Products that have a story to tell

Bobsmade describes their products more like art than apparel. You buy a pair of shoes, glasses or some headphones, give Bob a theme and your favorite colors, and a few weeks later you get a one-of-a-kind thing. And probably a pretty great conversation starter.  

With Nike PhotoID, take a picture and get a pair of shoes created from the dominant colors within it. This isn’t just about how the shoes look, but they become a memoir of that experience captured by the photo.  

When products are at functional parity, it doesn’t follow that they have the same value. We usually ascribe value based upon all the stuff we talk about it brand-like terms. How does it make me feel, how does it make me look, what will my friends think. Stuff like that.

But these are examples of not just increasing value by creating an environment in which the thing is more valuable, but creating value by giving the product something sort of like a life of its own. It gives them a story tell. Or a story for you to tell. They’re naturally talkable.

Rob Walker is experimenting with these stories with Significant Objects by pairing writers and thrift store items, giving these things a life of the author’s imagination. Even though the story isn’t true, the value of the thing does change.

It makes you wonder how much we can increase the value of the products we sell just by giving them their own stories to tell.