I just took out my laundry from the washing machine and, while laying them out to dry, I noticed that one of my Tom Tailor shorts is made in Bangladesh. Tom Tailor isn't a luxury brand; it's considered relatively affordable in my country, but not on par with famous brands.

If you take a closer look at the labels on your clothing, you'll realize that many items are designed by popular brands like Nike, Adidas, and Levi's, but manufactured in countries where labor costs are low.

I paid around $30 for these shorts, if I remember correctly, but the production cost is probably a fraction of that amount. There are transportation costs and retailers' profits to consider, but most of the profit goes to the manufacturers.

So, what do the manufacturers actually produce when clothing brands are made in various countries around the world where labor is cheap? They produce the design, the desire, and the commercials.

One of the biggest manufacturers of iPhones is in China. Despite being an American product, it's actually produced in China, just like many other brands. They're minimizing costs, but we're paying the highest prices we can.

Take the latest iPhone's high-end model, which costs $2,000. That's almost the same value as my car... But why don't these poor countries produce their own goods and sell them to us? Well, in some cases, they may not have the resources or talent to create such businesses, and even if they did, they'd likely lose.

Many of us buy brands, not products. I used to say that about Apple years ago, that most of its users buy the logo, not the device itself. Although I'm an Apple user, I still stand by that statement. The only reason I bought an iPhone this year instead of a Samsung was because of the cameras.

I like taking smartphone photos a lot, and the best all-around cameras were on the 15 Pro. I bought the size, the cameras, and the build quality, not the logo... Well, I actually got the phone as a gift, but I got to choose, so I was happy with the gift.

I once met a Danish guy who had a small clothing factory in one of our Romanian cities, and he made jackets for Dolce and Gabbana. He sold these jackets to retailers for $200, but they ended up in stores with a price tag of $1,800, according to him. You could buy a quality jacket for $200, but it wouldn't have the branding...

People, especially poor people, chase logos, not products. Most people don't realize that for $1,000, the price they pay for the basic iPhone could buy them an exponentially better smartphone. The same goes for clothing, but you can't impress people you don't know who don't care about you with unknown brands, can you?

I'm not against paying for quality; I made that clear with my smartphone choice this year. However, I don't get people who chase brands and pay exorbitant amounts of money for stuff they could actually buy for way less. It's just a logo – why would you pay ten times the value of the product just for the sake of that logo...

Thanks for your attention,
Adrian