Letter from Cleveland: This Town Is Cheap

I’ve struggled for a long time about how to gracefully incorporate my move to Cleveland into this blog, which is about the pursuit of sartorial stealth and effective living for the self-made thousandaire. (I have to write that now and then to remind myself.) A year and a half in, and I’m still adjusting. When old friends ask me “How’s Cleveland?” I think I have a different answer every time.

Cleveland is a lot of things, good and bad. But I’ll start with the one trait about the Forest City that pops up more than anything: Cleveland is cheap.

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Know Who You Are and Buy The Best You Can Afford

I get a lot of pressure from brands and readers alike that I have to try this suit maker, check out those shirts, review that company, take a look at this label, yada yada yada. But these days, almost every Tom, Dick and Watchmaker likes to play the ‘luxury’ card, framing their wares as premium goods for bros who want to look like they’re killing it.

My problem is that I’m neither a “luxury” person nor a person who needs or wants a lot of stuff. When it comes to solicitations that land in my inbox, I understand the confusion. Between the tailored suits, shirts, ties and shoes, I probably present like a luxury person, even though I’m not. But these are hyper-casual times where a shirt with a collar, pants that aren’t denim and shoes that aren’t sneakers are considered “dressing up.”

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The Frustrating Truth About Luxury: It Just Looks Sexier

I get an email every morning from a popular online men’s magazine. It’s a digest of their newest content, consisting of posts about rare luxury cars, liquor, gear, getaways and whatnot. It’s bro porn.

Here’s the problem: I don’t drink, I neither have nor really want a car, and I don’t have any money. And I’m guessing that at least 99.99999% of the men on this website’s mailing list do not have the money for 99.99999% of the featured gear and getaways either. On rare occasions, the editors feature something fantastic that is actually affordable, which is nice.

So why don’t I unsubscribe? Well…

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The Luxury Agenda vs. My Agenda: A Clarification

The way I present myself usually lends a bit of understandable confusion. There is often a presumption that a guy like me – a guy who likes tailored clothes and puts some care into his appearance – is on the luxury spectrum and prepared to talk about or even relate to matters of luxury, designer clothes and other expensive things. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Episode 32: The (De)Valuation of Work

Over the past twelve years as a freelancer, I’ve watched client budgets shrink more and more, whittling down to fees that come with higher expectations for less and less money. At the end of the day, it adds up to more work for barely livable wages. In this episode of the podcast, I “open a vein” about my personal experience with how good work is valued or, perhaps more accurately, devalued today.

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