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Affordable Men's Style

Nordstrom vs. Lands’ End Canvas – Store Wars Semi Final

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STORE WARS:  Nordstrom vs. Lands’ End Canvas

Starting March 13th and running through April 2nd, Dappered.com is hosting a bracket based tournament with the purpose of eventually crowning the all around Affordable Men’s Style Retail Champ for 2012.  For a full introduction see this post.  The bracket on the right will be updated as the tournament progresses.  Click on it for the full size.  Make a case for your preferred competitor in the comments section, but don’t forget to vote at the bottom of each match up.  On with today’s showdown:

Strengths:  Arguably the premier retailer for a wide variety of clothing, shoes, and accessories that land on the high end of what most would call “affordable.”  One of if not the biggest mass retailer to offer free shipping and free returns all the time.  The legendary “half-yearly” sales for men, and the additional markdowns that usually follow.  A sale section that’s usually decently well stocked.  Designer brand list has wild range.  In-house brands like Calibrate, 1901, and the plain ol’ Nordstrom line offer more than a few items with incredible looks and high quality for very reasonable prices.  Website is clean and easy to navigate.

Weaknesses:  They hardly ever have large-scale sales, so those higher than Macy’s-level retail prices won’t come down real often, if at all.  Could use a few more affordable suiting options.  Their in-house brand Calibrate seems to make blazers and jackets that look a little chopped/too short.

How they got here:  Easily beat L.L. Bean Sig. in the 1st round and then just barely squeaked by Target in the 2nd.
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Strengths:  Last year’s champion.  Nice, upgraded casual basics for good prices, and those prices can get dirt cheap when on sale/clearance.  From blazers to shirts, shoes to pants, you could put together an entire outfit of just them.  Handwritten thank you notes to first time customers, which has played a part in developing what appears to be a solidly loyal customer base.  Despite some complaints, the ultra-cheap, Alden-Indy inspired Crosby Moc Toe.  Their waxed cotton trip bag . Their guarantee.  Not only is one of their models an SI Swimsuit model, their swimsuits have appeared in the issue as well.

Weaknesses:  They seem to have lost a bit of their way, or perhaps they have some new strategy that reduces the number of items they produce and raises overall prices ($100 for a cardigan? $100 for… cargo pants?)  Blazers can fit a little big sometimes, and this season’s blazers look to be running real short in the tail.  Overall the brand is more fitted, certainly more so than Lands’ End, but not a true trim fit most of the time.  Used to run sales and codes often.  Now it’s more like a free-shipping-at-$50 code every once in awhile.

How they got here:  Bounced Brooks Brothers in the 1st, then pulled off the upset against J. Crew in the 2nd.

Your votes determine who goes on to the next round.  Cast your ballot below.  Voting ends at midnight ET.
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Store Wars Semis: Nordstrom vs. Lands' End Canvas

  • Nordstrom (35%, 403 Votes)
  • Lands' End Canvas (69%, 786 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,140

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Comments

  2. how can LEC be 2 in a row winner if even its owner doesn’t want it and tries to sell it away?? C’mon, Nordstrom~~~~!! Even though I only shopped from you once, beat unwanted LEC! 

  3. BTW who won between Jcrew Fac vs BR? It got to be the closest contest ever and multiple vote recount must be needed to sort that out. It was 3-4 vote difference last night, but votes came coming and counted after midnight. Now only Mr. Joe knows who the winner is.

  4. Except the article quotes an analyst as saying “Over time, selling off the profitable assets is unlikely to be a winning strategy” So while LEC is unwanted by Sears, that doesn’t mean their products are unwanted by consumers.

  5. Well, Sears in general is a failing company. Lands’ End and LEC might be the only profitable things they have right now.

  6. Oh hell, I don’t even know.  I’ve handed it over to our tech guru who’s going to look at the logs (they’ll show what was cast when) and report back later today.  It was extremely close though. 

  7.  Yeah, it doesn’t mean they don’t want Lands’ End. It means that they badly need cash ($2.4 billion net loss in the last year!) and they feel that LE is the brand least tied to their corporate identity, thus they can sell it off to get the much needed cash while remaining Sears (more or less). However, it’s a terrible strategy for the survival of the company; anybody who’s played Monopoly knows that, if you have to start selling property to pay off a debt, you’re as good as done for. That’s why Sears wants to sell LE (for cash) and then obtain license to continue producing LE products (paying fees to the owner in order to use the brand name/label). They make money off LE; selling it for a large chunk and licensing the name means they get to keep making money off their brand after they’ve sold it. All in all, it indicates that LE is one of, if not the most or only, profitable brand Sears has at the moment.

  8. Anyway, back on topic, Nordstrom is too rich for my blood. I vote LEC over Nordstrom for the same reason i voted LEC over J. Crew. Only this time, it’s that much easier.

  9. We have a winner.  Had our man look at the logs.  549 votes were cast for BR before the deadline.  548 were cast for J. Crew Factory.  BR moves on to the final.

  12. I didn’t realize so many readers enjoy cheapluy made ill fitting clothes. I hate LEC. 

  13. 1 vote??!!! 1 lousy stinking vote??!!! I demand recount!! I smell tainted logs. I smell the tech guru’s BR silk cotton cashmere sweater on him. Oh the conspiracy theory~~~. ha ha ha. 

  14. I share and happily hope in your LEC hate train. Me. Hate. L.E.C. – with its fat, fatter, fattest sizes. Everything they sell except for accessories are huge there. The minimum weight requirement to get LEC must be 170lbs. 

  15.  Oops. I didn’t mean to “Like” that. By calling their sizes “fat, fatter, fattest”, you’re calling every single one of their customers “fat, fatter, fattest.” I fluctuate between 130 and 150 at 5’11”. Their clothes aren’t huge on me. I wear Medium and Small depending on how I want the fit. The 30″ waist on their pants is true to size. Moreover, I’ve had some shirts for going on 6 months, washing them multiple times per week, and they’re holding up just fine. I sympathize that your experiences with their clothes may not have been as good as mine, just as Joe seems to have had much better luck with Indochino than others, but please, let’s keep it classy.

  17. I’m still stunned by JC Factory’s narrow loss last night…but I’m going with Nordstrom here (despite their iffy prices).

  19. Customer service. That just depends on the store you’re shopping at. I’ve had good experiences and bad experiences at Nordstrom.

  21. Once again, the Lands End PR team is “getting out the vote” via social media. (I wouldn’t mind so much, but LEC has really slipped a notch this year with their increase in list prices and ongoing concerns about fit.)

  22. It’s likely that sears just can support the line. It’s kinda like when you’re going broke and you sell all your good stuff to a pawn broker or ebay. LEC’s products are more costly to make then their basic retail clothes. It’s probably a drain on their dwindling resources. Sears needs to drop LEC because it can’t support them. Great product line, dead beat owner. 

  23. So…. BR and LEC are gunna be the end match of this thing right? I take BR’s side in that eventual match up even though I think LEC is gunna spam the vote with their own people. 

  24. I just looked at LEC’s facebook page and official twitter and didn’t see anything posted about store wars?  Where did you see the PR team doing stuff?

  25. Lots of folks with “PR” handles, both LE folks and others:

    http://twitter.com/#!/LEprMolly

    http://twitter.com/#!/LEprMolly/status/185769858712080384  

    http://twitter.com/#!/LandsEndPR/status/185739417296703489

    http://twitter.com/#!/LandsEndPRAdam/status/185723619308093441

    http://twitter.com/#!/CirclePRMary/status/185731688960233473

    I’m not sure if LEC has their own social media Store Wars campaign, though the parent folks at Lands End seem to be pretty excited about it.

  27. I knew I was right when I said people at LEC are sending people!! (Chris from previos store post, I’m looking at you!) Now this proves it! This blows… Now we know LEC will win every freaking year and what’s the use? grumble grumble. Then again, it is the only store that care enough to send people when all other stores don’t, so I guess it can’t be helped. 

  28. i would imagine most companies are pulling some stuff like that.  there is no way they are the only ones right?

  30. Fat, fatter, fattest, huh? Sounds like pure bitterness to me. I’m 5’9″, 145 lbs and the LEC smalls fit just fine for casual wear. Their slim fit chinos are the best I’ve found in terms of fit.

  31. Not really feeling either of these contenders. LEC is good but not great, while Nordstrom is pretty well outside the price range of lots of folks here, except maybe with one of their infrequent sales. Nordstrom Rack is usually a better bet for price, but given tr delineation between J.Crew and Factory I’m not sure Rack should count in Nordstrom’s favor. I’m not crazy about seeing either of these stores move onto the finals.

  32. Customer service my foot. Nordstrom is where I was literally completely ignored by sales staff while attempting to buy a suit several years ago, simply because I was dressed casually and look younger than I am. I have never felt so humiliated in a shopping situation. Nordstrom CS helpfulness only extends as far as they think (rightly or wrongly) that you “belong” in their store. I was willing to put down good money on a suit that day and Nordstrom lost my business with their snobbery.

  33. Is that really an issue though?  It drives more traffic here…which means that Joe can get more $ from ad revenue which he can cycle back into the site to make it a better experience for everyone.

    Also, if LEC is taking it this seriously, they might have a celebratory discount for people….so who knows

  34. Correct, Indochino did the same thing, and it didn’t do them much good.  Brooks Brothers was aware on twitter, not sure if they sent out a tweet.  This is a sticky one on this end.

  35. Much appreciate the support JToom.  Now when it comes to Store Wars being a money maker, I’m not sure.  If the people that swing on by to vote and only vote, don’t stick around and never come back, then there won’t be any uptick in revenue. 

    That said, and I know some might not believe this, but I’d much rather Store Wars be as legitimate as possible, than make an extra buck.  It all goes back to this: http://dappered.com/ftc-disclosure/  If a website starts doing stuff for the wrong reasons, people will stop coming to the site, and then what’s the point?

    That and Store Wars is just supposed to be fun.

    I also don’t think there’s a massive amount of traffic coming in from LEC’s twitter campaign about store wars.  I just checked the traffic numbers.  Of all the pageviews accumulated for this particular page (LEC vs. Nordstrom) yesterday… there were actually less “new visitors” (people who haven’t been to Dappered before) than those newbies who visited the Banana Republic vs. J. Crew Factory store wars page the day before.

    So I’m sure some people are showing up to vote for LEC thanks to their twitter reminders, but how big of an impact is it having?  I honestly don’t know.  I do hope it’s not having an unfair impact.  Yet at the same time, you have to give them credit for interacting with their customer base.

    Not sure what to do about this on this end, if anything, and I’m certainly open to suggestions from everyone for Store Wars 2013 if we bring it back. 

    Thanks again!

  36. I can’t really blame them. I guess all’s fair in love and on the Interwebs …

    Funny thing — last year I actually wanted LEC to win; this year not so much.

  37. For what it’s worth, I think it’s pretty cool that some of these retailers are taking this seriously. I don’t approve of campaigning, but it’s cool to see that Dappered has a real impact in the market. Most of us have seen a certain item in the LEC store marked “as seen on dappered.com”. To me, that’s really awesome. Way to go, Joe!

  38. Nordstrom carries a pretty good selection but I’m not looking for suits or anything and the prices are ridiculous. They were selling plain AO sperry topsiders at a $10 markup compared to the Journeys next door…

    Not super familiar with LEC though so honestly I can’t give an objective vote. Should be interesting.

  39. FYI: Nordstrom does price matching and will beat it by $1.

    I use to work at Nordstrom 5 years ago, so it might not be there anymore, but it is definitely worth the shot to ask.