Overview
The fashion industry has boomed thanks to marketing by high-end brands. Some would argue that those clothes and accessories are not worth their exorbitant price tags. But to the wearer, perhaps the perceived social benefits of wearing them outweigh their costs.
The question, however, is do people really hold luxury items, and in turn their wearers, in higher regard? For example, does the average person who sees a pair of rare sneakers tend to like those sneakers more than a lesser-known brand?
The Experiment
We conducted an experiment with 400 people on Amazon Mechanical Turk in which participants were instructed to “Imagine you see someone wearing the shoes below,” and then randomized whether they saw a pair of Hoka brand shoes, a lesser-known company based in France, or a pair of Nike Air Max 270s from the well-known Nike company.
The fashion industry has boomed thanks to marketing by high-end brands. Some would argue that those clothes and accessories are not worth their exorbitant price tags. But to the wearer, perhaps the perceived social benefits of wearing them outweigh their costs.
The question, however, is do people really hold luxury items, and in turn their wearers, in higher regard? For example, does the average person who sees a pair of rare sneakers tend to like those sneakers more than a lesser-known brand?
The Experiment
We conducted an experiment with 400 people on Amazon Mechanical Turk in which participants were instructed to “Imagine you see someone wearing the shoes below,” and then randomized whether they saw a pair of Hoka brand shoes, a lesser-known company based in France, or a pair of Nike Air Max 270s from the well-known Nike company.
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Participants were then asked “How much do you like these shoes? (1 = Not at all, 7 = Extremely)” using a 1-7 scale.
Results
We found no significant difference in shoe likability between the off-brand Hoka shoes (avg. = 4.26) and the Nike Air Max 270s (avg. = 4.45), (p = 0.318). Nor did we find any differences across genders or ages, even for men and younger people who we’d expect to be a bit more familiar with the brand.
Conclusion
So, if you’re planning to drop some cash on a luxury pair of Nikes in hopes of getting some social clout, you may want to think twice. The brand name may not carry as much weight with everyday people as we might think. But if you buy Nikes because you just really love Nikes, then go ahead and just do it.
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Daniel BrownDaniel Brown is an award-winning researcher, social scientist, and founder of AB Labs. He holds a doctorate in Management from Harvard University and has conducted over 100 randomized controlled trials in social psychology.
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