5 Tips on How to Shop Smart Dress Sharp for the Right Price Buying Tips for Men
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Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno.
I'm the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Guys, today I'm going to give you five tips on how to shop smart.
Many of you guys I know are out there building your wardrobe.
You're wanting to have clothing and have accessories that in a sense help you send the message
you want to send, and I want to make sure that you don’t get raked over the coals
when you're out there buying things that you're paying almost double the price of what you
should, so hopefully you can take these tips and you can run with them.
I have to admit, these tips are a little bit general, but I will link to an article over
at Real Men Real Style and we'll go into more detail.
In addition, I'll link to other videos, to other articles that go into more detail for
each of the points.
Cool?
Okay.
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Okay, so tip number one, what's the first thing you needed to do when making a buying
decision is only buy what you need.
It seems pretty simple, right?
How many times though -- and I've done this myself.
I remember I bought this orange vest and I didn’t know what I was thinking.
This was back in probably 2000.
I was a young Marine officer stationed at Carlsbad, California.
I went to an outlet and I saw this orange vest.
There were a couple of things that were wrong with it.
One, it was a large and I should be wearing a medium, but this thing is great.
It's 70% off, so I purchased it.
Now, one, I don’t know really where this orange down vest would've fit into my core
wardrobe at that point in my life because it didn’t fit there.
It was the wrong size, but I justified it because gosh, it was 70% off.
It was such a great deal.
Where is that orange vest now?
I don’t know.
I gave it away to goodwill years ago.
How many times did I wear that?
Maybe one.
I've got a picture of it somewhere and that's why I remember this vest.
I was riding my motorcycle.
I had all these layers on and then it somehow fit and I wore it more like a signal vest
so people could see me and cars not hit me or anything like that.
The point is, guys, we oftentimes buy clothing that we don’t need.
Now, how can you not make this mistake?
Let's go to point number two, educate yourself.
Now, if you've watched a couple of my videos, congratulations, but what I would recommend
is you go and watch a lot of my videos.
Go check out Aaron Marino over at I am Alpha M., teaching men's fashion, FashionBeans.
Go read what those guys are saying over there if you're more fashion-inclined.
Articles of Style, go check out what Dan is writing about.
Go check out Primer Magazine, The Art of Manliness, they all have style sections, Barron over
at the Effortless Gent.
The point is, gentlemen, educate yourself.
When it comes down to it, you need to be seeking a little bit of self-improvement every single
day and I think being on someone's email list that really resonates with you, find your
Yoda, find the guy that you really resonate with, and listen to what he has to say, learn
a little bit every day, but focus in on educating yourself so that you know what to buy.
Now, after you're doing this and as you're going through this, part number three, create
a list, create a plan.
You should have a list of the items that should be in your core wardrobe.
Now, I give this to the guys that are in my style system, which I've got these premium
courses and I do actually give them a breakout list, but for you, if you're just starting
off, if you don’t know where to go, first think about what's going to be your needs.
Now, these are going to change and depending on where you are at in life, what kind of
a job you have.
If you're a lawyer in New York City, well, you're going to have different needs than
if you're a small town -- let's say you're a master electrician and you're over in Shawano,
Wisconsin.
You're going to have a little bit different needs of what should be in your wardrobe.
However, there are items that need to be in your wardrobe.
You need to put together that list.
Focus in on your needs, then after that, focus in on your wants.
After that, you want to be thinking of what are you going to spend money on because this
makes it really easy for you to decide where you're going to spend your money.
There are certain pieces that are investment pieces.
There are other pieces which are nice to have and you want to spend money there only after
you've invested in having at least a suit.
And when I say a suit, having a nice suit that fits you well and that's both the trousers
and the jacket made from the same fabric, having a light colored dress shirt again that
fits you well with a tie, with shoes, and that entire outfit right there is going to
serve you.
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Now, make sure to get a muted tie because you want to be able to not only wear this
to a wedding, but also a funeral.
That right there is going to be one of your go-to investment pieces.
In the article over at Real Men Real Style, I go into a lot more detail about what you
should have as some of these things, the first items that men should have in his wardrobe,
but understand that actually you writing out that list, maybe putting it on a shared document
on Google Docs is going to be a very important step.
Point number four, return policy.
Whenever you're out there shopping, look at the return policy.
I remember I bought something on -- I think it was Lucky's website and it was a clearance
item.
I didn’t realize after I got it and it didn’t fit me very well that I couldn't send it back.
They've got a "no return policy" on clearance items.
Now, that struck me as kind of weird and I actually talked with the manager.
They did actually accept it back, but it's one of those things that you don’t want
to have to do it.
You want to make sure you work with a company or you purchase from someone that you can
make a return.
If you're working with a custom clothier, he shouldn't be looking to build out your
ten shirts at the same time.
Initially, you want to get that one shirt, get the fit right, get the style right, make
sure you're happy with it, then he can build the other nine shirts out.
So not just return policy, but also making sure how they deal with whenever you've got
something that needs to be adjusted, the fit.
Those are the kinds of things you want to look at.
Look at those store company policies especially for returns.
Number five, don’t get caught in the hype.
This happens especially around the holidays.
You're going to see Black Friday.
You're going to see Cyber Monday, Labor Day sales, all these sales.
They try to get you and engage you in the company.
I'm not going to name names.
Let's just say there are some companies that they always have a sale going on.
They realize that's a tactic to get you to feel that you've got to take action and purchase
now, but don’t fall for that.
If you understand you only buy what you're going to need, if you educate yourself, if
you create a list and if you understand the return policy, then this last one should be
pretty easy.
All right.
Gentlemen, that's it.
I will see you in the next video.
If you’ve got something to add, leave it down on the comments below and go check out
Real Men Real Style.
I've put together a great article which supports this video.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
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