[AlexB138]

Funny baader-meinhof moment for me reading this. My wife recently bought me some Brooks Brothers polo shirts that essentially dissolved the first time they were washed. I had never seen a shirt that was such poor quality. We were both flabbergasted, and the employees apparently gave her a bit of a hard time when she tried to return them.

I suppose I now know why.

What this company is doing is taking advantage of, and really creating, adverse selection. They buy a brand for its reputation, destroy everything that made it worthwhile and abuse the information asymmetry of the public still believing they're buying the now non-existent brand. It could be seen very easily as a form of fraud.

[lamasery]

Brooks has their "factory outlet" crap that is also what you're likely to see at "overstock" stores like Nordstrom Rack (or TJ Max, though I'm not sure they get Brooks-branded stuff; NR does). That entire market is basically one big decentralized fraud operation, they took a model that used to involve selling brands' real goods that had, for whatever reason, not sold well or had minor quality defects, at steep discounts, and replaced that with pretending to do that but actually selling terrible trash with a "nice" brand label on it. "Factory" and "overstock" stores are basically a complete lie that the FTC hasn't seen fit to do anything about because the government is captured by rich crime-loving assholes. They exist solely to trick you into over-paying for Walmart tier crap.

BB's main-line stuff has also been declining in quality, so that's no guarantee either, unfortunately. I think Covid ended most or all of their remaining US production, which was already on the way out.

Some sub-labels like 1818 are still OK. On sale. Even Brooks' best stuff hasn't been worth full price since... IDK, the '90s probably.

[miladyincontrol]

I mean "factory outlet malls" have been a trend for like two decades now and the whole third-rate product line scam has been going stronger even before then. Sad part is a lot of knockoffs/bootlegs are ironically better quality than the absolute rubbish those "outlet" type stores peddle these days, while also being cheaper, but really neither are worth your money.

[anal_reactor]

I just buy stuff on AliExpress because the concept of "brand" doesn't exist there so reviews always refer to exactly the product they sell. Sometimes it's trash, but often it's really solid, and you can find things you can't find elsewhere. It's like a flea market where you need to know how to buy. I always buy trousers there because they're superb. Lots of electronics. Sex toys. And I bought a replacement part for my fridge that I would've otherwise needed to completely scrap. Thank you Xi Jinping.

[cheschire]

> the government is captured by rich crime-loving assholes

It’s funny how fast average joe complains when a lack of economic growth slows down their 401k’s though…

Edit: Apparently I’m surrounded by non-standard Joe

[triceratops]

Is selling substandard trash at premium prices really "growth"? What are we growing?

[antisthenes]

Growing a generation of kids who come of age in a society with a non-functional social contract.

[pocksuppet]

Does he? I don't think I've ever heard that complaint.

[cheschire]

How many folks within five to ten years of retirement do you talk to? If you’re surrounded by people under 50, you probably wouldn’t hear much about it.

[JohnFen]

I'm surrounded by people in that age group (I'm one of them, even), and I don't remember any of them talking about this.

[pocksuppet]

I'm sure all of them want more money, but I've never heard a person say we need to screw over the economy so that they, personally, can have more money. The stock market is treated like the weather. If they want more money they want the government to just give it to them - even the most conservative ones - not play silly financial games to pretend it isn't.

[sarchertech]

I hear complaints about 401k balances dropping. But I don’t think I’ve heard complaints about it not going fast enough because we haven’t had a long period of slow stock market growth in a long time.

[HaZeust]

WHY ARE YOU ASKING ABOUT DESIGNER-BRAND WHITE-LABEL FRAUD AND EPSTEIN, WHEN THE DOW IS UP 50K!??

[radicality]

Definitely feels like fraud to me too. Kind of reminds me of Amazon listings where some seller has some decent quality product, collects a lot of high reviews, then uses the same listing and does a complete switcharoo to a much shittier more profitable product, replacing images and the description, but keeping the higher rating from earlier. Which also to me sounds like fraud.

At least the Chinese brands don’t try and hide it much like the companies listed here, they’ll just generate a new 5-letter new company to sell low quality crap.

[scottious]

It's frustrating that it's hard to know what's going to be good quality.

I bought a base layer years ago that basically fell apart after 1 month. It was like it was made of tissue paper. I bought a different one that has been AWESOME and has lasted 4 years so far with no signs of wear.

[nunez]

The decline of Brooks Brothers is real and sad.

If I recall, their 1818 Madison collection is still mostly made in Italy with Italian fabrics. "Mostly" because some of this collection --- their made-to-measure garments, specifically --- is made in China with high-quality Chinese fabrics. What's sad about this is that their made-to-measure stuff used to be made in Chicago by expert tailors before the acquisition.

[singleshot_]

All of my multiple decade old made to measure Brooks stuff is starting to wear out. Obviously I’m not even considering replacing it with anything off the rack from BB now because it’s all garbage.

What replaced off the rack suits for men in the US? Or should I give up and buy some Realtree?

[fmajid]

The CEO and owner of Luxottica, the dominant company in eyeglasses, bought Brooks Brothers as a present foir his idiot son, much as Larry Ellison did with Paramount and CBS for his. Said wastrel son ran it into the ground and there it remained for scavengers to feed on.

[sysguest]

hmm... but that doesn't guarantee that the customer will buy from "my main brand"

rather, if I know A is a "family brand" of B(rooks bro?), then I'll try to NOT buy from A, and buy from C/D/E/F/G/etc instead