Brandblack works to find a natural harmony between technology and humanity through our products.
Source: We Are the Exception to The Expected
I wrote a new business plan last week. I’ve written countless business plans over the years. I’ve taught business writing at Park University, so I’m good at writing a plan quickly. The problem is executing the plan. This is an issue for every business person; aspiring, and people already in the process of operating a company. In business there aren’t any certainties. You can only create your idea utilizing data, research, learned skills and the education gained through experience. This doesn’t mean that you will sell whatever you created. Placing all of the effort into a project is not an indicator of success. Being prepared only generates the likelihood that you have a chance.
A few days ago I wrote a post about Brandblack:
This is important, I write all of my posts as an outsider. I don’t reach out to the company and then create my analysis. I look at the campaign, the product, and find any information that I can to inform my writing. I do this because it allows me to build an analysis on what I see and discover vs what I know. The moment I reach out to the brand I’m influenced and the writing becomes skewed. Once the post is complete I typically reach out if I feel it’s necessary, or I simply let the article breath. The above Brandblack article found its way to the team at the company. In my title, I used the word ‘mystery’ because during my research of the company I found very little information. The most informative content I found was an interview on The Hundreds website:
https://thehundreds.com/blogs/content/brandblack-is-not-afraid-of-nike
That article is six years old.
You should read it because it gives the blueprint of how Brandblack operates. The company is a far cry from their basketball origins and I’ve written about the iterations that have risen from the ashes repetitively, and here we are again looking at a company that hasn’t updated their Twitter or Facebook since 2018, yet the brand has a completely different concept and a number of models that are distinctive, beautiful and well-designed available to the public. As a former shoe company owner that dealt with the problems of production, I look at Brandblack and my immediate question is, ‘how can the brand continuously shift and still produce collections’? Mysteries are difficult, but wondrous. After writing the post I was able to connect with one of the team members and I found the answer to my most pressing question.
When a company doesn’t have the financial backing of an Allbirds (valued at 1 billion dollars) they have to find a way to what they are building. Brandblack is a company with design that rivals fashion houses and performance footwear companies. When you see a Brandblack shoe, you may have the feeling that you’ve seen products with outsoles and tooling that might be similar. It’s not that the tooling is similar, Brandblack is a deep design well with water brimming so high you don’t need a bucket to get the water out. The company is overflowing with creativity. This creativity has allowed the company one of the most unique opportunities in business.
As for Vibram – we are allowed to design products vs. only using available toolings which is great for us. We design a tooling and are allowed to use it for (a specified amount of time) and after that its available for other brands to purchase from Vibram. This allows us to not spend an enormous amount to open molds and still have high grade, amazing outsoles to work with. We are allowed to design in our own voice with no guidance which is pure and where we want to be as designers.
Somewhere there is a person writing a business plan. At the core they are trying to create a business, but they don’t have the technical expertise to develop original, intriguing products. I had this problem. My R&D wasn’t up to par and both SHO-SHOT and ARCH, my two footwear companies reeled from poor production methods and lack of funding. I would have never had the potential to build a product in lieu of payment for construction. In a world where a company like Allbirds can gain a billion dollar valuation for shoes that at the core are Roshe Run replicas made of wool and a non-proprietary sugar based outsole, a company like Brandblack exists and in all of its mysterious operation, imo, is the perfect company for an investment.
Source: We Are the Exception to The Expected