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> To tie your company to your identity so explicitly is unhealthy They're just clothes! Most people aren't that much into fashion that they'd care like you thi

> To tie your company to your identity so explicitly is unhealthy They're just clothes! Most people aren't that much into fashion that they'd care like you think they would!

rglullis 4y ago
Clothes are part of self-expression and play a role in a lot of social dynamics. Wearing swag is as much as a signal as wearing "fast-fashion" clothes or insisting on wearing a shirt and tie on places that do not require it.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  > Wearing swag is as much as a signal as wearing "fast-fashion" clothes or insisting on wearing a shirt and tie on places that do not require it. Vast majority of people are genuinely just wearing some clothes and are not signalling anything.
  - rglullis 4y ago
    My standard test to see if this is true: "what if someone gets you this <slightly different style from what you commonly wear> piece of clothing?" It doesn't even need to be completely opposite, just different enough to be noticeable. If you can see that the person is pondering about the answer, it tells you right away that they do care.
    - bawolff 4y ago
      There is a lot tied up in "slightly". Like a burlap shirt is a slightly different style, but i wouldn't wear it because that sounds really uncomfortable. Similarly i might not care generally, but there is a line where i start to. I wouldn't wear a shirt with a picture of dead babies on it. Does that mean i care? Maybe technically, but in context i dont really think it shows i care in the way that was implied originally.
      - rglullis 4y ago
        I really don't mean to be tricky about it. I mean really small things; like getting a t-shirt in the same normal fabric and adding a breast pocket [0]. Or if the person only uses neutral colors, would they wear something like [1] if they found it on their wardrobe? [0] https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt-with-breast-pocket/IRH118021158 https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt... [1] https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-White-Three-Stripes-Pattern-Vertical-Stripes-by-SimplyStripes/66366367.1YYVU https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-W...
        chrisseaton 4y ago
        Vast majority of people could not possibly care less about these differences between their clothes. You're hugely over-estimating how many people in tech care about what they wear.
        rglullis 4y ago
        If that was true, wouldn't you expect a much larger variance in how people got dressed? How can it be that so many people say they "don't care" about what they wear, yet their overall style is so uniform?
        chrisseaton 4y ago
        Because they don’t care to vary from what’s easy to find and wear for most people.
        KptMarchewa 4y ago
        They aren't "not caring" in a sense they don't spend a minute of their time choosing clothes. It's not a binary choice. Not caring in that context means minimizing effort, time spend and external impact on their lives, while maximizing comfort. Buying what everyone else buys maximizes that value. I would say I don't care about clothes, but had to make some choices when I got cats. I used to wear primarily black clothes, but cat fur is extremely visible and hard to get off them, so now I just buy diverse colors, while still not caring whether the green is too bright and goes with beige or whatever.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  I wear swag based entirely on the comfort factor. I have around 6-8 T-shirts all emblazoned from some tech company or other (plus one car company) that I wear because they’re vastly more comfortable than the 50 others I could have chosen. None happen to be emblazoned with my company logo (and we make swag), because the better swag we give out are hoodies and exercise pants. (Small shoutout to Cloudability here, who gave away some of the most comfortable swag I have. I’ve likely worn their shirts (2) almost 100 days in total.)
- bawolff 4y ago
  Its a signal that i don't give a shit and enjoy clothes i don't have to pay for. If that marks me as "uncool" to certain people, that seems like an added benefit, as i can't imagine i would get along well with anyone who judges people on such a shallow metric.
- manfre 4y ago
  > Clothes are part of self-expression and play a role in a lot of social dynamics. ... for you. Many are more utilitarian with clothes. Clean, comfortable, and suitable for the activity/environment are most important. Color, pattern, design is more of a minimum threshold filter (e.g not going to wear something offensive) It's similar to food. Some people "eat" because calories are required and they don't care much being that, while others "dine" because they want something more out of it than generic calories.
  - rglullis 4y ago
    > Color, pattern, design is more of a minimum threshold filter (e.g not going to wear something offensive) Filtering is still self-expression and related to social dynamics. What you don't say can be as informative as what you do.

> To tie your company to your identity so explicitly is unhealthy They're just clothes! Most people aren't that much into fashion that they'd care like you think they would!

rglullis 4y ago

Clothes are part of self-expression and play a role in a lot of social dynamics. Wearing swag is as much as a signal as wearing "fast-fashion" clothes or insisting on wearing a shirt and tie on places that do not require it.

chrisseaton 4y ago
> Wearing swag is as much as a signal as wearing "fast-fashion" clothes or insisting on wearing a shirt and tie on places that do not require it. Vast majority of people are genuinely just wearing some clothes and are not signalling anything.
- rglullis 4y ago
  My standard test to see if this is true: "what if someone gets you this <slightly different style from what you commonly wear> piece of clothing?" It doesn't even need to be completely opposite, just different enough to be noticeable. If you can see that the person is pondering about the answer, it tells you right away that they do care.
  - bawolff 4y ago
    There is a lot tied up in "slightly". Like a burlap shirt is a slightly different style, but i wouldn't wear it because that sounds really uncomfortable. Similarly i might not care generally, but there is a line where i start to. I wouldn't wear a shirt with a picture of dead babies on it. Does that mean i care? Maybe technically, but in context i dont really think it shows i care in the way that was implied originally.
    - rglullis 4y ago
      I really don't mean to be tricky about it. I mean really small things; like getting a t-shirt in the same normal fabric and adding a breast pocket [0]. Or if the person only uses neutral colors, would they wear something like [1] if they found it on their wardrobe? [0] https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt-with-breast-pocket/IRH118021158 https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt... [1] https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-White-Three-Stripes-Pattern-Vertical-Stripes-by-SimplyStripes/66366367.1YYVU https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-W...
      - chrisseaton 4y ago
        Vast majority of people could not possibly care less about these differences between their clothes. You're hugely over-estimating how many people in tech care about what they wear.
        rglullis 4y ago
        If that was true, wouldn't you expect a much larger variance in how people got dressed? How can it be that so many people say they "don't care" about what they wear, yet their overall style is so uniform?
        chrisseaton 4y ago
        Because they don’t care to vary from what’s easy to find and wear for most people.
        KptMarchewa 4y ago
        They aren't "not caring" in a sense they don't spend a minute of their time choosing clothes. It's not a binary choice. Not caring in that context means minimizing effort, time spend and external impact on their lives, while maximizing comfort. Buying what everyone else buys maximizes that value. I would say I don't care about clothes, but had to make some choices when I got cats. I used to wear primarily black clothes, but cat fur is extremely visible and hard to get off them, so now I just buy diverse colors, while still not caring whether the green is too bright and goes with beige or whatever.
sokoloff 4y ago
I wear swag based entirely on the comfort factor. I have around 6-8 T-shirts all emblazoned from some tech company or other (plus one car company) that I wear because they’re vastly more comfortable than the 50 others I could have chosen. None happen to be emblazoned with my company logo (and we make swag), because the better swag we give out are hoodies and exercise pants. (Small shoutout to Cloudability here, who gave away some of the most comfortable swag I have. I’ve likely worn their shirts (2) almost 100 days in total.)
bawolff 4y ago
Its a signal that i don't give a shit and enjoy clothes i don't have to pay for. If that marks me as "uncool" to certain people, that seems like an added benefit, as i can't imagine i would get along well with anyone who judges people on such a shallow metric.
manfre 4y ago
> Clothes are part of self-expression and play a role in a lot of social dynamics. ... for you. Many are more utilitarian with clothes. Clean, comfortable, and suitable for the activity/environment are most important. Color, pattern, design is more of a minimum threshold filter (e.g not going to wear something offensive) It's similar to food. Some people "eat" because calories are required and they don't care much being that, while others "dine" because they want something more out of it than generic calories.
- rglullis 4y ago
  > Color, pattern, design is more of a minimum threshold filter (e.g not going to wear something offensive) Filtering is still self-expression and related to social dynamics. What you don't say can be as informative as what you do.