The Buildering Company

Posted Tue, 11/25/2008 - 11:09 by ardarvin
 Category:

Ardarvin,

You seem to be the authority on buildering on the North American Continent. Therefore you might be interested in this....

I am an MBA student and currently planning to produce an entire line of clothing aimed at young climbers... actually Builderers in particular.

Prana and Evolv seem to have a good grip on the boulderer hippy market, but there doesn't seem to be a clothing line aimed at jobless innercity young climbers... hence my clothing line, The Buildering Company, should fill that void, however small it may be.

As far as I know, no one else is making buildering clothing... so it will be interesting if this idea will even work... but I have the funding, the suppliers ready to produce, and even a factory in China sending the first samples of our buildering crash pads (actually bouldering crash pads, but maybe we could customize them better for the streets... thinner... thicker... or my favorite: urban camoflauge)

We are in the middle of a recession, and people are going to be looking for stress relief for low costs... like kick the can, or stick ball in the 30's...

The plan is for the clothing line to hit the market in April.

Cheers,

Matt

People used to tell me how much they enjoy reading the letters section. I haven't heard that in quite some time. I think I'm losing my edge -- getting soft in my old age.

Thing is, my responses used to be funny because I was a straight-up asshole to everyone who wrote in, no matter how properly directed, learned, or well meaning they were.

These days I'm thinking, why not just be nice? Weird, it's taken 32 years to first ponder that notion. Maybe my girlfriend is rubbing off on me. She's nice. After first meeting her, people tell me in disbelief, "she's so...so...nice!" I see the complement for what it is, a euphemistic way of saying "I can't believe SHE is dating YOU. You're such an ass." True story. I guess she likes projects.

Anyway, I know I'm supposed to rip into this letter from Matt, but I can't. I can't think of a single mean thing to say. Matt seems like a cool guy. I like his buildering clothing line idea, like the ominous name, dig the depression-era reference, hell...we even share a mutual hatred for hippies (I think). Matt lets be friends. Big love.

Matt, I don't have an MBA or anything, but if you want any suggestions:

1. Fuck China.

No, I'm not giving you a hard time for using an off-shore supplier -- this should be the slogan on your first t-shirt. I've been wanting to make a "Fuck China" shirt for years now. Thing is, I wouldn't have the balls to wear it. I've got Chinese friends (at least I did) and for some reason I don't think it'd go over too well. I'd have a really hard time explaining that I'm not racist. I'm not. Seriously. I love Chinese people. I love their food, traditions, family-centricness, and the way they are always doing Tai Chi in the tennis court at 8am.

I just think the Chinese government is evil. I abhor their human rights and censorship policies, dislike their immoral business practices, and know they've got the world economy by the purse strings. Sure North America is as much to blame for its rampant consumption and for demanding rock bottom prices on manufacturing, but hey, I'd rather blame the provider not the consumer. It's like that episode of The Simpsons where Homer bemoans cable TV for providing all that quality programming...I'm Homer.

I suppose "Shop Locally" t-shirts would be more constructive, but it's been done. Plus, how awesome would it be to have some "Fuck China" t-shirts made in a Chinese factory? That's some Associated Press newsworthy material right there (read: free marketing).

2. I hope by "urban camouflage" you don't mean "camouflage", i.e. what Drum&Bass kids from Montreal and pre-teen skate girl groupies from 2003 wear. Actually, camouflage is so uncool that it might be cool again. You may be on to something.

-ard