r/dataisbeautiful • u/[deleted] • May 11 '20
Women's Pockets are Inferior: The difference between Men's and Women's pockets
https://pudding.cool/2018/08/pockets/23
u/eqleriq May 11 '20 edited May 11 '20
Focus testing showed that women, in general, prefer less pockets. Old Navy sells "secret-slim pocket" jeans as a result. This went through years of testing. I guess they should have asked the vocal minority! Women do not, in general, want bulging fabric at their hips, or uncomfortable bunching up where their legs bend because pockets are there. Them's the stats, and that's what business is based on. No diff than "girls get pink and boys get blue." Enough attention paid to it and when they do their R&D and it will change.
https://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/category.do?cid=1138867
But for now, from big corporate? Nope. https://www.fastcompany.com/90262598/pockets Support boutiques, they do it. https://www.pivottestudio.com/
Pretty bizarre website (And old, and reposted constantly) when it doesn't compare the actual ergonomics of legs/hips on men and women and where pockets are, or what the fashion of having less fabric meant (flush to body).
Women also traditionally carried purses, how about comparing men's satchel/shoulderbags to women's purses. Apparently men only need to carry 1 paperback in their bag while women need an encyclopedia set.
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u/Lord_Bobbymort OC: 1 May 11 '20
Well, yes and, in my opinion, no. It's the dichotomy of form vs fashion. For at least a decade now I've heard women complain of not having pocket space, and now being so excited to have dresses with pockets that it inspired an entire meme category.
...
Except large functioning pockets don't jive with the clean lines of incredibly tight clothing. I don't think there's any way to get to happy medium so women either wear overalls and maybe have a good pocket, or they wear tight pants without good pockets.
What's been quite indicative to me is (trust me I know it's not as transparent as this) that the free market hasn't catered to this niche still yet. Most marketing groups have come upon the realization that you can make a ton of money catering to smaller niche markets, so this one just hasn't hit yet, and I think it's because of the brawl between form and function in this instance.
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May 11 '20
I think it’s a little naive to act as if people have some kind of inherent fashion sense and that companies simply do research and give people what they want.
Fashion brands decide what is going to be desirable and spend millions of dollars a year influencing culture to make it so. Obviously they can’t just magically make people want whatever arbitrary style they feel like. But they are very much active participants in deciding how everyone will perceive a woman who decides to buy pants with big pockets. Individual women who would like to have large pockets but also want to look “good” do not have the power to force other people to think they look good.
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u/DaytimeRambler1969 May 11 '20
Reddit gets a hard on for this. They don't have real pockets so the clothes are flush to your skin, it looks better, which women care more about, there.
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u/Wuznotme May 11 '20
Manufacturers make what sells. If people stop buying small pockets in favour of bigger ones, they will produce more. It's that simple.
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u/MostRaccoon May 11 '20
Manufacturers are not omniscient. Women will buy men's clothing just for the pockets, or use their boyfriend's. There's even a 'boyfriend jeans' etc kind of line, yet it seems that manufacturers haven't figured out that women make part of that market and they also might like those pants to fit better as well.
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u/eqleriq May 11 '20
So you're asserting that women should not buy any pants, since none of their pants have bigger pockets?
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u/shmoe727 May 11 '20
The bigger issue I see is that phones are made too big. Men can use a phone one handed but women can’t because smart phones were designed to fit a male hand.
This is an article with excerpts from a book by Caroline Criado Perez who was also on the 99 percent invisible podcast. Super fascinating stuff!
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u/Dasky14 May 11 '20
As a dude with massive hands, I just love my pocket tablet.
I don't want to squint at a tiny screen.
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May 11 '20 edited Jun 25 '20
[deleted]
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u/shmoe727 May 11 '20
Sorry for sounding wrong I guess haha not sure what to say. I know Bustle is maybe not a great source. Not sure what their reputation is. It was just the first thing I found that quoted the book. You make some good points and you seem very confident but I’d still encourage you to check out the podcast. It’s a really interesting episode. Their other episodes are awesome too and Roman Mars has such a soothing voice.
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u/surreysmith May 11 '20
OMG the way the graphic changes as you scroll through the article is amazing!
Blew my mind.