“In the days of 200 dollar sweatpants, consumers will be relieved at the outcome of this study” -Anonymous, Rockaway, March 18th, 2023
“ZZ Top knew this in the 80’s, ‘got to get me some cheap sunglasses.” –Zed, long distance over the phone from Detroit, March 19th, 2023
“The implications of this study are vast. If it applies to sunglasses it can be broadened to all fashion accessories. Goodbye Fifth avenue extravagance.” Jennifer, LES, March 17th, 2023 between sips of green beer.
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I did a sneaky thing on Friday night with my social media accounts. Not an immoral or dishonest thing, but it was sneaky. I put these three photos up and asked which were the better sunglasses, the yellow or green.
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The green ones are Ray Ban’s and the yellow ones are cheap glasses, ten bucks or less. I’ve had both for several years. As far as brand names you don’t get much more iconic than Ray Bans. But on my instagram and facebook post no one noticed or mentioned that one pair were Ray Bans. So the question is do brand names or supposed quality matter in today’s fashion’s world?
In fact, in this personal social media study, about half of all participants liked the yellow ones better than the green ones. And on instagram, the yellow was the clear favorite. On facebook the green ones had a few more votes as the favorite.
My instagram is more of my skate friends, and facebook is more of my library friends. Both skateboarders and librarians are fashion forward in different ways. I won’t attempt to go through those nuances of contrasting fashion trends of skaters and librarians, but I was frankly surprised the fact that one pair were Ray Bans did not play into anyone’s preference.
I’d venture to say in decades past any pair of Ray Bans would be the choice in compared to cheap sunglasses. Now to me, it’s individuality that drives people that care what they wear. You can have on an 80 dollar pair of jeans with a 10 dollar shirt or vice versa. Even I go to a few online sites for discounted shoes. All sorts of clothes can be worn in an appealing way, and the consumer has more choices than ever.
To end this drivel, I’ll state if you pop for Ray Bans or expensive shades go somewhere to try them on before you buy them. I bought these Ray Bans sunglasses off their site and I matched the green and purple frames. In hindsight I guess I was going for the Penguin in Batman look, which might not be the best example of Ray Bans in this world. And the yellow pair is an excellent example of cheap sunglasses. So this study means nothing, ha.
