See, something I've noticed too is that "high price / high quality" brands seem to not be so anymore. Recently I bought a handful of Carhartt pants, pricey-but-quality, or so it used to be yet the quality seems to have been driven downhill and all those pants quickly fell apart in various ways.

I've found the $20-$30 lesser-known brands ended up being of higher quality, oddly. It seems the "premium" brands have taken to abusing their name's mark of quality by removing that quality in favor or cheap materials and temporary higher profits.

My Zamberlan boots were nearly $300 are 5 years old. Other than some scuffs they are in great shape. I'll have these for many more years.

Carhartt let me down. I'll never touch them again. It only took a month or so for a hole to form in the pants, the cargo pocket is tearing a hole in the leg. My wallet isn't that heavy. So much for tough pants than can stand up to real work. I've since tried some from 5.11 and they are holding up to abuse the Carhartts didn't live long enough to see.

i meant high quality independent of price. lots of brands let you “try before you buy” nowadays. if i’m shopping for a new t-shirt, i’ll get a bunch of them and return what i wouldn’t want to wear every day. (i’ll return all of them if i have to!)

1. Most people outside the bay need seasonal clothing. Winter is different than summer.

2. Unless you're running your washer half full, you'll need more than 10 shirts.

3. Then there's occasional wear.

At this point, you're looking at a reasonably full closet, no?