Startups Are Like Cheap Fashion
I spent most of the early morning (2am-6am) watching fashion documentaries on the Apple TV’s M2M app. One of the most fascinating was Luxury Goods Workshop, which chronicled the entire process of crafting the Hermès scarf, the Chanel bag, Weston shoes, and the Chaumet tiara.
These are iconic staples in the luxury wardrobe and each undergoes a crafting process beyond belief. Most fascinating for me were the Weston shoes, which take hide leather exclusively from the rump (where the fibers are densest and of highest quality) of a specific cattle breed for the outsole. After they are plucked and soaked, they are submerged in a series of tanning bases to make them rot proof. It takes quite a bit of time, but this is the part where they begin to resemble what we recognize as leather.
They are then submerged in a fluid that is a mix of extracts from chestnuts and a specific tree from Argentina, which takes around 40 days! They soften the hides in massive wooden crates, cut by hand, and buried in pits. Later they’ll remain between two pieces of oak bark for 6–8 months to begin the tanning process. Next, they are placed into cod liver oil vats for a nourishing process, which I suppose helps maintain the leather quality. Finally, they are brushed off and flattened under a 10ton power hammer to finalize the waterproofing process. These leathers are then shipped off to Weston to become soles, where they still risk being rejected for some minor flaw!!
That’s the keen attention to detail that is paid to the mere sole of a shoe. And this meticulousness caries through the entire process of crafting the shoe to the insole, laces, stitching, and all other components!
Luxury goods undergo a very long process to maintain high quality, consistency, character, and brand promise. Technology is the complete antithesis.
The tech industry is akin to fast fashion, in which we move fast and break things to ensure we can boldly go forward at a break neck pace. And if a few necks do get broken in the process, we fix them on the fly, slowing down only long enough to evaluate what needs repair. This works! Many designers are bogged down by fashion ideologies of having 6–8 months to tan in oak bark, but we truly only have one luxury and that is the market’s willingness to accept a flawed product that they know will improve with updates. A craftsman will not come to your home and put a piece of raw hide onto your feet, returning each day to slowly craft it into a shoe — you would not allow it.
Companies like Oculus can test their development kits with willing gamers around the world, because they know they are taking part in shaping the future. Technology thrives on the same collaboration as fashion, but the user has equal power in shaping the product. The Oculus beta success paved the way for the first version of Google Glass, the Hololens, and serves as a pilot for even more advanced technologies. These new developments are shaped by the early adopters who contribute immense data back to the creators!
It is fascinating to see companies like Apple sit at the intersection of technology and fashion; and it becomes clear why the competition struggles to penetrate that market power. It’s obvious why Apple hired Jony Ives or Angela Ahrendts when you consider the company through the same lens of luxury that you might consider Weston.
Luxury is primarily shrouded in secrecy and what they know their competition cannot recreate without massive investment, they showcase proudly, informing audiences of the meticulous crafting process which cannot be rivaled.
Technology is the poster child for transparency. There are certainly trade secrets, but it is the industry that pioneered open source collaboration, mass communication, and proudly recounts failures leading to success.
For this reason, today’s app idea is to create a channel like Made 2 Measure that chronicles the wild journey from idea to startup to behemoth! Every tech company has a fascinating story, and there are even many documentaries, but the FFFO (Fail Fast, Fail Often) app would pull these together in addition to creating original content around the process of crafting a startup.
Just as Luxury Goods Workshop, followed the seamstresses, designers, leather workers, jewelers, resole workers, and more, FFFO would be dedicated to peering into the lives of front end developers, back end engineers, UX specialists, UI designers, growth hackers, founders, investors, and the rest of the team that helps turn an idea into an amazing product!
If you ever read an idea from App A Day and think it would be fun to work on, feel free to shoot a message to m@rlons.com.
