ZD – I have no comment about individualism, but I will say about the rain coat you saw, which my husband and son recently bought over here in EY, that these happen to be the most practical items for protection against the rain, especially for people like my husband who doesn’t carry on Shabbos. The hood covers his hat (and they have those made to cover even a Gerrer’s spudik on Shabbos) in a way that it’s part of the coat and by thus he is not metaltel. He can’t put a bag or special plastic cover on his hat because it’s considered by some to be carrying.
As far as individualism goes, maybe they should start making them in different colors. Maybe they just started out with a limited stock manufactured and they marketed it specifically for the yeshivish circles for exactly the same reason as my husband bought it. It doesn’t necessarily make sense for them to make such things for everybody since people have different tastes.