Earlier this evening I took the family to the mall to hunt down some deals. Daddy needed to score some new threads, preferrably discount threads. Well, that part of the trip was a success. I managed to get 5 new dress shirts — nice ones — for under $50 bucks. Not bad right?
So then we come home, put the kids to bed, and I start to unwrap my new shirts, which is when the frustration began thanks to shirt pins. Why do shirt manufacturers think it is a great idea to load up every garment with 15 razor sharp metal objects. It took me almost 20 minutes to get all of them out of 5 shirts. Of course I managed to drop one on the carpet, which led to a scavenger hunt through the carpet which we bought “to hide stains.” Guess what… it hides pins too. Luckily disaster was averted, as I managed to locate it with my eyes as opposed to the bottom of one of my kids feet.
Why do we need shirt pins? I am sure at one point in time they served a valuable purpose. Today, the shirts are already shrink wrapped when you buy them. They are not going anywhere. Lose the pins! God forbid you actually wanted to try the shirt on before you bought it. Does anybody take the time to sit at Macy’s and take out 15 pins from the Geoffrey Beene button down before ringing that thing up? Not me. Just find my size and get the heck out. How about they have a “try on” model that works for all colors. It can be white. If it fits, all others of the same style will too. Then, you can eliminate the pins, and I can leave knowing that the shirt I took home will fit and not give me tetanus in the process of unwrapping it.
Inventors out there take note. Find a way to package up men’s dress shirts in a way that requires no pins — and maybe less cardboard and plastic — and you will have a million dollar invention on your hands. Now off to wash my new shirts, and empty the trash can that I filled with wasted packaging from my new threads. If you were planning on digging through my trash, wait a week. It is riddled with pins. Unless you plan to sell them for recycling dollars — another money making idea. Glad to help.
Thanks David for bring this up! I’ve never seen any other clothing packaged this way?? I’m going to write a letter to my favorite shirt company. I think I’ll add half a dozen folds and envelopes and see if they get the point:)
And besides the potential of hurting one’s self removing these stupid pins (or missing one and putting the shirt on), the pins also create holes in the fabric that, besides the damage done to the fabric right off the bat, can often lead to increased wear in those points. I mean, it’s ridiculous to spend money on a new shirt that has numerous little holes in it, as if moths had already been feasting on it.
Men who buy shirts have to contact the designers/manufacturers and complain. It’s the only way the message will get through. Sort of like the situation with plastic “clamshell” packaging, where retailers and electronics manufacturers finally got the message about how dangerously difficult those packages are to open.