Never Mind the Crisis - Feel the Leather
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We have entered 2008 amidst endless economic gloom all started by those wicked financial institutions that leant money to people who could not afford to pay for the homes they were buying, and then wrapped these loans up and sold them in funny packages to unsuspecting main stream banks like Merrill Lynch and CITI. Whether they were truly unsuspecting or just greedy we may never know but it has pulled much of the USA and the EU into a retail panic. So if the world is sinking in misery will there be room for "cool"?
The answer is a definitive yes, for while economies are cyclical the need for innovation and great design is constant, indeed increasing. One fascination is the way our purchasing is separating the market into two distinct tiers: one of low cost and one of extreme luxury. So it is not surprising to see a company like TATA in India launching the cheapest car in the world - the Nano - at the same time as it is close to buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. What is curious is that it is quite likely to imagine finding the Nano and the Range Rover Sport in the same household. With computers the price of laptops has been tumbling and yet the offer of the year must be the new ThinkPad Reserve carefully bound into its beautiful saddle leather cover.
Service on top of everything
The original designer of the ThinkPad when it was introduced fifteen years ago was Munich born industrial designer Richard Sapper, best known for his angle poise lamps. It was he who allowed IBM to craft - yes that is the right word - this limited edition celebration. With luxury products consumers are now demanding service. For some this means in store service, so a counter in a department store does not meet the requirement of a consumer purchasing a really expensive handbag. No, an exclusive brand needs to offer an exclusive store with lots of ingratiating staff. For IBM this service comes via a man at the end of the phone for three years, helping you solve all those problems that Bill Gates is causing with his new Vista and Office. Ready to fly out and replace your machine if it is the hardware that fails. But it is the leather that makes you wince with delight, and now I am searching for someone who will build a cover for my Sony sub-compact. |
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Bullet proof shoes
Reintroducing classics is also still a healthy idea for brands as the aging population gets more nostalgic and the young discover the excitement of products well integrated in modern society. In cars it's the Fiat 500 that is the current tops and in shoes it has to be the Clarks desert boot. The original classic desert boot was created over fifty years ago by Nathan Clark. He had watched British soldiers having crepe soled suede boots being made for them selves in the Bazaar in Cairo. You can still get the original, but also a pair in a new bullet proof material. It is not quite so clear what they are for, or why anyone should buy them, (might be a throwback to old TV westerns where the guy in the black hat made some poor sap 'dance' by firing close to the latter's feet) but it does remind you that footwear companies are watching for new ideas outside the leather industry. That could be by adding Manchester University's new Electro-Luminescent Yarn which, with a little battery, will allow any gun carrying attacker to see your shoes in the dark. Then again, they could mix the two, so your feet are protected even as the bullets fly.
Good design is ever needed in footwear and in Europe there are some exciting younger designers about. By way of example: in 2008 look for Dutch designer Hester Vlamings with her multi-toned footwear.
Further details can be found at
http://www.clarks.com/
http://www.thinkpadreserve.com/
http://www.hestervlamings.com/ |
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