Affiliate Marketing Secrets

I’m just curious as to how it is (was) at your college/university. Do students care about brand names for things like clothing and shoes, or do the students stop caring so much about brands and labels, and instead look to save money?
I’m just curious as to how it is compared to high school, because in high school your clothing brands almost determined what niche you would fit into… At least that’s how it is at a lot of high schools.