Videos
Hi MFA this is the first in the "Best of" Series that I will be starting where people can list
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The things they like to buy
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The things they avoid buying
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The pros and cons of shopping at a store (these may include things such as pricing, variety, convenience) etc.
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Value for the Price (How long it lasted, potential issues when caring/washing, etc.)
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What to expect when buying certain items (for example $X for Y item)
A little bit of background on J. Crew Factory:
J. Crew itself is often praised by this subreddit, along with brands such as Uniqlo, as the place to get quality pieces (albeit with a bit of work in order to avoid picking things up as bad prices). J. Crew Factory is an outlet version of J. Crew that does not sell out of season items but instead offers similar looking pieces to the main-line brand at a lower price and lower quality. For those who do not know, there are two diamonds on J. Crew Factory pieces which can be used to distinguish between the main line and outlet version of the store.
Also, if you guys have recommendations on formatting and things that should be included/mentioned in the main sections of each post, feel free to comment on these or message me so I can improve this as the weeks go on! I have also attached a survey in order to see how often people would like to see this series until it ends, in order to avoid burnout.
How often should the series be hosted? What stores do you want to see discussed?
I think it's worth noting that the site uses extremely stupidly scummy "sales." I think the default is to always be marked 30% off, and 50% off is probably close to a "real" sale with them.
But that's not even the most egregious thing they try to pull. If they ever have a "buy one, get one free" type promotion, then they'll have removed the "sale" price and effectively doubled the price of all items before you buy. It's not buying one get one free, it's "you must buy two if you buy any."
Look at their site right now and they're having a "buy one item, get another of the same price or lower free sale" and most markoffs have been taken down from the site. Everything's effectively around double the normal price, and what's scummier is that they'll be picking up the extra when people buy second items that are cheaper than the first.
I don't know if the prices are worth it or not, I think the few things I've bought from them were okay, but keep in mind that they use a lot of obfuscatory methods to try to make you feel like you're getting more of a deal than you are.
Not going to lie, some of the items from JCF are only slightly lower quality than JCrew but some like coat and jackets you can tell a serious different. T-shirt, casual shirt and chinos feels some what the same to me... IMO
So I know that J.Crew and J.Crew Factory are not the same, with the factory typically being lower quality. I'm also fully aware that all clothing companies have recently lowered the quality of their offerings. This seems to be the case for all brands recently.
In the case of J Crew vs Factory, and indeed banana Republic vs Factory, have both of main line and factory simply lowered their quality proportionately, or is the factory and main line simply closer in quality than they were previously? In the case of chinos for example, the composition of the two garments from mainline and factory appear to be pretty much the same. I do have the factory stores fairly close by but the mainline stores are nowhere near where I live so I'm not able to physically compare the the offerings to ascertain the difference in quality between the mainline and factory. I was just curious as to the level of difference between mainline and factory in 2025.
Basically, I'm asking which one is the better value/deal, JCrew or JCF Chinos? Let's say I could get a pair of JCF Chinos for $25, and JCrew Chinos cost $75-80 at full or ~$55 on sale. Which would be the better deal? Is the better quality of JCrew really worth the extra money?
What are your opinions on the quality and look of the driggs chinos and jeans? are they worth the buy?