Dear Dr. Per Cap: My grandkids will only wear brand name clothing like Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour.  I try to tell them the off brand stuff is just as good but they won’t listen and say it’s not cool to wear the cheaper stuff.  How can I convince them that just because something is more expensive that doesn’t mean better quality? 

Signed, Thrifty Grandma

Dear Thrifty Grandma

I totally agree that a lot of brand name clothing and merchandise doesn’t earn its higher price when compared to economy or discount brands.  I even have a personal maxim I call the 85/50 Rule when debating a purchase.  It works like this.  A good lower cost product offers 85% of the quality as a high end or luxury brand at 50% the cost.

For example, in terms of performance, reliability, efficiency, and overall vehicle quality I argue that a brand new Toyota is 85% as good as its BMW counterpart but only costs half as much.  This applies to big ticket items like cars but also clothes.  The basic Champion brand t shirts and workout gear I get from Target are 85% as good as the stuff Nike sells but cost 50% less.  And I sure don’t run any faster wearing the pricy gear either!

Now that we have quality and performance out of the way let’s tackle the harder issue – image.  Image or coolness is highly subjective but for some people it’s just not as cool to drive a Toyota as it is to drive a Beemer and it’s not as cool to wear off brand sports apparel as it is to rock some fresh brand name gear.  And this is what your grandkids are responding too.

This is a tough sell but I’m going to suggest that you learn more about what your grandchildren are into and then offer them discount brand clothing strategically.  Let’s be real it’s going to be hard to convince a teenager to sport a no name pair of shoes from a discount store when he or she can have a pair of Nikes.  But there are some strong off brands that many teens like.

ASOS is an online apparel company that offers plenty of coolness at an affordable price.  Swedish retailer H & M is another hip discount brand with stores in malls everywhere.  Old Navy has been around for years and while maybe not quite as cool as some other economy clothing stores it’s still in the running.  Dickies workpants, which are dirt cheap compared to designer style dungarees, were the rage among teens a few years ago and have made a recent comeback.  And then of course there’s Target. 

Another trend to pay attention to is that, believe it or not, many young people are shying away from heavily corporate branded clothing with flashy logos and wording.  Instead they are opting for plain t-shirts and apparel with no logos and neutral colors.  But whatever you do just don’t make the biggest low budget mistake of buying something with a big logo that screams “I got this at a really cheap nerdy discount store!”

Good luck and keep shopping 85/50!  Ask Dr. Per Cap is a program funded by First Nations Development Institute with assistance from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. For more information, visit www.firstnations.org. To send a question to Dr. Per Cap, email askdrpercap@firstnations.org.