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Uh, what? They aren't cheaper? You can get "gravity" for $250, or go on etsy and get ones sold for years for < $200, or make your own for even less if you can sew.This? A fad used to sell blankets for more money because of 'health' marketing wonk and fancy branding. It's BS. https://t.co/RMpEr7WYym
If you wanna go really cheap, get a membership at your local makerspace (if they have access to textile/sewing machines), buy your fabric directly from jo-anns, michales, (or walmart), and then get a bunch of discount bb pellets when they go on sale.
I'm not kidding though, you can buy these off etsy for cheap. https://t.co/3Qfd5Mus0c
I welcome cheaper blankets, sure! But branding a niche product thru marketing bullshit to sell at a premium is not going to make it cheaper. Its going to drive up pricing into prestige market by giving them an "artisan" quality and encourage shitty knockoffs that are poorly made.
That tactic is literally the opposite of how you get cheap clothing.https://t.co/amnWGzDFu0
Premium Mediocre as Masstige?"All of a sudden office workers could buy fifty-dollar Pierre Cardin button-up shirts. What followed was brand dilution and the perception that those names were no longer associated with luxury."https://t.co/2LanDk3jlBhttps://t.co/gqJepCXC6K
I am litterally planning out what it would take to build a wearable weighted blanket.That gravity blanket thing is precisely the bullshit I am researching fashion for: to avoid pricing it out of reach of the masses.https://t.co/UpTbI6JMia
I already have the materials to build a DIY thunder blanket for the house's dog as a control. About 5lbs of bb's bought on clearance, and fabric/plans for a dog vest.I'm not trying to fix my executive function just for fun.https://t.co/MNPKjovqtT
A product doesn't magically get cheaper because "Capitalism", and in some cases shit gets more expensive. Niche products are niche for a reason. Just b/c a product hits the market doesn't automatically make price gravity fall. Sometimes it goes in reverse https://t.co/UH56cHApAH
If you are depending on supply chains and capitalism to reduce cost due to competition... the answer isn't kickstarting a blanket made overseas propped up on branding and ignorance; its helping to fund and build the tools to DIY easily and cheaply.https://t.co/igyN8HrvL5
At best, what Gravity is doing is building up a brand moat, using kickstarter hype to garner brand recognition. This is a rent-extraction play targeting fashionable items, and is feeding off the fallout of all the money going into the marketing around mattresses & sleep.
But unlike most matresses who are leveraging genuine innovation (being able to ship your matress is an innovation, in the sense that it undermines shipping logistics of older mattresses), Gravity isn't innovative: Its a brand trying to build a niche market with high margins.
What is more likely to happen here is that they drive out all the other players in this space and due to the small size of the vernal pool, they'll just monopolize the production lines overseas and leverage brand image to raise rates like how the cost of candy keeps going up.
If we're lucky, we'll see knockoffs being sold under market rates on places like AliExpress. But this will likely be thwarted the same way that Trademarks are being used by the tool industry to prevent compeitors from edging on the market: caught up in customs.
The most likely long term situation (if they are successful) is that they end up drowning out the current manufacturers who are selling a cheaper product. We'll see Gravity being sold at high end boutiques and maybe at discount palces like TJ Maxx.
They would have to be a sensation on the level of fidget spinners to really get traction. Fundamentally this competes with every blanket on the market, so that's unlikely. They're not marketing to the right demographic for the viral effect to even happen: mommy bloggers and kids.
They're marketing to high-tech fashionistas with money to burn for a blanket on Kickstarter; Tech bros & Yoga Moms whoa buy health shit like the squatty potty, (but without the brand reach). I highly doubt it will even hit mass market scale to begin with. https://t.co/vIJUznqU8s