I’ve never really been much of a brand name person, but I can think of a few exceptions. I put up a fuss as a kid when my mom first brought home plain labeled Oreo cookies. What in the world? There really is no substitute for Oreos in my opinion. And when I played on my high school tennis team, I had to have Nike canvas tennis shoes. Oh yeah, and I’ve always used a Head tennis racquet. But after that, I don’t much care about brands.
As evidence of that fact, I went out and bought a new set irons for my golf bag ten years or so ago and the brand name was Backfire. Every time I hit a ball, I half expect one of my irons to make a backfiring noise and even when it doesn’t, my golf game seems destined to backfire after buying a brand name like that. But they serve the purpose I bought them for. They allow me to hack at the ball on the rare occasions I actually play golf.
I own a couple of pair of sweatpants that are made by Starter and a few that are no-name brands. Every time I wear a pair of the Starter pants I wonder who the people at Starter think they are kidding. As if I could be a starter in any type of sporting event. But hey, it’s a nice illusion.
Not long ago, I picked up a new pair of slippers. I am a total slipper person, by the way. I hate going barefooted, and even walking around the house in socks feels like I’m barefooted. And I really don’t like wearing shoes around the house either. They are too formal and often cause my feet to hurt. So slippers it is for me, whenever possible.
Well, I didn’t notice this when I purchased my new slippers, but the brand name on my them is Fireside. That totally invokes an imagine of reading a book while sipping coffee in a rocking chair in some out of the way cabin as snow falls outside and the fire in the fireplace crackles across the room, doesn’t it? I don’t have a cabin or a fireplace or even a rocking chair, but owning these slippers sort of makes me want all of them.