Then there is the prestige factor. We know that some folks will pay way more for a pair of jeans with a designer label than they will pay for jeans from the farm supply store. Even though the jeans from the farm store are better quality. Have to have a shrink explain that.
Easy!
Having worn Levi's 501 button-fly jeans nearly as long as I've had JBLs in my house (that was 1957), I can tell you nothing compares. Even today when often I find my jeans "assembled in Egypt (or Indonesia, or Mexico, etc.) from US-made parts" the quality is basically the same, the fit the same, and the legendary durability is why I buy them. I'm not a brand-name snob but over my 6-plus decades of life I've often stuck with Chemise LaCoste (Izod) and Brooks Brothers shirts, Because I still have examples of each worn by my father who passed over 40-years ago which are still serviceable today. Some served as my kids' smocks and could be sold as Jackson Pollock knock-offs.
The point is Tractor Store brand clothing still has to earn a reputation. Carhartt, among its cognoscenti, has brand appeal, too. For that matter, so does a Trump tie made in China. I have Lee carpenter jeans as well as DuckHead jeans I buy cheap wherever and use as work pants. But the 501s are my go-to-when-not-at-work uniform. I have nothing against generics. I swallow them everyday on orders from my doctor. I buy Kroger jams and jellies but I have to have Jiff Crunchy peanut butter. I draw the line at generic toilet paper, tissues, and paper towels. Bounty really is the quicker picker upper and the single-ply rolls of TP we once used as filters in diesel engines are not welcome in my bathrooms.
When I see a retired gentleman around my age come into my workplace in his no-name "Mom" jeans, I just feel sorry for them. Sure, their government pension and a government-supported stock market has enabled them to buy what I'm selling (BMW cars), but their taste in clothing (and the incumbent fit-and-finish) is not becoming nor will the purchase of an expensive German car help that appearance. Style can be bought but some wear it, naturally, better than others. I don't need the red-tab and I never bought into that horrible Golden Fleece crap on the pockets of BB outlet inventory, but I do know what I like . . . and why I like it.
Quality reputations and the "snob" appeal that goes along with them has usually been a reputation that was earned over many generations because of outstanding performance and reliability.
That's JBL. Doesn't mean someone (Samsung) won't just be resting on the name recognition. But It also doesn't mean the legacy products don't deserve it.
