Comments on: Pants by Lagerfeld, shirt by Microsoft

Microsoft is launching a new line of graphic T-shirts called "Softwear by Microsoft." Yep, you read that right. It's getting into the clothing business.

I see an image problem with the t-shirts. Micros~1 has never had a cool image. A serious one? Yes? Trustworthy? Yeah, also. Cool? Never. So these fancy and creative t-shirts are not actually tapping into something already there and -as in many of the advertising efforts- they're pretending to be what they're not.

nda

[eyepoker]

how embarrasing.....

[cyberspittle]

Cool. I'm holding out for the Microsoft OS/2 t-shirt. Then, again, I'm probably dating myself. (Historical note: before IBM went on it's own with OS/2, Microsoft had it's own version, which Bill Gates had mentioned will be the future. Microsoft's version became Windows NT (New Technology) which we have all come to love and enjoy. 8^)

[Penguinisto]

Oy, vey.... even here, MSFT is not the innovator.

See also http://www.thinkgeek.com (which has been around for YEARS now...)

/P

[Vegaman_Dan]

And Microsoft and Apple both had T shirts out before ThinkGeek even *existed*.

Your point... is denied. Well, that is unless you are pointing out that even here, ThinkGeek is not the innovator.

Please insert 25 cents and try again.

[Penguinisto]

Not at all, dear Dan. There's a world of difference between actual swag and commercial retailing. You may wish to learn it. ;)

[Goodbye Helicopter]

cool

[t8]

The only shirt I would consider buying is "Vista Sucks" if that is available. If so, it might outsell Vista itself.

[JohnQueuePublic]

Imagine a line of underwear with the word Microsoft emblazoned on the front right next to your package.

Look out ladies, I'm Microsoft! Rawr.

[dbargen]

Apple used to do a promotion on college campuses where at the beginning of the school year, on one day for 3 hours it would hand out red t-shirts with a big apple logo on front and back. If later on that year you were 'caught' wearing the shirt (one person per day or so), you got a free iPod, or most recently, an iPhone. By the end of the year, those shirts were pretty worn.

I wonder how well branding for MS would work with a similar promotion and Zunes...

[t8]

1 year after buying the pants you will need to download a patch or your pants will have a gaping hole in them.

[Sumatra-Bosch]

Can it get more pathetic?

[Seaspray0]

small, medium, large, extra large... how many version are we going to have?

[jtjt145]

I hope for them the quality of their shirts is better than the quality of their software!

[sundance808]

people buy those kinds of shirt (e.g. Apple T-shirts, Apple Records, Van Halen etc) because it invokes fuzzy "good" memory.. microsoft does not invoke those kinds of emotions at all.

[Vegaman_Dan]

All kidding aside, this could be pretty neat. I would like to see Apple shirts and clothing as well.

For those who love to blast MIcrosoft, think of those who do like retro things like Atari, Commodore, and so on. There's good business in that market. Also think about other MSFT products that ARE considered cool by gamers like the Xbox or the entire Halo series. Think a black and green shirt with XBOX all over it won't sell? Think again.

I kind of like the idea of old DOS commands on a shirt. It's geek enough to appeal.

Don't get so hung up over your own personal egos and look beyond the geek market here on CNET. They wouldn't be marketing to you because, well frankly, you're all a very tiny minority of the clothing marketplace. I would expect that this sort of thing would sell pretty decently. It's also a good marketing method to get their name out into the mainstream once more.

Apple could benefit from doing the same thing. So could a lot of companies today.

[bhushan bhaagii]

Dunno A) if MS-bashers naturally gravitate to this forum, or B) if this is the situation on every other discussion where people come in and toss their bucket of bile and bilge at MS. If 'B' is the situation
holding everywhere, then MS is in deep trouble. GM, once upon a time, was synonymous with
Detroit and American automobiles. It looked like a company too big to really have anything
serious happen to it. But over the past 5 years GM came in for a lot of flak, and was upstaged
by the Japanese, particularly Toyota. Today, GM is a metaphor for a dinosaur that could not
adapt to chainging market needs. The owners of Microsoft would be well advised to look at
their situation and come up with something really innovative. You don't have to be a Harvard
Professor or graduate to predict that this company is sliding on a downward slope, and
one day suddenly it will be in a free-fall mode like Bear Sterns, Merril Lynch and others
who were swallowed up by the sub-prime crisis.

[thelemurking]

I don't know about you guys, but I sort of like the MS DOS shirt. For that matter, I actually liked DOS. The shirts have an old school retro look to them and that will probably help them out with all the vintage hipsters who don't care what it is as long as they think it makes them look cool. Soft Wear is clever though...

[Get_Bent]

Make mine blue with small white letters on it (right before it crumbles and falls off my body...).

[thapsos]

What a news!!! Finally Microsoft is doing what we expected to do; i.e.: everything but software.... :)
Let's use a O.S. to work, let the children play with Windows...
Ops... Would you see... They use a kind of cotton that restarts your washer everytime you wash it?

[Kapheroph]

I think I'll wait to see if there are any patches being released for the first 6 months......