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"I've got a question for you Came from one of the students in my personal image system. Actually, a few students have asked me about this. It'S already decided. Okay, I'm just going to put together a article on. How do I identify quality when you're out there shopping? The key point guys? Is I don't want you to ripped off? I don't want you to go out there and think `` Okay, Because I'm spending this amount of money, I'm going to get this amount of quality. .'', In fact, in today's article, I'm going to talk about two indicators which can be sometimes they can point you in the right direction. Other times they can lead you astray, But I'm really going to focus in on three things to look for which I feel, if you see this, you can rest assured that you're, probably getting something that's of higher quality.\n \nBut guys these five tips, you can go grab them right here. Really quick in the article Say you don't want to watch me talk about them over the next five to ten minutes. Hey, then these articles are great. Let'S go ahead and get right in The first. Two are be careful with these. These are not true indicators, but they can be That's why I want to talk about them. Number one is price. I alluded to this that if you see a shirt, that's going for $ 200 now, I'm not going to say that's high quality or low quality. I am going to say they're trying to sell it for 200. Now, let's go in and you start to look at the details. It could be a very expensive shirt that it simply marked up Cost them, maybe $ 5 to make, and it's coming from a company that is able to sell at this price point and the store that is selling. It has to make a certain amount of margin and have great salespeople around it, who can basically sell very bad quality for that amount.\n \nThat could be the case, Or it could actually be a handmade shirt coming out of Italy made from amazing fabric. In that case, it would probably be worth the price assuming that it fits you and that they also gave you great customer service. The point being gents price is not a clear indicator of quality. It can point you in the right direction and by association oftentimes with companies. I look at if it's in with some great sports jackets, it's in with a company that carries great shoes, most likely the curators in that business they're, going to try to put it something similar like shirts as the example. However, guys do not fall for that, Just because something costs money does not equate it to high quality Indicator. Number two, which can also be a false indicator, is brand. What you have to understand is brands, oftentimes, earn their ranking or their position as being of high quality. It takes them years and years. However, what happens, especially in the last 20 years, we see a lot of companies acquired, bought out and these new owners. What do they think ``, Okay,\n \nWe want to make more money with this company, so what are we going to do? We'Re going to cut costs, We're going to cut labor We're going to get rid of all the old craftsmen bring in these guys and outsource the manufacturer into a cheaper country .''? I'M not saying that is necessarily bad for the company and the shareholders, but it's definitely bad for the people that built up trust with that brand. All of a sudden, they start realizing wow. The quality went down. I'D love to hear from you guys in the comments which companies have, in your opinion, gone down in quality. You know they're out there What's interesting about this, is a company can change, They can get back and they can improve their quality, But I find that once they go down the slope, it's really hard to come back and to earn the trust, Even when they do Start putting back out quality materials, people all of a sudden start asking: why did they jack up their price Or what happened here? Let'S jump to quality indicator number three Now. For me, this is the first true quality indicator, because it's not going to lead you astray.\n \nHowever, it's harder to acquire Price, you can see that Brand. You can see that, But this one attention to detail you've actually got to take a step back and you've got to develop yourself. You have to be able to see this. The only way to do that is to go in there and look at a wide range of shirts and actually educate yourself Guys. I advocate that at Real Men, Real Style, A man needs to be self-sufficient. He needs to focus on his own education. In this example right here, I'm going to focus in on shirts But understand you can use this for shoes. You can use this for hair product. You can use this for watches. You can use this for pretty much anything in men's wear, But if they get the details right and I'm talking historic, I'm historic ones that take time.\n \nBasically, we're talking time-intensive details that maybe don't even have a reason like you, don't even have to do this, but when you do that it to me sends the message that they care about what they're putting together and that they didn't cut corners. Now on a shirt. I'M going to immediately look under the collar. How was the collar constructed? Does it feel like they actually used good material in there? All of a sudden I look at. Does it actually have room for a removable collar, stay Very easy right there to tell\n \nMost high-quality dress shirts will have that. I start to look at stitching per inch Go in there. I want to see about 14 on it, maybe a little bit more. The reason stitches per inch matter is, it actually depends on the speed of the sewing machine and how they run it through. I'M, looking at the back of the shirt, Do they have a split yoke, A split yoke? It'S going to in theory, actually give you a little bit better of a fit, but really it just simply takes a bit more time. This is a custom shirt. This is one that I paid top dollar for, and I expect them to actually pay attention to those details.\n \nNow I go in here and let me look at the gusset. This is actually between the front and the back of the shirt. They'Ve got an extra piece of fabric sewn here. Most people aren't pulling like here, but because they have this gusset. I know that this cost them when they handmade this shirt and extra five to ten minutes. It'S the attention to detail like here, which is going to allow this shirt to live up to a decade two decades. If you really take care of it. When you see these historical details, these small things\nThey'Re hard to see unless you've got a trained eye, but when you're able to spot them, you immediately know okay. I understand why they're charging more for this, why this is going to be a bit more expensive. You can then make a good decision on whether or not you want to pay for it All right. The fourth point I want to hit on is actually going to be the small details that go in with the add-on material\n \nIn some cases it's going to be maybe the hardware on a leather jacket. I'Ve talked about that. What'S there between a $ 200 and a $ 2,000 leather jacket Or on a shirt, It's most often going to be the buttons. But when I look at a button there are numerous things I'm looking at this First off, I'm looking at what type of button is it If it's a mother of pearl button, those are normally a lot more rare. A mother of pearl is going to be more expensive.\n \nTherefore, most companies are going to use plastic. In addition, I'm looking at the way it's actually stitched on there Has it been hand-sewn. Does it have actually a shank right there? The shank is actually a bit of separation that allows it whenever you button it for the fabric actually to lie there. This is something that takes time When you see details like this and again. If I go and I look at let's say a pair of dress shoes and I start to look at the different components on it: did they pay attention to all these additional components? To the heel That is going to tell me is this actually quality material If they skipped there, they probably skipped in other places, All right guys. The last quality clothing indicator I'm going to talk about is material\n \nLet'S go ahead and go back to the shirt. Let'S look at the fabric For a lot of people. It'S going to be hard to tell the difference between a really low-quality fabric and a high-quality fabric. Why? Because they've never seen the difference, That's why I advocate that every man, no matter how much money you make or where you're at in life, that you go into a higher-end, men's, wear, store and look at the clothing, Perhaps try it on. If you only shop at Target or at Cole's, which are fine stores, if you haven't seen anything out there, you're not going to know it When you go into that higher-end men's wear store and you look at that shirt and you see it made from that fabric From that mill, that's 500 years old over in Italy, and you look at how deep how rich the colors are. You look at the unique patterns that are brought together, how they guys that work at that store because they're enthusiasts and they love it. They'Re able to bring in these beautiful ties mixed with a silk pocket square on a tweed jacket. You'Ve never seen combinations like that. When you see that - and you touch it all of a sudden - you realize that there is a range of material\n \nYou start to look for it. You start to realize that that is another huge indicator of why something is going to cost the way it does The quality of the materials the scarcity used, there's only so much high-quality cotton that can be used in higher-quality dress shirts. We see it in shoes as well. Let'S look at a whole cut. One of the reasons I like the whole cut is, if you look at it this actually, you had to take a large piece and you had to cut it from an even larger piece of leather\n \nThere could be no imperfections in the leather, otherwise it would show up in the shoe, Because of that I know that a whole cut in general. Anyone that sells or makes one this is going to be a higher-end company. This is Paul Evans by the way, Great sponsor of mine, The point being guys when you start to understand all five of these and how they work understand. The first two you've got to be careful with, but the last three, if you understand the details, if you understand the stitching, if you understand the materials, if you understand quality components, all that stuff that goes into it, you're going to be able to make a smart Purchasing decision, no matter what\n \nNow guys, if you want more, I've got tons of free e-books for you right here, You can dive into it Guys, go check them out. I'M really proud to put these up Now. I do change these up a bit. Sometimes it'll be some up there that you've seen before Other times, I'm going to take them down, I'm going to rotate them in and out. Let me know what you think in the comments down below. Maybe I missed something I'd love to hear from and learn from you guys."
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