I wanted to like you

If there’s one thing I really truly dislike, it’s bad quality.

Here’s an example:

It’s just a regular sports bra, right?

This is what it did to my shirt earlier this week – after I’ve been wearing and washing it for the past four months.

The first time it happened, I didn’t think much of it – it happens. Then it happened again and again and again. And today, for the first time, it  went one step further and the dye stained my skin. I would show you a picture of that but then this post might be flagged and deleted. Priorities, y’know?

To me, that’s infuriating. Yes, I’m dramatic. Nothing new.

New Balance, people are paying for your products. You’re promoting yourself as a competitor in the athletic world to provide clothes that look good and perform well. Dye that’s still coming off after months of use and washing is not performing well. It’s not even performing. To me, your lack of attention to such detail is evidence that you don’t care about quality – quality that people pay for. You may not be as big as Nike or Adidas but you make every decision about the quality of the material – including the decision to use a dye that’s sub-par.

I know this bright color trend is poppin right now – but I would go as far to say – if you’re not able to put together a product that you would be proud to wear the first, second, third, and fiftieth time, then maybe that color isn’t for your line. If you’re really about this bright color trend and you’re not able to find the right manufacturer of good dye, then maybe you need to expand your business relationships to include someone that can provide the material you need to make the product we want. You’re in this to win it, right?

But then again, maybe that’s why New Balance is New Balance and Nike is Nike. Not saying Nike is perfect – they have great products but they have some shady stuff going on in their manufacturing process. The whole sweatshop thing – not cool. But that’s for a different post.

Anyway, I pretty  much do not want to touch another New Balance product. It wasn’t my go-to in the first place, but now it’s blacklisted hahaha. I just don’t want to support a brand that makes shitty things. Pretty sure New Balance does not care about this one person venting lolll but I don’t care.

Going further, I believe more and more that this level of scrutiny and unrelenting promise to deliver quality is the only way I want to live, produce, and contribute. Nobody has time to deal with bullshit.* I don’t like dealing with it myself, filtering for what makes sense, is empowering, honest, and is just good. I don’t want to add to all the BS already existing in the atmosphere, cyberspace, and just this planet in general. I want people to see my name on something and know it’s damn good – whatever it is. Either that or I don’t want my name on it.

Thanks for reading this rant – it was fun to write, actually haha.

Happy Sunday!

* Not saying everything in the whole world needs to be top tier quality every time. There are certain things, that, as long as the service/product serves its purpose at the level of your expectation, I think it’s reasonable.