Acronym.

[jawnsnow]

This is just an observation/speculation more than anything - orders from mothership have been coming from CZ and their customer service has gone next level. This probably means that E has outsourced warehouse operations & customer service? Couple that with fair wage for employees, the price hike is justifiable. 

[SuE]

7 minutes ago, lxkhor said:

This is just an observation/speculation more than anything - orders from mothership have been coming from CZ and their customer service has gone next level. This probably means that E has outsourced warehouse operations & customer service? Couple that with fair wage for employees, the price hike is justifiable. 

"Outsourced" is not the word you want to use to justify a price hike...

 

 

[jawnsnow]

10 minutes ago, SuE said:

"Outsourced" is not the word you want to use to justify a price hike...

 

 

why not? If he's paying someone else to get the job done properly? Or should I have said something like "Customer service improvement"? 

[lopiteaux]

5 minutes ago, lxkhor said:

why not? If he's paying someone else to get the job done properly? Or should I have said something like "Customer service improvement"? 

Outsourcing usually refers to moving your ops to a lower cost centre.

[mariahscarry]

I've always been curious why E.H. even took the route of creating his own shoe with Nike in the first place. Why wouldn't he just make an ACR shoe? E.H. is so much cooler than an Air Force 1 design imo. Now then, not that he wants to put that kind of work into creating a shoe from scratch, but he could've directed that process had he taken the time.

And trust me I get it, it all comes down to money. Production costs, it being easier partnering with Nike and then receiving an additional paycheck from them on top of ACR sales, and just building that relationship in general too. We all are obviously aware now of how powerful a company like Nike can be in today's world.

I just think E.H. would still have the unique business aesthetic he had created organically all on his own, before the internet and instagram, had he NOT partnered with Nike.

...a side note, I think the different styling iterations between all Nike x ACR shoe models have always been incredibly unique each time a new ACR collection releases. He's shown us how truly versatile his designs with Nike truly are, and the numerous ways they can be expressed visually as well.

...second side note, I read that GQ interview, and the fact that E.H. was okay with using the Vapormax 2 model and add nothing from an ACR touch perspective sounds like a fabricated lie. Honestly, the way E.H. talks about Nike in interviews simply in general always sounds fabricated, like he's gassing them up because he know he'll see the bag for it later. The Vapormax 2 X ACR is a huge let down for myself and all other real ACR fans as well i'll assume. This shoe reminded me more of the direction he's been taking with Shadow Project, which after seeing the SS18 video he's sold me strongly on the new graphic direction and color ideas he's been executing. The Nylon Metal 'Spider' Watro Fishtail Parka is one of the most beautiful designs (functionally and textile selection) i've ever seen from their partnership. Even better than the J28k imo. Articulated arms are the most underrated SP feature ever. Haha sorry got off track there, but yeah, the fact he only changed the shoe from a visual perspective, marketing with John Mayer, and then even the friends and family edition (which is the most genius marketing scheme from a shoe perspective imo), shows me that this partnership with Nike has evolved into something I don't like.

[RemarkableArmor]

For what it’s worth the CS has definitely improved of late in my experience so I hope this is a sign of things to come. Replies actually happen now! Regarding being priced out I think it’s silly money indeed but, frustratingly, I just can’t find anything I like better despite trying so I just tend to find ways to step up. It’s inside my head to another level. For example I own a fair bit of Veilance, all of which I’ve bought “cheap” on sale and it’s good stuff but, being extreme to illustrate the divide for me, it just feels like I’m wearing grandad gear in comparison. Throwing on Acronym items still gets me psyched whereas Veilance just feels very pedestrian and I personally get nothing off it other than nice looking functional gear. I don’t pick up a Veilance jacket and think “yeah!” I just grab it and forget it (arguably the sign of something doing its job!). When I’m sifting through my Acronym bits it genuinely excites me to wear them each time. At the end of the day “it’s just clothes” of course but I’m clearly struggling to grow out of it...just wish my fingers were faster on these websites in my old age!

[Keene]

17 hours ago, mariahscarry said:

I've always been curious why E.H. even took the route of creating his own shoe with Nike in the first place. Why wouldn't he just make an ACR shoe? E.H. is so much cooler than an Air Force 1 design imo. Now then, not that he wants to put that kind of work into creating a shoe from scratch, but he could've directed that process had he taken the time.

And trust me I get it, it all comes down to money. Production costs, it being easier partnering with Nike and then receiving an additional paycheck from them on top of ACR sales, and just building that relationship in general too. We all are obviously aware now of how powerful a company like Nike can be in today's world.

I just think E.H. would still have the unique business aesthetic he had created organically all on his own, before the internet and instagram, had he NOT partnered with Nike.

...a side note, I think the different styling iterations between all Nike x ACR shoe models have always been incredibly unique each time a new ACR collection releases. He's shown us how truly versatile his designs with Nike truly are, and the numerous ways they can be expressed visually as well.

...second side note, I read that GQ interview, and the fact that E.H. was okay with using the Vapormax 2 model and add nothing from an ACR touch perspective sounds like a fabricated lie. Honestly, the way E.H. talks about Nike in interviews simply in general always sounds fabricated, like he's gassing them up because he know he'll see the bag for it later. The Vapormax 2 X ACR is a huge let down for myself and all other real ACR fans as well i'll assume. This shoe reminded me more of the direction he's been taking with Shadow Project, which after seeing the SS18 video he's sold me strongly on the new graphic direction and color ideas he's been executing. The Nylon Metal 'Spider' Watro Fishtail Parka is one of the most beautiful designs (functionally and textile selection) i've ever seen from their partnership. Even better than the J28k imo. Articulated arms are the most underrated SP feature ever. Haha sorry got off track there, but yeah, the fact he only changed the shoe from a visual perspective, marketing with John Mayer, and then even the friends and family edition (which is the most genius marketing scheme from a shoe perspective imo), shows me that this partnership with Nike has evolved into something I don't like.

There's a great deal of effort and money required to make quality shoes and risk involved as well. What if it fails? Not easy to take for a small company. I'm sure acronym wouldn't have done shoes at all if Nike didn't approach them to do the LF1. Nike has it all set up already. I also doubt that Errolson Hugh or acronym made the decision to change SISP from name giving 'shadow project' style and the PARSEQ grid to the current 'weird' SI mainline extension that SISP feels like. Pure speculation, but it appears to be more about brand image of SI and driven by SI.

The acr VM is not bad. For a spring/summer shoe it's fine. It feels a bit forced though. Nike will have asked acronym to do a Vapormax, possibly with all kinds of restrictions in production. The design is still radical and dividing the crown, maybe because the Vapormax already does that by itself, which could be exactly wanted to achieve and enjoy. The marketing is great too. All in all I think that one's a win for them whether one likes it or not.

On the business side, there's responsibilities to fulfill and while a comparatively small customer base may have paved the way to more, keeping a course just to please a small circle of people is unreasonable.

favorite band's old albums were way better than their new ones

[Kasper]

On the price hike, while I don't doubt that input prices have gone up faster than inflation, they haven't gone up nowhere near enough to justify the recent season price hikes. Essentially, E looked at the market and saw that a lot of people were willing to pay rape price and decided that rather than giving all of these profit to resellers, he rather have it himself. That's it. Now, there's a bunch of things he could do to keep price more affordable (ie. produce more), but he clearly decided that he'd rather have the hype and maximize profit per unit rather than total profit. For exemple, there's no reason why he couldn't reopen subnet and allow customers to pre-order items ahead of general release. In this way, he takes zero production risk and doesn't need a dollar of investment in working cap since you pay upfront and could easily produce and ship items as they are produced. Frankly, I'm sure 99% of ACRNM fans would be willing to order through such a system, even if it meant waiting a couple months to get stuff. 

As with many others, while I love ACRNM, I just don't feel like I can justify the price and anyway, I am really turned off by the whole buying experience and feel taken for granted as a huge fan of the brand and customer. What fucking brand expects you to spend you life checking their website in case some product is suddenly released without warning or will sell out in 15 sec. Especially as the line as gotten more "out there" recently (as much as I love some of the products conceptually, wearing ninja pants is cosplaying), I feel less and less interest and have instead shifted to other brands. 

When you run a fashion business, you have to strike a balance between pleasing your long-term supporters / fans (which generate 95% of the noise around the brand) and the people that actually generate most of your profits (ie. older, richer people that can walk into Barney's and buy anything on a SA rec). I specifically feel Veilance has done a really good job of creating a strong following while also being sold to a wider audience. 

[thatslapz]

On 3/27/2018 at 8:50 AM, hoju said:

On Twitter Errolson responded to prices going up saying they're just trying to pay a fair living wage. 

If it's this, then I am fine with it.  Maybe with the Nike exposure, they finally have enough demand for their product to charge the prices they always wanted to support the people making it.  Maybe prior seasons were sold more cheaply than they would have preferred to help build the brand and put them in this position.  Maybe the increase in price is what was needed to get an actual customer service team, and fulfillment team that could ship web orders faster than two-three weeks after payment.  The pricing out of resellers might just be a fortunate side effect.  I doubt anyone here has seen their books or sat in their strategy/planning meetings, so it's really all speculation, myself included. 

I would take E's word over anyone else's.  That said, I never saw this tweet LOL so who knows.  Either way, it will be my rationale whenever I buy  - 50% for the product, 50% to the good people of the Czech Republic.  As for older customers being priced out, it is unfortunate.  But older customers have probably been following E over the years through interviews/articles/social media and know he has always prioritized social/corporate responsibility.      

[erictheninja]

if you buy shit from H&M or Zara you are basically supporting murder

[hoju]

18 minutes ago, thatslapz said:

I would take E's word over anyone else's.  That said, I never saw this tweet LOL so who knows.

https://twitter.com/erlsn/status/968181783865917440

Edited March 28, 2018 by hoju

[mizzar]

All is good, but he implying  Tilak don't pay wages to their workers ?

The priceist gore-tex jacket from them costs around 640 usd.

E. maybe talking about wages for him and his studio in Berlin, then yes it could be.

[danii]

There are seamstress seeking ads searchable here. It's quite above the average for seamstresses, yet below the cz overall average. There is a huge demand for seamstresses (actually for any profession) so you need to offer something a bit more to get them work for you (and not to go behind a counter at LiDL and earn almost 40% more).

From my perspective it looks like that most of FW ended up on grailed at elevated prices and people still bought the product so why to let fucking cuntish prick reseller opportunist pieces of shit earn a buck on something they had zero input in. So for SS let's price the gear at what would a reseller ask at grailed and it's a win/win for ACRNM (resellers will pass/acronym gmbh earns more). I could hardly afford it back in the day and I could hardly afford it these days, no change for me.

Edited March 28, 2018 by danii

[danii]

regarding that GQ interview, I would really prefer if John "big-headed" Mayer would educate us on who he is and why is he relevant, rather then inflatable vests, subnets and the-glade being closed down (ehm-ehm). 

Edited March 28, 2018 by danii

[pompadork]

34 minutes ago, danii said:

regarding that GQ interview, I would really prefer if John "big-headed" Mayer would educate us on who he is and why is he relevant, rather then inflatable vests, subnets and the-glade being closed down (ehm-ehm). 

Inflatable vests and subnet access is why he is relevant in the context of that interview though. He was asked what drew him to the brand. You wanted him to break down his discography?

[wexler]

3 hours ago, Kasper said:

On the price hike, while I don't doubt that input prices have gone up faster than inflation, they haven't gone up nowhere near enough to justify the recent season price hikes. 

This was my thought as well with seeing the new price of the J53. The increase was about the same as the new vs. original J28-GT (~$500-600). The difference the OG 28 released 5 years ago while the 53 only had about a 1 year difference from its initial release.

1 hour ago, danii said:

From my perspective it looks like that most of FW ended up on grailed at elevated prices and people still bought the product so why to let fucking cuntish prick reseller opportunist pieces of shit earn a buck on something they had zero input in. So for SS let's price the gear at what would a reseller ask at grailed and it's a win/win for ACRNM (resellers will pass/acronym gmbh earns more). I could hardly afford it back in the day and I could hardly afford it these days, no change for me.

It definitely seems that way, raising prices to help combat reselling. I don't disagree that the E and co. can charge what they want especially when people are paying those prices. There has to be a tipping point though, case and point with the 53's that are still sitting. I also think that a part of the problem with resale pricing is that some individuals have no clue what acr items actually cost. They see what is selling on Grailed or elsewhere and think that's what it costs because they're either too lazy to try to find historical data or it's not readily available. Or maybe they just have enough cash that they don't care and want the branding. Unfortunately it seems the latter is occurring more and more.

Edited March 28, 2018 by wexler

[junkie_dolphin]

1 hour ago, wexler said:

There has to be a tipping point though, case and point with the 53's that are still sitting.

Yeah, the funny thing is that Grailed prices are going to be determined by a number of things—what people were willing to spend last year might not be the same this year (the hype is dying)—it's not just like acronym was undercharging. The olive bags are just sitting on Grailed, going for below retail—same with the jackets. I expect there will be a bit of correction over the next few drops.

[wexler]

30 minutes ago, junkie_dolphin said:

Yeah, the funny thing is that Grailed prices are going to be determined by a number of things—what people were willing to spend last year might not be the same this year (the hype is dying)—it's not just like acronym was undercharging. The olive bags are just sitting on Grailed, going for below retail—same with the jackets. I expect there will be a bit of correction over the next few drops.

Agreed, same with the LF100. They sold out quickly but can still be had for retail or less. Similar with the the bags that dropped last November. 

[segue]

57 minutes ago, junkie_dolphin said:

Yeah, the funny thing is that Grailed prices are going to be determined by a number of things—what people were willing to spend last year might not be the same this year (the hype is dying)—it's not just like acronym was undercharging. The olive bags are just sitting on Grailed, going for below retail—same with the jackets. I expect there will be a bit of correction over the next few drops.

I’d agree with the hype dying partially but  feel as though the crazy price hikes were due to the classic short supply and high demand driving up costs since acronym had such limited numbers of their pieces out and then an increase in demand for old products (I.e. bags) but now that acronym has grown so much in the past two years, there is now more supply and demand has lessened somewhat so I’d say that it will be hard for resellers to cop just for the sake of reselling because of how much it costs just to get the product. Seems like maybe somehow with the increase in coming supply, dying hype, and high retail prices, E is intentionally or unintentionally balancing  it all out resulting in products getting into the hands of people that actually want it, albeit at higher retail prices. 

[Cornuto]

Or maybe the twitter message is the truth, and ACRNM is sharing it’s success with valued partners.

Somehow I just don’t see Errolson sitting in his studio, scrolling through Grailed and then basing his companies prices because of some fucboi's trying to do some arbitrage speculation.

[robbatussin]

58 minutes ago, Cornuto said:

Somehow I just don’t see Errolson sitting in his studio, scrolling through Grailed and then basing his companies prices because of some fucboi's trying to do some arbitrage speculation.

When you don't overthink it, it's actually that simple. 'Fair wage' is relative -- E threw everyone a bone with that response.

[erictheninja]

6 hours ago, danii said:

regarding that GQ interview, I would really prefer if John "big-headed" Mayer would educate us on who he is and why is he relevant, rather then inflatable vests, subnets and the-glade being closed down (ehm-ehm). 

Mayer is one of the greatest musicians and song writers of all time that’s who he is. Who tf are you besides some bch ass dude on the internet hating on a dude who knows himself and does shit he’s passionate about  and doesn’t spend his time trying to bring other people down 

Edited March 29, 2018 by erictheninja

[lesteel]

33 minutes ago, erictheninja said:

Mayer is one of the greatest musicians and song writers of all time 

Imma let you finish...

Discussing his music in here is really off topic but he is above average at best. I only forced myself to listen to it a bit because of his visvim style in the past.

[erictheninja]

1 hour ago, lesteel said:

Imma let you finish...

Discussing his music in here is really off topic but he is above average at best. I only forced myself to listen to it a bit because of his visvim style in the past.

Like jimi would be proud af of this 

And this is legit over 10 years old.

i mean say what you will. Music is one of the most subjective art forms, but at the end of the day it is a language. Aside from performing skill set, if you truly take a deep dive into his music, he is nothing short of a modern day frederic Chopin or bill Evans when it comes to the night game. Composition god.

Edited March 29, 2018 by erictheninja

[pompadork]

Did anyone else find the "chinese kid in a basement" comment by Errolson in the GQ article weird? 

Quote

John Mayer: I have a lateral question. When you see [fan-made] mock ups of things you might do that have zippers all over them, does that push you to not do them? Are you influenced by what people think they're going to get, once you see it?

Hugh: Probably, yeah. For us, these shoes are kind of almost three years old. We did these a long time ago. So just naturally we're also in a different place than the market at the time.

What happened with the first shoe we did, the Lunar Force, it kicked off this DIY thing at the consumer level. Kids were cutting their shoes open and adding their own zippers. And some of the ones we saw were amazing. There's no reason for us to do a zipper on the VaporMax because there's probably a Chinese kid in his basement who's going to do one better than we could do.

I'm not sure if he is talking about just this shoe in particular here, or speaking more broadly. Maybe he specifically meant a zipper and not additions in general, i.e. "we showed people this zipper, there's no point in doing this again because others will do it better themselves." I can't imagine this thought process is involved in every design decision acrnoym goes through.  

[RemarkableArmor]

I’d never heard of John Mayer until a few years back (I get that he is big but not in the circles I move in) and his name kept coming up around Acronym. Not my cup of tea personally but I think it’s cool if some people can get turned on to his music this way and find something they like. For me if im interested in Errolson’s designs or whatever I like to find out more about his other interests ...so when I see him post all Raster Noton stuff up etc I was pleasantly surprised as that one made good sense to me.

Edited March 29, 2018 by RemarkableArmor

[fasttimes]

38 minutes ago, pompadork said:

Did anyone else find the "chinese kid in a basement" comment by Errolson in the GQ article weird? 

Thought about this

 

[danii]

Yeah it's kinda unfair for me to label John Mayer as arrogant based on single (probably highly edited) interview, but on the other hand that's what people do with celebrities.

Must admit I was wrong, country music makes sense in the western style video for vapormaxes.

[TEKsevenZERO]

I think that the whole marketing campaign was/is out there and there was very little change in the shoe other the 'disruptive' pattern so perhaps that disruption resonates through the whole campaign "Errolson in Mayerland" juxtaposition, or perhaps they were just having a good old Steffi Graf and I'm overthinking and spouting bs?

Anyway it worked, I was not fond of the shoe until I saw the pattern than it appealed more, shame I can't get hold of a pair, really liked the khaki /red too.

[SuE]

My frequent frustration with the higher prices is that it isn't justified with more expensive fabrics. Instead of another Etaproof can we get more LP and more Leather? Or bring back cashmere goretex eh?