Where Content, Community and Commerce Collide

In the beginning there were Sears & Roebuck, Leon Leonwood Bean and others — Hammacher Schlemmer, Orvis, Patagonia. A new favorite entrant into the world of catalogs for men is the Best Made Co. All are incredible, all create experiences that seem somehow more important than simple commerce, a transaction of goods for currency. Look no further than perhaps the most famous catalog merchant of recent American history — J. Peterman.

His catalog was so iconic, it played a role on an iconic sit-com, Seinfeld. What made it so important? Well, story of course. Peterman, as author Harry Beckwith points out in his book “Unthinking,” was so adept at spinning the yarn around a product that the product was often a letdown. “Peterman didn’t just sell a shirt, he sold the Gatsby shirt,” writes Beckwith. His point is that Peterman understood the fundamental connection between story and our desire to purchase. The product was secondary, a souvenir of the experience of reading the catalog.

I’ve always been fascinated by catalogs. I used to dream as a kid about growing up and writing the L.L. Bean catalog. I would come home, check the mail and, finding a new Bean book, would disappear into my room to read the sumptuous descriptions of pocket knives and parkas. I would cut the photos out that spoke to me and curate them like some kind of pre-Alpha version of 1980s Pintrest. I would get lost in that world, that specific point of view and way of looking at the world.

This continued through high school and eventually my catalog reading expanded to include Patagonia and Orvis, Sierra Trading Post, Nordstrom, Hammacher Schlemmer and a dozen or so more. But eventually, I began to get bored. The three dimensional world that captivated my early mind grew flat and stale. Part of it was maturity, part of it was the catalog industry growing increasingly subject to its sameness. The products didn’t change fast enough. The images stopped being exciting. As my — and most of our — attention span grew shorter the more I immersed myself in the digital world, I wanted something new, a different way of doing things, a different point of view and a different take on the world of story and commerce. About a year ago, I found it.

Huckberry is something completely different.

At it’s core, Huckberry is a curated commerce platform that blends content and community with limited availability products from dozens of manufacturers and makers. Several times a week, new partners are introduced with limited availability of small batches of products. Every listing tells a story of the manufacturer and the products. Not just facts, but specific insights into why they were chosen. Huckberry manufacturers very few products and, instead, they become a discovery engine. They take their very particular way of looking at the world, their point of view, and use it to choose products that fit a psychographic and aesthetic profile on behalf of their customers — or members.

In this way, Huckberry is very much like J. Peterman, who supposedly traveled the world looking for things to add to his catalog, or other merchant (not manufacturer) catalogs. The difference is that Huckberry seems to understand our short attention spans. You can’t stew on a purchase for very long, because the products will be gone. Sometimes a week. Sometimes a little longer. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t. If you like what you see, buy it. If you like the story you are being told, buy it now.

Huckberry is just one of many new breed of commerce platforms taking a non-traditional tack toward sales. Birch Box is a subscription service where every month members are sent samples of new products discovered by the staff. Uncrate is a daily newsletter and website update presented by L.C. Angell, of Zombie Corp (Devour.com &Gallivant.com), which presents interesting and unique items with links to manufacturer and e-commerce websites. Mantry is a subscription service for the man who loves cooking and food. Every month, members receive boxes of hand-crafted products discovered and selected by the Mantry staff.

Quarterly, which was launched a year or two ago, is probably the most unique. This service matches personality with product. Internet personalities and other celebrity types put together quarterly shipments of unique goods that speak to them, that they find interesting. Find someone you like and subscribe. Every shipment falls within a dollar range — $50 — $200 — and when it is ready to go, your credit card is charged and a box shows up at your doorstep. It’s pretty brilliant. It’s like being able to subscribe to someone’s mind via the products they choose.

America has a long history with the catalog. It was a way for farmers in far-off fields to get the things they need. It was how my dad, who grew up in Iowa, got his first baseball glove, how my grandfather found parts for his tractor, how I bought my backpacks growing up. The paper catalog seemed in danger of falling victim to sameness and a severe case of the slows as the world went digital. It seemed like we were barreling toward a future of the cold, boring commerce of Amazon and eBay.

But Huckberry and others are picking up the torch for Peterman and the rest and making commerce interesting. Buying is fun again.

Cover Photo from Huckberry