Mike --
This is a hard one, indeed. Although my answer may set a record (for
me, at least) for the briefest response to a question at this price,
it reflected a *lot* of looking around and a lot of dead ends.
Anyway, here is the "money quote" from Cotton Incorporated, a trade
group for the cotton industry:
"According to The NPD Group, over 57.4 million white men?s dress
shirts were sold in the U.S. in 1996, accounting for 31 percent of all
dress shirt sales."
Cotton Incorporated: Why a Simple Men?s Cotton Dress Shirt Has Such
Lasting Appeal ? To Women" (8/21/97) (Google-cached page; original not
available)
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:gcBOEpg7RiMJ:www.cottoninc.com/lsmarticles/%3FarticleID%3D342+%22white+button+down%22+shirts++million+sold&hl=en
The primary source for that information, the NPD Group, is a large
multi-industry marketing consultant. Unfortunately, but not
unexpectedly, its market research reports are available for purchase
at hefty prices, so I guess we should consider ourselves lucky to find
this useful nugget of free information.
Here is a link to the main home page of the NPD Group:
NPD Group
http://www.npd.com/
And here is a link to a listing of its fashion industry reports:
NPD Group: Fashionworld: Reports
http://www.npd.com/fashionreports/
Search Strategy:
I used many combinations of search terms to try to find relevant
information for you. The terms that I used included, among others,
"shirt", "shirts", "white", "blue" "sales" "sold" "million" "dress",
"business" "button down". The combination that was finally successful
was this one:
"white button down" shirts million sold
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLB%2CGGLB%3A1969-53%2CGGLB%3Aen&q=%22white+button+down%22+shirts++million+sold
As you can see, I started out with the reasonable (I think) assumption
that a plain white or blue dress shirt would be the style that is
still the most common single shirt type that would meet your "same
shirt" criterion. However, I tested that assumption by substituting
other styles as search terms, such as "polo" (the most likely
alternative style, I think) and some others, and came up with no
contrary or otherwise useful information.
Based on your clarification, I am hopeful that the above information
is completely satisfactory to you. Of course, if anything is unclear,
or if you have any questions about it, please ask for clarification
before rating the answer.
markj-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
buckinghammike-ga
on
14 Feb 2005 08:29 PST
Mark, to give you more background, this statistic was originally going
to be used in a presenation, in a sentence that said, "right now, X
people are wearing the exact same shirt as you." The point I'm after
is conformity.
If we know the number of white shirts sold, are there assumptions we
can make about that number to extrapolate how many of those white
shirts are being worn on any given day?
For example, if I were to show an image of a classic white button-down
oxford shirt and say, "wearing this shirt today? So are X million
other people."?
If not, I am more than satisfied with your answer, as always.
Thanks.
Mike
|
Clarification of Answer by
markj-ga
on
14 Feb 2005 13:46 PST
Mike --
Let me try out on you a set of assumptions that would allow you make a
statement along the following lines in your presentation:
"Even at the height of the casual dress craze in the dot.com era in
the late 1990s, we can reasonably assume that 7 million Americans were
wearing this same shirt on any given workday. Today that number would
undoubtedly be higher as business dress codes are again becoming more
formal."
Here's how I arrived at 7 million:
1. It is reasonable to assume that the universe of white dress shirt
wearers are "white collar workers."
"white-col·lar adj.
"Of or relating to workers whose work usually does not involve manual
labor and who are often expected to dress with a degree of formality."
Answers.com, citing the American Heritage Dictionary
http://www.answers.com/topic/white-collar
2. There are 57 million white-collar workers in the U.S. workforce.
"A recent BusinessWeek report adds that it's not just manufacturing
workers who are at risk, but a substantial portion of the 57 million
U.S. white-collar and professional employees who face real global
competition as a portion of these jobs can be readily outsourced."
Seattle Post Intelligencer: "Outsourcing of U.S. jobs: Bad or good?"
by Judy Olian (12/27/04)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/205207_outsourcedebate27.html
3. It is reasonable to assume that there were a similar number of
U.S. white-collar workers in the late 1990s.
4. 31 percent of the dress shirts sold in 1996 were plain white.
"According to The NPD Group, over 57.4 million white men?s dress
shirts were sold in the U.S. in 1996, accounting for 31 percent of all
dress shirt sales." Cotton Incorporated: Why a Simple Men?s Cotton
Dress Shirt Has Such Lasting Appeal ? To Women" (8/21/97)
(Google-cached page; original not available)
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:gcBOEpg7RiMJ:www.cottoninc.com/lsmarticles/%3FarticleID%3D342+%22white+button+down%22+shirts++million+sold&hl=en
5. It is reasonable to assume that the white-collar workers who
bought white dress shirts 31 percent of the time wore those white
dress shirts on the job with their business attire 31 percent of the
time.
6. In the same late-1990s time period, workplace dress codes for
white-collar workers included substantial leeway for casual wear.
Here is a report of a 1998 survey of Levi Strauss & Co.:
" A survey by Levi Strauss & Co. found that last year [in 1997] 53
percent of white-collar workers are allowed to dress casually every
day, compared with 20 percent in 1992. Another 31 percent can dress
casually once a week, compared with 17 percent in 1992."
Christian Science Monitor: "Cool Threads Weave Their Way Into Most
Workplaces," by Neil Irwin (8/10/98)
7. The above statistics imply that 16 percent of the white-collar
workforce wore dress shirts at work every day (i.e., they had no
casual-dress privileges at all). 16 percent of the 57-million
white-collar workforce equals about 9 million workers.
8. The same statistics tell us that 31 percent of the white-collar
workforce wore dress shirts 80 percent of the time (that is, four days
a week) in the late 1990s. 31 percent of the white-collar workforce
is approximately 18 million workers. So, on any given day, there was
an 80 percent chance that these 18 million workers would be wearing a
dress shirt. Put another way, it is reasonable to assume that about
14 million white-collar workers (80 percent of 18 million) were
wearing a dress shirt on any given day.
9. So, in the late 1990's on any given day, 23 million white-collar
workers (9 million plus 14 million were wearing a dress shirt.
10. Since we have already made the reasonable assumption that 31
percent of dress-shirt wearers were wearing a *white* dress shirt on
any given day, we can translate that into a reasonable assumption that
about 7 million white-collar workers were wearing white dress shirts
on any given day in the late 1990s.
Finally, here is some support for the intuitive notion that "business
casual" is losing its popularity:
"I'm starting to hear more stories about CEOs that have had enough of
the "sloppy" look and work attitude that Corporate Casual apparently
brought with it. Fair or not, the onset of Corporate Casual will
always be tied to the rise of the dot.coms. While most dot.coms are
long since dot.gones, Corporate Casual has managed to stick around
awhile, but it now seems to be wearing out its welcome."
Wearables Business Magazine: "Khakis are under attack!" by Brian
Anderson (10/1/2004)
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CXP/is_12_8/ai_n6227917
Supplemental Search Strategy:
I used a variety of Google searches to find and confirm the additional
information. Here are the most useful ones:
definition "white collar worker"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLB,GGLB:1969-53,GGLB:en&q=definition+%22white+collar+worker%22
"white collar workers" "business suits"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLB,GGLB:1969-53,GGLB:en&q=%22white+collar+workers%22++%22business+suits%22
"white collar employees" million total us
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLB,GGLB:1969-53,GGLB:en&q=%22white+collar+employees%22+million+total+us
I hope that the above logic is clearly enough expressed and makes
sense to you. If anything does remain unclear, please ask for more
clarification before rating the answer.
markj-ga
|
