When I was in California for work I visited my brother. I had to pick up a case for my phone so we went to a mall. There are many things I could say about this mall, but this post is not about the mall, really.

In that mall we went to a Balenciaga store because my brother is a nerd about that stuff. It was weird, profane even, it had a guard and some woman who looked liked she belonged in the capital of the hunger games was there to “answer questions.” With no intention of buying anything I asked here what her favorite thing in the store was. 

She answered that she really liked the Sock Sneakers. I asked her why and she said because they were comfortable. These are $900 sneakers. That’s a lot of clams for a pair of comfortable shoes, if that’s really the main thing you’re looking for. 

So I kept prying, surely there was more to why she liked them, she works at a Balenciaga store, surely she’s given this some thought. 

They’re really comfortable she explained. 
She knew people who bought two pairs, that’s how comfortable they are. 

These are not shoes crafted by the hands of artisanal masters. They look almost indistinguishable from 1,000 other pairs of floppy sneakers. At least to me, some asshole.

Perhaps my insistance that they are not somehow artisanal belies my bias. When I spend a lot of money on something I want there to be a story, I want the person who made it to be skilled at something that definitely isn’t marketing. ANYTHING other than marketing. 

So what’s a reasonable amount to spend on a pair of shoes or a t-shirt? Let’s stick to a t-shirt for now, for simplicities sake and because I can feel myself falling down a t-shirt rabbit hole of similar depth to my denim jacket hole. Except you only really need one denim jacket, I’ve already got something like 50 t-shirts from across the years. 

The cheapest shirt I can find is a white Gildan from Walmart. It costs $3.48

Then there are things like a hand-dyed Indigo Dekoboko Tenjiku Outer T-shirt by 45RPM. it costs $478, but they give you 10% off if it’s your birthday month. There are other shirts by Balenciaga and Louis Voutihasdkj or whatever that cost like $2,000 but those are stupid. You’re paying to be a brand ambassador or for weird girls to like you more or something, I don’t know why someone would buy one of those shirts, it’s gross and it makes me sad to think about. Maybe they’re really comfortable?