Are you a billboard?

[maxman]

I'm not fashionable in the least.
Mark's Work Wearhouse is where I get most of my tshirts.
I buy Jeans at Zellers or wherever they are cheap.
My shoes are Asics or and old pair of Merrell's.

 

[rearviewmirror]

The Polo guy and the Banana Republic elephant are about it. My tshirts over the years have gone from giant billboards for whatever liquor company was giving away free stuff to plain, solid colors. I picked up 3 Lands End grey tshirts a few weeks ago for $1.50 each! I love them!

 

[nosedog]

I prefer not to have any writing visible anywhere.

 

[hillbilly pick]

Never intentional, but if the shirt fits!

Most t-shirts I ware are bands, concerts, or festivals. So I guess, yes.

 

[cstone28]

General question to keep this going.
So would you avoid buying something from a quality brand that you liked because it was logo'd and buy something inferior becasue it wasn't logo'd?

 

[jesperw]

Logos were cool 10 years ago. Nowadays I do not buy clothes with logo or where I cannot remove the logo.

 

[njpaddy]

So would you avoid buying something from a quality brand that you liked because it was logo'd and buy something inferior becasue it wasn't logo'd?

I would. I hate the thought of paying some rich company to be their billboard. I don't even have any Levi jeans. When I was younger I used to cut the logos off, even that little red Levi tag. Now if the logo doesn't get covered by the belt, I don't buy them. My current jeans are Wrangler and Costco. I guess they are inferior to Levi. I used to make exceptions for Tee shirts with beer/booze logos, but I need a pocket for glasses, so I now only buy plain Longtail's from Duluth. My only logo item I can think of is a Head hat I bought at a golf tournament years ago. The Head logo is on the back strap so I forget it's there. On the front is the golf tournament logo. It's actually a great hat, but it should be for what I paid. I'm not much of a hat person, but I wear it when it rains.

 

[Doc4]

Tilley hats don't have blazing logos on them, but I can still identify one a hundred yards away. Sometimes just being well made is all that matters.

Sometimes, you don't need a logo to identify a brand. That's good branding. Jeep has that seven-stripe grill on the front of its jeeps, Harley-Davidson has that "potato potato" sound ... both of which, IIRC, have been protected by copyright/lawsuits.

Those are easy examples.

It gets harder with clothes, but still there are examples. Not that I can think of any right now, but still ...

The Polo guy ...

... keeps getting bigger and bigger.

The first time I saw that, in a small store in the Philippines, I thought it was an obvious fake ... as obviously Ralph Lauren wouldn't be that crass and tacky as to supersize the logo like that.

Wrong.

Maybe that particular shirt was fake or legit ... but ... RL Polo does actually do logos like that. Ugh.

General question to keep this going.
So would you avoid buying something from a quality brand that you liked because it was logo'd and buy something inferior becasue it wasn't logo'd?

Third option ... just keep shopping until I find logo-free quality.

 

[Boro62]

not a big logo fan either, a small emblem in the corner is ok for me....but when it comes to t-shirts, i usually go for joke prints from like threadless.com (yes i am still a child sometimes even though im 30)

 

[JoshuaNY]

For the most part I try not to be a complete billboard. But I do wear a lot of cartoon/comic book Tshirts. Does wearing a Captain America or Transformers Tshirt count?

I try not to have Brand names plastered all over myself though, any Tshirt or what not like that I do not wear.

Plus if you own a Polo(not the brand just the type of shirt, are they called anything else?) shirt, they most definitely have their little emblem on the chest. Which any adult male can pick out a mile away.

 

[OldSaw]

Sometimes, you don't need a logo to identify a brand. That's good branding. Jeep has that seven-stripe grill on the front of its jeeps, Harley-Davidson has that "potato potato" sound ... both of which, IIRC, have been protected by copyright/lawsuits.

Those are easy examples.

It gets harder with clothes, but still there are examples. Not that I can think of any right now, but still ...

Pendleton shirts. Of course my wife thinks they are out of fashion.

Lately I buy most of my clothes at thrift stores, occasionally I will take a discreet logo if the quality is good. I work in the office of a machine shop, and have to go into the shop regularly, one brush against a burr on the edge of a piece of steel and there's a ruined article of clothing. I can't afford to be buying expensive clothing just to destroy it.

 

[OldSaw]

General question to keep this going.
So would you avoid buying something from a quality brand that you liked because it was logo'd and buy something inferior becasue it wasn't logo'd?

Not necessarily. It depends on the degree of difference in quality, the size of the logo, the price difference, etc.

 

[OldSaw]

What I find interesting is that most of us who have replied will avoid being a billboard, however, the reality is that there are a lot of people that are very label conscious. As I mentioned earlier, the North Face is so prevalent in northern climates that it amazes me that no one has admitted to having their obnoxious logo plastered on their shoulder. Perhaps we are just an odd lot (well, I know we are by our very nature of hanging out on a shaving forum, but you get my drift).

I actually took a bit of ribbing from my friends for wearing a 20 year old ski jacket. I wonder, if that same 20 year old jacket had a big old North Face logo on it if they would have had the same thoughts about it. Since I only wore it to go skiing it was still in very good shape, so its styling and lack of logo was the only thing that made it look out of place. I finally upgraded because my wife wanted to buy me something, I wanted something water proof, the newer jacket is much lighter AND as I get older, the stuff I bought 20 years ago doesn't always fit that well any more.

I'm sure the North Face company makes a high quality product or people wouldn't buy it (my friend likes his), but I doubt that it is any better than many other well made products that are more discreet with their logos.

 

[cb91710]

The first time I saw that, in a small store in the Philippines, I thought it was an obvious fake ... as obviously Ralph Lauren wouldn't be that crass and tacky as to supersize the logo like that.

When I was in college, one of my buddies loved polo shirts, hated RL.

He found a brand "Get Off Your High Horse" and the chest logo was the Polo guy... being thrown from his horse

 

[ShaveThis]

I once told a car dealership that if he put his name on the car...I would not buy it.
If he did he would pay me $500. a year for advertizing. He didn't.
I get paid to endorse.....It's in my contract.

Same here. I had them write that they wouldn't on the bill of sale. Not even a license plate bracket unless they pay me.

I only have two major billboard emblems. I carry a white snowcap pen in my shirt pocket, and on occasion I wear a Yankees baseball cap. Other than that, you would really have to stare to see what type of watch I wore.

A Yankee cap isn't advertizing, it's good sense! Go Yankees, well maybe next year.

 

[cb91710]

Same here. I had them write that they wouldn't on the bill of sale. Not even a license plate bracket unless they pay me.

I'm going to put my own plate frame on anyways... and I like the plastic plates... I leave them under the DMV plate to help protect the paint.

Out here in SoCal, we're fortunate in that we never had the thing with the metal dealer badges that were pinned through the trunk lid.
Nowadays, they just put a sticker on the rear window, and on trucks, a hitch plug.

The sticker comes off painlessly and like the license plate frame, the hitch plug will be replaced.
It's just not something that's worth getting worked up about and bringing it into the negotiation process.

 

[ShaveThis]

I once told a car dealership that if he put his name on the car...I would not buy it.
If he did he would pay me $500. a year for advertizing. He didn't.
I get paid to endorse.....It's in my contract.

I'm going to put my own plate frame on anyways... and I like the plastic plates... I leave them under the DMV plate to help protect the paint.

Out here in SoCal, we're fortunate in that we never had the thing with the metal dealer badges that were pinned through the trunk lid.
Nowadays, they just put a sticker on the rear window, and on trucks, a hitch plug.

The sticker comes off painlessly and like the license plate frame, the hitch plug will be replaced.
It's just not something that's worth getting worked up about and bringing it into the negotiation process.

It's really those metal badgers that I was talking about. They drill holes for those darn things. Also they got into putting their decals on the paint. Serious no go. That doesn't come off easy. I guess i just hate car dealers in general (sorry to any here). Won't advertize for them. All this was really just a 30 second conversation after the deal was made. But I did have them write it down. The salesmen forget you 5 minutes later and the prep guys go ahead and do their thing.

 

[Plano]

Unless you paid MSRP the dealership did pay you to advertise by giving you a discount. If you are that worried about 500 bucks you probebly shouldnt be looking at that nice/high priced of a car.

 

[joshmv]

I've never really thought about it too much, but I guess I do shy away from clothes with obvious markings. It's probably because I'm in advertising but other than a few RL polo shirts and the shirts with my favorite college teams logo on them I'm pretty much billboardless.

 

[Doc4]

I actually took a bit of ribbing from my friends for wearing a 20 year old ski jacket. I wonder, if that same 20 year old jacket had a big old North Face logo on it if they would have had the same thoughts about it.

Were I to go skiing, I'd dress more like Sir David Niven in The Pink Panther. Any friends ribbing me would find their bungalows burgled and their priceless gems stolen. Just sayin'.

Unless you paid MSRP the dealership did pay you to advertise by giving you a discount. If you are that worried about 500 bucks you probebly shouldnt be looking at that nice/high priced of a car.

Unless it's in the sales contract that you are to be their billboard, then no, they don't get to trespass on your property to install their advertising, regardless of the fact that they sold you the property in the first place. (If, OTOH, you are negotiating the purchase of a specific car ... used or demo model, for example ... that already has the advert in place, then you are stuck with the advert until you remove it ... )