#stitch fix

[howtomakeyousee]

You will patch up all the holes in 2025.

(this isn’t a post about knitting)

[nickgerlich]

Try And Bye

You can’t blame a company for trying.

The history of business is chock full of examples of companies betting the farm. In a sea of uncertainty, it can become overwhelming wagering vast sums of money. It’s just that you have to wager something if you want to reap something.

There are winners, and there are losers, and it runs the gamut from small to large, new to old. Sometimes it happens to companies so successful that you wonder if they ever flub. Even companies like Amazon, who is shutting down a service feature it launched in the last decade.

Now lest you think the company is suddenly teetering, rest assured it’s just a blip on their annual report. Still, it shows that no one is immune to failure, even in e-commerce. As it turns out, not all facets of this gem are equally shiny.

In 2017 Amazon introduced Prime Wardrobe, a shopping service that allowed customers to select garments, shoes, and accessories, then try them out risk-free at home. Simply return what you don’t wish to keep. The name evolved until it reached the current moniker, Prime Try Before You Buy.

The primary driver in all of this was Amazon’s desire to challenge Stitch Fix, which had launched in 2011. Their $1.6 billion IPO in 2017 must have made Amazon extremely envious, and so they got to work with this project. Just like when an 800-pound gorilla enters the room, it sends a signal to everyone else there that resources might start to become scarce. At least that’s what Amazon was hoping.

Amazon, though, is in a bit of housecleaning mode these days. CEO Andy Jassy has been slashing costs since 2022, including the furlough of 27,000 employees. Jassy sees the product trial service as a cost center, and so it must go. Hey, if the only tool in the shed is a machete, then have at it. Worse yet, the concept was limited to wearables, only a small portion of Amazon’s merchandise array.

The more pressing question, though, is why was this service not popular for Amazon, but Stitch Fix is still going strong with their similar model? As it turns out, the answer may be pretty obvious.

On the surface, this should be an easy W for Amazon. While Stitch Fix has enjoyed a meteoric rise to success, and has a market cap of $597 million, it pales in size compared to Amazon with its $2.5 trillion market cap. This isn’t even a tale of David and Goliath. No, it’s a case of a lady bug up against a hippopotamus.

And yet Stitch Fix continues to do well. I suspect it has a lot to do with sticking to one’s knitting. Amazon, like many other larger-than-life companies, sees products and services as potential profit centers, and if management deems a particular item viable, then it gets added. If it is flopping, it will be cut. Pretty simple. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Then there’s the consideration of product quality and price. Amazon may be known for many things, but clothing is probably not one of them. A large portion of the clothing on Amazon is just fast fashion from Asia; Stitch Fix carries better brands at higher prices, and with a styling assistant to help tweak your wardrobe.Good luck competing against that, Amazon.

What we are seeing here is a smaller specialty firm with expertise and credibility going mano-a-mano with an impersonal mega-corporation. And sometimes, that lady bug can be a thorn in the flesh.

I cannot fault Amazon for trying, even if their motives were strikingly different from relatively tiny Stitch Fix. Taking chances is the only way to creating new wealth. This is not the only fail for Amazon. They have had quite a few flops in both products and services this century.

If anything, we must remember that this is how Jeff Bezos started Amazon in the 90s. He stood up to the Goliaths of the day, and carved out his empire. Now the tail has come around to slap the company on the back side.

I’m pretty sure the folks over at Stitch Fix are feeling pretty good these days.Dr “I Need To Look Into This” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[rodspurethoughts]

From Cultural Phenomenons to Trends and Styling Solutions to Combat Decision Fatigue: Stitch Fix Launches the 2024 Style Forecast

SAN FRANCISCO /PRNewswire/ — Today, Stitch Fix launches the 2024 Style Forecast, its annual trend report fueled by billions of data points, feedback from millions of clients and the insights of its stylists and trend experts. It is the most comprehensive look at the style trends for the upcoming year. Read the full report here. From Blockbuster films like Barbie and Oppenheimer to the…

[thenewsbeat]

Why Clothing Subscription Boxes Are Basically Pointless 2023-04-24 18:00:00

One struggle shared by just about every adult is buying clothes. It comes in different forms. Some folks are very fashion-forward but struggle with their clothing budget; others developed a personal style during four inebriated years of high school and have no clue how to actually dress as an adult. But whatever your specific clothing-related challenge is, there’s a subscription box that claims…

[dejablonde]

Just heard an ad for Stitch Fix that reminded me of my troubles with it and:

Is there any service that works like it but that knows anything about alt style? Because that's my big problem with Stitch Fix, is that it's always tried to dress me like head of the PTA.

[kingfuc]

Sequel to that other comic I did

[rotteneldritchhorror]

Eddie obviously knows how to sew (hes not only dirt-poor living off of a single consistent paycheck and whatever he earns selling drugs, but hes also a punk- theres no way he DOESNT know how to sew), but steve most definitely does. not. one of his shirts get a hole and he throws it out.

When eddie first witnesses this, hes fucking MORTIFIED and ends up digging a t-shirt out of the trash and sewing the hole closed and fixing the loose stitching on the hem and gives steve a lecture about not wasting fabric and money.

And from then on, steve just shows up at the munson household every now and then with various clothes in his arms, asking eddie to fix them for him.

[opikiquu]

they’re all alive and happy and they can all be nursed back to health because i said so

[territorial-utopia]

Huzzah! It's birthday time! I'm slowly accumulating more and more things I like (latest additions this vest I made and a travel typewriter! Still need to fix the latter one though)

Sure has been a year.

[throwing-roses-into-the-abyss]

tbh the most fun thing about going into different fiber art hobbies has been seeing all the little specialized tools some use that others don't (but imo should). like what do you mean cross stitching has 'needle minders' that are like these cute little magnets you put on your project to stick your needle onto??? in sewing we have stuffed tomato plushies for pins and needles, but this is so cute too??? I always lose my needles, I should get more cute accessories like this

[aristoteliancomplacency]

If you’re not a knitter then you probably won’t understand exactly how batshit doing this was. That’s fine, but I’ll explain under the cut for anyone who’s interested. The pattern is Guðrún Herdís Arnarsdóttir's modification of Lyle Stafford’s one ring scarf (both are free).

The eye at each end I wrote the pattern for myself based on a design on the cover of the editions of the Lord of the Ring I grew up with (i.e., my dad’s, for whom the scarf was a present).

The scarf is done using a technique called double knitting, which means you’re working both sides of the scarf literally at the same time, carrying two yarns forward and back to alternately knit and purl and alternating which colour you’re using (work the knits with colour A, purl with colour B, swap for the other side). This gives you something which has two sides that are stockinette, but different colours.

The technique allows you to make an identical pattern on both sides by switching which colour you’re using for the knit and purl stitches. The advantage of this is that you end up with the two sides woven together rather than a tube and don’t have to carry the yarn as with stranded colour work.

The problem with this is when you’re working a non-symmetrical pattern where it matters which way around the writing is. The writing will be the correct way around on one side, but backwards on the other side.

Guðrún’s modification fixes this, but the trade-off is that because you’re no longer working the pattern the same on both sides you now have four potential stitch combinations instead of two (AB, BA, AA, and BB).

Just to make it even more complicated for my project the pattern colour-coded the stitch combos and uses black and red for two of the combos, but not for what for my scarf would be black-black and red-red. This caused more than one error. I have undone and redone a lot of rows.

[jaclose]

The villagers' good memories about Jafar.

[teashopcrafts]

Paraphrased from David Lynch's quote "and when you became Denise, I told all your colleagues, those clown comics, to fix their hearts or die."

I always loved that quote, and am happy to see it finding new life now.

Use code JUSTBECAUSE for 20% off!

Check out the shop: https://teashopcrafts.bigcartel.com/

[skimpilydressedwithanaxe]

Anytime I question my rnm hyperfix and I feel myself inching closer to the conclusion it’s gone I look back at my closet to find this guy hanging

its not going ANYWHERE

[kaytheday]

The fact that I literally went outside and sat on the curb to read this and get one moment of quiet before I had the craziest night ever is proof that this year might be okay. At least fanfiction writers are looking out for me 😭😂

[pattern-of-the-year]

The Unicorn's Garden by SproutingLupine

Propaganda: just look at it! the colors, the design, it's sublime!

Bless Your Heart by Studio Ansitru

Propaganda from the notes: #i am currently stitching bless your heart #and it is gorgeous and beautifully complex to stitch #without being overwhelming #it's genuinely a brilliant pattern as well as a gorgeous end result

Additional Propaganda: @sleepycatmama shared the flower symbolism of this piece in a post here!