps push costs down. I think the other part of your comment revolves around identity: what does BB want to stand for? What is their core customer? Is it someone who values an Italian suit over miUSA? Or the reverse? I could imagine there is quite some interest in a good miUSA market proposition now but it’ll not be for everyone.

 

[clee1982]

I would imagine MiUSA alone doesn't do it, it needs to have aesthetic as its selling point. You can keep sell to core customer, but then you will die as core customer age unless you go super niche

 

[smittycl]

Amusingly the Italian made 1818s were noticeably better than the US versions.

 

[Proleet]

I would imagine MiUSA alone doesn't do it, it needs to have aesthetic as its selling point. You can keep sell to core customer, but then you will die as core customer age unless you go super niche

no business can survive without continuously attracting new customers. So yes it’d obviously need to appeal to a broad enough base

 

[bmoredcstyle]

just curious; is their made in Italy stuff completely made in Italy or do they take shortcuts for any of the Made in Italy merch? this goes for the MiUSA Merch too.

 

[smittycl]

just curious; is their made in Italy stuff completely made in Italy or do they take shortcuts for any of the Made in Italy merch? this goes for the MiUSA Merch too.

No idea. They own Lardini and I think their Italian tailoring is made there.

 

[clee1982]

Amusingly the Italian made 1818s were noticeably better than the US versions.

I only had made in Italy 1818 actually (sold it, but not due to quality, just my aesthetics has changed). What's the problem with the MiUSA ones (presumably Southwick?) I thought natural craftman thing was good (which is also Southwick?), just they don't make it in 36, so never bother to buy 38 (which does run slim but still require quite a bit tailoring)