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How ‘basic bros’ are taking over men’s fashion

Marketplace Contributor Mar 25, 2016
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How ‘basic bros’ are taking over men’s fashion

Marketplace Contributor Mar 25, 2016
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If you’re a guy, how would you describe your clothing style?

Perhaps you’re ‘practical?’

via GIPHY

Or you lean ‘professional?’ A classic look really.

via GIPHY

Maybe it’s the ‘rugged’ look you’re going for.

via GIPHY

A recent survey fashion PR agency Ogilvy says 53 percent of men identify their style as: ‘Basic Bro.’

Yeah.

Of course, where there’s an opportunity, there’s a ton of companies trying to cash in. Sam Grobart, a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, wrote about it in their latest issue and came on the show to discuss the rise of brotailers:

Chubbies—yes, the name refers to exactly what a 16-year-old boy thinks it does—is a leader in a new kind of menswear retail that appeals to a different breed of customer. He’s not the rumpled office drone who wants nine suits for the price of one at Jos. A. Bank or the tidy, tailored aesthete who favors J.Crew. Rather, he’s the id-driven, post-collegiate twentysomething bro, the dude who might call his friend Broseph Stalin and eat a bag of brotato chips. The recipe for this guy is pretty straightforward: Take two measures bottom-of-your-prep-school class, add one measure earnest goofball, stir, and garnish with a lacrosse stick. But the way to build a business around him isn’t as clear. This is a group who hates shopping and would happily wear the same pair of sweatpants every day if society didn’t frown upon it. So how do you get these guys to buy clothes? This is where Chubbies and its peers come in. Call them the brotailers.

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