Welcome to the world of Whitelabel goods. What’s that, you ask? Well, have you ever noticed how every hip California startup has a branded steel water bottle, without having had to go design a steel water bottle and figure out how to get someone to produce it, someone to supply the steel, someone to check the quality (and on and on)?
That’s because someone else has figured all of that stuff out, leaving only the selection of What Particular Things for the carrier or distributor – or whomever is going to slap a brand on and resell it.
I got to tour a whitelabel gallery (can’t say when, can’t say where) while out and about in China, and it’s positively creepy. Everything is incredibly.. familiar. And thus you realize that everything you’ve known and loved that formed the background and setting of your life was made in one place, waited here for someone to strike a deal and order in volume, then sent to the four corners of the earth for you to keep in your home. It’s also doubly disturbing to not find a brand anywhere — and to realize you are reflexively looking for them. Here’s a short video
This is why Adafruit doesn’t just “slap our logo” on just anything, there’s no value putting your own logo on every odd-and-end. Anyone can put their logo on anything, and when they do – it means nothing special. When you see the Adafruit logo it’s because we made it, or it’s special to us un some way, it’s something we’re proud of.
When we get “generic” products like cables, tools or high end stuff like our calipers from Mitutoyo, we’re not going to paste over our own logo all over those things. We’d rather make it clear who made what and when we do make something – we want you to love it, and know it came from Adafruit.
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Rock on. I’ve always been a firm believer in pride in product. My name doesn’t go on it unless I’m actually proud of it. The product is my name, not the other way around.
Everyone’s so “brand hungry”. I’d be interested to be void of advertising for like a month and see how I feel after.
Rock on. I’ve always been a firm believer in pride in product. My name doesn’t go on it unless I’m actually proud of it. The product is my name, not the other way around.