American Apparel

There isn't a spreadsheet in the world that will prove American Apparel's idea to use the scraps of material they usually discard, as a sales asset, will once again show why they are opening outlets at a considerable pace, all over the world. 

Because they are a company that puts outcomes ahead of incomes the profit follows naturally, but if you put the numbers before the values you're competing with the rest of the mediocrity (sic).


Update: I bookmarked this in my delicious (mmm yummy) when I learned that a Federal raid on American Apparel busted them for hiring illegal aliens and lost the brand 1500 employees or a third of their workforce. American Apparel I salute you. But maybe that outlet in Beijing was a bit premature though ;)

Sunsets & Time

I thought I'd be clever and weave this post into something lengthy about time and running out but I think the pictures speak for themselves. The sunsets on Huntington Beach are astonishingly beautiful but the day care centre where the old folks are marking out their final days is somewhat different. No less interesting though.

The first image of the post belongs to a staff member's wrist at American Apparel which is a brand I've really fallen for. Who couldn't? Clean and fresh image, simple but noticably hip garments, and all priced very fairly with proper brand values including a positon on immigration that puts both the Democratic and Republican parties to shame (though perversely not George Bush pre 911). I've talked (at length) before about why I think brands in a product parity world can differentiate through having a position that sits outside the quarterly report. One that preferably upsets a few people too.

These are the sort of brand values which are the difference between those that stand for something and those that would like to stand for something but fail to have anything to stand for because that's what pretesting and focus groups do don't they?

Anway I've been thinking about time for quite a while and I think it's a long post in the brewing. It's got nothing to do with planning and yet everything to do with planning of course.

This last image is taken from the Nokia N95 and while not perfect is every reason why I'll miss having a 5 megapixel cameraphone once I buy an iPhone. Unless of course Apple dish up one in the future.