Ominibus shirts and t-shirt pricing
0So the Omnibus designs are offered at ~2x the “regular” Mediocritee price.
I guess the idea is that there is some revenue shared with the podcast people – or, put another way, they are using Mediocritee as a no-hassle way to make money.
This raises a few questions in my mind:
-
What makes one shirt “worth” more to us than another of equal physical quality? Why will we pay $35 for a real band band t-shirt at the merch table but only $14 for a Ragna Rok? How much are we willing to pay to sit at the cool kids table? What about the $200 “designer” plain white T’s?
-
Does Ken Jennings really have the cred to justify the premium?
- 5 comments, 1 reply
- Comment
Yep, that’s pretty much it. I think these are all reasonable questions.
I mean, I could buy a 3-pack of decent cotton T-shirts for $10, right? It’s not like I even see the design while I am wearing it. But somehow I’m willing to pay $10 extra for a Woot or Mediocre shirt that, maybe, somebody will compliment or comment on. So how much is the occasional random “cool shirt, dude” worth to me? Apparently $10.
Extending this argument, it’s worth apparently another $10-15 to not just get the random recognition but the more specific (and presumably even rarer) acknowledgement that “I get it, I’m part of your tribe too” that comes when you wear a band shirt, or something with Ken Jennings’ initials on it.
Now, personally, I’m not going to wear a shirt marking me as a Ken Jennings fan unless somehow Ken himself is going to see it, and give me a $100 tip or something (in this scenario I am a waiter at a place where T-shirts are the standard attire).
But am I wearing a $30 John Prine 2014 “Fish and Whistle Tour” shirt right now? Yes, yes I am.
I am reminded of the stories (and sometimes photographic evidence) where pre-made shirts emblazoned with “Super Bowl Champions” and the name of the winning team go for $30 online while the same shirts made with the name of the losing team get donated to disaster relief in some far corner.
So clearly the “value” of a t-shirt is tied up in the semiotics more than anything else, to the extent that a shirt with a wrong message is worth less than one with no message at all.
Like this one.
@Kyeh Oy! That’s a dozen shirts from catshirtswoot when they have a BOGO promo.