Why clothing brands charge more for exact cloth that is cheaper somewhere else?
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Short answer is simply “because people will buy it”
There’s an argument to be made about how there’s a guarantee of quality if you know it’s made by a certain company, but at this point, our culture puts so much stock into actively displaying their loyalty to brands that brands are able to charge more with no significant decrease in sales. It’s why people like Kanye West can sell a white t-shirt for like 500 dollars and still sell out.
Sometimes there is a quality difference in the materials. Many times people pay more for a name brand.
A Calvin Klein branded T shirt is a lot more than a Hanes T shirt. The fabric is a little different, but not 5 times better.
Walmart jeans for $12 hold up just as well as Levi’s that cost a bunch more. But Levi’s have a brand appeal that Walmart doesn’t.
Some brands have higher quality materials and perform better – Columbia winter jackets and Red Wing work boots come to mind.
Sometimes they skip some steps. Could be taxes or transport. Then there is obviously demand and average income or prices for a similar product in a given country
Higher quality clothing is better constructed to tighter standards.
There is also development and designer costs associated, where a high end and respected designer will be an industry leader and set trends that other clothing manufacturers follow.
Because people are willing to pay that price. Prices are set by companies attempting to maximize profits. Generally speaking, higher pricing leads to lower sales, and lower pricing leads to more sales.
But higher prices also mean more profit per sale. Companies basically seek to optimize the value of (profit per sale * number of sales) and there is an optimal price for that which is found through trial and error. (or something more like gradient descent).
They charge that much because people perceive the value of that clothing as enough to warrant paying that price, in sufficient numbers that the company maximizes their profit.
That’s the rational model of pricing, from the company’s point of view. There are irrational factors too, or factors that only become rational when considering effects outside that simple profit x quantity model.
I’ll add that at a certain point, an insanely high priced item can be sought after for either status or curiosity. Go to a Nordstrom store and look at the plain white T shirts with a single logo going for $500. It’s so crazy and stupid, but teenagers still buy them.
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