Ship John

[freepickin]

Drove through Portland yesterday and stopped at Ship John and met Mike Elias and chatted with him for a bit and bought a couple things. He is a really cool dude and it really cemented my appreciation for him and his brand. It was great that they had some sample Wills Jackets on display too, was able to try them all on. Thought I'd be a medium but the large was definitely the right size

[jdwaid]

Anyone else get a phishing email from the Ship John account? I received two of them tonight. The email address is legit, but I didn’t order anything and am not going to reply to the email. I reached out to them through instagram to give them a heads up.

[SilentMikal]

@jdwaid I’d reach out to Ship John in a separate email and let them know that there’s some scam emails going around.

[northsouthdenimguy]

I was able to snag a Townes Black Sashiko-Ori, anybody else get one?

Somebody told me they were gone in 45 seconds or less

[hgering27]

@northsouthdenimguy nice, I was able to get one as well, IMO these seemed to go faster than the Kristofferson

[catdad1]

@northsouthdenimguy I was mid conversation at work when my reminder went off at 3, logged on less than a minute later and size XL was gone.

[northsouthdenimguy]

@hgering27

Yes, crazy fast. Congrats.

[northsouthdenimguy]

@catdad1

Looks like you have to be on right before and keep refreshing just to have a shot

[Darth-fader]

I tried - I failed

[Blanco]

I was able to get one. I'm a bit concerned on size at the moment but glad to score. I didn't see how long they took to sell out. I was operating under the assumption I had seconds and I've gotten good at drops like this from the EDC community.

[chadstone30]

@Blanco What's an "EDC?"

[Blanco]

@chadstone30 said in Ship John:

@Blanco What's an "EDC?"

Everyday Carry. It's basically a hobbyist community of people who use and collect pocket stuff. Lots of times they come from very small companies or individuals and the drops sell out in seconds or minutes.

[chadstone30]

@Blanco Interesting. What's your favorite recent pickup, if you don't mind sharing. I'm curious, even though a new hobby is the last thing I need...

[mecken88]

@catdad1 they sold out in less then 10 seconds. And specific sizes XL wasn’t sold out

Preorder is not limited to a specific size, like a normal release when all garment is premade before release.
This particular release was a pre order, and the shirts will be done around November.
So if all sold preorders slots would have been size Large, they would only make larges.

So all 150 preorder slots, was sold out is less then 10 seconds. Like most Ship John releases these days‍️

[chadstone30]

@mecken88 Good for Mike. I'm sure there are 10,000 small businesses that would kill for the legion of rabid customers that he's got.

[northsouthdenimguy]

Kind of a side rant/curiosity, but how sustainable is a business model that relies mostly on drops with a very limited amount of products on hand? It seems to me that, God forbid a big slowdown happens, a business like this would have a really hard time surviving(at least in its current form). I say that as a small business owner myself, with very little overhead something I designed intentionally after the hell I went through in 2008.

In some ways, it feels more like a passion project than a business which I definitely respect. I really admire what Mike and Ship John are doing; these are more just random thoughts I’ve had. At the end of the day, if you can be happy, enjoy life, pay your bills, and set a little aside for the future, that’s what matters.

[nytimes_gaiden]

@northsouthdenimguy it sounds to me like you are describing a model that is more resilient against a big slowdown vs a company over leveraged with inventory

[northsouthdenimguy]

@nytimes_gaiden

That’s two ends of the spectrum: no inventory or too much inventory. There’s probably a happy medium for a small apparel business. He certainly has enough buyers at the moment, and it seems to me he could capitalize on that just a little bit while still staying true to his ethos.

[nytimes_gaiden]

@northsouthdenimguy I do wonder what’s actually on stock at the shop in Portland

[hgering27]

From what I’ve taken from what he’s said, it also boils down to the capacity for him and his team to secure the specific material he wants, the amount of hands they have to put the product together, and then ultimately the capital to buy the material.

It definitely comes across as a passion project turned business, but that’s what makes it so authentic. He makes what he wants to wear and it just so happened that a lot of people also seem to want to wear the stuff that he likes to wear.

I can appreciate the fact that while there is enormous demand for his products, he’s cognizant of the fact that he doesn’t necessarily want thousands of his shirt out there because he wants his product to also be unique. Call it artificial scarcity or whatever you want, but that’s what he’s said about his products being out there and I can respect that.