While cruising around Disneyland earlier this month with the family, I couldn’t stop doing double-takes every time I saw the word “Hollister” on a T-shirt. And it happened a lot.
Whenever I see my city’s name on clothing, I am programmed to assume the person wearing it is from San Benito County. Then I look again and see that the shirt references surfing or Orange County or something related to SoCal. It irritates me.
The clothes produced by Hollister Co. are hip and stylish – I even own a couple shirts from the Abercrombie & Fitch subsidiary. But I still get strangely irritated that my town’s name is being pedaled for profit, and we don’t benefit from it economically.
A virtual trip to the company Web site shows just how cool the word Hollister is to the teens targeted in marketing.
There are no “men’s” and “women’s” sections on this site. No, there is the “Dudes’ Shop” for guys and the “Bettys’ Shop” for the ladies. Sweet.
The company’s human resources office is in Columbus, Ohio, the heart of Middle America, for goodness sakes. Do people there really chill in “hoodies” and “tees”? The only surfing they can do is the Internet variety.
But our quaint little town’s name has transformed from an anonymous hay-producing ‘burb in Central California to a cool clothing line adored by well-to-do kids who like their shirts tight and wrinkled and their clothes with the pre-worn look.
If Hollister Co. really represented our town, they would sell Wranglers and plaid farmer’s shirts in the Dudes’ Shop. The Bettys could buy some Rockies jeans.
Most of my true Hollister gear either has the words “Balers” or “Little League” on it. If I ever wanted to look cool at the mall (well, first I’d have to want to go to the mall) I would shrink one of my Hollister Little League shirts to give it the “athletic fit” and then I would let it get wrinkled and a little frayed around the collar.
Come to think of it, most of my shirts are already a little frayed around the collar. The athletic fit will require a little more work in the gym before I can pull that one off – or put it on, as the case may be.
We Hollisterites are so proud of our town and high school that when we gear up as fans we unwittingly are among the coolest crowds in the country, with “Hollister” all over our jackets and sweatshirts.
The more I think about it, having our town associated with a popular clothing line can only help us. An alternative would be being associated with Hollister Inc., whose Web site, Hollister.com, offers information about continence and ostomy care, wound care, and bladder control systems.
I wonder if they sell tight, wrinkled T’s and gnarly hoodies. Kids would, like, totally wear those. Or maybe their grandparents would.
