Blind Consumerism
We are currently ramping out our final Product Drop 2020 with Willpower. As always it’s been a great challenge (but also pleasure) to work on these products and designs to create something we are very proud of. The target date is November 27th and yes, that’s the more and more ill-famed Blk Friday.
Last year and even the year before we did the same: Merging a huge Product Drop with extensive Blk Friday offers and it worked out very well. The revenues were really good, but that’s not our main indicator to call it a „success“. Much more important was the fact, that we managed to double our number of „1st Time Customers“. That’s people, who have never bought anything from Willpower before, in fact probably never heard of this brand. A lot of them turned into loyal purchasers, joined the Willpower Circle and spread the word in their running communities. We also got some really heartbreaking messages of people who told us how happy they are to have found Willpower, because our ethics and style perfectly matches theirs. And because they love to wear black, for that matter.
We are not writing all this to show off how cool we are at Willpower and that we are doing everything right all the time. In fact the decision to „use“ Blk Friday again to promote our new products, was a tough one. Much too often Blk Friday is instrumentalized to trigger people into mindless binge shopping. People buy much more stuff they actually don’t need, simply because it’s a „great offer“. Even worse, in a lot of cases this is not even true. While some companies really lower prices on their top sellers and most valuable goods, other companies (especially in the clothing industry) use Blk Friday to simply sell off leftovers or cheap stuff they produced in bulk amounts only for this purpose. Returns and remaining stock are being destroyed and thrown away once the shopping rush is over.
With Willpower we don’t want to be a part of this. We do not promote fast fashion. We neither manufacture nor sell cheap. We do not overproduce and we do not dispose our goods. And yes, sometimes we wish we could be as „cool“ as Patagonia or REI and boycott Blk Friday altogether. But if we did this, it would mean, that we are loosing around 25% of our annual sales, which can easily be a neck breaker for a small independent brand like Willpower. And we would also miss the opportunity to reach a great number of new people out there, who have never heard of Willpower before. So that’s not an option.
On the other hand we are convinced, that a great number of people who buy from Willpower is very aware of how blind consumerism can harm our life together and with nature. With our high quality, sustainable and eco-friendly approach we are attracting such an audience much more than the customers who look for a 7€ running shirt at KiK or Primark. We believe that we are all capable of reflecting our own behavior and making conscious purchase decisions, even if we are confronted with an overkill of offers and bargains.
So after all we’ll be doing what we’ve been doing since day one: Producing valuable goods under fair conditions with high environmental standards, that are made to last for a long time. Our statements are strong and our designs are timeless. We are stoked every time we see someone run around with the same old Willpower Shirt he/she bought 5 years ago. It fills us with pride that our products are long-lasting and our designs and message stand the test of time.
We hope you’ll be with us on November 27th.
Much Love
Chris & Willpower