FashBlog.com

Written by James Fohl
April 28th, 2005

Recently while on an all day shopping adventure with my girlfriend , I found myself stumbling into a Dickies outlet store with the ultimate goal of locating a pair of 32 x 34 carpenter jeans for work. While I have remembered seeing Dickies all of my life in the small hardware stores, and in some retail stores such as K-Mart while growing up, I never saw a whole store dedicated to Dickies clothing. But then again, I always thought the Dickies clothing brand was for the blue collar workers of America, and the entire Dickies line consisted only of work pants, work shirts, and a couple essential blue collar accessories such as suspenders and belts.

Boy was I surprised when I walked into Dickies and saw pink blue jeans, a barrage of small purses with the Dickies logo stapled onto them, guitar straps, skirts, and a bunch of other clothing accessories totally opposite to Dickies initial products. Apparently Dickies has really exploded from the blue collar workman's supply company it had once been, to a teenager fashion paradise. Sure the store had some carpenter jeans and work shirts; a whole one clothing rack. About ninety-eight percent of the store was devoted to teenager fashions; from pink blue jeans to black and white checkered purses, I was really surprised.

I went to the carpenter jean rack, because really that was the sole purpose of my visit to the store. I remembered the last pair of Dickies jeans I bought were only seventeen dollars, and this was about a year ago at a local hardware store which should be expensive, since it was a locally own shop. I was astonished when I looked at the pricetag and saw thirty three dollars. I quickly grabbed my girlfriend's hand and left the store in total disgrace.

On the drive home from the mall, I went into the same hardware store I had purchased the Dickies a year ago. There they sat, next to a rack of Dickies work shirts and a pile of Dickies belts. I quickly went throughout the pile of jeans before I found my size, and quickly looked at the pricetag. The price of the pair of jeans was eighteen dollars; a dollar higher than last year, yet still fifteen bucks cheaper than the Dickies store. I took the pair of jeans to the register, along with a seven dollar belt and left a happy man ready to work.

I now understand why Dickies has opened stores with all kinds of teenager clothing, at ridiculous prices. They realize that if kids wish to spend outrageous amounts of money for clothing, then let them. They can have massive amounts of profits, while still providing the blue collar workers with high quality, durable workwear at very affordable prices.

Dickies makes really durable clothing. Seriously, although they are not the most comfortable clothes, they still outlast almost every other brand on the market. While I can see why the company has exploded into retail outlets, I really hope hard working Americans looking for cheap workwear do not go into the Dickies stores and see the outrageous prices and give up on Dickies.