When Keyana Sapp, 31, went shopping for a new backpack, the brands he remembered as a kid were just not the same.
He researched the companies, from North Face to JanSport and Eastpak, and soon realized they were all owned by the VF Corporation after a wave of acquisitions in the 2000s. After a Reddit post he made about his discovery picked up traction, he started looking at other types of consumer goods – cookware, shoes, tools, clothing.
“It seems like that was a story that just repeated in every industry,” Sapp told the Guardian.
I just rebought the same Levis jeans I’ve had for some years. The exact same model, length, waist etc, because the old one from 5 years ago fit me perfectly. The new one is too small, and not just around the waist, but it stops above my ankles where the old one goes below my ankles. You can put them on top of each other and see that the new one is a bit smaller everywhere. I also feel like it got even smaller after washing - at 30° according to the instructions.
I’ve noticed the same when I go to thrift store. I need L-XL there, whereas when I buy new clothes it’s XXL. Being worn out can only account for so much in my opinion.
Yeah, Levi’s completely trashed their brand in the past 10 years. I used to consider it top shelf quality, and now it is actually worse than the cheapest bargain bin brands but still the most expensive.
there is no standard or consistency for size. Not just across companies, but even internally on the same fucking goddamn product… Its something that has infuriated me for a decade+
I keep running into it. I buy a T-Shirt or a pair of pants, find them comfortable and like them, and go back and buy 2-3 more pairs.
I get them home and find out none of them are the same size. and I’m not talking about new ones compared to the ones I’ve been wearing and have broken in. I’m not talking about accidentally picking up a couple different sizes due to a stocking mix up. None of that. I’m talking about 3 supposedly identical items that are never identical. because the clothing is made so goddamn cheap anymore that they dont even bother with quality control anymore.
A prime example of this was last week, bought myself 3 new pairs of pants. Same brand, same model, same size, same cut, same everything. Literally the same pair of pants, taken out of the box, and put on the shelf, stacked up on top of eachother.
One pair doesnt fit cause its significantly smaller than the other two. One pair is in okay fit with an uncomfortably tight crotch thats gonna blow out if I wear them too long, and the last pair is mostly okay and close to the original pair I’ve bought.
And that doesnt even get into how awful consistency is across brands, either.
and its a roll of the dice to try things on in stores because of nasty, disgusting fucking pigs in human form using the dressing rooms as a bathroom, so there is either no dressing room anymore, or if there is you gotta hunt down someone, who has to hunt down someone who has the key to let you in… and thats assuming they didnt just shit in/on the clothes itself (which I have seen soo many goddamn skid marks in clothes that someone tried on and put back on the hanger that I even if I wanted to try on clothes I cant bring myself to do it anymore)