Product review: Snickers Core Range

If you are someone who has looked at Snickers trousers and decided that they are a bit beyond your budget you might just be stopped in your tracks by the new Snickers Core Range. They are popping up in builder’s merchants and tool outlets who otherwise would not have stocked the full Snickers range.

It cannot have escaped Snickers’ attention that its loyal and dedicated customers are going to view this entry level Core Range with suspicion and disdain and ask, ‘is it the real deal?’

Snickers gives a resounding ‘yes’ to that question telling us that the Core retains the core benefits of Snickers higher priced products but without all the the special features that are valued by trades such as plumbers and electricians. That said they have also been specifically designed for the heavier trades such as bricklayers and construction workers.

If, for example, you are a bricklayer you might not need so many pockets and reinforced Cordura panels but you want a hard wearing fabric that stands up to mortar which is notorious for rotting stitching.

No doubt the idea is also to provide an entry level product into the Snickers brand in the hope that those new customers might develop a taste for it. It is always easier to get people to trade up when they have made the initial decision to buy. It is a marketing strategy used by premium brands the world over. The Snickers idea is also to broaden the appeal of work-trousers in general and bring in trades that might not have considered the benefits of work-trousers. Will they succeed in luring those bricklayers and plasterers away from their ‘trackie bottoms’ into something more professional and fit for purpose? That remains to be seen but trades dealing with the public such as plumbers and electricians have long recognised the value of looking the part when they turn up on a job. A professional appearance not only builds customer confidence it also has a positive influence on the way you work.

To this end the Snickers Core Range works in conjunction with the new Generation Trouser range, available through specialist outlets, to encourage the building industry to become more professional, something we at Skill Builder have been talking about for years. Clothes maketh the man or the woman as the saying goes. I was reminded of this last year when I came across a lad who had bought two pairs of cheap work trousers out of the dump bin only to find that the zip failed on both pairs within a few weeks. He told me he would like to buy Snickers but couldn’t afford them.

I wondered at the time how many more cheap pairs he would buy before he decided to trade up. Maybe, just maybe, he will see the Snickers Core range hanging in his local merchant and step up to the plate. Personally I think there is a good chance of it happening because buying work-wear at a builders merchant, as opposed to a specialist work-wear outlet or tool distributor is always likely to be more of an impulse purchase. We sling a pair of trousers on the bill when we are buying materials for a big job and it is a painless purchase and gradually we raise our eyes from the dump bin to something better. At least some of us do. The others just buy safety pins in bulk.