Lots of people look but don’t really see.
They don’t take in the details.
And that’s such a shame.
Because you can miss so many lovely things.
Look.
Don’t go through life with your eyes closed.
Taking things for granted.
Not looking at things properly.
Not absorbing the fine detail.
Because the fine detail is normally where the magic is.
If you have a great tasting meal, be curious as to how the flavours were made to work together.
Or how it as cooked, maybe.
Be inquisitive and try to find the magic.
If you wear something super comfortable or that feels super sturdy, it’s because of the care and attention throughout the design and make.
And how the materials were chosen too.
When you are buying clothing, try to get into how and where it was made too.
I think these things matter.
Look at the care with which it is finished.
All these things will help you to appreciate value and to understand why something costs what it costs.
Or, if you look for the beauty in the detail and it’s not there, maybe it will help you to understand why it is so cheap.
And why, ultimately, you may be left feeling cold and disappointed as a consequence.
Observe.
You can do this little test to prove that we all, all too often, look but don’t see.
We just don’t absorb the fine detail properly.
Or question things as we should.
AIR WAIR
Have you read the words ‘AIR WAIR’ before?
If you think that you have, do you remember where?
And if you do remember where, and had to write it down, would you spell it like this?
This is spelled correctly by the way.
Life.
For me, life is too short to fly along at breakneck speed all of the time.
Pause occasionally.
Take in the detail.
It’s lovely.
And lots of the little magical things in life are free.
Just like the little AIR WAIR tab that might sticking out of the back of the Doc Martens you are wearing now.
Or the pair or pairs you have at home.
If you do or did own a pair of Dr. Martens shoes you’ll have seen this tab hundreds of times.
But you may not have questioned the technology it relates to.
Or even know how to spell it.
Slow down.
Slow down.
There’s loads to see…
5 Comments
Interesting read Michael.
Question for you sir. Do you think that by being transparent in the operational complexities, the care/ attention to detail, and even the costs to produce such a beautiful “thing”, that you’ll somehow be able to build an increased layer of confidence with the customer?
The short answer is yes.
However – and this is the crucial thing – that’s not why I think we should be transparent.
Transparency of how we work as a subject should not appear in the marketing part of the business plan.
It should appear in he operations part of the business plan.
The first driver for doing things really fucking well, and honourably, and ethically, and transparently is because THAT is good for business and good for people.
Not a neat marketing trick or for some reason that the market has told you it wants.
It should come from the values of the brand leadership.
From day one and in everything we do.
This takes (some of) what I think you are asking to the extreme Richard: https://www.privatewhitevc.com/pages/pricing-manifesto.
Take a look.
And https://hebtro.co are good too.
In the new chapter of https://www.alwayswearred.com we will celebrate the way we are built and how we think, hoping to drive change. I want to make consumers not ask why something is so expensive, but to ask why something is so cheap.
Because, more often than not, the answers to this second question are yucky.
For example, our hand knitters are paid about twice the average in the UK. Why? Because its the right thing to do and the respectful thing to do for their skills and their care and their magic.
See you soon.
M.
You see so much more when you allow yourself to appreciate the details.
Perhaps you slow down. Perhaps you keep moving fast, but just for a second, you increase the intensity of your gaze.
Soak it up. life is so much richer and rewarding – even if no one else notices, you notice. And you are now forever bound to the creator of the detail. The giver and receiver of a secret. And both are enriched by what has passed between.
A red button on a fly, a signature woven into the silk of a tie, an Eldredge knot below a shirt collar, the negative space on a logo that is actually a fish swimming against the tide.
Your life sounds nice Shaughn.
What you must do and see.
I like the details that I see from over here.
Your brilliant wife and daughter.
And all the opportunity and promise that brings for you and for them.
Your work, your style, your biking, your creativity and your raising money for charity.
This is just the detail I see.
There’s more I know.
We’re lucky.
…
Thank you for commenting Shaughn.
See you soon.
M.
Cheers fella, and yes catch up soon.