The Sunday Paper: Never Satisfied


I think the key to success is always looking for improvements. Despite how good something is, it can always be better. Even for me with our best-selling products, I am always looking and thinking how it can be better and putting that into action. I also keep an ear to the ground to the feedback customers give in-store. If it is something I agree with, I can put that into the product or create a new product to fill that demand. For me, designing is one part selfish - I create the things I wanna create and drive a demand for it. Similar to how Apple does it. You didn’t know you needed an iPad until they made one. Then the second part is thinking about the customers' needs as well. How they will wash it, how they need it to perform for their daily needs and how it will make them look. We don’t always strike the perfect balance between these two elements, but when we keep these things in mind I think we are halfway there.

The Sunday Paper: Never Satisfied

I was listening to Rick Rubin speak about creating stuff for himself and, as long as he liked it, that would convey to the customer on the other end or something along those lines. To a large degree, I agree with this. I create the things I wanna wear, and when I do this, it has been most successful. And as Rick Rubin put it, anything else is just commerce. I can see this from both viewpoints of putting the customers' needs in mind and then just selfishly creating for myself. I feel like both need to be somewhat considered, but for me I wouldn’t put out a product I didn’t like. If I didn’t like something about a product, I would take it back to the drawing board and make it what I envisioned it to be. This takes some discipline because an extra few adjustments can be annoying to have to re-sample and re-sample, but it is how you retain a customer. When I feel good about the finished product, that conveys to the customer, and the customer can feel that energy in the product. I am a strong believer that I can always improve, and we are just getting started. But I do feel after 13 years or more in the business that we have crafted some great products, and I look forward to releasing some of the ones I have in the works.
Daniel Patrick

The Sunday Paper: Never Satisfied