Popular clothing brands are influencing this generation just like in the past. While designer brands are expensive, small businesses are increasing their prices as they start to grow more and more.

Though some individuals purchase designer clothing due to its high quality, others might just purchase it due to the brand’s popularity or because it is well-liked by others. An important part of a successful clothing business is the use of social media.

“When it comes to social media impacting our clothing brands, a lot of brands post and advertise the clothing,” freshman Abigail Arvin said. “Through social media, people would see these brands and see the advertisements, and they start to buy and post more of those clothing brands.”

In addition, freshman Sofia Herrera further discusses the strategies used to target audiences by businesses.

“I think how clothing brands target their audience is with social media,” Herrera said. “Most likely, they would target audiences of teens and people in their early twenties. Most students wear Nike because they see influencers and famous people all wear clothes from that brand.”

However, to encourage more people to recognize a brand, Arvin describes how brands do so.

“In order to get people to notice a brand, they’d have to advertise,” Arvin said. “So, in order to get more people to notice, brands will have popular content creators to advertise their brand through sponsorship.”

Herrera explains people’s mindsets and why they would buy from a well-known brand.

“Influencers and famous people advertise really well,” Herrera said. “People would see their favorite actor or athlete wear a certain type of clothing, which makes them want to have it too, and that will ultimately lead to the brand becoming popular.”

In many cases, brands will sell outdated clothing, as Arvin explains with one example.

“Fashion sorts of repeats itself,” Arvin said. “Lately, it’s been repeating with these cargo pants. Many people have been wearing low-rise cargos, parachute cargos, and traditional high-waisted cargos. When big clothing brands notice that people are wearing cargos, they begin including cargos into their fashion selection.”

Herrera concludes what distinguishes one brand from another.

“I think the material of a clothing brand really sets out a business from other brands,” Herrera said. “The actual marketing of the product matters too because they would give out a lot of sponsors to famous people that are well known so that they could advertise for the company.”

Meanwhile, Arvin owns a variety of clothing from different brands. The top two of which are Nike and Adidas.

“Like other people, I see at school, I wear Nike socks over my leggings sometimes,” Arvin said. “I do wear a few Adidas clothes, such as my white Adidas long sleeve and Adidas joggers. I also have an Adidas backpack even though it’s not clothing, but it is popular.”

Freshman Martine Metelus expresses her opinion of her most favored clothing brand.

“I shop at Shein because it’s really cheap,” Metelus said. “They have some really nice clothes that I like, and it’s affordable for what my budget is. The quality doesn’t really matter to me, but the texture does because some textures make me feel really sensitive, and I don’t really like how it feels.”

Metelus claims a dislike for a different brand.

“Gucci is overpriced in my opinion,” Metelus said. “It looks cheap and terrible, and so are their advertisements. There’s a few small businesses on Tiktok that sell really good clothes, and I would support them if I had the money.”

Although Metelus shares her dislike for only one brand, she has a few dislikes for other brands that she hasn’t focused on.

“I think that expensive businesses like Gucci and Louis Vuitton are overrated,” Metelus said. “I’d say all the expensive brands are overpriced for absolutely nothing. If the creator made it by hand, and it actually looked good, I would be fine with it.”

Herrera describes why some brands will stay fashionable.

“I think popular brands like Nike will still be popular in the future,” Herrera said. “They’ve been around for a while and could still be popular because of how many people like the shoes. They also use shoes from Nike in the NBA, which shows you how popular they currently are.”