The Official Dieworkwear Appreciation Thread

[gdl203]

The joys of the intersection of ignorance and anonymity on the internet. No need to be right, or even act like a decent person, to get access to a keyboard and spill lies, false information and never be held accountable for that.

 

[whorishconsumer]

I own several forums

Say more.

 

[aristoi bcn]

I don't mind paying full retail price unless I know my money goes to paying the exorbitant rents of premium locations: it adds no value for me.

 

[whorishconsumer]

The joys of the intersection of ignorance and anonymity on the internet. No need to be right, or even act like a decent person, to get access to a keyboard and spill lies, false information and never be held accountable for that.

Greg is an actual stormtrooper.








Also, his stormtrooper boots are cemented-sole construction.

 

[Blake Stitched Blues]

Styleforum guys: "I want you to run a sale AND apologize for the sale"

Styleforum influencer and blogger: "I want to criticise people for buying on sale while still running advertorials promoting sales from every advertiser on my blog"

To tell you the truth I haven't bought anything on sale in years now.

 

[gdl203]

I don't mind paying full retail price unless I know my money goes to paying the exorbitant rents of premium locations: it adds no value for me.

This is interesting to me. Are you referring to brick and mortar retail experiences here? Do you mean that you'd rather travel/commute to a store in an out-of-the-way location (cheaper) than shop at a central (premium) location?

 

[dieworkwear]

Styleforum influencer and blogger: "I want to criticise people for buying on sale while still running advertorials promoting sales from every advertiser on my blog"

To tell you the truth I haven't bought anything on sale in years now.

You seem really angry all the time on this forum. Is this forum even bringing you any happiness? Why bother visiting if this place makes you upset? You seem constantly angry about the styles, products, people, and the comments posted. I don't think I've ever seen you be happy about anything on here. Why visit a place if it brings you down?

Regarding sales posts, I don't think it has to be an either/ or thing. You can shop on sale and try to support businesses at full prices when you can. It can be a mix of both, you know?

It feels like the last few pages have been a good demonstration of when a store can bring you value: a store can introduce you to a new brand. It can style things in a way that you previously didn't consider. When you've wrongly dismissed a company as being just cemented shoes, they can be the ones who pick up the better stuff. They can curate a selection. For people who live in the same country as that retailer, returns can be easier. The mark-ups here aren't even actually higher? Looks like NMWA's price is actually cheaper than buying directly from Aurland, and you get the ease of returnability. They can give sizing advice, etc.

When you asked "what value does a retailer bring," seems like the last few pages answered your question.

 

[d4nimal]

What false accusations? You still sell Vass at hugely inflated markups and I'm sure I could find a few other examples if I spent more than five minutes on the NMWA site.

Are you going to apologise for running sales to shift the dreck you can't sell at full price, promoting those sales through social media and influencers and then bitching about customers who have the temerity to actually buy those things on sale?

Greg actually reminded people in the NMWA thread a few years ago that sale shoppers have their place when people were complaining about it there. I remember that because it made me feel like my life had purpose.

 

[Blake Stitched Blues]

Greg actually reminded people in the NMWA a few years ago that sale shoppers have their place when people were complaining about it there. I remember that because it made me feel like my life had purpose.

Of course they do. Sales shoppers pick up all the product that shops can't shift at full price. NMWA release the capital they have tied up in unwanted stock, reduce their storage overheads and still turn a profit. Greg will just grit his teeth and ***** about his customers here because he's not making quite as much of a profit with the sales buyers.

 

[zalb916]

To tell you the truth I haven't bought anything on sale in years now.

For a guy who's telling the truth about not buying on sale for years, you sure have posted a lot in the last few years about shopping and buying on sale.

I bought the cobalt blue and the mid-green while they had them on sale.

The UK 10.5 wing-tips on 333 last I snapped up in the sale

If you can, wait until the sales and buy directly from the Magee website in January/February when they really start slashing the prices and always seem to have a full range of sizes left. I picked up both of mine for €120 each.

Hard to pass them up when they're on sale for €24 a pop.

Denewear in the UK are phasing out RM Williams and have their remaining stock marked down to £280.

AFPOS' 20% sale runs until this Sunday and I'm very tempted to pick up another pair or two.

Sale on at Herring Shoes at the moment with a number of Loakes included. Very tempted to pick up a pair of suede oxfords.

Herring Rackenford, on sale at the moment for €141.

@marck120 Your budget is very, very low but most places have sales on at the moment so you can *just* about get a pair of GYW shoes on leather soles.

On sale at the moment also, looks to be a limited range of sizes available.

They're on sale at the moment also.

Zwilling have a sale on at the moment on some of the Demeyere Atlantis line they carry.

And nothing on StyFo is complete without a comment on when the Mr. Porter sale starts:

19th June according to the mail they sent me on Thursday.

 

[whorishconsumer]

This conversation has turned sale-acious.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

What rational reason, when all the online resources are at my fingertips, would I go to a place where the membership talks about whatever hedge fund managers talk about, to figure out what type of bladstock I want for my custom knife, or how thick is the Caentino fabrics on a Drake's pullover. Please.

Well, for starters, focusing on what you call hobbyists (let's call it for what it is BTW: fishing and golf are hobbies. Wearing clothes is a not a hobby. We're just a bunch of broke-ass dandies) is clearly not working that well, or else this discussion wouldn't be happening in the first place.

More seriously, strictly from a sales perspective, you don't want hobbyists; you want people who can afford expensive things. There aren't that many hobbyists and they don't have any more disposable income than anyone else. They've also already sort of decided whether they will buy or not buy and you're not going to change their minds much one way or another with your marketing. It's a bad tree to bark up.

What you want to tap into is the section of the general population that doesn't think twice about $25 socks or $1000 shoes. They're happy to just pay whatever you ask them to pay because for them that is the easiest way to get what they want as quickly as possible. Find out where these guys hang out, and go after them. Of course, as non-"hobbyists" only a smallish fraction of this pie will be interested in this stuff, but it's a big pie, certainly bigger than the one that regularly posts here, and people in that slice are going to have much higher conversion rates than someone waffling back and forth between Armoury and Bryceland's sites before buying from neither.

A hobbyist is going to demand that you create a ton of value before they pay MSRP, which is very time-consuming for a retailer, and, considering that everyone keeps on waiting for sales anyway, I'd say this is very much a losing battle. We all have ideals about the value a retailer provides but ultimately are enabled or bottlenecked by our wallets. A non hobbyist with a lot of disposable income will value your advice more and/or will simply value his money less, since he has a lot of it. He also has more options in general, since no matter what you do, you will not be able to someone to buy a pair of St. Crispie Treats if he simply doesn't have the funds.

I am reminded of a story a Nordstrom sales associate told me. He said his best customers treat him like a personal shopper almost. Whenever something cool comes in that he thinks they will like, he sends them a few pictures of possible outfits, and if they give him the green light he ships the items out. Nice and easy. A hobbyist probably has more of the pulse of the #menswear world sure, but these guys who buy without you having to sell to them are probably better for business.


Not to inject myself too much into this, but I think this example is helpful: for me, selling expensive capital equipment, an academic scientist can be a pleasure to talk to because he is very passionate about research and being on the cutting edge. However, he is also constantly struggling for funding and knows a lot about the exact details of what he wants to do. It takes forever to nurture one of them through the sales pipeline until it finally aligns that he has the funds and is still interested. Meanwhile, a guy from Pfizer might call us to confirm that our thing can do what he needs to do, because he has a big scary deadline coming, and he thinks this is roughly what his team is looking for, and in any case, a few hundred thousand bucks is not big deal, and we're done in a few days. This guy wasn't super interesting to talk to but when it comes to the "good cheap easy, pick two" adage, he likes good and easy and our finance team likes him.

 

[d4nimal]

Of course they do. Sales shoppers pick up all the product that shops can't shift at full price. NMWA release the capital they have tied up in unwanted stock, reduce their storage overheads and still turn a profit. Greg will just grit his teeth and ***** about his customers here because he's not making quite as much of a profit with the sales buyers.

That was my point. He wasn't bitching about it. I've never had anything but good things to say about communicating with him or Kyle, regardless of money switching hands or not.

But it seems like you just want to argue, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[FlyingHorker]

I'm not going to pretend to be classy, I do enjoy some good old-fashioned **** flinging on forums.

 

[FLW]

From the Prophet himself...