Why Doesn’t Mark Cuban Dress For Success?

This expert opinion by Jeff Haden was originally published on Inc.com.

Before I get to Mark Cuban, first some clothing science.

Despite that it’s long been de rigueur in Silicon Valley to dress down to convey power and prestige (Hi, Zuck!), the average businessperson tends not to wear jeans or hoodies, and apparently for good reason. A 2019 Princeton University study found that people wearing higher-status clothes are, within milliseconds, perceived by others as more competent.

Clothes also impact how you feel about yourself. A 2015 study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that wearing formal business attire increases abstract thinking. A 2014 study published in Journal of Experimental Psychology found that male subjects who wore suits negotiated more profitable deals than those who wore sweats. Not just because they weren’t taken seriously by the other party. Those who dressed down were found to have lower testosterone levels than when they dressed up. 

In other words, clothes seem to matter.

But not if you’re Mark Cuban. Or you.

‘Beware The Man In The T-Shirt’

Here’s a story from Robert Herjavec, a longtime fellow Shark on Shark Tank:

Before I met Mark, the guy was worth $3 or $4 billion. He’s worth $6 billion now. I thought he would come in better dressed. He came in wearing a T-shirt, jeans. So I’m sitting down with Mark one day and said, “Mark, with all due respect, why do you dress like a slob?”

Mark looks at me and says, “Robert, because I can.”

I didn’t quite get it at the time, but over the years I’ve realized Mark is never the one selling. Every room he goes into, people are selling him. Here’s what I’ve learned over 16 years.

You walk into a room and 20 people are wearing a suit and tie, and there’s one person in the back of the room wearing a T-shirt, that’s the one with the power. Because that person worked their ass off to get to a position to wear whatever they want to wear.
Beware the man in the T-shirt, not the man in the suit.

Granted, Cuban is widely known. In many cases, people who meet him have already formed a first impression. His behavior in the moment can positively or negatively affect the impression you have of him, but what he’s wearing won’t make a difference.

Nor does he need to wear certain clothes to feel better about himself. Achievement is the best source of self-confidence.

Yes, Cuban can wear whatever he wants.

And in many cases, so can you.

Walmart Versus Saks

I know: You need to dress for success.

Yet a 2018 study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that while most people think status symbols will make them more attractive to others in terms of connection or friendship potential, that’s not the case.

As the lead author of the study writes:

When making new friends, people tend to think that displaying high-status markers of themselves (e.g., a BMW, a Tag Heuer watch) will make them more attractive to others than neutral markers (e.g., a Honda, a generic brand watch). …
However, from the perspective of would-be friends, individuals who display high-status markers are found to be less attractive as new friends than those with neutral status markers.

Status Symbols That Backfire

In one experiment, participants were told their goal was to be seen as more socially attractive, and were then given the choice between wearing T-shirts with “Saks Fifth Avenue” or “Walmart” printed on them.

Unsurprisingly, 76 percent chose to wear the Saks shirt. But then, when evaluated as a potential friend by another group of participants, 64 percent chose people wearing Walmart shirts. As the researchers write, “We may be wasting billions of dollars on expensive status symbols that ultimately keep others from wanting to associate with us.”

Granted, the study focused on making new friends. If you’re a consultant meeting with a potential new client, wearing a Ross Chastain “Melon Man” T-shirt probably won’t help establish your professional bona fides. In certain settings, meeting broad expectations matters.

At the same time, the definition of business attire has changed. A Gallup poll shows that 41 percent of U.S. workers say their typical workplace attire is business casual; 31 percent say they wear casual street clothes. (Twenty-three percent wear a uniform.)

Comfort And Confidence

If you’re selling, whether in the strictest meaning of the word or in a broader sense, matching your apparel to the expectations of your audience may be important.

But if you feel more comfortable — and confident — in relatively casual clothing, embrace that fact. I almost always wear athleisure clothes. Put me in a suit, and since I’ll feel self-conscious and awkward, I may make a good outward first impression, but I’ll likely make a terrible interpersonal first impression. Or at least not as good a first impression as I would otherwise make.

Plus, I’m rarely selling, and if I am, my work typically precedes me. Largely speaking, I can wear what I want. I’ve worked hard to be able to wear what I want.

A Cognitive Bias

What’s more, nobody really cares what I wear. People tend to overestimate how much others notice them. Psychologists call it the spotlight effect, a cognitive bias that causes you to assume other people pay much greater attention to your appearance or behavior — how you look, how you act, what you say, what you wear, what you’re doing — than they actually do. 

Think people notice what you’re wearing? A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2000 shows the vast majority don’t.

Even if they do notice, that doesn’t mean they care.

Except in specific circumstances, wear what you want to wear. Wear what makes you feel most comfortable and confident.

Especially if you’ve earned the right to wear what you want to wear.