» HADOUKEN « on goals
As a teenager I regularly proclaimed that if I didn't own the Denver Broncos (long story) by the age of 50...well...that someone should just kill me. This was a regular occurrence. Ask any hooligan with whom I crushed 12 packs or maxed out my bench press and they will tell you. It was a thing--a stunt I regularly pulled, an act of braggadocio calculated to let everyone around me know that this dude right here...this dude right here ain't playin' around!
Today, about as close to 50 as I am to 17, those words are empty. And laughable. But mostly empty.
Since then, the world has changed quite a bit and so have my views related to it. Despite having achieved quite a bit in that time, I'm probably about as far away now as I was then from ever owning the Denver Broncos--not that I'd want to anyways. But you get the point.
The funny thing about approaching middle age is that there are no standardized exams, no KPIs and no scoreboard against which to mark your achievements. You're just out there, beating against the current, trying to steer the ship toward land while the heavens continue to hurl shit--and it's precisely that most of the time, shit--in your way. In many ways, life becomes a pie eating contest, and the winner simply gets more pie.
Mo money, mo problems, you know?
And that's why goals are important: no matter how empty or laughable they might be, they serve as a benchmark and give purpose.
But you already know that. And this is supposed to be (loosely) a fashion newsletter. So what gives?
Aside from a few narratives that become more and more common by the day (sustainability! personalization! luxe basics! sophisticated streetwear! direct to consumer vertical brand! Gen Z indie zine style!), there is a startling lack of goal-setting and ambition at the upper crust of the fashion industry. Simply put, most brands exist within a pure capitalist system to pay employees a salary. On top of that, design has become homogenized whereby even the most aspirational "designer" brands regress toward a mean of accepted taste. Ask a board room who their target consumer is and you'll likely get an answer along the lines of "at this point, literally anyone between the ages of 16 and 100 who would even consider buying this shit." As a result, the phrase "brand identity" has become code for "how we describe ourselves to investors because we need to tell them something."
A big part of this is that it's hard to come by people who are willing to bet the farm on their (or others') vision. At a time when legacy retailers are bleeding all over their P&Ls and when younger generations are more apt to fracture themselves into thousands of micro segments with strong identities and even stronger communities, brands have become zombies, marching forward at a snail's pace wearing limo-tint sunglasses. In an age of "the subculture," where mass individuation reigns supreme, fashion has failed at providing authenticity at scale.
I just wish every once in a while someone would come out and say something wild, something like they want to someday own the Denver Broncos.