Why every product sucks now (enshittication)

Does it seem like everything we buy kind of sucks now? The portions are smaller.

The average price of basic things is ridiculous and the quality of things we used to like is significantly worse.

Brands that used to stand for something are the same as everyone else. And it's

hard to actually navigate the web of lies about what's made where, what quality, and what's going on. This is

the age of enshication. And you are not alone. It is happening to all of us. In

alone. It is happening to all of us. In

this video, we're going to talk about why. We're going to talk about the lies

why. We're going to talk about the lies of what's made where around the world.

We're going to talk about the quality of cashmere and leather. We're going to talk about the education of the consumer and how that both helps and hurts the scenario. We're going to talk about

scenario. We're going to talk about everyone starting brands and what that's has actually meant for the products we consume. Mass production, internet

consume. Mass production, internet advertising, what you can learn to be educated both as a consumer and if you're someone that partakes in this economy as a marketer or a brand owner.

I am fascinated by this topic, the culture of dupes, design, who owns what ideas, who makes what where, and what this means for our collective taste or lack thereof. I'm excited for y'all to

lack thereof. I'm excited for y'all to explore with me. Keep So,

first, I want to start with this idea of provenence. We used to be able to know

provenence. We used to be able to know what we'd get from buying something a lot based on where it was made. Used to

assume if something came from China that it was some sort of kind of crappy mass-produced good. And by contrast, if

mass-produced good. And by contrast, if it was made in Italy, that it would be something amazing. But along the line,

something amazing. But along the line, we began to get sold lies. So, let's

start with the luxury brands and the lies that they've been telling. So, a

few years back outside of Milan, Italian authorities raided a Dior factory and they found basically terrible conditions. Migrants were living there.

conditions. Migrants were living there.

Safety guards have been taken off against the machines and people were working far against Italian labor laws who are not people from Italy to produce goods that are made in Italy. Similar

things have happened to Valentino, to Armani. You can read about the charges

Armani. You can read about the charges for these people online. In some cases, it may be, oh, this is a rogue member of our supply chain. If it's an Italian factory coming from an Italian company, it's only so rogue. At some points, is

actually part of that company's infrastructure. And it highlights this

infrastructure. And it highlights this idea of made in Italy as luxury. So,

there's the concept of something made in a country and there's the concept of how and who makes it. So for instance, when you are bringing in migrants from countries like China or Vietnam or Burma who make those things for the rest of

the world and you are simply having them do business inside your factory and then removing all of the safety guards for what is allowable by regulation to work and that good is still legally made in Italy, are you buying that artisan

experience that gets suggested? This is

what the luxury brands are selling you.

Now, if you remember last year when there was a bit of a tiff in the trade war between China and the US and uh the Tik Tok Illuminati made sure forced into our feeds on Tik Tok and in the response

videos, there was all of these conversations about the factories that really make your goods that make luxury that make Hermes. There's a lot of conversation around that. And I, as someone who spent a lot of time in China, you've probably seen lots of my

China content. I've also spent time in

China content. I've also spent time in Italy at the shows and textile and sourcing there. Been in factories in

sourcing there. Been in factories in Portugal, all across the world. I had a few thoughts on this, right? cuz I have been in factories where I have seen products from European manufacturers, Givvanchi, Remova, brand after brand

being made there. And I don't say that to say that it is a bad thing. The

places where I saw those things being made are artisans. They are places where I make extremely highquality stuff on projects. I don't as a consumer feel bad

projects. I don't as a consumer feel bad for a second about buying an item from those brands made in those places because there's a wide gambit of production in China. I will tell you the tale of two people I know. There are two

brothers, both of whom run factories, one of whom runs a smaller artisan-based factory where the people execute truly excellent work. Best-in-class, you could

excellent work. Best-in-class, you could put it up against anyone in Portugal or Italy. His brother, by contrast, is a

Italy. His brother, by contrast, is a little less on his luck. And when we visited that factory purely because I wanted to see because they were producing for Shien. Once I heard that, I was like, "Cool. I've heard about those factories and their conditions and

all. Let's actually see what that looks

all. Let's actually see what that looks like." And that factory not pretty, not

like." And that factory not pretty, not some massive abuse, people chained to tables, child labor, anything like that.

It just happens to be chaotic, filled with people don't have a lot of expertise with not a lot of management and crowded hot areas doing crappy work.

And they take those gigs, the factories take the production they need there, buy the cheapest items because that's the business that they have. But that gambit from the highest end to the lowest end can exist within miles of each other.

And the problem was people didn't understand the upper bounds of what China was capable of. I feel like until recently people also didn't understand the lower bounds of the rest of the world. You can get something crappy made

world. You can get something crappy made wherever you want. And the problem is the brands have decided to lie to us in the middle. It began when Italy was

the middle. It began when Italy was outsourcing more and more production to Portugal. And it's ended with this kind

Portugal. And it's ended with this kind of obiscated global supply chain. A lot

of which functions on the fact that you only need to have a good that's made in Italy if the last real procedure done on the product is done there. You can quite literally legally just finish a good

assembled and produced somewhere else.

This is not the case in the US. You need

to have the majority produced with the majority of materials in the US. And

brands get in trouble for this. Chanola,

who used to have, I believe it was made in Detroit on their products, had to stop doing that. There's significantly

more protections than Italy has. Italy

actually has a 100% made in Italy designation that you never see because no one does it. And so this leads to this time we're in now that's really interesting where the consumer is actually really educated. When I started

sharing videos inside China, uh, in the big factory mills at Zongda, inside the factories showing what the textile sourcing was like, there had only been one other video ever filmed inside that environment. Now there's hundreds.

environment. Now there's hundreds.

Consumers understand how things are made. People realize they can start a

made. People realize they can start a brand. But this happens purely from a

brand. But this happens purely from a consumption standpoint as well. Let's

take this idea of natural materials.

Lululemon, Aloe, and their ilk blew up, created clothes a lot of us wore, and didn't feel great in. You don't feel great running wrapped in plastic. And it

became a huge conversation around natural materials. Can we work out in

natural materials. Can we work out in linen or cotton and moisture wicking and the popularity of marino wool now as kind of like an in between? But really

the point is consumers care about the products that they're buying a lot more than ever. You basically have your

than ever. You basically have your lowcost consumer. They'll get teu or

lowcost consumer. They'll get teu or sheen or whatever. They don't care. And

then everybody else above that lowest common denominator has more education than ever. Is making more decisions. And

than ever. Is making more decisions. And

guess what? If you're choosing between $70 and $90 leggings and you have the full internet to internet to help you research and hunt down the thing you want, you actually have kind of a lot of options. And so as consumers think about

options. And so as consumers think about what they want and why and are more enabled around that than ever. Plus, we

have this social mediadriven desire for luxury. People want to post hot stuff.

luxury. People want to post hot stuff.

They are influenced. You have all the knockoff Goyard in the world making everyone want a Goryard wallet. It seems

like everyone has everything. when you

saw that be that was on reality TV and now you have this combination of does it look like that? Did they actually buy it with real money? Are they just renting it on a service like newly? Is it a dupe? And no one can ever tell but

dupe? And no one can ever tell but they're participating in the game in one way or another. And even if you aren't participating in the label chasing, etc. You're still looking for interesting things that represent you like any

consumer is. And you have more choices

consumer is. And you have more choices than ever. And you're more aware of

than ever. And you're more aware of luxury in the higher end of this than ever. And because of this popularity,

ever. And because of this popularity, the biggest brands in the world have put the foot on the gas of mass production.

I remember growing up and working and my boss at one point bought a Porsche 911 Turbo S and it was the coolest thing in the world. It was extremely sick. It was

the world. It was extremely sick. It was

the only car of that kind I'd ever seen.

Fast forward to today, if you actually tally up how many Porsche 911s are on the road, it is more than a million.

There are more Porsches on the road than adult residents of San Francisco. And I

don't mean Cayenne and Macans and all the other like strive wannabe cars. I

mean 911s. So while you may enjoy that experience of having a car like that.

It's not rare. It's not a luxury per se cuz there is some degree of scarcity that has to come with that. It is as available as anything could be. Rolex

the same. They make over 1 million Rolex watches every single year. There is no rarity. There is no scarcity. There is

rarity. There is no scarcity. There is

just mass- prodduced psychologically influenced demand. If someone says

influenced demand. If someone says they're buying it because it's a good watch, sick. You really need to read the

watch, sick. You really need to read the time that closely in 2006. It is purely an influence choice. And while there are many other luxury watch brands that make immaculate products that take a significant amount of time, maybe worth

the money for whatever reason is reflecting artisansship, Rolex is not one of those. But with this demand comes this idea of initification where if they have to make more than ever, if the luxury brands are saying we're selling

more Louis Vuitton and Lariana, another one that's been hit at the center of scandal of where they're manufactured.

Now they're abusing migrant workers and things like that. If you have more demand than ever for these ultra rare things and you begin to mass-produce them, they are going to get worse. And

that's what we've seen happen across luxury while they've kept raising the prices. And so basically established

prices. And so basically established this ridiculous standard where nothing is worth it. At the same time, you have the rise of every brand. Creators like

myself have shared factory links. I used

to share factory links at the start when I worked much more on supply chain. I

would share, oh, okay, this is a factory that makes this or that. These are these people I found. Here's where we made this merch. And encourage people to

this merch. And encourage people to start brands cuz guess what? Those other

brands are taking advantage of you from a margin perspective of an uneducated consumer. Now we know what things cost.

consumer. Now we know what things cost.

Businesses can survive on a four to 5x markup. It's different in luxury when

markup. It's different in luxury when that becomes 200. That's an

exaggeration, but not by much. So as

these people began to develop all of their own brands, they also began to democratize the economics of what building a brand looks like. So you

begin to know more about what's real.

But also all these new brands are figuring it out as they go. You buy from something off an Instagram ad, you support a new creator brand, they're figuring it out. They don't know the difference between this weight of t-shirt and that weight or what this

wash looks like or why certain people do Bluetooth componentry this way or that way. You have more people than ever

way. You have more people than ever learning and figuring it out basically at the consumer's expense which makes the quality of everything worse. And

this began really in full in the Amazon marketplace economics, right? Where it's

like, cool, I'm searching for a bar of soap or pasta or whatever and I get a brand. I get a brand that kind of looks

brand. I get a brand that kind of looks like it. I get some kind of knockoff. I

like it. I get some kind of knockoff. I

get all these Chinese versions. and I

can't tell what and I just buy it and it's kind of whack and people are just competing over the arbitrage of demand for the lowest cost that they can execute on. So this entrepreneurial

execute on. So this entrepreneurial opportunity and then this education about what they buy leads us to this really interesting place where especially because we're buying on the internet and some of these nomenclatures like made in Italy or 100% Kashmir which

I'm about to get to mean nothing. Where

does it go? Let's talk about material for a moment. 100% Kashmir is an extremely misleading label because based on the microns, the type of sheep, the way the yarn is spun, full cashmere can

the length of hairs, it can mean so much different things. A really high-end

different things. A really high-end sweater versus a low-end sweater. You

can buy a Lauriana Gift of Kings wool $12,000 sweater and a Zara $95 sweater that are both 100% Kashmir. And you as a consumer have no idea how to judge that.

Same thing when people really into weights of t-shirts. I'm going to buy a 300 GSM t-shirt. All of a sudden, everyone on the internet knew GSM and knew what a weight meant. But then, for instance, when I launched t-shirts with uh my valuables brand, people would be

like, "I've never felt something like this." Yeah, it was a certain weight.

this." Yeah, it was a certain weight.

They were super heavy, but there's a special finish on it. We had a finish on the shirt. No one talks about finishes.

the shirt. No one talks about finishes.

Consumers don't even know what if I was to describe it. They wouldn't even know what they're buying, but the feel was actually different. And at the same

actually different. And at the same time, you see the rise of what I call polyester smut brands like Comfort, right? Who sell tons and tons of

right? Who sell tons and tons of blankets and upcharge basically provide a mystige experience. So, a level below luxury level, above average, but they're doing it with really cheap materials that are designed to feel as good as

possible. So, the consumer feels like

possible. So, the consumer feels like they're getting something they love, but they're actually doing it while inhaling stuff that's terrible for them, for lack of a better way. And this happens a lot.

Prada is the king of this material arbitrage, right? Prada sells stuff

arbitrage, right? Prada sells stuff that's mostly in nylon at the prices that other people are doing. Leather, it

costs them truly fractions of what it is. At least uses incredible leather

is. At least uses incredible leather that's really hard to get. I've been at sourcing places where people have brought out the leather that Bautega buys from them I can't even get access to cuz Beta buys everything and just

feels extraordinarily better than what I'm allowed to buy from those tanneries that's operating at a certain level that does not exist with nylon. If there's

one brand that is the largest amount of scam of the luxury charging, it is the Prada nylon. And so within that world

Prada nylon. And so within that world where we can't feel it, we can't describe it. How do you even know what

describe it. How do you even know what to buy? And that's led to people taking

to buy? And that's led to people taking advantage of that brings us more to initification. So the new discovery

initification. So the new discovery stack for a website isn't just Google search and the results that come up 1 to 10. It's happening on chat GBT claude

10. It's happening on chat GBT claude especially on the Gemini recaps that come up at the start of search and perplexity. And every business I work

perplexity. And every business I work with and most of the ones I talk to are making a plan to get ahead of this. So

one of my favorite tools from actual traditional SEO is Hrefs and they just launched something called brand radar specifically for this problem. So this

is a quick look at the tool and how we used it for traditional SEO. So I can see this is a website I used to work on.

It shows me my organic traffic, how it's changed over time, the ranking of all my pages, the back links that are going to those individual pages, how that traffic changes over time. But now with Brand

Radar, you can track your AI share of voice across Chat GBT and Google AI and see where your brand shows up in Reddit discussions, YouTube videos, comments, because in Chat GBT's own words, Reddit

and YouTube is what builds results, not traditional PR or backlinks. So Brand

Radar is built on millions of real search queries. So you're seeing what

search queries. So you're seeing what people actually ask and what AI answers back. You can research brands, products,

back. You can research brands, products, competitors, regions, even people.

There's unlimited projects and you can benchmark against competitors to see who exactly who's gaining attention via AI and who's losing it. So if I was making a plan right now, I always want to give you something educational. I want to

uplift my brand's AI presence. I would

start on brand radar to monitor competition and my progress and build baselines. I would write descriptions of

baselines. I would write descriptions of my products, the headers, their titles, and everything on my site because AI doesn't read clever names. It wants like actual descriptive information of the content you have and what you're

selling. Agents look for solutions to

selling. Agents look for solutions to questions, not vibes. And I'd write really thorough info, guides, knowledge bases for my products and via text on product pages, category pages. So that

way I make sure that the site is optimized to tell what needs to be told and explain why you want to buy. Now, I

focus on entering the conversation on Reddit and YouTube organically with partners, seating, and owned content because that's getting so highly weighted in what the actual results are that are getting shown. There's a link

in the description of this video to learn more about HF's Brand Radar, and thanks so much to Hrefs for sponsoring this content. Now, let's roll over into

this content. Now, let's roll over into internet advertising. So, one of the

internet advertising. So, one of the other reasons why we end up with products that aren't good essentially inside our hands is that really the internet is less a game of product and

more a game of who can sell that product best via these new tools we have. You

hear me talk about this endlessly on this channel. If you are good at meta

this channel. If you are good at meta ads, at creative strategy, at organic, if you were to think about what these more traditional companies are doing to be able to buy anything, the fact that they have eight figures in programmatic

spends with agencies that are getting like backoored to be able to sell them trash traffic from websites or banner ads, you are competing against such antiquated old agency graph that it's no

wonder so many young brands are winning online. But it really comes down to you

online. But it really comes down to you know how to make a good ad. You know how to make a compelling product that people want about it. You can move units and people will consume those units. We've

seen this in drop shipping culture for a long time. And now with AI content

long time. And now with AI content especially, drop shippers are getting crazy. There's this example of this

crazy. There's this example of this lobster handbag where people are act acting like they're artisans making this ridiculous bag. They're getting drop

ridiculous bag. They're getting drop shipped like some trash, right, for a low price. Because there's so many

low price. Because there's so many people that want it quick. They want

their ecom brand to hit quick. How many

channels and people on there are being like, you can hit 10K or 100K a month with your clothing line or whatever. But

what they don't teach people is the weights and finishes and the product quality and making patterns that fit and refining everything. And this goes for

refining everything. And this goes for clothing, it goes for bags, it goes for candy. We got influencers doing like

candy. We got influencers doing like drop ship candy out there, right? Like

they what do they know about the food science of it, right? Typically when you started a brand before like uh I remember I invested in a beauty brand a while back experiment where it's like there are two chemists organic chemists who had some really interesting ideas

for products to serve Gen Z. But note

the first part, organic chemist, the expertise level to go into a world where product differentiation in terms of how it shows up on AI, what people's experience is like gets them to buy more is extremely important is the

differentiator and then in a world where everyone's starting those brands, whoever has that helps it get to the next level. But the question is, are you

next level. But the question is, are you willing to pursue that? The guru that taught you to get the $10,000 month selling your products via meta ads, are they the ones who are going to teach you about the weights and finishes and Kashmir and going to China and putting all that together? And that's something

that brand owners really need to think about cuz this next level, this next generation that pulls you out of the inchification era is going to be brands that take this really seriously and master the craft. But one of the other

product related topics is this idea of design and copies cuz we deal with that on the internet, too. You see all these things, you probably see the shop where it looks slightly familiar. I got some shoes the other day that look like the Bayga pattern. They look like they're

Bayga pattern. They look like they're Bautga shoes, but they're not quite Bayga shoes. And you know what? That was

Bayga shoes. And you know what? That was

fine with me. I'm never going to buy BGA shoes. I like the way that the woven

shoes. I like the way that the woven thing looked. it was going to work with

thing looked. it was going to work with a particular outfit. Bought it, but it got my eye because it looks like something that already exists. But then

play this a step further. Furniture is

the key category of this, right? Look at

like interior icons. This is a brand that dupes other designs. They basically

work through the legal loopholes of the US, sometimes brazenly, sometimes not, to be able to just copy any design that exists. So, let me explain you a bit of

exists. So, let me explain you a bit of how this works and why you see it so much in furniture in particular. So, in

the US, furniture is treated as a functional object, not a creative work.

So, copyright protection is pretty weak.

Whereas in the EU, it actually lasts like 70 years from the death of the designer, it's really well protected.

Basically, what it means, it's really hard if you have a table or a chair design of any kind, even if it is from the last 15 years or whatever other protections look like, but especially if it's older, to not just allow it to be

copied. It is fully legal for it to be

copied. It is fully legal for it to be copied. It cannot just be represented as

copied. It cannot just be represented as the name. You can't call it an Miller

the name. You can't call it an Miller chair or an EMS chair or whatever when you do it. You just present it in that look and form. That's why you see a million Togo sofas, the Ultra Fragola mirror, all these things just reproduced

indefinitely is if you don't call it that, you can basically with very little recourse sell it. That's the difference between a counterfeit and a replica. A

counterfeit pretends to be the original.

It's pretending to sell you an EMS chair, illegal. A replica, they're just

chair, illegal. A replica, they're just taking that design. Maybe there's a couple minor changes, maybe not even, but they're not calling it anchair.

Replica. This is all fully allowed.

There's some complexity here cuz it's not necessarily a bad thing. People act

like, "Oh, the designers aren't getting paid. The designers aren't exactly done

paid. The designers aren't exactly done particularly cleanly by a lot of these furniture companies either. Sometimes

they'll pay estate fees and things to the designer to their state after they pass away to continue producing those or pay out licenses. But in the majority, much like we go back to the luxury conversation, they are charging a ridiculous amount. DWR, whoever it is,

ridiculous amount. DWR, whoever it is, is charging you an outlandish amount.

All of which is profit versus the dupe companies who are who are making things that are sometimes less quality, a lot of times just as good for a fraction of the price. And I've there I've been

the price. And I've there I've been there. Saw some my content last year.

there. Saw some my content last year.

went to Fosan in China, which is where all of the furniture is made. We saw

CB2, we saw high-end stuff. So much of the world's furniture is made in this one region. And then there are uh an

one region. And then there are uh an infinite amount of you basically go to these massive malls, look at all the things they have, and just order oneoff and custom whatever you want. We got a lot of stuff for our house and office space. I originally learned about this

space. I originally learned about this when I was furnishing retail stores that we used to own. You have this entire economy of oneoff. You can fill up a container or a half container. And then

you get to learn the quality of which and what things actually cost. And you

realize that those brands, again, much like the luxury brands, have just been surviving off this massive markup, which doesn't pay the designer or the creative a ton of money. Maybe it gets them a little, it gives the executives private jets, pays for massive corporate

offices. And so, we're in this kind of

offices. And so, we're in this kind of awkward place today where maybe you would say, okay, if the designer's living and they're getting paid really well from their designs, they're selling it themselves, I wouldn't buy the copy.

Completely understood. I wouldn't

either. But for something that existed a long time ago, now you're offering a newer version of it or putting your own spin on it or you're just purchasing it for your house, you need to feel bad about purchasing it from one of the dupe brands. This leads to the complications

brands. This leads to the complications of the initification because on one hand, you buy it from the real source, you're getting ripped off. They're

overcharging you. You buy it from the dupe, you're participating in this oddball economy. Now, I've been thinking

oddball economy. Now, I've been thinking a lot about this cuz I uh I've seen a few items in real life that are vintage that I like. I'd like to produce a version of that I know I can produce in like a foson that if I was to introduce

a couch for example, where's that line?

And where's the line as a consumer versus as a a brand owner versus as a creative? And while I may have that in

creative? And while I may have that in the back of my head being like, what's the right thing here? The vast majority of consumers and business people won't think about it at all. And we're

watching this game play out in real time now cuz it's happening with the big brands, too. You've seen me do videos on

brands, too. You've seen me do videos on Gentle Monster. I talked briefly about

Gentle Monster. I talked briefly about this in my Tokyo video as well. Gentle

Monster commands a massive margin. and

they overcharge massively for their sunglasses. The markup is incompletely

sunglasses. The markup is incompletely insane, but they do that to be able to do these cool marketing and activations in pop-up. Blue Elephant exists and has

in pop-up. Blue Elephant exists and has been sued by Gentle Monster literally to reclaim that margin. Most kids, like myself included, I wouldn't buy Gentle Monster. It's just too expensive.

Monster. It's just too expensive.

There's just no reason I'm ever going to spend that kind of money on that.

Doesn't say anything to me. But if

someone makes something looks kind of just as cool as one of the ones I want and it's in that middle range and you know that they're just keeping that margin, where does that line become for you as a consumer? And so blue elephant is that brand. And they're one opportunity. It's one of those things

opportunity. It's one of those things that's happening right now. It's going

to happen across everything. Every

reason where someone's overcharging these. The other brand, Alohas, the shoe

these. The other brand, Alohas, the shoe brand. They basically just said, "Cool,

brand. They basically just said, "Cool, you can't get the Miumu New Balances and the other Miumu popular sneakers. We're

just going to make variants of them and they're going to be at a more reasonable price and they're going to be great.

We're going to have a big ecosystem around it." And that is a rock with

around it." And that is a rock with which a brand can grow. And it's funny that that is and Kint and all this other products that basically say we are going to demittle and take that margin back and give you a great experience are

thriving. And a lot of them make good

thriving. And a lot of them make good product. And it makes sense because

product. And it makes sense because we're in what I'll call a distrust economy. Reddit is game. Reddit is the

economy. Reddit is game. Reddit is the most game social network on the internet. We used to go there and be

internet. We used to go there and be able to trust the people on it were regular people. Now even the regular

regular people. Now even the regular people I know are taking payments to post on there. Everything is botted because of the power of the SEO search and it is now the least trustworthy place on the internet. Influence is

gamed. The expectations are are almost ridiculous. I have Mountain Valley water

ridiculous. I have Mountain Valley water in a lot of my videos. I also have beverages in a lot of my videos. I had

people in the comments ask, "Is there a reason you put the beverage on there? Is

it like a psychological hack?" Or people be like, "This video is sponsored by Mountain Valley. My brother's in Christ.

Mountain Valley. My brother's in Christ.

I just want to have a beverage when I sit here and talk for 45 minutes." But

people are assuming commerce and anything even minorly influencer related. And they're probably right to

related. And they're probably right to do so, even if wrong in that scenario.

And if people are doing this, if if younger entrepreneurs or creatives are doing any of these things, is that better than these ivory tower companies making all this money and not paying creatives? that that's that's the life

creatives? that that's that's the life that we were in the previous 30 years.

So I don't look back and look at what happened previously as better than this whatsoever. This is the age where if you

whatsoever. This is the age where if you are a creative person, you have more opportunity to make money related to doing something you love. You have more of an upside to make total money overall than any time in history. This is the best time for you ever. If you don't believe that and you're worried about

all the other things happening in the world and this or that, they've gotten to you. I'm going to end this with what

to you. I'm going to end this with what do brands learn from this? What do you need to do in this era? So, I think you have to show it because whether you're made in Italy or made in China, you need to show it one way or the other. If

you're made in Italy, show the artisansship. Triple down. Show that it

artisansship. Triple down. Show that it is actual artisan people making this and is not a bunch of migrants in a factory with the wheels falling off. Prove it.

And if you're making in China, don't be afraid of it. I made these those gorgeous luxury Vermont bags in China and silk scarves at a quality level. Any

luxury brand from the highest end Chinese factories and I've shown those factories in content and I'm proud of representing that. But I can also show

representing that. But I can also show it because I remember there was the brand, what was the brand? It's like a popular street wear brand, Trio, where they went to China, did the China factory content, and the factories were like pretty dark, not the kind of

factories we go to. And they were making the content there. People were kind of commenting like, you know, like bro went to the sweat shop, but like, hey, they're showing the reality of it. So, I

will at least give them kudos to that.

It was an interesting like microcosm in that influencer like new age street wear brand moment where you're actually seeing what that looks like. But, you

need to know what your experience is and show it and prove it. And even that learning experience like maybe they moved on to nicer factories now, right?

But give people the full resolve. If

you're selling 100% cashmere, explain it. Don't make them feel ripped off if

it. Don't make them feel ripped off if you told them it was better than it is.

And don't underell it if it's not good enough. You read the descriptions of

enough. You read the descriptions of some of the products I have. I'm calling

out specifically this is going to be one of the most intense things you've ever worn. This amount of weight, this

worn. This amount of weight, this texture is a feeling that like is is completely different than what you wear before and has this upside and this downside. This is the area to explain

downside. This is the area to explain that in text and in video. And most of all, you have to feel it. You have to give a We had this whole era.

Look, I'm just as much a part of the problem as anybody. I've encouraged

thousands and thousands of people to make brands. I was tallying the other

make brands. I was tallying the other day DMs of people that said they've actually made brands. There's 176 I could find. You think about all the ones

could find. You think about all the ones beyond that. We're encouraging people to

beyond that. We're encouraging people to start that entrepreneurial journey to begin working on that. Now, there's

going to be levels of those people.

There's people that did it cuz they can make money, that did it cuz they thought it would be cool, that did it cuz other people were doing it. And maybe they find a way there, but for some of them, maybe they're making like kind of crappy products. all the difference between

products. all the difference between where you're at there and the next level that you can be proud of is just giving a It's just really caring about everything and probably caring about it over the economics. Because when you really give a about anything,

whether it's your content, whether it's a product, whether it's the things you choose to consume, people feel it. A

convoluted topic, but one I have a lot of thoughts on. I appreciate y'all bearing through it with me. I have a really solid video coming up about pricing, archetypes, personas, like the really in-depth tactical marketing I

know you guys love. So, that's coming shortly. examples, questions, thoughts

shortly. examples, questions, thoughts on the initification of everything in these brands. There's a lot of nuanced

these brands. There's a lot of nuanced topics here. Definitely drop below and

topics here. Definitely drop below and I'll chime in on all of them. As always,

I appreciate y'all watching. I hope I inspired you to think a bit about how you consume