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Comment by d2049 | Hacker News Reader

d2049

Reminds me of Paul Graham's essay about why the Segway failed. http://www.paulgraham.com/segway.html

Same principle here. People don't look cool wearing strange robot sandal shoes.

Isn't that what people said about the first AirPods? They look dorky, no one would be caught wearing them, etc. And look where we are now :)

This is comparing Apple (out of all companies) selling something we were using prior to the AirPods for a price which was in an acceptable range for the target audience with a dorky kinda-add-on for shoe to walk faster. I’m not sure if it holds.

That's a reasonable point... what would you say is a price (if any) at which you could see these become mainstream? I'm personally ambivalent on the design but think the product could be worth trying!

I‘m not sure since I can’t quite figure out the target audience. Depending on the amounts a person walks every day it might be worth it but I’m on the bike or in the metro most of the time and the claimed 250% increase in speed doesn’t come close to the bicycle. That being said, I’d try them for sure and if they improve my life, I think I could live with the design. On a related note: people were Yeezy and Balenciaga shoes which (subjective) look awful to me.

> what people said about the first AirPods?

Did they?

My reading is people are parsimonious with paradigms. Graham's motorcycle draws on the horse. AirPods drew on earbuds, which almost universally went to great lengths to avoid the hearing-aid look, and which also got a boost from performers [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-ear_monitor

But they still looked terrible. I still don't like how they look.

A masterpiece of consumer behavior change in three acts:

Act 1: Introduce EarPods that look just like AirPods will but with a cord.

Act 2: Remove the headphone plug from iPhone (pre-packaging new and maligned lightning-based EarPods and adapters - all at decent margins).

Final (Act 3): Finally, introduce AirPods to a receptive audience - which is not only wireless (no cord to get tied up with your keys/hands) but looks just like the EarPods and doesn't require a damn adapter.

Step 4 release AirPods that are different and worse for a higher price

Step 5, ensure continuous purchases because the batteries won't last

Do you have a source for this play? I'd be curious to read whatever book/person that came from.

there was a recent post that went something along the lines of "be careful imitating high-status actors who can afford to countersignal".

if anyone can afford to countersignal, it's Apple. unless they get a very significant signal boost, a startup that makes dorky-looking shoes cannot

Are they comfortable? Crocs (those plastic foam sandals) are notoriously unfashionable, but also incredibly popular because they're comfortable.

Tbh they don't look very comfortable, I imagine they're heavy like roller skates, but who knows.

Crocs became popular recently but for a decade or so you would be made fun of by ANYONE if you wore them.

It seems that the company survived long enough for them to become popular, but that's not the case with a lot of products (Google Glasses is an example I have in mind).

Having a great product at the wrong time is having a bad product.

> Crocs became popular recently but for a decade or so you would be made fun of by ANYONE if you wore them.

I believe they were selling like hotcakes that entire time. Popular but unfashionable, like cargo shorts.

Company almost went under for a time: https://socialfactor.com/blog/how-crocs-came-back-from-the-b...

Something tells me you've been defending your foot fashion choices for a long while now ;)

Hah, no. But I do confess to once owning cargo shorts..

From what I remember it was either kids who were too young to pick out their own clothes who had them, and then also adults who stopped caring about what their clothes looked like. If you were in the age between those two points in life, you avoided them like the plague. My thesis is that these young kids simply grew up continuing to wear crocs, now they are in their early 20s and the marketing focus is on them now.

Crocs became fashionable shortly after they released a $1200 collaboration with fashion house Balenciaga, but there is also high correlation with the popularity of crocs and the proliferation of chunky sneakers and silhouettes. Fashion is cyclical and Crocs were able to create an iconic and affordable product and lasted long enough for the fashion cycle to reach them.

Interestingly, Balenciaga released a collaboration with Vibram Five-Fingers and to little surprise toe shoes are still unfashionable (although more acceptable now than when I wore a pair a decade ago I think).

Not just that but they leaned into their Jibbitz acquisition and emphasized how customizable Crocs are. Most of my millenial cohort uses Crocs as comfy, functional shoes, but I've seen a lot of Gen-Z who go out of their way to customize their Crocs and make them stylish. I have to admit I catch myself wondering whether I should customize my own Crocs.

Also +1 on the chunky sneaker/silhouttes trend. Crocs with stylish charms on them look a lot like the chunky sneakers that are pretty "in" these days.

Crocs were popular when I was in high school (early 2000s). Of course, you wouldn't consider them fashionable back then, but many wore them.

I have seen crocs used as standard footwear for inmates in US prisons. I'm sure the institutional market was keeping them alive for a while.

Segway was pricey and not super useful imo. Utility trumps everything else. If something dramatically improves people’s lives it will get adopted. Unless laws or regulations prevent it ofc (the way undocked electrical bikes were banned everywhere ;_;)

it's not the look of the accessory attached to you, it's that with segway you are standing rigidly upright at rest while maneuvering around - the pose is a ridiculous signal. these have a better chance in that you are still walking with your usual gait

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