Jean Insurance: Huh?
There’s a company that is offering insurance when you buy a pair of jeans. It took me a few reads to even comprehend how it works. Basically, you buy jeans, send this company a percentage of the price, wait to lose weight so your jeans don’t fit, find a box, go to the post office, pay for shipping, mail back your jeans, and then get your money back. Then go to the bank, cash the check, and go shopping again for new jeans in your new size. The commenters seem to think this is a great idea that will make someone rich, but who would do this? Wouldn’t this only be worth it if you buy incredibly expensive jeans? And had no friends larger than or smaller than you to trade with? Here’s the explanation:
You go out and buy a new pair of jeans. You send your receipt and 30 percent of the cost of your new denim to [the company]. After you spend some time eating right and exercising regularly, you’re bound to need a smaller size. So you mail your jeans back to [the president of the company], and she’ll send you the full amount of what you originally paid for them. Then you can go out and buy a second pair of jeans. If you want, you can insure those, too.
But of course, the company only makes money if the dieters buy the insurance and then don’t lose (or for that matter, gain) any weight. As Anne put it when she sent me the link, it seems to be banking on the idea that diets don’t work. But actually, I think many people tend to diet into a smaller size, stop the diet, and bounce back up again. Which means that they can work the system trading their smaller jeans for larger ones. Or what if you buy “jeans insurance” and then use it to buy increasingly larger sizes of jeans? Wouldn’t that be just as bad for this company? And would this work for someone who had weight loss surgery or something?
I don’t know; I’m confused again. They told me there would be no math on this blog.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Fashion, Weight Loss, WLS
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But actually, I think many people tend to diet into a smaller size, stop the diet, and bounce back up again.
Absolutely, but how many other people say, “I’m going to start a diet,” and then don’t — or don’t last a week? And how many people (hi, I would totally be one of them) would buy the insurance and then either completely forget they had it or be too lazy to bother sending their old jeans back when the time came?
I actually did find the size changes a huge pain in the ass when I lost weight — ’cause no, I didn’t have friends who wore every size between 4 and 18. So I was constantly buying new clothes, which I’d sometimes get to wear for less than 2 months before I needed new ones. I can see something like this appealing to my brain back then, even without wearing superexpensive jeans — if I spend $52 instead of $40 on a pair of Levi’s now, when I need a new pair in two months, then I’ve only spent $26 a pair. There is a logic to it. But they don’t make money on the people for whom it’s logical. Like all insurance companies, they can only make money if most people never cash in.
Also, holy crap, I just clicked through and the company’s website is a blogspot blog. Not instilling confidence.
Ok, so what do they do with all the jeans they get back?
I bet they turn around and sell them to those “vintage” stores where you can buy a pair of worn 501 jeans for $150!
The idea is pretty interesting but sounds way too good to be true…sigh…
Crazy concept, but nowadays, a lot of crazy ideas make lots of money. Guess we’ll have to see!
If I was a bit less economically challenged (read: richer) I might actually go for this. I’m worried that the jeans I got last week from Express won’t fit me in another month or so, as the ones I got from Old Navy six weeks ago are already getting too loose due to ongoing weight loss/strength training.
But because I have a limited income, what I did when I started losing weight was this: when my size 12-14’s got too big, I donated them to the local Goodwill where I picked up a couple of size 8-10s, which also got too big within a few months, so I’ve repeated the process a few times. I’ve also been trading jeans with my newly-menopausal mom, but hers are mostly, ahem, mom-jeans. Yeouch.
Now that I’m pretty close to my “goal weight” I’m all excited to buy brand new jeans, but I really shouldn’t until I’m permanently whatever size I’m going to be. Which I haven’t figured out yet. BUT I love having my very own brand new jeans again!
And then, oh yeah, I’m sure I’ll get pregnant in a couple of years and be like “WTF do I do now?”
Since most of my clothes are thrift or consignment finds, I don’t think it would work for me. Oh! And there’s that little thing about never planning to diet again.
Heh, spinsterwitch, I have jeans that cost less than flat-rate priority shipping.
I am cheap and I have no brand loyalty. I also have a terrible fear of tight pants, so I don’t tend to buy really fitted jeans. I may gain weight so they later become very fitted jeans, but they don’t start out that way. I also hate shopping for jeans, as I usually try every damn style in three different sizes and wind up going home with nothing. (Most jeans in my regular size are simultaneously too small and too big for me. It’s crazy making.)
I am also really bad about returning or mailing things.
In other words, this might work for someone with abetter fashion sense, a more organized life and a less complicated relationship with jeans, but not for me.
This has got to be targeted squarely at the reasonably-well-off crowd who diets, or constantly talks about dieting, and couldn’t possibly buy themselves anything nice until they’ve lost X pounds. So this gives those women permission to buy nice things that fit now while holding out the promise that they haven’t “given up” by doing so.
Does it even have to be a different size of jeans you buy? How can they tell? How do they stop people trading-in for a new pair whenever they get tired of the last one?
Like spiderbite, I find that most women’s jeans are too big in some places and too small in others. I am very curvy, and yet men’s jeans fit me better than women’s. There’s got to be something wrong there.
I usually just sell my old clothes via livejournal when they get too big.
I would put money down that this is a company that only sells jeans up to a size 14 or something, so they’re encouraging weight loss to people who are already relatively small.
I think this is one of those ideas that is better in theory than in actuality.
Um, WHAT?!?!?!
This is about as good an idea as the musical version of “Carrie” that flopped on Broadway 20 years ago.
I wonder if this would work for pregnant women?
This is about as good an idea as the musical version of “Carrie” that flopped on Broadway 20 years ago.
I’m pretty sure musical Stephen King is a better idea than jean insurance. Though I’m inclined to think musical Stephen King is the greatest! idea! ever!.
How is it that “Carrie” flopped but “Legally Blond” is still going strong? American tourists have no capacity for ironic camp!
Liza, you are absolutely right! The problem with the musical is that they played it seriously, rather than trying to camp it up (which would have been SO MUCH FUN!!!!) and people laughed anyway. I didn’t see it, but if I were directing it, I’d TOTALLY have a tap number with pig’s blood fountains!
As Kate implies, its nothing to do with weight loss (other than their marketing copy), and everything to do with apathy. All they need is for most people to forget that they’ve done this, or not be bothered, or actually like their jeans. That’s not a hard bar to reach.
This is the kind of company where, if they’re successful, you actually find yourself hoping that they IPO so you can read their financials and see how they really make their money. How valuable do you think having a list of people who perceive themselves to be frugal (not wanting to “waste” a purchase of jeans) while at the same time being willing to pay a substantial amount of money for jean insurance? That kind of data would be very valuable to a marketing company.
[[ quick aside – expensive mail order nose hair trimmers were actually designed to provide exactly this information: a list of people willing to buy custom one-use gadgets where a simple alternative works, but too embarrassed to buy them for a lot less money at a drugstore. ]]
Anyway, you have a company like this that accepts cash for the option to sell your jeans for 30% of retail then buy new ones. That’s the only “fact” here, everything else is marketing. What if there’s another marketing website for the same core company aimed at people who want to insure against changing fashions, not sizes? And yet another aiming at people concerned about damage (“Below the deductible of your regular insurance policy, but still a surprise expense you just don’t need!”)? Remember, marketing websites are very, very cheap.
For that matter, what if this was owned by one of the denim manufacturers? At that point its effectively a 70% off coupon that you have to provide a bunch of personal data to redeem… with the added bonus that most people will provide the data and the 30% without ever buying the product. Seems like a good deal for them to me!
I’d TOTALLY have a tap number with pig’s blood fountains!
I’m seeing some pyrotechnics in there as well.
Hhhhmmm
Sounds like something short lived.
I’d rather just donate all my old jeans to someone who really needed them and couldn’t afford clothes.