Whenever you engage with a sport and see what’s available in equipment, you always see the nicest options available to you in-stores and online. Still, it is just a consumerist trap where buyers feel compelled to buy premium equipment in order to achieve a higher status level or a false promise of better performance with a particular piece of equipment.
This reality is grim for sports that require a lot of personal equipment such as Baseball. Many can point to businesses just trying to push their products onto the populace, but with enough time, even fellow teammates can perpetuate having the best equipment on hand as a form of ego or status. Personally, during my time in youth sports, I would always like to try a cheaper entry point into equipment to see if I like it. If the more affordable option shows a sizable benefit in terms of comfort, rather than performance, I would commit to a serious purchase of that equipment.
Since a lot of my train of thought is that if I felt more comfortable, I would perform better. Overall, a personal sentiment a lot of times whenever I see athletes invest into equipment is that I always like to ask why they felt to make a big purchase into equipment, and a common sentiment that’s always brought up to me is their loyalty to the brand or they see the brand as the “end game” of that space of equipment. Which is something I can definitely understand and see people continuing down that path as long as how businesses market themselves in the same methods till the end of time.
