SPIER & MACKAY - Official Affiliate Thread

[JTrent82]

I am pretty sure they have done that before. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong? I can see it being time consuming and costly. But it's a great idea.

I'd settle for an intern standing in the parking lot as long as the white balance was right.

 

[SteveMc]

I am pretty sure they have done that before. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong? I can see it being time consuming and costly. But it's a great idea.

I've seen some outdoor shots on their IG. Mostly sporadic sportcoats.

 

[sydneycider]

I have to say that the SF user posts are way more attractive than the studio photos from SM. These sweaters, especially the deep v neck, wasn't even on my radar of interest until someone here posted them wearing it. @SpierTeam , perhaps in addition to the mannequin photos, you should have staged outdoor "candid" photos, similar to what Drakes, the Anthology, and even Natalino does. Although the investment might be heavy upfront, I feel you would sell way more product...

It really does feel like a huge missed opportunity for S&M. So many of the big menswear brands have built a reputation on good lookbooks. Drakes, The Armoury, Anglo Italian all put so much effort into marketing and it works. People are more likely to buy a garment if you show them *how* they can wear it. Even small brands like Natalino have model shots for their clothes, which also helps to predict how something will fit.

 

[cr2596]

I am pretty sure they have done that before. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong? I can see it being time consuming and costly. But it's a great idea.

They did in studio on medel pics. They were just as unhelpful from a color standpoint. Did help you get an idea of how things looked on humans, though.

 

[dapperclassic]

It really does feel like a huge missed opportunity for S&M. So many of the big menswear brands have built a reputation on good lookbooks. Drakes, The Armoury, Anglo Italian all put so much effort into marketing and it works. People are more likely to buy a garment if you show them *how* they can wear it. Even small brands like Natalino have model shots for their clothes, which also helps to predict how something will fit.

I guess it all comes down to time and budget and one of the reasons S&M might be able to keep their costs significantly under the brands you mentioned (with exception to Natalino)

The question is, if the cost of those campaigns were passed on to us in the form of higher prices, would we be happy?

To get any form of lookbook live ahead of the season launch, i would presume all product (samples) would need to be ready - that may not be achievable given S&M's current release model with products being drip fed on to the website week by week but I'm not sure if that is indicative of when the product actually comes in, or if it has been sat in a warehouse for two months.

That said, these things don't need to cost the earth - the suggestion above of doing it in a parking lot isn't a bad one. Natalino did it with a couple of his friends strolling the streets of London and to my eyes, appear to be shot on a smartphone. All quite low tech but very effective.

 

[sdjackofclubs]

Sorry if this has been discussed ad nauseum, but does anyone have insight regarding the recent order shipping? I placed an order December 1. Hasn't started tracking yet. No response when I email.

 

[A Guy from Shanghai]

Sorry if this has been discussed ad nauseum, but does anyone have insight regarding the recent order shipping? I placed an order December 1. Hasn't started tracking yet. No response when I email.

Mine is even worse. Placed an order on BF sale, waited two weeks, and received an email from SM informing me the item was out of stock. Disappointing experienc.

 

[Gil_Pender]

Sorry if this has been discussed ad nauseum, but does anyone have insight regarding the recent order shipping? I placed an order December 1. Hasn't started tracking yet. No response when I email.

December 3rd here. Still in 'processing' status.

The operations manager in me finds this frustrating. Order picking/shipping is one of the simpler processes to tackle. It might be that they have 1 dedicated order picker/shipper and they get overwhelmed with order load. Or their MRP/ERP system hasn't scaled. Pure speculation on my part.

 

[sid11111]

I guess it all comes down to time and budget and one of the reasons S&M might be able to keep their costs significantly under the brands you mentioned (with exception to Natalino)

The question is, if the cost of those campaigns were passed on to us in the form of higher prices, would we be happy?

To get any form of lookbook live ahead of the season launch, i would presume all product (samples) would need to be ready - that may not be achievable given S&M's current release model with products being drip fed on to the website week by week but I'm not sure if that is indicative of when the product actually comes in, or if it has been sat in a warehouse for two months.

That said, these things don't need to cost the earth - the suggestion above of doing it in a parking lot isn't a bad one. Natalino did it with a couple of his friends strolling the streets of London and to my eyes, appear to be shot on a smartphone. All quite low tech but very effective.

What was it about wanting your cake and eating it as well? You're right. There's a reason why "big menswear brands" cost as much as they do and why most of us buy S&M and not from Drakes, Armoury or Anglo Italian lol.

 

[ericgereghty]

It really does feel like a huge missed opportunity for S&M. So many of the big menswear brands have built a reputation on good lookbooks. Drakes, The Armoury, Anglo Italian all put so much effort into marketing and it works. People are more likely to buy a garment if you show them *how* they can wear it. Even small brands like Natalino have model shots for their clothes, which also helps to predict how something will fit.

This is a no from me, dawg. Just give me an accurate sense of coloring in photos. Anything beyond that is unnecessary, save for people wanting to add #inspo to their Pinterest.
If SM can do it without adding a single dollar to the cost of their goods, by all means go for it. No harm whatsoever. But, anything above nothing is a hard pass for me. Seeing how something fits a 6' 135lb fella isn't gonna do much to establish how a particular garment would drape on me.

 

[sdjackofclubs]

I guess it all comes down to time and budget and one of the reasons S&M might be able to keep their costs significantly under the brands you mentioned (with exception to Natalino)

The question is, if the cost of those campaigns were passed on to us in the form of higher prices, would we be happy?

To get any form of lookbook live ahead of the season launch, i would presume all product (samples) would need to be ready - that may not be achievable given S&M's current release model with products being drip fed on to the website week by week but I'm not sure if that is indicative of when the product actually comes in, or if it has been sat in a warehouse for two months.

That said, these things don't need to cost the earth - the suggestion above of doing it in a parking lot isn't a bad one. Natalino did it with a couple of his friends strolling the streets of London and to my eyes, appear to be shot on a smartphone. All quite low tech but very effective.

I'm sure, if Spier & Mackay were interested they could recruit enough local people through this message board willing to trek to Mississauga for an afternoon to participate in a project of this sort, and would accept payment for their time in the form of a discount code.

 

[pyunghwa]

Alot of people share their SM fit pics on insta. Perhaps SM should incentive people to share their fit pics - if SM selects your picture to be shared under the product, you get like $5.00 towards your balance.

But I totally agree - I'm not expecting Drakes level look books shot in the Scottish Highlands (or even the missiauga bluffs for that matter). But Natalino level, absolutely. It's not so much the styling, but I want to see what it looks like on a normal human being, and I want to see what the colour looks like in natural light.

There have been so many times I ignored a product because the colour seemed off, or ordered products and was very pleasantly surprised that the colour didn't match the studio photos.

 

[dapperclassic]

Here's a new SM reverse stripe shirt which some of you might have considered - I've been looking for something like this for years but struggled to find the right colour and scale/width of stripe. Paired here with SM flannel SC and yes I'm starting to introduce more belt loop trousers into my rotation.

 

[adelorenzo]

December 3rd here. Still in 'processing' status.

The operations manager in me finds this frustrating. Order picking/shipping is one of the simpler processes to tackle. It might be that they have 1 dedicated order picker/shipper and they get overwhelmed with order load. Or their MRP/ERP system hasn't scaled. Pure speculation on my part.

FWIW I ordered November 23 and nothing has shipped.

 

[Gil_Pender]

FWIW I ordered November 23 and nothing has shipped.

Sorry to hear that. It's my first order so I don't know what to expect. There is a limit to how hard I'll try to give a company my money. Still hoping for a good result though.