Why would you talk about this?
This article is targeted at Christians but feel free to have a peek and send me any questions if you have them.
Maybe you’re wondering why a Christian Clothing Brand would do an article that could seriously damage their ability to sell products? To be honest, no industry is perfect. So it’s only right to talk about our good points as well as our bad points. In the end you’ll be more educated on the issues and what you can do about them.
What are the problems With Christian Clothing?
People think it’s Corny
For some reason, most t-shirts, even the poorly designed ones get no reaction. That is until you make it in any way related to God, then it’s corny or off. And run for the hills should it mention Jesus!
The reason we see this sort of reaction is because we have been conditioned to believe that anything associated with God or King Jesus is corny. If you feel this way, you should know, this is a stronghold of the mind.
If you believe something is cool, anything associated with it will be cool. For instance, putting a famous pop-singer on a t-shirt. But if you accept the lie that the enemy (the devil) has spread through popular culture, then you will believe that anything associated with God or Jesus is corny. Be it fashion, film, music, books, people and so on. My observation is that this is generally a subconscious reaction.
A quick note here. Plenty of Christians have become used to separating the church life and daily life in the world. It makes it easy for them to accept Christians stuff as long as they are among other Christians. Take them outside of this setting and they will suddenly not feel the same way… Hmm probably needs its own article.
I’m not making excuses for poor design. That is a completely different issue which I will cover in another point. But I am saying that we need to change our perspective. If we love our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, then we would be honoured to wear anything that bears his name and points to Him in a positive light. This is the same Jesus who was publicly humiliated for you and led through the streets nearly naked. And now He’s victorious on the throne, it’s an honour to wear His name.
It’s Unnecessary
There’s view out there that says that it’s not necessary for Christian clothing to exist. We’ve got so many other brands out there that make great clothing and they do the job just fine. Others would argue that it is a weak attempt to evangelize. It falls flat on its face. Doesn’t create any true brand culture and is a cottage industry that only a few people buy into.
The truth is, if you have a well-defined group of people, culture, or Kingdom, then there’s no reason why they can’t have fashion that represents it. The only difference is whether the very people of the Kingdom want to wear the fashion made by its Kingdom members. Of course, this is something that must increase of over time. I spoke about this in another article. There’s also a case to be made for the Kingdom economy. Supporting Kingdom businesses helps the Kingdom to grow. Those who are against the Kingdom and against all facets of the Kingdom showing up on earth will be against Kingdom clothing. It’s a shame when members of the Kingdom themselves also feel this way. This kind of thinking must stop.
It’s not worth the money.
Some people think that because Christian clothing is unnecessary or corny and not worth the money. The truth is, that a lot of work goes into making clothing even the not so well-designed bad ones. It’s true that some companies source cheap and poor-quality materials, but not all do. If you want some examples, I’ve created an article on the best Christian brands to prove my point. (You can find it here)
Brands that care about their customers, like Many Crowns, source the best materials they can find, making your experience with the brand a good one. As for pricing, brands have different tiers. I covered this in another article. The point is that pricing is subjective. You only pay for that which you value. If brand X charges $10 more, it believes it’s worth it and that you’re getting value from it.
The question is do you trust the brand? My personal advice is this. If the brand has gone to a reasonable length to show that it is trustworthy. That they care about you the customer. And that the materials plus designs are good, then the only “problem” you have is the price. If you agree with my earlier point about supporting the Kingdom economy and decide to buy, you are doing a good service for the Kingdom. We must change our mindset.
Christian businesses have a bad name (stigmatized)
This is a very interesting one. I understand that we are all sinners saved by grace (through faith!). Nobody is perfect yet, but I don’t understand why some businesses run by professing Christians are not running to a standard that you would expect from a non-Christian. It makes no sense and does not present an accurate picture of the Kingdom of God.
Thankfully, this is not the case for all Christian businesses. I’ve gone to the trouble of making a list of businesses which I believe do a good job of presenting themselves as trustworthy. You can find that below (content Upgrade).
Maybe the stigma comes from the previous generations? These days you’ll find great businesses that are Christian. And yes, not so great ones are still floating around too. All that aside, today everyone needs to raise their game. If you’re a Christian business owner reading this, I’m talking to you. Great business is about quality service and if you want to be great, Jesus Christ called you to be the servant of all. Now’s the time to make it happen.
The Designs can be really Bad.
“I’d rather wear X well-known brand.”
There is a large majority of people out there that sidestep the issue completely. They would much rather wear a well-known brand. To that I say fair enough.
Not looking at the whole Christian vs non-Christian issue for a moment. What’s happening here, is the difference between the Devil You Know and the Angel you don’t know.
I can’t blame anyone for thinking this way. Because when you’re making a purchase decision you don’t want to spend ages looking for people you can trust. I have gone to Great lengths to make a list of Angels you can trust (more on that below).
Comparatively speaking, I would say there are more well-known brands then Christian unknown brands. I don’t have the numbers to back that up, so I’ll say that we have a lot of work to do. This one is for the business and brand owners. We must build trust with the people, and I can think of a few examples that do that (again see below).
To you, my dear potential customer, I say this: investigate new brands. Give them a chance. See what these brands are about. It can be an exciting journey to discover a new brand. All great brands started from somewhere and you can be part of the journey. How much better would it be if this brand belongs to the Kingdom?
Conclusion
So, there you have it. An honest look at some of the problems we currently face with Christian clothing. As you can see it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s a lot of hope and the solutions lie not just with the brands but also with you the people. Brands need to inspire more trust. And customers need to be willing to give new brands a try. We won’t always get it right, but if we remain honest about what we can do, and we take the steps to address the issues, we can move forward.
I hope this has been a useful article for you. If you’d like to see more of this kind of content feel free to sign up to our newsletter which will keep you up to date with our latest posts.
Oh, before you go, I mentioned that there was a nice little list for you.
I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to find the very best Christian clothing and businesses all over the web. No need for your email address first, you can access this list here.
God bless and see you next time!
What are your views? Do you agree with what I had to say? Did I miss anything? Please put your comments below. I’ll either update or create brand new articles that address other issues.