There is no publicity like free publicity. For a marketer, there is no publicity like having someone pay you to advertise your product. This set-up is mostly seen as a part of the fashion industry, where a high-profile label can put their logo on a shirt and sell it to the general public. The logo doesn’t even need to be tweaked or in a “special edition” format, just a copy-paste-screen-print job. Even before a label can develop brand loyalty with it’s customers, many will see a random name on a T-shirt and automatically buy it.
I can remember many summers shopping with my mother for the back-to-school outfit, only to buy a plain white T-shirt with a random logo on the front. Looking back, the shirt wasn’t of a unique material (with the way most brands are now, it was probably American Apparel) nor did the logo have a unique or catchy name. This maybe going overboard, but knowing myself it was most likely in black and white also. These random shirts by random brands that I have never heard of, lasted in my closet for about as long as my attention span for them.
Also, random labels aren’t the only ones receiving free publicity. Take Roca Wear, a brand almost anyone (especially those with an eye for urban fashion) has heard of. A majority of pieces on the line actually feature designs and graphics that are not related to the name, but the label still releases shirts with just the logo. Is it then okay to wear a plain shirt with the logo of a brand because you have loyalty for it?
The same can be said for the majority of purses and other fashion items by brands such as Louis Vuitton and Coach. Granted, the logo purses are usually made of higher quality leather/ fabrics, but what if you could get the same brand sans the logo for a cheaper price? Would you sacrifice the coveted “LV” pattern to save a few hundred dollars?
On one perspective, having “LV” on your bag shows that you either A) have money or B) have a good connection to the counterfeiters. Wearing a plain shirt with the label of your favorite brand shows that you enjoy the brand enough to wear the most basic and least inspired of what they offer. The plain “logo T” is sort of an invitation to the fans to become walking billboards for the brand and to show the world what makes up their wardrobe.
The entire concept of a logo T isn’t bad for the brand. It’s the easiest way to advertisement plus they actually make a profit for their “efforts.” The downside is for those consumers who feel that having a closet full of logos allows them to be “cool” or “in” just because they have their favorite rapper’s/ singer’s/ socialite’s brand on a cheap American Apparel shirt. Unless you truly have respect and pride in a brand, you are basically paying a company to do the work of their entire marketing department. So unless you truly love and respect a brand, you look like the fashion equivalent of an intern over-working for free.
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