>>10545871While price is not an exclusively defining feature with regard to a garment's quality, it's definitely an indicator to be gauged alongside other indicators.
While not every leather jacket that retails over $500 is good, nearly every good leather jacket will have an MSRP around that price point or higher.
This is for a few reasons: good leather is expensive. Leather jackets require a substantial amount of leather, especially if you want a design that doesn't break up every panel into multiple smaller panels in order to increase the amount of cut-scraps that can be incorporated into the jacket. Let's not forget that *good* leatherworkers are not going to be cheap in any country. Manufacturing is like anything else, if you skimp on price, you are likely sacrificing quality. Then you have to be able to drop-ship. But to whom? You need buyers, which means you need trained sales reps, management, admin and HR, payroll, marketing materials, and travel costs. Or, if you have your own shop, you need to pay for a brick and mortar operation.
You're just not going to be able to launch a quality leather jacket company and get good merch on shelves at $200 per unit consumer price.
Replace the word "leather jacket" with anything, and you get the idea. Not everything that costs a lot is great, but everything that's great usually costs a lot. This is an unfortunate reality in our economy.
Now $30 GAP jeans may be fine for your purposes, and that's totally fine. Do you. But some folks are looking for more than something that is vaguely pant-shaped and that happens to be made out of woven cotton. And that's fine too. Nobody is dressing for you or looking for your approval. Stop acting like you're saying some revolutionary shit when you complain that rick is overpriced. In fact I challenge you to make a line of shoes similar materials and manufacturing to rick footwear and offer it at a lower price and turn a profit. If it were so easy, everyone would do it.