Many UT students walk through campus wearing clothes from trending brands like Daily Drills and Parke. These brands recently grew in popularity using an advertising strategy that creates a shopping frenzy each week. An Instagram post notifies their followers of an upcoming drop about a week before, including the date and time of the release. In order to get limited edition clothes, students usually have to snag their pieces in under three minutes before it sells out.  

Daily Drills, which was founded in 2020 revolves around a relaxed, peaceful LA lifestyle. Their apparel includes comfortable loungewear, workout gear and sophisticated resort wear. The Daily Drills logo, a green, one-inch patch that says “DAILY DR!LLS,” appears on all of their clothing. 

Chelsea Parke Kramer, founder and CEO of Parke, created her company in 2022 out of her love for fashion and passion for people owning classic, timeless and high-quality pieces. In 2023, Parke expanded from denim only to other clothing items, one of which being their mock neck sweatshirt, which has a cult-following. 

Gracie Bindra, a youth and community studies in education major, prefers Daily Drills over Parke because of their lighter material. Her one complaint about Daily Drills is the challenging nature of purchasing their items during their merch drops. 

“They had a drop in January, and I tried to get this brown and white striped top and short set, but when I got on the website, it was already sold out,” Bindra said. 

Both Daily Drills and Parke received backlash online about how fast their items sell out. Daily Drills even has an app that gives users access to the new clothing items five minutes before they are posted on the website, offering more knowledgeable shoppers an advantage. 

“It’s definitely a smart marketing tactic in the sense that it feels more exclusive,” Kaille Lemon, an advertising major, said. “(It) makes them feel more special.”

However, Lemon doesn’t understand the hype about either of the brands because of how simple the pieces are.

“I feel like I could get a lot of clothes similar to Daily Drills and Parke on Amazon,” Lemon said. “I do get why people like them, though. I think I prefer Daily Drills since it has a wider variety.”

Lemon said she knew a lot of people who were devastated when the items that they wanted from the Parke Valentine’s Day collection sold out in three minutes. 

After all the stress and various steps shoppers have to undergo to buy from these brands, the internet has started to call Daily Drills and Parke’s marketing style “FOMO (fear of missing out) marketing.” 

The term FOMO was created in 2000. This marketing style elicits emotional responses in consumers by creating a sense of urgency and scarcity to promote sales, according to Intuit Mailchimp. Brands like Nike, Glossier, Starbucks and Amazon have all used this method, with Amazon’s Prime Day being an example. This strategy makes customers feel as if they have no time to think or question the value of their item before they buy. 

One of the many TikToks posted about the Parke Valentine’s day collection drop showcased a customer’s regret over buying from the brand.

“When your (Valentine’s Day) Parke sweater arrives but you realized you fell into FOMO marketing & now you’re questioning even keeping it,” the post’s caption said.

Daily Drills’ most recent drop was their “Spring Classics” line, released on Feb. 19. Hundreds of comments under each of the brand’s Instagram posts promoting this line expressed frustration over not getting the items they wanted. 

“I’m emo. Everything I wanted sold out in my cart,” one comment said. 

“Logged on to the app right when it dropped and didn’t get the tank I wanted,” another comment said.

Bella Gavin, a public health major, has been a fan of Daily Drills since 2023. Even so, she said the brand’s high demand has made it hard to add more of their pieces to her wardrobe. 

“It has been awesome seeing a small business grow, but I can never get any of the clothes I want anymore,” Gavin said.

All of Daily Drills’ releases are at 12 pm CST on Wednesdays, and as a busy student, Gavin is normally in class when these items come out.

“I shouldn’t have to stop taking notes for five minutes in my classes to buy a cute sweatshirt,” Gavin said. 

Gavin said despite the challenges of their marketing style, she will always be a fan of Daily Drills. 

“Their tanks and sweatshirts are so easy to throw on for class,” Gavin said. “I just hope I will be able to finally buy something in time before it all sells out again.”