Does This Make My Butt Look Big?

menpantsLadies, you know what it’s like to finish a big dinner (Thanksgiving dinner, anyone?) where you had no mercy on your body and inhaled almost everything on the table. Your stomach feels like it’s going to explode, you feel like you ate your weight in food, you don’t regret it…but when you look in the mirror, the first thing you do? Turn around and look at your butt. I do it. You do it. We all do it.

But what about the gents? Guys, you don’t really think about your butt that much, in fact, besides when you’re wiping it, you probably never give it a second thought.

Well. Bonobos is trying to change that.

I was scrolling through NYTimes.com today and I saw a feature on a new men’s clothing store, Bonobos. Founded by Andy Dunn and Brain Spaly, this e-commerce clothing company is not like the Gaps or the Banana Republics out there. In fact, it mocks them. Can you believe it? Those $50 pair of jeans you bought last week with your mom when she forced you to go shopping with her? Dunn and Spaly are trying to tell you they look horrible on you.

Bonobo’s mission is to revolutionize, not only the way men’s clothes fit, but also “the way men buy clothes.”

These pants are different because they are made to fit you. Gone away are the days of baggy, saggy jeans that droop all the way past your butt. Now, “fitted” has a new meaning. To top that off, you’ll never have to leave your home. The store is purely online, like Zappos, and you don’t even have to worry about shipping. It’s free. All the time.

Sounds like a guy’s store. Not only do they get free shipping, there’s a lifetime return policy. Go ahead. Return those pants. Keep trying new pants until you find your perfect fit. And then you’ll be able to customize your Bonobos homepage to your needs. Your favorite pants will be there, only pants in your size will show up. Makes shopping seem ridiculously hassle-free. Cool!

And it is true that guys are self-conscious about the way they look. Contrary to the way movies and TV shows depict men, I do believe that guys care. Probably not half as much as girls do, but the caring is there. They want to look good.

So the business model will work, it’s convenient, it’s helpful, it plays towards anxieties men have about their physical look, it sounds like a wonderful store with a variety of different clothing designed to fit.

Here’s where I see a problem: While guys care about how they look, the quest for a perfect pair of pants, or a perfect shirt doesn’t come cheap. Why pay $88(starting price!) for a pair of pants that will simply fit you better, when you can have a small imperfection and pay $38 less? After all, nobody’s perfect right?

And there’s something about calling your customer service crew “style ninjas” that leads me to believe it will be hard to catch on. Do you really expect a guy—a man, if you will—to refer to customer service as a ninja? A ninja? I guess it’s funny. I guess it’s kind of cute. But I’m not sure cute is what Bonobos should be going for.

And perhaps targeting men may be the wrong way to go. What about their wives? Girlfriends? Girl-that-he-hooks-up-with-but-isn’t-his-girlfirend-but-maybe-one-day-will-be? Unlike girls (who, let’s be honest, try to impress other girls before they try to impress guys), guys want to impress girls. Period. End of sentence. They don’t really care about what other guys think about their shirt (unless, of course, they swing that way). So why not target the females?

I may be totally off here, I’m not an expert in men’s fashion. But from a purely advertising perspective, I think there’s going to have to be some small branding adjustments before this will successfully reach their audience. And it would be a shame if a company that would bring us ladies some better-dressed men to look at went under because of some small branding technicalities.

About Melody Tran

Melody Tran (COM '10) writes "Ad Avenue," an advertising column, for the Quad.

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