Brand villages are sometimes not as advantageous as you think…
The hunt for gifts has already begun. A month before Christmas, organized consumers are already looking for good clothing deals to spoil their loved ones without blowing their budget. At the end of the year, outlets and brand villages become ideal places to find the gems that will please your loved ones. But behind the good deals displayed, there are often real disguised consumer schemes.
Fashionistas believe they are buying the same quality as in a traditional store at a lower price, but this is not always the case. Indeed, although these clothes sold in outlets have the same appearance as those sold in stores, they are not made in the same way, and are part of collections intended specifically for brand villages.
But how do these brands manage to reduce costs? It is at the level of composition and materials that everything comes into play. To produce and then sell clothing at a lower cost, fashion brands reduce the share of expensive materials and increase that of less expensive materials. For example, for an outlet polo shirt with a similar appearance, rather than having 70% cotton and 30% polyester, we will have the opposite distribution.
Questioned by our colleagues from Parisiana saleswoman from a famous jeans brand admits: “They are the same (as in the store), the cut does not change. The only difference that there will be ultimately would be that those of the classic stores, it is a material, the jeans, they are ‘premium’. That is to say that the quality, the materials which are used, will be a little more qualitative than in the outlets.”
By comparing the polo shirts from the two distribution channels, a workshop manager reveals all the elements that separate the two versions: the color is less vibrant in the one sold in brand villages, the embroidery is less expensive, the material is thinner (255g for the in-store polo shirt compared to 238g for the outlet polo shirt). However, it is impossible for a layman to detect this with the naked eye. The detail that allows us to know for sure without going to the lab? Stocks.
If the desired garment is available in all sizes, there is a good chance that it comes from the special outlet collection, and not unsold items from old official collections. Obviously, this observation does not apply to all labels – only to some. But now we’ll know what to expect when shopping…
