Corduroy: not the sexiest of fabrics. But Lindland's Cordarounds are trying to change that…and getting a lot of PR coverage and some sales success for their efforts.
So, four things we can maybe learn from this...
Firstly: always ask ‘why?’. Why is corduroy always vertical? As founder Chris Lindland said of this 'corduroy conspiracy': “I simply asked how come and nobody gave me a good answer”.
Secondly: ignore conventional wisdom. Horizontal stripes = a fashion no-no. So what. “I was not aware of the fashion taboo of having horizontal stripes. It took an ignorant person with no fashion background to come upon this discovery”.
Thirdly: don’t take yourself too seriously. As Chris says, “My goal is to put a new funny anecdote in people's mouths on a weekly basis. ... We've succeeded, essentially, by being funny”. A few examples for you:
- Company motto: an evil multinational corporation has to start somewhere
- The scientific proof of why horizontals cords are better (from the Lindland labs): they lower the drag coefficient by 16.24% and, because of reduced friction between legs, lower the CHI (Crotch Heat Index) by 22%.
- They offer free shipping to Greenland (and why not!)
And finally: package all this up as a nice, engaging brand story, and if nothing else you end up with people really liking your company.
And if it is this easy to make even cords cool...
