GreenPencil7

I completely agree with you. And I like the depth you have gone into. The same variety of cotton grown in Portugal, Poland, Italy and Turkey will be different. Moreover, the same variety of cotton grown in the same place, but at different times will be different. Because the year can be hot and dry, or cold and rainy. All this will affect the cotton. And it will be different.

I have been thinking about this problem of heterogeneity. And I am grateful that you showed this complexity. I have a solution.

The name of this solution is -- arithmetic mean or in terms of material -- a mixture. I don't bet on one variety of cotton. Because it is different and we have already seen and discussed this. I make a mix of different varieties of cotton that meet the required parameters. And then I get a stable average, independent of the year or geography.

Great solution! It completely solves the problem of favorite things disappearing.

I don't have the money to buy 500 T-shirts. And I don't have the space for them either. So I started thinking: what if we made T-shirts where the important thing is to keep them exactly the same, never change them, and never discontinue them? I'm talking specifically about T-shirts. If you knew such an option existed, would it have affected your decision about the T-shirts?

Yes, I think this is the key point of the whole discussion. And thank you for this thought. The value is not only in the quality of the item, but also in preserving the choice already made by a person. You find something that fits you once and you don't spend your time and energy searching for a replacement anymore. No "we discontinued the item", "we changed the material", as people write here about Levi's jeans.

I want to test this idea with a T-shirt.

Using a T-shirt as an example, I propose an API where there is an immutable part -- the T-shirt body. It is about the properties of the fabric, color, and style. These parameters are standardized and do not change. And there are engineering solutions that change, and this is where there is progress and novelty. It is about logistics and production. I assume that the next stage of development is cotton printing. Is this solution technologically new? Absolutely. Can we make it so that a T-shirt buyer does not feel the difference? I assume yes, and this is the task and philosophy of the project.

My project is not about an audience that is looking for "the next new thing". I am researching if there are people who care about preserving a choice they already made and not spending their resources on searching for a replacement.

About sizes I agree. A person changes with age. I think this can be considered in the size range. After some time a customer takes another size, but the item remains the same in material, color, and style.

I agree. And at the same time I see that I can't solve this problem for all products. I want to check if it is possible to make one product where immutability is built in as an idea. And it is always available for sale. I will start with a T-shirt. If it works, then we can think about the rest.

"Otherwise, they'd already be doing all of this. I mean, it's talked about constantly in commercial circles."

Do you have any links or examples where I can read about this? This is the first time I've heard about it.

Thank you.

"I do sometimes wonder if a website/store/brand for consistently good, go-to staples could work."

This is very close to what I want to build — basic items that don't change after 1, 5, or 20 years. The same material, color, and style. I can't solve this problem for every item on the planet. I'm starting with a T-shirt. )

I like that we moved from things to philosophy. That's exactly what the project I'm building is about. I see that the pain I described here is shared by all of us. It doesn't matter what the item is, where we live, or what language we speak. And at this point I understand that I can't solve the whole problem. But I can solve it using one specific item as an example. I want to make a T-shirt that won't change after 1, 5, or 20 years. And every time it wears out, you can buy a new one and it will be exactly the same. No "discontinued." No "we quietly changed the material."

How can this be done technically? I'll explain using color as an example. If I buy yellow paint today, it will be different from every manufacturer. A color passport, with a recorded spectral curve, allows the color to be fixed. The factory mixes the available color pigments to match the color passport. This is theory. Do we get that exact same T-shirt color after 1, 5, or 20 years? I think yes. Are we dependent on the weather, the country, or the manufacturer? I think not.

Does this engineering solution answer the philosophy I'm talking about? I think yes. And I'm looking for people who need a T-shirt like this. )

Yes, that's a good point. Schematics, manufacturing, and patterns are powerless if the original materials disappear or change. I haven't researched this yet, but I assume that the same variety of apples, cotton, paint pigment, or grapes will be different if it is grown in different countries. Even though it's the same variety. And that's a problem.

I have a hypothesis that it's possible to make the paint independent of the supplier, so that it is the same paint every time, after 1, 5, and 20 years. We can standardize not the raw material, but the result. Using paint as an example, it's possible to create a digital color passport, and then comparing the standard with the incoming raw materials will allow us to identify the difference and compensate for it. This would make it possible to achieve a color that does not depend on the place of production or on time.

I don't know if this will work in practice. I think this kind of engineering solution could bring us closer to the idea of unchanging clothing.

What do you think?