Irrational Brand Dislikes

Sometimes we are rational, sometimes not.

One of my irrationalities has to do with product brands.   For some reason there are brands that turn me off no matter if their products are measurably superior to those of other brands.

Let me give you some examples. Some of these might be brands that you are extremely fond of -- for whatever reasons you have.

I can't explain why, but one brand I don't care for is Nike.  I do own a Nike baseball cap with University of Washington colors and symbolism.  I bought it because I needed a show-my-loyalty garment for when I (rarely) attend Husky football games, and the Nike cap happened to be better looking than the alternatives.  (To show my dual-loyalty, I also usually wear a Penn sweatshirt to the game.)

Another brand I don't care for is The North Face.  That's because I don't like their logotype, rationally designed though it might be.  I suppose I might be missing out on some fine products.  But there are plenty of equally fine competing products, so I'm probably not losing if I never consider North Face.

Yet another garment brand is Under Armour.  I think there's something about the name that seems icky, though I can't explain to myself just why it seems icky.

As for automobiles, perhaps my most irrational avoidance target is Subaru.  But at least I do know why I have this "thing" about Subarus.  It's because of the 360 cc Subarus than Malcolm Bricklin first imported to the USA in the late 1960s.  Those cars were tiny, looking like motorized Dutch wooden shoes.  I thought they were ridiculous, and never got over the feeling even though full-size Subarus have interesting engineering features.

In contrast, there are some brands for which I have irrational positive preferences.  But that might be a topic for another post.