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# quince is not great
- URL: https://thesecondbutton.com/quince-is-not-great/
- Published: 2026-11-05T15:20:36.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-05T15:20:36.000Z
- Description: most of this is going to have to go behind the paywall
- Author: Daniel Hakimi
- Tags: brand spotlight, real talk

I'm trying to be more brand-friendly, I guess... and part of that is that I'm going to hide some of the negative stuff behind paywalls, where I can speak more freely. That kind of counts as brand-friendly, right?

I'll say generally, that I'm not a big fan of Quince. If you want a more detailed explanation of that... well, it's not going to be made available to the public. And believe me, the overview below will be, uh... *much* more detailed.

I write not only about their marketing tactics for clothing and footwear, but rugs as well. I also started writing this piece about six months ago, so if some numbers are out of date, that should explain it.

the original title of this piece was "quince is some bs." But I thought I'd be more subtle here.

So, what prompted this? Quince sent me a paid offer, and I initially thought, "awww hell naw." And then I saw that there was no social post requirement, they just wanted me to generate three affiliate links and get ten clicks each, and I thought, "oh, maybe..."

And then I saw that they specifically wanted me to link to men's apparel. And I... can't do that. I could have said oh, try their slippers, and maybe their drinking glasses... but apparel? No. It's bad. It's bad in oh so many ways. But the worst thing is the marketing bullshit, and I could not let myself be *any* part of that aparatus.

I'm not one to take on a partnership in bad faith. I *could* have taken their money, generated some links, and talked shit. Buuuuut that felt wrong. You know what doesn't feel wrong? Just talking shit. So I'm going to do that. There are no affiliate links to quince pieces in this article (although there are for just a couple of brands that I think are actually good).

This will be a little different from [The Iron Snail's video (which essentially points out that they're a tech company engaged in predatory pricing in the fashion space while they acquire customers and build a reputation)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFjJAm6AuiM&ref=thesecondbutton.com) in that I said no to Quince gifting (and the above brand deal), which means I have none to compare to anything personally. Rather than analyzing specific pieces, I'm focusing on their marketing tactics, which I can see from here.

I wanna start by looking at some of their comparison charts, and particularly their Horsebit Loafer chart, because this one is pretty obviously misleading.

# Part One: Comparison Charts

A few notes about their comparison charts, before we get into it. Obviously, they cherry-pick which brands to compare, and what factors to compare them on. Every comparison chart does this, and it's one of the reasons I tend to ignore them. But Quince's are worse than most.

A circle means yes, and an x means no. The misleading thing here is that all the circles on the competing brands are gray, whereas quince's is orange, which inherently makes you associate them with the negative response. So if you'll see below, "calfskin leather" is a circle for Quince and Allen Edmonds, and although AE *definitely* uses better leather, a glance at the chart might make you think they're not using calfskin leather at all, compared to Quince, who is.

And finally... Notice how the other two have an x next to calfskin leather? Let's investigate that...

## Horsebit Loafers

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/fe/fcfefa67-252b-4bc7-b907-f2fe841eeab5/content/images/2026/02/horsebit-loafers.png)

Okay, so let's start off with a few things. One, that's a pretty cheap horsebit loafer, it's not necessarily a *bad* price for what they're offering. I haven't tried it, it's not ugly on the website, and I know not everybody can afford $200 for a pair of shoes. If I respected the company at all, I would have even considered including them in my [Horsebit Loafer Buying Guide](https://thesecondbutton.com/horsebit-loafer-buying-guide/). (note that Gucci is obviously a terrible value, and that the first two words of the "Bad Horsebits" section are Cole Haan, and that Quince did not think to compare to Carmina or Oak Street Bootmakers, or acknowledge that Allen Edmonds is made in the USA...)

Well, there's more.

They say their leather is LWG Certified:

> Leather sourced from a Gold-rated Leather Working Group (LWG) tannery, promoting sustainable practices.

I have no idea what this means (I've asked people who wouldk now if it mattered), but I can assure you that whatever their tannery is, Allen Edmonds' is better. They claim to have spent $35.64 on materials—that would presumably include the uppers, soles, lining, insoles, horsebits, thread, and various construction bits.

They also claim that Cole Haan and Gucci are not using calfskin leather uppers. I have nothing nice to say about Cole Haan horsebit loafers, but they are made with some kind of smooth black leather... maybe a lesser cowhide, not quite calfskin? Gucci does not specify calfskin, but as far as I can tell, Quince is saying they're *not* calfskin... as an assumption, because they didn't say it. I'm sure Gucci's horsebit loafers use calfksin leather.

Then, the construction methods. Again, Cole Haan is garbage and comparing a $135 shoe to a Cole Haan shoe is always going to make the $135 shoe look good because the Cole Haan crap was made with an expected average retail price of $100, and with them wanting a high margin at that. Yeah, Cole Haan is cemented. It wasn't supposed to be well-constructed. It's only meant to be comfortable, salable, and profitable.

Allen Edmonds uses "Bologna Cemented" construction. [Reddit nerds had a long debate about wtf that means](https://www.reddit.com/r/goodyearwelt/comments/7objmq/ae%5Fhas%5Fadded%5Fa%5Fline%5Fof%5Fcemented%5Fshoes/?ref=thesecondbutton.com), with a [useful follow up thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/goodyearwelt/comments/7ok0qn/description%5Ffrom%5Fallen%5Fedmonds%5Fon%5Fnew%5Fbologna/?ref=thesecondbutton.com), but tl;dr, it's stitched, and probably pretty close to typical Bologna construction. Bologna construction is very similar to a Blake Stitch. From what I've read, it might be a little less durable, but is likely more comfortable. This comfort is the reason very few of these loafers are goodyear welted. It Makes perfect sense here, and would arguably be the better choice. I'd also wager that Allen Edmonds' would be more durable than Quince's due to material quality and craftsmanship, but I can't say I know.

You'll see more of this further down: comparing A to B, where A gets the circle, and B is better, but different, so it gets the x.

## Suits

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/fe/fcfefa67-252b-4bc7-b907-f2fe841eeab5/content/images/2026/02/quince-stretch-wool-suit-comparison-chart.png)

I'm going to go through this in bullet form:

- Never ever buy a suit with elastene in it. Ever. *Ever*. If you're considering it, shoot me a DM and I'll come, find you, and smack some sense into you. Don't you fucking dare.
- They refer to the suit jacket as a "blazer," which is annoying, but not their biggest sin.
- The closest thing to a good value here is [Brooks Brothers, and, as an added bonus, no, they do not seem to have any stretch wool garbage among their suits](https://go.shopmy.us/p-42998298?ref=thesecondbutton.com).
- At the time of writing, [J. Crew has one stretch wool suit and one pair of odd trousers on their website](https://go.shopmy.us/p-42999342?ref=thesecondbutton.com). The trousers are on sale, down near $30, well below what Quince charges ($100).
- J. Crew also carries [tailoring made with *good* fabrics. I have this jacket](https://go.shopmy.us/p-42999684?ref=thesecondbutton.com). It's made of tweed from Abraham Moon & Sons, a good fabric mill. You know why Quince doesn't name its fabric mills? Probably because they mostly suck. (possibly also because some of them prefer not to be named for various reasons, like because the mills don't want to be associated with clothing that sucks, but also, probably, because they mostly suck).
- Nobody with any sense ever said anything nice about a Theory suit.
- **All wool is temperature regulating**. It's pretty magical. As a matter of fact, one of the best ways to fuck up Wool's temperature-regulating properties is to blend in some elastene.
- J. Crew *famously* offers free shipping on every damn thing if you either a. [join their passport program, which is totally free, you're just signing up for an account, that's all](https://go.shopmy.us/p-43000800?ref=thesecondbutton.com); b. spend enough; or c. buy as part of a sale with free shipping. You almost have to *try* to pay shipping at J. Crew.

# Part Two: Cost Charts

Quince follows the same pattern as a lot of other DTC companies where they show you some chart explaining their cost, comparing it to an imaginary version of their competitors' costs, and shows you what a good deal you're getting. But again, these charts are extremely deceptive.

For one, you'll see a bar graph on the side where the black "cost" section is about four times as big as the orange section representing the margin, but the math shown to the left shows that their margin is greater than 50% of the price. And the numbers still don't add up.

### Chunky Hand Knit Wool Throw

Apparently, [their handknit wool throw](https://www.quince.com/home/chunky-knit-wool-throw?color=olive&ref=thesecondbutton.com) costs 15 cents of labor to make. It's made in India. If you made one per hour, 80 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, that would be $624 a year (obviously, we are assuming $0 in benefits). India's per capita national income is well over three times that. If you look at the throws... making 80 of them in one week seems like it would be pretty demanding on human fingers. [This article gives more context on living wages in India](https://bda-skl.in/living-wage-in-india-what-you-need-to-know?ref=thesecondbutton.com), but the short version is, Quince is not paying one.

If you think they're doing this without human rights abuses, I've got a bridge to sell you. If you think the resulting blankets would be reasonably well-made... what are we even talking about?

If this cost claim is true, and the blankets really are hand knit, the company should be ashamed.

A few other notes:

- The fabric is an 80-20 wool-acrylic, which... why would you handknit a shitty blend like that? Maybe they're just going for out-of-the-box softness without needing to pay for decent wool? Acrylic is softer than really bad wool.
- Nearly half their price is freight & handling. I don't know if that's accurate, but it's silly if it is.
- And they clearly never updated their cost analysis to represent the US tariffs, but their price doesn't seem to have changed either.

### $0 Crafting Cost

[This blanket lists the crafting cost at $0](https://www.quince.com/home/ruched-faux-fur-throw?color=glacier&tracker=frequently%5Fpurchased%5Ftogether%5Fproducts%5F%5F0%5F%5F3&ref=thesecondbutton.com). Realistically, I imagine that they're *not* confessing to slave labor, but rather, using such a preposterously scaled mass production method that the labor costs less than one cent per blanket. I can guarantee you this means both a shit product and human rights abuse.

No, it's not a human-free factory.

### Low Margins and Other Costs

Margins hovering around 50% might sound high, but they're really not.

Margins aren't just profits. They have to cover fixed costs. Corporate costs, real estate, factories they've bought. They cover marketing costs, and Quince spends a lot on marketing. I haven't seen their whole budget, obviously, but this doesn't read as especially generous *or* as especially realistic. The chart itself is just marketing.

Quince also offers discounts on some items... 10% off your first order for several different kinds of people, for example. These come out of their margin, but I imagine they're treated as marketing costs. Getting a student addicted with a small discount on one order is easily worth it, huh?

It's also worth noting, as [the Iron Snail pointed out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFjJAm6AuiM&ref=thesecondbutton.com), that some of these margins are... negative. Quince is losing money when you buy some of these products. This might sound like it's good for you in the short term, but keep in mind: this is classic predatory pricing, and it's how competition dies. They aren't selling sweaters at a loss as an act of charity.

# Part Three: Shitty Products

### Cashmere

Quince got pretty famous for its $60 cashmere sweaters. Derek Guy put out [a now-famous twitter thread breaking down how shitty that cashmere is](https://x.com/dieworkwear/status/1896637543153840307?ref=thesecondbutton.com). ([here's a non-Twitter link](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1896637543153840307.html?ref=thesecondbutton.com)). The short version is: they use cheaper, weaker fibers from mass-farmed goats (this is damaging the environment); they use much less of the fiber than the tightly-knit, high-ply sweaters from some higher end makers; and the fibers don't feel as good, but they wash the hell out of them to remove all the lanolin, so they at least feel pretty soft out of the box until they start pilling a couple of weeks later.

Cashmere used to be a true luxury fabric. The stuff you get at Quince is nothing like [the stuff from that Seinfeld episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iybAMeGV9ys&ref=thesecondbutton.com).

### Dress Shirts, Linen Dresses

Fabricateuralist did [a review of a linen dress from Quince](https://fabricateurialist.substack.com/p/quince-linen-dress-review). It was $64\. And he said it was about what he expected for $64, comparing it to Forever 21 or Zara. Their premium is made up.

He also reviewed [their $50 dress shirts](https://substack.com/home/post/p-194628657?ref=thesecondbutton.com), comparing them to Charles Tyrwhitt ([$40 on sale at the time of writing](https://go.shopmy.us/p-57056732?ref=thesecondbutton.com)), Hawes & Curtis, and [*Kirkland*](https://go.shopmy.us/p-57057992?ref=thesecondbutton.com) (Costco's in house brand, charging $25-29 per shirt). Quince's shirts are also alpha sized, which is to say, they have much fewer sizing options. Fun fact, their comparison chart also says that [Proper Cloth doesn't have supima cotton](https://go.shopmy.us/p-57058616?ref=thesecondbutton.com). I'll give you three guesses about what that link is.

### Persian Rugs

I'm Persian. I have family in the rug business. I am surrounded by beautiful Persian rugs. Quince does not carry those.

[They do carry this shit in 100% polyester](https://www.quince.com/home/talula-rug?ref=thesecondbutton.com). "Performance." Sure. My readers know that story. They brag that this is "power-loomed," which is certainly not a feature; a power loom might be a projectile loom or shuttle loom, it's just any loom that is not hand-powered. As they point out in their comparison chart, *all of their competitors'* rugs are also power-loomed. They only mention this because they have nothing good to say about the rug. Great rugs are often handloomed.

They have a "middle tier," with ["hand-tufted" rugs](https://www.quince.com/home/brenner-rug?color=blue&size=7%279%2522-x-9%279%2522&ref=thesecondbutton.com) (not hand-knotted, which would be something). I discussed this with a family member, who estimated that this would cost them $120 all in for an 8x10 (they claim a higher cost for materials alone, a higher cost for labor alone, and again, less than a 50% margin. They use a "cotton-blend" backing... Again, they try to brag about a lot of things that don't warrant bragging.

[This is their "hand-knotted" wool rug](https://www.quince.com/home/chloe-rug?color=cognac&ref=thesecondbutton.com), and it's just sad. They advertise it at $299, but that's just for a relatively small runner; the full-sized option is $2000, which is more than one of my uncles charges for the authentic Persian equivalent. The pattern is missing all the detail I've appreciated over the past 36 years. The fringe is sad and short. This is their premium product. I get nothing from this.

If you want a special rug, [check out my cousins' brand, Woven Concepts](https://www.wovenconcepts.com/?ref=thesecondbutton.com). Man, their rugs are so cool... Or, try [Rugs On Net](https://rugsonnet.com/?ref=thesecondbutton.com), [Eastern Oriental Rug Company](https://eorugs.com/?ref=thesecondbutton.com), [French Accents](https://www.farugs.com/?ref=thesecondbutton.com)... All good options from my family.

# But it's not fast fashion

Some people use "fast fashion" as a shorthand for "shitty clothes." That's not what it really means. "Fast fashion" refers to a particular pattern: start by either copying a runway piece or lazily designing a piece, the less time you spend on it the better; send that rough sketch out to a couple dozen factories around the world, and tell them to make a bunch in the next couple of days, with a negligible budget and absolutely minimal quality control; ship those pieces to store, don't bother to check samples or see if a medium is the same between two different factories or if one of the factories even bothered to make the clothing to spec; repeat with thousands of pieces.

Quince doesn't do that. Their pieces are mostly basics. They do cut a whole lot of corners, but because they skip the above cycle, their environmental harm and labor abuses might not be quite as disastrous as those of Shein, Zara, H&M and the like.

# The Bottom Line

I haven't tried any Quince products. I'm not telling you that they overcharge. What I *am* telling you is that they make low-end products, price them accordingly, and then use every stupid marketing trick in the book to make you think they're luxury products and an exceptionally good value. They really aren't. Don't fall for the BS.

And if you're on this kind of budget, please, shop secondhand. (Also, if you're paying me $5/month, you can probably afford better than Quince in general). (wait, forget I said that, join the Elaine tier, everybody should join, it's super worth it).