Clothing Prices

Day 16

I met up with an old college friend today. Second Korean-native friend that I met in the US that I have had the opportunity to reconnect with here. At first it seems strange, to be meeting in their turf, yet once I'm with old friends, I completely forget about where I am, proving once again people are much more important than environment. I could have fun with friends out in the deserts of New Mexico.

We went shopping at all the big name stores, and I've come to realize that I'm incapable of buying anything here in Seoul. I have the money to, but just can't do it. Everything here is ridiculously overpriced, which is weird to me, because it's all made in some part of Asia. Before I came here, I expected everything to be significantly cheaper. I went to the Nike store, and I was at first very happy that they had a huge soccer selection. But upon looking at the price tags, my mood dropped. The N98 World Cup track jacket line (which were all worn at the 2010 WC) goes for about $50 - $70 per jacket in America. Here they're about 125,000 - 175,000 Korean won, which is roughly $112 - $167. Not worth it. I'll save all my money and just go on a shopping spree once I get back home. Strangely, the only item that seems relatively the same in price here and in the States, is soccer cleats. I've been drooling over the CTR360 II's for a couple months now.

There is however, very cheap rip-off brand clothing. We went to a couple of the more shady stores and you can find a lot of hilarious clothing. There was some Calvin Homme, Fitch (yep, just Fitch), and a crap-ton of Victoria's Secret Pink styled sweat pants and sweatshirts. But in the end, I went home empty handed. There conversations and reminiscing about old college days was more than enough for me.