By: Elijah Buck
We’ve all heard of Apple, the renowned company behind some of this generation’s best electronics and that over one hundred million people today carry today in their pockets. It’s no small feat to create a company as big as Apple.
Of course the company wants money for its products, but with the Airpods Max being released within the past three months in 2020, it becomes harder and harder in today’s shrinking middle class to look at a price point of $549 and call it a “reasonable” purchase. This is especially true after their line of Airpod products dropped and their base model was priced at $159. Now, many called the price for the Airpods a high price (respectively) but it’s not unfair to say that they sold extremely well, with forty five million people buying a pair within the past four years.
It’s not uncommon for companies to make a lot of profit out of these things, but in the end, how much extra do you end up paying for a brand name compared to an off-brand name that is made of the exact same materials?
Well, there isn’t an exact chart that we can look at to see how much material something is due to a lot of major companies hiding the materialistic prices of items under the view of the public’s eye. Something that helps is comparing two like items–one of which is from a well-known, ludicrous company, and another that made of similar materials; not from a ludicrous company. To do this, let’s look at Supreme.
This clothing company sells a variety of clothing items, including a white shirt with the company name on it in a red bar. These pretty much 100% cotton shirts retail for about $38. Looking at Amazon prices for something similar gives us a shirt around $7. That’s $31 that you’re paying for a Supreme name brand.
Now, you could say that it’s Supreme and they have special cotton, but in the end are you going to tell the difference between some thin “special” cotton that Supreme has said they have and some regular thin cotton? You may, but most times when you put on a shirt anyways you don’t even remember the weight or the feel after a few hours.
Overall, it doesn’t matter whether you want a name brand or not. If you want something that doesn’t break the bank, then get it. However, if you want something that sports your favorite company and you are able to afford it, then get what you want in the end. It’s up to you, and whatever income you have, to make sure that you’re able and willing to buy something that is worth it to you.