To think that not all 15 year olds have a North Face jacket?

[Shinyredbicycle]

DD15 is seriously nagging us about getting a North Face jacket to the tune of £300. Apparently, everyone at school has one, they're very warm, last forever etc.

I'm a bit surprised given the decidedly non-middle class demographic of her school tbh, but I have seen a lot of teens wearing them.

My first thought was that it's an insane amount of money to spend on a jacket. Her last one was from Urban Outfitters which I bought in the sale and I suppose that given that she's not going to grow very much more, I'd feel okay spending around £100 on something she really wanted.

But £300! Am I missing something here about how vital they are to a young person's life? It's quite possible that I don't really get how desirable they are.

Would like to hear from other parents of teens about how reasonable a request this is!

TIA

By not official do you mean fake?

You need to introduce them to Vinted or other similar 'pre-loved' sites. This month ds has bought a pair of True Religion jeans (rrp£200+) for £40 and a Ralph Lauren sweatshirt for £20.

If they don't like supermarket/High street clothes and you don't have deep pockets, this is definitely the way forwards

Sure. All the tribes have their markers. There’s a cohort of lovely, studious girls in one of my year groups who dress in charity shop clothes and generally look very unmaterialistic, but every one of them carries an £85 Fjällräven Kånken backpack and does their homework on a MacBook.

There’s a really nasty streak of judgment in a lot of the replies on this thread.

You haven’t ‘failed as a parent’, because you still are parenting, your DD is only 15, so it’s not a done deal. I would be an hard no though (given your posts) because otherwise you are encouraging a very entitled and unpleasant attitude. These MN CF adults have to start somewhere!

Comments about other parents spending £300 on a fad coat “as they put their kids first”, especially would be pushed firmly back and an apology expected.

I also wouldn’t be searching Vinted etc (especially after the above), she’s 15 and perfectly (more!) capable if she was willing to look for a reasonably priced second hand version and send you a link.

Instead of frantically searching online, I would rather have a frank conversation. Not listening to “everyone has one, it’s so warm and will last a long time” crap, but establishing if this is superficial or there are deeper issues underneath. I would be clear from the outset I’m holding my boundary though (not about to be emotionally manipulated), especially as you spend £15 on a coat from EBay for yourself.

As an aside, if you look into the fake industry you probably wouldn’t want to support it, it’s eye opening, fuelling criminal gangs, supporting human trafficking, child exploitation.

Hope you come to some solution and most importantly bring about a change of heart, apology and some appreciation. You sound lovely but it won’t serve her to be a pushover.

DD16 has a coat from Primark-she tells all her friends what a bargain it was 😂

Honestly, I would say the majority will be fake. You can buy decent fakes from turkey delivered to your door these days.
my DD has a fake fjall back pack as do most of her friends.
the ethics of fake are questionable at best but I strongly suspect most of them will be fake even if the wearers protest otherwise

I'm amazed they're wearing jackets. Mine would not, as it wasn't fashionable.

And of course they say "everyone else x y z". It's not true.

I just bought a brand new one on de pop for £70 😀

I've always bought them for my kids. My 9 yr old is now wearing his eldest brothers old one and it 10 years old! I have a full collection for him 😬 they really last

Your post seems pretty judgemental to me.

Yes, she is a regular purchaser on Vinted and Deepop, but says that you can't tell whether they're fake or not.

Given that she won't be scaling Everest in it, I don't think it matters second hand, but she does.

This thread has been an education though, thanks all. Her brother aspires to a roadman type look (no, he's not dealing drugs before anyone asks), but doesn't seem bothered by TNF jackets. I do now know why he asked for (but didn't get and forgot about) a man bag this summer. Didn't realise that was part of the look!

DS is getting one for Xmas, it was on sale at £196 and then had a Black Friday discount so it ended up at £150ish, back up to £280 now, which is more than I could manage!
It will last for years though so I'm rationalising the expense!

Are you still focussing on sourcing the coat or are you going to address the attitude OP?

I’m old enough to remember when consumerism for labels came in, a few years younger than me (and not 1000 years old, though might feel it some days). The Thatcher years.

Not at all. Just pointing out that there are certain trends which are considered infra dig by certain MNers and others which are considered perfectly acceptable. It’s no more or less shallow to want a Kånken than it is to want a 1996 Nuptse but I don’t think you’d describe one of those groups as SOME in caps.

I just asked my 16 yr old DS if he’d noticed lots of his peers wearing North Face jackets and he said, “What’s that?” 😂He’s clueless about brands and I haven’t been able to persuade him to wear any form of coat since he started secondary.

No-one in my house has mentioned North Face at all as yet. Fortunately.
My kids (11 & 15) both think wearing a coat at all is distinctly surplus to requirements. The older one is now slowly coming round to the idea of wearing the one I bought him last year from Next though it is getting a bit small.
I think £300 coats are for when they stop growing, aren't they?

Haven’t RTFT. My nearly 14 year old has one (a real one). She bought a fake one and said you could tell, so sold it (I made sure she said in the listing it was fake). She paid half from her savings we paid the other half. It is a ridiculous amount of money but all her friends have them it seems, and as she wears it every day, and will do for a long time the cost per wear isn’t so crazy.

TNF seems to be trendy ATM

As to Moncler, I believe there must be loads of fakes around as I doubt teenagers from deprived areas or Deliveroo drivers can afford a £500 jacket?

I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a jacket (for myself or DC) when there are equally suitable alternatives for a fraction of the cost. It's bonkers

Neither tbh. It was a joke, hence the '!'.

I have bought 2 coats that cost £300 in my lifetime. 1 was for uni (On boat in Scotland in all weather you need something like that). The other is my posh occasions coat and was my treat to myself when I got a bonus at work and I felt that at the age of 38 I was allowed to.

no teenager needs a coat costing £300.
no teenager needs a north face coat unless they live in the outer Hebrides
no teenager wears the same coat for years and years and years….

if your teenager wants it, they can work for it.

Benetton was as posh as got in the 80s for me. I also remember spending about £70 on a pair of green Kickers when I was about 15.

My DS is 13 and lives in Nike but is quite brand-aware. He knows there's no way I'll fund anything designer though. But, he's not a North Face fan.

£70 in 1985 was the equivalent of about £200 in today’s money!

My DD really wanted one but opted for a Let’s Frans one from Urban Outfitters. Got it for £70 and it looks fab on her. She’s delighted with it and thinks it looks as cool, if not cooler 😊

Our very poor town is over run with badly behaved , balaclava clad teens trashing the town centre and they all wear north face puffas. We call them north face ninjas. Absolute Arseholes they are, one of them got caught on cctv destroying a Ev Charger wearing a north face and a Santa hat.

I live in a deprived area. All the teens wear them. They get them from designer outlets, or parents pay by installments, they have very few items of clothing overall and wear their handful of designer things till they fall apart, or they buy them from the shoplifters. It matters very much to them. And they're exceptionally warm. The warmest coat I've ever had (inherited from DS).