Adventures in shirt buying

[SCEtoAUX]

Many years ago I found some casual wear shirts in a catalog that had the features I like. The material, the construction details, the fit, two button through chest pockets.
I purchased some and they were just what I was looking for.

I tend to wear clothes until they are in desperate need of replacement which began to happen last year with some shirts in the original purchase so I went back to the source, this time online, and found what looked to be the same shirts. The material, the construction details, the fit, two button through chest pockets.

Upon receipt of the shirts almost everything was fine. The material, the fit. What was not fine was the depth of the chest pockets. They seemed to be not as deep as before. I measured them and sure enough instead of being 14.5 cm deep like with the original purchase they were 13.5 cm deep. Oh well. Adapt and proceed.

A few months later I decided to replace some more of the shirts from the original purchase made many years ago and went to the same source as the last replacement purchase figuring the 1 cm difference was just barely tolerable.

Upon receipt of those shirts it was noticed that the pockets seemed even more shallow. A measurement of the pockets showed them to be 12.5 cm deep. That is another loss of 1cm from the pocket depth from the first replacement shirts and a total loss of 2 cm from the pocket depth of the original shirts purchased many years ago. It does not sound like much, but that loss of 2 cm is quite inconvenient.

I carry a notebook in my pocket to jot things down as I think of them or to jot down information to be used later. The notebooks now do not fit in the shirt pockets in a way to allow the pockets to be buttoned closed. I could use the note app on my phone, but by the time I get the phone out, turn on the app, and type out the thought/info using that mickey fickey small keyboard I usually forget what it is I was going to make note of.

I guess I could replace the round button with a toggle on a string long enough to reach the button hole or maybe extend the thread used to sew the button to the shirt so the button could reach the button hole.

All of that would not be needed if the manufacturer had not decided to save a few half cents by reducing the depth of the pockets by 2 cm. They probably waste more than that with the trimmings when cutting out the pieces to make the shirt.

[Kevin WS]

Doug, that's very interesting.

I never thought to check that aspect on clothing, but it may explain why my new shirts "untuck" easier then the old ones (which I don't have anyone).

[maurice]

Surely you ought to be able to find some notebooks that are also 2 cm shorter.

Just a thought.

[Ckendzierski]

You would be surprised by how little scrap there is in the sweat shop biz

[Don Boose]

Pocket size is an important factor for me, too, since I am never without a Moleskine pocket journal. I hope you have provided feedback to the company to let them know the impact of their pocket sizing decision.

Maurice - Pocket journals do come in various sizes, but I have been using the same journals for decades and would definitely buy a different shirt rather than try to switch to a new type of journal.

I guess the issue will become moot in a few years when Doug and I are dead and gone and no one alive is still using paper journals and pencils.

Don

[whulsey]

And here I was thinking I was the only one that was dealing with this. I run into this problem at the shows I photograph with the notebook stuck in my shirt pocket that I take notes for captioning the photos.

[Kevin WS]

Thinking about this has just reminded me of how a similar thing is done with food.

It goes like this (and I am talking about international name brands)-

Variation 1 - Boxed goods. Cornflakes or something come out with redesigned packaging (but still the same size) and careful examination shows that the quantities inside have dropped by weight by around 10% +. Price remains the same.

Variation 2 - Tins, bottles. The container comes out in a new "streamlined" or more "convenient" design. The same price, quantity reduced as the container is smaller. This has happened recently here with the "real thing".

Variation 3 - Metric conversions to Imperial or visa versa. When this is done the amounts are rounded down. What is interesting about this in South Africa is that the labels change - so "Made in South Africa" changes to "Made in South Africa For NAME OF SOME OTHER COUNTRY". Measurement type changed and rounded down. Price remains the same. Both measurements are shown.

E.g. metric measurements are used here. Something that used to be 250ml appears now in ounces and would be shown as 2 ounces, with 236ml in very tiny print after the large 2 ounces! No price change!

Does Variation 3 happen elsewhere? I have seen Variations 1 and 2 in the UK and Europe but not 3 - maybe legislation prevents the use of other weights.

[Ckendzierski]

Don I have gone back to use a paper journal but use fountain pen.

With my illness the pen makes me have to write bigger so it can be read

[SCEtoAUX]

I already trimmed 1 cm off of the notebooks I have after the first shrinking pockets. That was fun. Lots-o-recycling of narrow paper strips. I had purchased a bunch of them in a bundle a while back before the shrinking pockets were encountered.

I did leave a review at the catalog site highlighting the shrinking pockets. Never did get any feedback. I guess the robo responder was offline.

Electronic notes are good, especially for the search function they provide. It is more convenient for me to have a paper notebook handy to quickly jot down info or ideas. I can then later transpose them into an electronic notebook if needed.

[Kevin WS]

After being a notebook person for decades I have gone the other way and now scribble notes in my phone or tablet. Mainly on the phone.

The reason is I get full integration between all my devices (thanks to Google), and I can then pick up the notes on the PC (without having to transfer them). The magic of the cloud and cloud-based apps!