The Official Dieworkwear Appreciation Thread

[sushijerk]

Agreed. And to be clear, it is my understanding that flagship location high rents are often considered as marketing costs - something that enhances the brand.

I'm interested in that conversation because this is a decision that I faced when deciding where to have our office/showroom. Our rent is clearly higher, being in a central Manhattan location, than it would be if we were in New Jersey or Queens. The question is: does the convenience for visitors and the resulting loyalty/business enough of a positive to counter-balance the negative of a higher rent. It's very hard to measure and I still don't know the answer.

I don't think it would be viable to do trunk shows if you were in NJ or queens. I certainly appreciate the somewhat convenient location in midtown but I've only really ever purchased online despite being in union sq mostly because my work hours just doesn't line up with when you guys have the showroom open.

 

[Sartorium]

Agreed. And to be clear, it is my understanding that flagship location high rents are often considered as marketing costs - something that enhances the brand.

I'm interested in that conversation because this is a decision that I faced when deciding where to have our office/showroom. Our rent is clearly higher, being in a central Manhattan location, than it would be if we were in New Jersey or Queens. The question is: does the convenience for visitors and the resulting loyalty/business enough of a positive to counter-balance the negative of a higher rent. It's very hard to measure and I still don't know the answer.

I will say that, as an out-of-country out-of-towner, it made a big difference to be able to stop in on a one day layover, try things on, actually handle the product, chat with Kyle etc. I don't know what % of your business is guys like me but I definitely made one purchase (that day) because of the ability to pop in. I can't really tease out how much it will affect behaviour going forward.

 

[Crispyj]

@gdl203 , if you remember this post, some people actually think this is how much you are making.

Edit: Greg makes $20 million per second until the servers got shut down.

 

[gdl203]

The Great Niche Seed Tee Crash

 

[tgaith77]

This Blake dude sounds like he is the type to give 1 star on yelp because supermarket pasta and tomatoes costs less than what he paid at the restaurant.

Nah, Blake is the kind of guy who would try to return a pair of socks to NMWA because he couldn't stack his SF10 code.

 

[gdl203]

Trigger warnings please!!

 

[Blake Stitched Blues]

This Blake dude sounds like he is the type to give 1 star on yelp because supermarket pasta and tomatoes costs less than what he paid at the restaurant.

Nah, Blake is the kind of guy who would try to return a pair of socks to NMWA because he couldn't stack his SF10 code.

Lol

The fanboys crawling out of the woodwork to defend the honour of a sacred affiliate.

 

[aristoi bcn]

Agreed. And to be clear, it is my understanding that flagship location high rents are often considered as marketing costs - something that enhances the brand.

I'm interested in that conversation because this is a decision that I faced when deciding where to have our office/showroom. Our rent is clearly higher, being in a central Manhattan location, than it would be if we were in New Jersey or Queens. The question is: does the convenience for visitors and the resulting loyalty/business enough of a positive to counter-balance the negative of a higher rent. It's very hard to measure and I still don't know the answer.

The problem is that you have no option if you want to cater to your potential customer. It's the sad truth that a big piece of the fair revenue retailers generate it's being eaten out by the rent.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

Unfortunately, your work as an equipment salesman has very little bearing here, for any number of reasons, but the principle one being that it is not a consumer good.

The details of niche, high-end capital equipment are quite different than niche, high-end clothing, sure, but I was only speaking in the most general sense, that only someone who has X+ dollars to spend can afford to pay X for your product. He is also less likely to ask for a discount, even if we are all conditioned to ask for discounts, because X doesn't mean as much to him. I argue in favor of actively prospecting for this Mr. X, because someone who simply doesn't have X dollars easily available is always going to be more difficult to sell to.

tldr: the audience of a hobbyist site extends far beyond the hobbyist who are the active participants.

I agree that there is value in an actively-participating never-pay-MSRP hobbyist on a site such as this one or in your knife purchase. He is a form of passive marketing, a subject matter expert who gently steers laypeople towards what he likes. I think I just described an influencer, and sometimes they work. Here though, if they are indeed a super effective (and free!) means of bringing people to your store, then you wouldn't need to ask them to please quit discount-hunting; heck you might start even offering him free or deeply discounted swag that you know he'll like so that he'll talk about you more. Given that this isn't the case though, and that the fact that apparently his asking for discounts is enough to hurt a bottom line, I would posit that his ability to act as a force multiplier isn't big enough for you to rely on just him. A #menswear bonanza like this forum, and all the human resources within, are critical, no doubt, but that does not mean you don't have to actively find additional channels for engaging the guys who don't mind paying full retail, beyond what these accidental marketers are able to bring you.

 

[brax]

Lol

The fanboys crawling out of the woodwork to defend the honour of a sacred affiliate.

I’ve been on this site for quite a while and have ordered two things from NMWA in a decade (good stuff but I buy primarily bespoke) so I have no teal vested interest. But it certainly seems that they (and Derek) have a much better and realistic understanding of the business side of clothing retail than you do.

 

[OccultaVexillum]

@Blake Stitched Blues
You missed the point multiple times.
I've never frequented the threads you post, so I have no familiarity with you until today.
I have bought maybe 6 or 7 things from NMWA since they opened. I love the direction and styling and buys they do but the reality is I'm just not a fan of most labels they stock so i'm not much of a customer. So I'm not really in a place to have favoritism towards them or against you.
But you actually are being a total asshole.

You said the Auralands were cemented and marked up. You got a response saying the versions they sell are NOT cemented and are blake stitched, and retail for the same amount as they would locally. You could at least say "Oh hey that makes sense, my bad".
Then you misunderstood a 30% profit on Vass as a 30% markup. They're not the same. And Vass is known to be a nightmare for retailers to buy from. That's why there's so few stockists, their sizing can be confusing, and it clearly costs more to import them to the US, pay customs/duties/fees/freight, then develop your retail price in order to account for that and still make them competitively priced. If they just decided to arbitrarily add 30% to their stock compared to everybody else then nobody would buy them. It wouldn't make sense.
TLDR - Try and be a better human

 

[sood]

Lol

The fanboys crawling out of the woodwork to defend the honour of a sacred affiliate.

 

[Blake Stitched Blues]

But it certainly seems that they (and Derek) have a much better and realistic understanding of the business side of clothing retail than you do.

Well yes, obviously. My line of work doesn't involve selling and/or shilling clothing.

What I'm objecting to are ridiculous markups being presented as 'value', stores using sales to liquidate unwanted stock and then criticising the same customers who buy said unwanted stock, and the implication that those customers are to blame for stores going out of business.

 

[MGoCrimson]

^This is is what a cognitive deficit looks like

 

[norMD]

@Blake Stitched Blues

Have you ever returned an item out of spite?