When I was a little boy, around 10 years of age, I remember being a little bit upset with my momma, because she always bought me the Sears brand Toughskin jeans.  Now, there was nothing wrong with the jeans themselves, they weren’t called Toughskins for nothing.  They were durable, and as my momma said, “You are hard on your jeans.”  But my friends were wearing Wranglers, which had some stitching on the back pockets, and I had to wear the plain pocketed Sears jeans.  Life just wasn’t fair.

For the most part, as I have grown older, I have remained pure and unsullied by brand envy.  When the “designer jeans” craze hit in the late 1970’s, I stuck with my beloved Wranglers.  (By this time I had outgrown my Toughskins).  When the Nike craze hit, I was satisfied with my Converse All-Stars.  They didn’t have the pretty swoosh on the side, but I could jump just as high (which admittedly was not very), and run just as fast (which was also not very) in my All-Stars, and they were significantly less expensive. (more…)