• New Spins

    Posted on December 15th, 2011 by and currently 2 commenting.

    Every so often someone realizes that the market for a certain product or service has achieved a really high level of similarity, and that the customers in that market have become accustomed to that similarity. And every so often, someone figures out how to break the mold of that similarity in a really striking way. Today’s lesson: tents.

    Meet FieldCandy Tents (1).

    I’m an avid outdoor enthusiast, so when I first stumbled across this post, it took me completely off guard. The Cool Hunter says it well (2):

    When we saw the first images of these limited-edition designer tents with their cool flysheets, we had to really stop and think. Is it true that no-one else has manufactured these types of tents for sale before? We have seen individual pieces displayed as art, but we had not seen anything quite like this.

    It was one of those moments when you think: Why have all tents always looked pretty much the same? We customise everything else, why not tents? And even more remarkably: Why have we been satisfied with those boring, standard tent colours for so long?

    Fascinating stuff, and awesome looking tents.

    A few side notes:

    - One guess at the similarity in the market is price – FieldCandy tents ain’t cheap, and your average couple or family is going to be hard-pressed to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars just for a cute rain fly.

    - Another thought is that many outdoor enthusiasts are highly focused on 1) performance and 2) weight. Looks are great, but they play second (or third or fourth) fiddle to staying sheltered, warm, dry, and out of the wind.

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    • (1) – You can find out more about FieldCandy on their website.
    • (2) – You can read the CoolHunter article here.