Snickers new Core range offers an entry-level route to the Swedish manufacturer’s workwear expertise. Roger Bisby checks out the trousers.
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 Snickers new Core range. They are popping up in builders’ merchants and tool outlets which would not otherwise have stocked the full range.
It cannot have escaped Snicker’s 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 benefits of its higher priced products, but without all 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 like bricklayers.
If you are a brickie, for example, you might not need so many pockets and reinforced Cordura panels, but you will 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 collection, available through specialist outlets, to encourage the building industry to become more professional, something we at Professional 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 workwear at a builders’ merchant, as opposed to a specialist workwear 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. 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.