How do clothing brands come from out of nowhere to be incredibly popular?

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CocoMango86@reddit

I asked the same thing about Under Armour? I think it’s called that.. I have the idea of a similar thing ha.

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annedroiid@reddit

I hate under armour purely from the obnoxious ads on channel 4 last year.

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CocoMango86@reddit

Oh my. I understand now what you mean.

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CocoMango86@reddit

I can’t say I have seen them I don’t watch Channel 4 very often but I’ll check those out now to see what they’re about, I’m intrigued.

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annedroiid@reddit

I think it was when I was watching taskmaster, binged quite a bit of it

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tdrules@reddit

Massive American sportswear brand. Probably expanded here when the pound collapsed

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CocoMango86@reddit

Gym Shark is another I forgot to mention. I also didn’t realise someone that age could have an MBE.

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Alarmed_Crazy_6620@reddit

Really gained popularity in like the last 15 years

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Because there are some absolute ***genius*** marketing and sales people out there. Absolute geniuses - influencers are just (in effect) tools of the marketer’s trade and the best marketing agencies can ***literally*** hypnotise millions of people to pay for an almost meaningless idea.

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JohnRCC@reddit

White Fox has been around probably longer than you realise (it's an Australian brand launched 2013), but they only entered the UK market last year. So by that point they had the funds and the global brand recognition to make a huge push into the UK market. Couple that with sponsorships to social media sellouts and it's really no wonder they suddenly became the brand of choice for people who let The Algorithm dictate their every thought.

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carlovski99@reddit

No idea about white fox, but Castore did it by combining the all the usual startup social media/viral marketing tricks alongside the superpower of a ton of money.

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rmc1211@reddit

Did they? I heard an interview with one of the founders once and he was playing the whole working class lad done good thing pretty hard. I'll be a bit disappointed if they started with a tonne of money.

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JohnRCC@reddit

The founders were working in the City before launching the brand, and drummed up a bunch of investment. They may have come from working class backgrounds but it's hardly like they were selling training tops from the back of a van at a market in the East End when they started out.

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Shitelark@reddit

Well Castore were sponsoring Andy Murray for years before they landed the Newcastle United gig and started getting football contracts. I bet Andy got a hefty bonus out of that one.

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DemonicFrog@reddit

Isn't he a big investor in the company, so double bonus for him

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Shitelark@reddit

Now he has finally gained access to that sweet sweet donkey cheese supplier.

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Berookes@reddit

All it takes is one fashionable influencer to wear something for a brand to boom

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anon1992lol@reddit

Castore have paid a lot of money to be the manufacturer for dozens of high profile football teams. They are essentially have high profile investors which has allowed that. Many people who have bought their stuff have said it’s shite quality.

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PatserGrey@reddit

Oh yeah, their goose is cooked, dumped by a lot of sports teams due to quality of the products

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MarcusH26051@reddit

So glad my football team is leaving them at the end of the season. Terrible stock levels , awful quality. Got some of their McLaren F1 merch half price and still felt like I'd paid too much for the quality. Would spend a decent chunk on their merch if they left Castore too.

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phatboi23@reddit

Cheap knockoffs from china are better quality than Castore.

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MarcusH26051@reddit

That was my feeling , this was originally like £90 worth of jacket and I know sports merchandise has got out of hand with pricing but I was disappointed with the quality for the £40 it cost me.

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ADH02@reddit

Really? I've owned a couple of the McLaren merch and I actually think the quality is pretty solid, it's a bit overpriced but that's sports merch in general.

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phatboi23@reddit

> > Many people who have bought their stuff have said it’s shite quality. nicest way of putting it, literally falling apart on players backs.

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MissingLink101@reddit

I wonder how much damage the [Aston Villa 'wet shirts'](https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/aston-villa-castore-kit-deal-wet-look-sweat-shirts/) did them

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MrCowabs@reddit

Some of their stuff was really excellent quality for my team but then stuff from the same season was atrocious. Buying from them was always a gamble.

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Imreallyadonut@reddit

Castore was formed by two young city traders, they exploded on the scene as they leveraged their contacts for large sums of venture capital that they spent on sponsorship deals and advertising.

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nigeltheworm@reddit

Marketing.

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Pineappleberry495@reddit

Castore spend an insane amount of money on sponserships so that they can come across as a "luxury" brand to the everyday person.

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Master_Block1302@reddit

God, really? Is their schtick ‘we’re posh’? I had no concept of Castore as anything other than a cheapo also-ran.

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IcemanGeneMalenko@reddit

If the right cool kid buys some of the gear, then the brand is laughing as it'll be a snowball effect

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reggieko13@reddit

There is a very good YouTube video about all the problems castore have had and many teams have given up on them

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feetflatontheground@reddit

I'd never heard of them until now. And if I hadn't read this, they probably would've disappeared before I knew they existed.

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TCGislife@reddit

Literally have never heard of Castore or White Fox until this post.

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pothelswaite@reddit

Because people are so desperate for something new/different that they will buy into these brands.

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NoisyGog@reddit

White Fox took me by surprise. Someone at work had a delivery due, and they were making a rather large fuss about wanting to get their package before they went away to work for a few days. When it eventually arrived they showed us what they’d got, a rather nice looking hoodie, super soft, with the words “White Fox” stylised on the back of it. I’d never heard of the brand, and didn’t know if it was a fashion brand, or a band logo, or anything. I didn’t really think *anything* about it except that it looked like a lovely comfortable hoodie. I swear to god, the VERY NEXT DAY, I was seeing those hoodies everywhere. At the bakery in the morning. When I went for a morning walk along the seafront. When I took a lunchtime stroll. When we went for a beer after work. I guess my colleague must have got a launch day order or something, but it was *weird* how fast I went from never having heard or seen anything about them, to seeing them everywhere.

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MrMalisz@reddit

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon maybe

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NoisyGog@reddit

It could be, but It may just have been a launch day preorder. Maybe that’s why she was so determined to get her package before setting off for a few days.

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NrthnLd75@reddit

So popular literally nobody I asked has heard of either... (I am an old dude though).

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wintonian1@reddit

Generally you pay more than what would seem reasonable for the quality in order to fund the intense and high profile marketing.

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Inkblot7001@reddit

Initially marketing money and gullible people, then longer term quality and good service.

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RaymondBumcheese@reddit

The trick is sustaining the hype and not just dropping off a cliff when when TikTok moves onto something else.

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oktimeforplanz@reddit

Which they never will without TikTok. The type of people who buy White Fox because of TikTok aren't going to keep buying it when TikTok moves on. Especially if the brand is really nothing special overall. There's a million brands out there selling the same thing as White Fox, almost certainly comparable in quality, and the only real difference is branding. Nobody who just wants a hoody is going to White Fox specifically when it's £40-50 for a hoody that's not notably better quality than what you can find elsewhere for less. Or even if they were brilliant quality, I wouldn't want one just because of the prominent branding anyway, but that's fine because there are other places with great quality without that. And anyone who cares about being fashionable is going to continue to wear and buy from White Fox if White Fox falls out of favour as the hoody-brand of choice.

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azkeel-smart@reddit

Had to google both brands as I never came across them. How do you judge their "incredible popularity"?

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R2-Scotia@reddit

Youngsters around here often seen with White Fox, groups of them. I don't think Edinburgh is unique, go to your local shopping centre.

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NoisyGog@reddit

It’s not just youngsters. I’ve seen women of all kinds of ages wearing them, which leads me to guess that they’re doing a kind of “girl power” style vibe.

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CriticalCentimeter@reddit

ive never heard of either of them as well. By the looks of the comments, they're targeted at younger people (which I am not) - so that probably explains my ignorance.

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Musashi1596@reddit

I see White Fox constantly and I absolutely do not understand.

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VarplunkLabs@reddit

I've never heard of "Castore" or "White Fox" before. I also don't use Tik Tok or Instagram. So I bet you use one or both of these platforms a lot and are just seeing them using social media and "influencers" to successfully make people think their brands are what everyone is wearing.

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BushidoX0@reddit

Marketing

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annedroiid@reddit

Never heard of either of those 😅

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Connell95@reddit

Castore paid tonnes of money to sports teams to have them wear their kit (despite them being terrible quality). Nothing more to it than that. Not too different to how it’s always been – Adidas worked hard to have Jesse Owens wear their shoes at the Olympics despite the fact the company was founded by a Nazi because it meant they sold lots of shoes.

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pikantnasuka@reddit

I only know Castore because of Rangers kits and I haven't heard of White Fox, but I don't imagine I'm target market for either. I've noticed Asics going from trainers I would buy to trainers my eldest puts on his wishlists, also New Balance seem to be moving a bit from the middle aged parent market to the popular one. I guess as people grow up, the brands that were cool for them are marked in the younger generations heads as old people clothes and that makes room for new ones to break through?

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Professional_Rice990@reddit

How did Nike become popular?

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knight-under-stars@reddit

Certainly not in the same way that viral modern clothing brands do.

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Professional_Rice990@reddit

It was the same process. Nike started from nothing. Once they got Jordan to sign and promote it. They want BIG, so every brand tries to do the same.

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knight-under-stars@reddit

Every company starts from nothing, that doesn't mean their journey is the same. And in the cases we're talking about the journey is nowhere near the same, you are talking utter crap matey. And Nike were huge before they signed Jordan.

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Professional_Rice990@reddit

Ultimately it’s no different to what others have said. Brands use influencer and athletes. People that look up to influencers and athletes buy the product. Rinse and repeat

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Professional_Rice990@reddit

I’m not saying the journey is the word for word the same. But like most companies it starts from nothing. Use Gymshark as an example. When I started training in 2012, they were selling from a shed. Once they got a few roided up bodybuilders and influencers on board. Now they’re a billionaire dollar company. Nike was a small before they signed MJ. He was about to sign for Converse like most ballers. Nike couldn’t match Converse asking price and instead offered a percentage of the company. Source MJ and Nike

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MrBiscuits16@reddit

They get front loaded with a ridiculous marketing budget

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farts-are-funny-af@reddit

I always had the impression that if it's extortionately priced, the flash twats of the world start buying it and voila! It becomes a designer label.

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l0stlabyrinth@reddit

Influencers promoting a product can have a big impact. A lot of these brands also work to get their noise everywhere. Castore for instance have kit deals with a lot of sports teams. They're also notorious for Aston Villa's "wet look" kit from last season before they cancelled the deal.

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knight-under-stars@reddit

Influencers get paid a load of money to influence people. Fashion is very much a *monkey see monkey do* business.

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imminentmailing463@reddit

>Fashion is very much a monkey see monkey do business. I feel like you could expand that way beyond fashion. So much of marketing of all sorts of products is basically premised on the idea that if we see other people, especially people we admire/like, using things we will also want to.

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RMWL@reddit

Plus sports brands will sponsor athletes and events to build that association

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Ok-Advantage3180@reddit

All it takes is for the marketing team to get the right influencers involved and they really take off

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randomdemo@reddit

Celebrities? So called "Influencers"

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durkheim98@reddit

They get pedalled by influencers on TikTok and teenagers are and will always be the prime target for brands like that.

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CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

Don't know any of those brands.

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xyzvhs@reddit

They sponsor popular social media personalities.

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as3123@reddit

Marketing

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Alarmed_Crazy_6620@reddit

I guess some combination of luck and good marketing

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