Brilliant Shirts for Fat Guys

Michael Burger here for the Relevant Report.

Coming to you wearing my $100.00 Tommy Bahama shirt. I’m not sharing that to brag or promote the brand, but to set up a success story of how a company leveraged into a trend so simple, so obvious, you’re gonna say “Now, that’s brilliant!”

Tommy Bahama, a billion dollar clothing company as of 2013, identified a niche in the men’s apparel market. The niche was: Fat guys over 40 that don’t want to tuck their shirts in! Clothing insiders call them fat-man shirts. Here’s the theory.
When you get a bit older and your waist drops and your pants get a little tight, you don’t want to buy new pants, you want to fight it. So, how do you get that extra quarter-inch? You don’t tuck in your shirt. You see Tommy Bahama designed their shirts just long enough to cover a guy’s belly, and tucking it in would look silly. Problem solved. Come summer It’s too hot for ties, too hot, even, to tuck in. So lawyers and real estate agents and salesmen alike drape themselves in tropical Tommy Bahama shirts and wear palm trees and hula girls, straight-faced, to the office.

The message: “I’ve arrived, I no longer need to wear a tie, and this Hawaiian shirt cost $110 at Nordstrom, and I’m wearing it to work, deal with it.”

So the next time you and your creative team are brainstorming ways to promote your brand think out of the box or….out of your pants. I’m Michael Burger. Aloha.

Filed in: Relevant Report
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