Why do shorts cost as much as pants? The financial mystery and its solution



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It is best on a hot day, the ideal way to breathe our feet and fight its capsule. summer.

However, shorts don’t prove to be as pocket-friendly as one might at least suppose.

In general, shorts are no cheaper than a pair of pants, despite the obvious fact that one requires much less fabric than the other.

As you can see, shorts cover only half the surface of a pant. And so his closing price seems a bit paradoxical, another of his dystrophy market one would say.

But that’s how it is?

How is a shorts priced?

It’s not that apparel companies are trying to mislead consumers by raising the prices of shorts.

Price is again a function of him. production costs. Shorts need less fabric, but not as much as one might imagine.

Market participants reveal that shorts that stop above the knee need only 1/5 less fabric than regular pants. Why is this happening;

Because the shorts have a lot of fabric built in, they are simply sewn into the top half of the garment. And the top half is also the most expensive part, as it has all the decorative and useful features, the ones that require the most fabric.

The shorts and pants are the same and without changes, always in terms of construction, in their upper part. There are pockets, belt loops, pleats, waistband, etc.

These consume the most cloth and these require the most man-hours to make a pair of pants. Short or long.

From the upper part results the substantial cost of manufacturing the garment. Cotton, for example, in blue represents only a tiny percentage of its cost.

The person who will sew it from the raw material definitely costs more. You will need roughly the same amount of time whether you are working in long pants or bermuda shorts.

The designer who spoke of the paradox

Eunice Lee, designer of the menswear brand Unis New York, gives us her lights here.

“The amount of fabric you use for shorts is not that different between shorts and pantsHe characteristically told Esquire, “a pair of pants may need 1.6 yards of fabric [1,46 μέτρα], while the same in shorts will need 1.3 yards [1,18 μέτρα]».

He continues: “Let’s say, in theory, that the fabric costs $ 10 a yard. We are talking about a difference of only $ 3 in the cost of the fabric. The difference in the fabric is not drastic, because most of the fabric is you need on the top of the pants, not on the legs ”.

She confirms that all work on a pair of pants is tops. “Everything happens on top. In terms of cutting and sewing, all the complicated things happen. The price is related to the work and the cost of this work. And the work is the same, regardless of whether the leg is short or long ”.

He even tells us to do it to experience and ourselves. Take a pair of pants and shorts and place them upside down. We will see that all the difficult seams are in its complex upper part. The legs have only a simple, straight seam.

“This intricate construction, this delicate detail, this is the cost. The pant leg is the easiest part to sew.”

Beyond the expensive-cheap dipole

No one doubts that the fashion range is wide and the final price of a product is related to the image promoted by each brand. But here we are talking about a purely technical question, that of prices.

Long sleeves and short sleeves. Tshirts they do not have significant differences in their price either. And the reason is the same again. On long-sleeved shirts, of course, there is the cuff, and sometimes their intricate stitching can skyrocket the price.

The pants, however, have all their basic features on the upper part, which we find in shorts.

But sometimes it happens that a pair of shorts costs more than a pair of pants. This is where the so-called “invisible factors” of the market come in, conditions like where and how the clothes were made, the costs of advertising and definitely the logo on the label.

The final price is determined not only by the cost of production, but also by the corporate model that each company follows.

Less doesn’t always mean cheaper

We are used to the truth in our daily life that it costs more and more. We see it in the different packages of the same product, in the size of the cup of coffee that we drink every morning, in the menus of fast food.

When you buy less of something, you expect it to be cheaper. They call it common sense, except the shorts and pants theme doesn’t fit here.

Not just because the shorts need the same amount of fabric to make, but because the actual cost is based on other factors, as we said. The working hours for its production are the decisive factors and the differences with long pants are small.

Equally important, if not more important, is the factor of the company itself. Psychology has been studying consumer behavior for years and has repeatedly suggested that we are willing to pay more for something more expensive if we consider it luxurious.

We tend to value goods that have recognizable corporate brands with a positive sign. And how do we hire the no luxury As inferior products normally, we are willing to distinguish all its negative aspects.

Worse yet, “low self-esteem is a decisive factor in whether a person will buy an expensive product that they may not be able to afford,” concludes a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

So when you buy shorts, you pay much more than the amount of fabric used. Tangible things, such as production costs, and intangible and undefined things, such as the added value of the brand.

These second things do not obey the usual laws of rational consumer behavior. Not even in our expectations.

“It just came to our knowledge then price “When we talk about shorts and short-sleeved shirts,” says designer Lee, “especially since something like shorts doesn’t seem like an object to invest in, like a winter coat or a pair of boots.” But the price is not based here, it all has to do with the process ”.

The price of the shorts never had to do with the smallest fabric or the smallest size …

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