Sometimes the thing with fashion and dressing up to look good has some ties with branding and not even the quality. It might be that a particular brand sells you the comfort of being seen as a member of a particular grouping of societal position or status.
Regardless, you wouldn’t want to end up getting a piece of clothing or subscribing to a brand if you will end up having to go back to their store or order new ones within a space of two or three months.
The Superdry and Tommy Hilfiger brands speak volumes about branding, a factor that has led to its thriving. Based on that note, I will use this article as a medium to place side by side, these two brands which represent a lot of branding in the fashion world.
Major Differences between Superdry and Tommy Hilfiger
The major difference which exists between the Tommy Hilfiger brand and Superdry is a matter of quality and marketing strategy. I have worn both brands especially because I got them for a lower price because my fiancée works at a department store.
The quality difference is not only obvious, but it also clearly favors one brand over the other. While Tommy Hilfiger puts all its resources to bring out banger styles and design, Superdry on the other has a good eye for quality.
Even though their quality doesn’t go that up, they are still producers of clothing that are of more quality than Superdry.
Still on the differences, while Tommy Hilfiger is inspired by styles and brings more designs; Superdry’s inspiration is the product of close observation of Japanese products.
And since the Japanese are renowned for their quality products, the initiators of the brand thought it wise to inspire their brand with utility, just like most Japanese products. Superdry is also different from Tommy Hilfiger, as it is based in the UK while Tommy Hilfiger is based in the US.
Brief History of Superdry
Superdry is a line of clothing owned by Superdry Plc; a branded clothing company based in the United Kingdom. It was co-founded by designer Julian Dunkerton and the CEO of Bench Brand James Holder.
The brand opened its first doors to the public in Covent Garden, London in 2004 and started full operation as a clothing brand. What most of us now know as the Superdry brand, all started from the creation of a clothing brand known as Cult Clothing.
The brand which was situated in Cheltenham, London made way for the Superdry as one of its co-founders Julian Dunkerton also co-founded Superdry.
The history of Superdry from its onboarding was not a smooth one because f the many downturns it faced as a result of poor management.
Its breakthrough came under the leadership of Theo Karpathois, who pushed the brand to an international expansion to other places other than the UK where it’s already saturated. The brand even had operations in the London Stock Exchange, where it sells as Superdry Plc.
Superdry started experiencing negative changes following the stepping down of Dunkerton as the CEO and was succeeded by Evan Sutherland.
When he reclaimed the position in October 2019, he was met with a host of opposition as half of the executive members of the company resigned costing them months of poor managerial support.
Even in the wake of the managerial crisis, the brand manages over 700 stores and operates in over 60 countries, which is a big feat for them.
Superdry has a marketing strategy hooked on the use of Japanese characters on its products, which makes it a selling point as a quality Japanese company.
Aside from that, I see their products as over-branded, affordable luxury items, which have a bit of quality lounged in them.
Their products are for all genders and even the Gen-Zs as it is mostly easy-to-wear items like T-shirts, hoodies, and pull-over.
Brief History of Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger is an American brand in 1985 by Thomas Jacob Hilfiger, after he tried to recreate a clothing brand that does more than others in the field of styles and design.
The Tommy Hilfiger brand holds a status of a designer brand due to this initiative that gave rise to its creation and establishment.
The brand finally came into the limelight in the year 1992 with its men’s clothing line, while its women’s line came on board in 1996 opening its first store in the much adorned Beverly Hills, California.
Much of the history of the Tommy Hilfiger brand revolves around managerial evolution and parentage as it moved from being purchased in 2006 by a company known as Apax Partners to getting into the hands of the Philip-Van Heusen (PVH Corp.) in 2010.
The PVH Corp. which is also the owners of big brands like Calvin Klein, Warner’s, Olga & Co.; issued in a new phase of development and progress.
The new management brought them into a better view of many intending customers.
Tommy Hilfiger’s outreach was fostered by their involvement in many entertainment concerts and their alignment with many models that helped put the brand into a place of better awareness.
However, the brand offers a listicle of 4 different lines which handled various products for the brand.
Currently, the Tommy Hilfiger brand has the ownership of massive flagship stores in about 7 locations in the United States, Germany, and the UK.
They also operate a lot of anchor stores numbering over 20 in cities like Tokyo, Miami, Berlin, Moscow, and lots more.
Head-to-Head Comparison between Superdry and Tommy Hilfiger
The Superdry brand can be a god contender against Tommy Hilfiger, but you will get to know about this in the preceding lines of this article.
I will take the advantage of the next lines of this text to put these two brands on a comparative scale and weigh their strengths, weaknesses, and even frivolities.
I won’t do this without acknowledging some factors which are crucial in my comparison. The basis of my comparison includes the following:
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Market Value
The Superdry brand prides itself as an affordable luxury brand, and they have not fallen short of its words.
Although the Superdry products have been labeled inferior, especially their T-shirts which were their first products; I still think they can hold up pretty much without disappointing you.
Its price is one which you can afford notwithstanding its placement as a luxury brand. On the other, Tommy Hilfiger has a line of T-shirts that cost twice the price of those sold by Superdry.
This is because Tommy is not only regarded as a luxury brand just like Superdry, but it also holds a place as a high-end priced product.
Hence their robust price which a lot of people find cool, so long as they identify that they are wearing clothes from Tommy Hilfiger.
The price of most of Tommy Hilfiger products like their jeans is also high as they compete with bigger brands like Lee and Levi, and are even placed on the same scale as Gucci which is a far more high-end brand.
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Quality
Quality is what makes or mars a brand and the Superdry brand knows about this. Even in the light of complaints about how common their products look, I still find them worth buying because they can hold up for a long while.
I am not giving them the “quality product” tag though, I will rather rate them somewhere between best and worse.
Even with their low rate quality, Superdry tends to be of a stronger make than the Tommy Hilfiger brand. This is because of a concept known as fast fashion which is what the Tommy Hilfiger brand is known for.
They are more concerned with bringing in new products that match up to the current trend that they pay little attention to the durability of these products.
Most of Superdry’s products are sewn with the British stitching style, which is strong and is currently in use.
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Brand Popularity
The topic of popularity between the Tommy Hilfiger brand and Superdry should not even be debated because it is very clear.
Even with all the fame and recognition that the brand has in the UK, It does not match up with Tommy Hilfiger which has been in existence for over a decade before it.
Tommy Hilfiger has been sighted as either sponsors or organizers of a lot of entertainment shows like music concerts and you know the magnitude of people who turn up for these events.
When it comes to affiliations with celebrities which is also a determinant of popularity, Hilfiger has an upper hand.
Superdry has had its turn of marketing with celebrities like footballer David Beckham and actor Idris Elba. But all this is in past years, whereas Tommy Hilfiger is continually endorsing celebrities like Zendaya, who are driving the sales of the brand.
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Style and Design
Just like I mentioned earlier on, Tommy Hilfiger’s style is reflective of the current trend in the fashion scene not only in America but all over the world.
Their product lines all have a particular age bracket which it serves and it suggests their efforts to make their products relative to the trend of the moment.
Superdry is also a fashion brand but their style somewhat says about a non-seasonal vibe, because you can wear their clothes without having to get worried if they have gone out of vogue.
For an instance, you can wear a 2015 version of Superdry’s design and still look but you wouldn’t look that cool with an outdated Hilfiger product.
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Product Items
The product items offered by Superdry were just T-shirts initially, but the brand turn up with other items as the year goes by.
But in current times, they have transcended from being just a T-shirt producing company to producing major outwear for men and even women.
Their products now include jeans, hoodies, cargo shorts, and T-shirts for men, while their women’s products include jackets, knitwear, designer dresses, polo shirts, and lots more.
On the other hand, Hilfiger has 4 different product lines which cater to different items and age brackets.
There is the main line Tommy Hilfiger, the Hilfiger line for denim, and the Hilfiger collection for women. The last line Tommy Hilfiger Tailored caters to a special style of American menswear like suits or casual wear.
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Management
In the past decade, Superdry Plc which owns the Superdry brand has been involved in a couple of managerial crises and it had its toll on the brand’s improvement in the quality of products and inventory.
Although this didn’t stop them from expanding, it had a negative effect on their inventory which dropped with each new design that came out.
In contrast, Tommy Hilfiger is a subsidiary of the PVH Corp. and the company is also the owner of fashion heads such as Calvin Klein.
Due to their good eye on the fashion world, the company translates its goodwill to the Tommy Hilfiger brand as it continues to break new points.
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Luxury
Without a doubt, Tommy Hilfiger occupies a more solid position in the luxury brand category, pending its market value and vast popularity.
However, Superdry is also regarded as a luxury brand but an affordable luxury brand.
This makes Superdry more of a premium brand than a luxury brand, but I can’t rewrite their narrative of themselves.
Hilfiger’s price is way above theirs and is costly for most people, which is a feature of most luxury high-end brands.
Superdry vs Tommy Hilfiger: Work Culture/Environment
The work environment at Superdry is not that bad but it is neither super cool because there are cases of poor management and lack of staff incentives.
Regardless, their working space is healthy as it is situated in the UK. Hilfiger on the other hand deals with cases of producing their items in a not-so conducive environment, a case that once made them defendants for a mass court suit bothering on the operation of “Sweatshops”.
Final Verdict
My verdict between Superdry and Tommy Hilfiger leaves the latter as a better choice over the former.
The reason why I chose it is that as a fashionista, I want to be identified by a unique brand that has a reasonable price tag on its products.
Superdry is over-branded, and it is in no way a fashion blast. I believe Tommy Hilfiger has a better fashion statement to make and I’m going for that.
Conclusion
This is the end of the comparison of two brands that have left and are still leaving notable marks on the fashion scene all around the world.
I hope the information that you find in this article will help you to choose which brand you can subscribe to and which you shouldn’t.
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