Greater>Than Clothing

This is the first in a series of posts on the broad topic of “sustainability”.

From the beginning, I have thought of Greater>Than as a kind of laboratory. I’m interested in different ideas about how to structure a business, but I have never been in a position to implement them myself. Further, it seems unlikely that I will ever have license to be truly radical within the context of my day job.

As in most larger companies, greater responsibility seems to coincide with increasing conservatism. I’m not sure which side is causal, but they are definitely directly correlated. So, Greater>Than is a chance for us to try things out, and while it isn’t exactly risk-free since we have invested some significant effort into the project, it isn’t the basis of our livelihoods (at least not yet).

photo credit: shearforce

One of the most buzzed-about concepts in business today is sustainability. When oil companies are making commercials touting their environmental sensitivity, I think we can safely say the concept has reached a critical mass. Consumers are leading the charge. As the general public becomes more convinced of threats such as global warning, they start looking for ways to mitigate their contribution to the problem. More and more, consumers will choose “greener” products if given an opportunity.

Many companies have responded by flooding the marketplace with products that claim to be less harmful to produce, use or dispose of than their predecessors. While greater attention on the issue is a positive development on the whole, there are to my mind at least two major flaws with these early efforts to consume more sustainably.

First, given the American tendency to use “what we buy” as a proxy for “how we live” and even “who we are”, we may have found ourselves a path to getting the small things “right” at the expense of the larger picture. There is a peculiar symbiosis between American consumers and the products that we buy that allows us to construct our public and private personas in part through the products we choose. The ramifications of this relationship are far-reaching, but it’s most germane to this topic in that it explains why adjusting our consumer choices is the most efficient way to start to feel like we’re making a difference. Buy some recycled paper towels, some natural detergent, maybe even a Prius, and you become a full-fledged eco-warrior.

You might even begin to look down on people who haven’t made the same efforts that you have (here, as in many, many other areas, South Park provides the sharpest satire, showing us that despite reducing smog the Prius leads to dangerous levels of smug). My point here is not simply to point out that some people are a bit hypocritical in their greenness (I’m not free from guilt here myself), but to suggest that real change may require asking tougher questions of ourselves than whether we are willing to switch to CF bulbs. In fact, it’s not hard to imagine that a few years from now we’ll look back on our attempts to buy our way out of this mess and realize how stunningly hubristic it all was. We might even find that “sustainable consumption” is an oxymoron. Read the rest of this entry »

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

–R. Buckminster Fuller

I came across this quote in a great article in GOOD Magazine* (which, incidentally, was founded and is published by a friend of mine from college). I thought this was relevant for Greater>Than because the article makes the point that Fuller was, above all, a designer. I love this quote because it reminds us that the “form follows function” idea doesn’t mean that we should settle for ugly, “functional” objects.

As Donald Norman argued in Emotional Design, attractive things actually work better. That book is very highly recommended, and I found that particular point both surprising and convincing. It’s not much of a slight to Norman to note that Fuller beat him to the punch by about 75 years, as most people are much farther behind.

For those of you not familiar with Fuller, here is a quick list of some of his notable achievements:

• The Geodesic dome
• The Dymaxion Car
• The concept of “Spaceship Earth“
• The Fuller Projection, a “one island in one ocean” map, which happens to be my favorite projection (I even have the poster):

Imagine living your life as an open-ended exploration for the betterment of mankind, with beauty as your compass.

*Look in the sidebar on the right for links to the rest of the Buckminster Fuller feature. The rest of the magazine is worth checking out as well. Its purpose is to chronicle and support the movement toward smart, sustainable business and life, a movement to which Greater>Than is similarly committed.

In this post, I’ll describe the second of two prototype designs that are currently in the works, as mentioned earlier. The first can be found here.

Continuing with a theme of learnings from other cultures (I now realize), this tee is inspired by the Bushidō code of the samurai warrior class of feudal Japan. I have long appreciated the stoicism, honor, and discipline that the memory of these legendarily deadly men continues to evoke. I think a big part of what I dig about the samurai, as opposed to other fighters respected historically for their effectiveness, was their lack of blood lust. Killing was their vocation, and they went about it with the utmost seriousness. Much of the Bushidō code revolves around preparation for death, which couldn’t help but remind the samurai of the gravity of ending someone else’s life.

In that context, it makes sense that one of the seven virtues of the way of the warrior was “jin”, best translated to English as “benevolence”. Far from dispassionate killing machines, they were trained to maintain a charitable disposition, to live their lives with kindness in their hearts. On the other hand, of course, they were called upon to kill without mercy when the situation called for it. It is this dichotomy that I hope to explore with this design.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first of two prototype designs that I have commissioned (as I explained earlier). I present the idea here as part of my attempt to demonstrate (rather than simply explain) what Greater>Than Clothing is about. I am also a firm believer in the power of creative cross-pollination; I’ll be ecstatic if this idea inspires you in your own creative work (whatever that may be). Greater>Than is also committed to being open to new ideas, so if you have something to say about this design, please get in touch with me by leaving a comment on this post or by visiting the contact page.

Huginn and Muninn were the ravens of the norse god Odin. They would perch on his shoulders and keep him informed by whispering in his ears. Huginn represented thought, news, learning; Muninn represented memory, wisdom. Odin relied on them, and feared that something would happen to them. Without them, he would be cut off from the world, without the knowledge necessary to govern his people. As Odin explained, as much as he feared the loss of Huginn, he feared losing Muninn more. Remembering what you have learned is more important than learning new things.

I think this lesson carries new resonance today, as the blessed Interweb has given us access to so much raw information. In an age of RSS-enabled hyper-throughput, Odin reminds us to be careful what we retain. Not all knowledge grows up to be wisdom (Wisdom>Knowledge). The shirt is about this idea, and the design uses the ravens to deliver the metaphor. Read the rest of this entry »

I majored in Philosophy in college, so forgive me for this little conceptual digression. On the heels of the recent comment bonanza, a few more interesting “x>y” comments trickled in. A clever young man named Diego chimed in with “nothing is > god”. That statement seems simple at first, but as I thought about it more I became less and less certain that I understood it.

I’ll take Diego’s quote at face value first. I think he means it as a statement of faith: “There is nothing greater than God”. Indeed, for religions that conceive of their gods as omnipresent, it’s almost trivial. If God is everywhere, then of course nothing could be “greater” (read “bigger”). Even if we take “greater” to mean “better”, this reading still works. It’s hard to be better than an omniscient and benevolent deity.

But what of Diego’s mysterious non-capitalization of “god”? I’ll bet it’s a typo or a simple oversight, but what if it was intentional? Thinking about this, I realized that using a negative statement (nothing) in conjunction with “>” puts you on semantically shaky ground. If nothing is greater than god, does that mean that god is less than nothing? And if something is less than nothing, does that mean that it is not simply nonexistent but rather a net negative? Perhaps this is a way of expressing the nihilist’s view of God as a broken promise.

So, it seems that the statement works as intended if and only if the opposite statement can also be made: “god > nothing”. I can’t think of another sentence in English that could coexist so peacefully with its own negation. Can anyone?

Far be it from me to inject commerce into such an interesting theological puzzle, but I can’t help but think that this could make a great t-shirt experiment. How would the average person interpret a t-shirt that had a blank space, a greater than symbol, then the word “god”? It could be like a religious Rorschach test; what you think it means depends on your preexisting associations with the concept. I wonder…

Anyway, thanks for the puzzle, Diego. You packed quite a conundrum into three words and a symbol.

Greater>Than Clothing received several highly original and inspiring “G>T’s” in rapid succession recently (that’s what I call ideas expressed in the form x>y). This blog is still young enough that I get excited about every comment I get, but these were especially fun, as they were posted by a gaggle of enthusiastic (and optimistic!) middle school students. They happen to belong to one of my mother’s classes at Gavilan View Middle School in Salinas, CA. Thanks for being such an enthusiastic Greater>Than booster, mom. The word of the day is “nepotism”, kids.

Their ideas universally display a tremendous positivity; they are child-like in the best possible sense, yet they contain a lot more wisdom than I remember having at that age (actually, I think I might still be trailing in the wisdom department). Reading them made me feel like a jaded old man. Unfettered creativity and joyous collaboration are pillars of my vision for this company, and I’m going to look back at these comments when I need to recapture that initial start-up optimism. Here they are in G>T form:

• Generosity>Competition
• Giving>Taking
• Dignity>Popularity
• Sportsmanship>Winning
• Beauty from the inside > Beauty from the outside
• Celebrating life > Mourning death
• Looking towards the future > Regretting your past

You’ll also find these on the G>T’s page, and you can see their original context in comments in these previous posts (highly recommended).

Thank you Eddie, Tan, Alex, Cecilia, Sherilyn and Ashley!

Just after (like, minutes after) I received my degree in Philosophy, my mother remarked that I was the “cutest” out of the guys in the department. I didn’t accept the comment well. First, it was my mom, so, ya know, her impartiality is questionable.

Second, it felt something like damning through faint praise. I mean, what could be less relevant that what a philosopher looks like? At that moment I was trying to contain my intellectual jealousy towards those who had been tapped to speak at the departmental ceremony, and I was in no mood to be cheered by the idea that I was “cute”. Of course, my mom was just in a good mood and making what to her was a complimentary observation…

The t-shirt is immune to such confusion; it is quite comfortable as a vessel for both content and beauty. A t-shirt can always take the compliment. I think that’s a big part of why I’m drawn to the medium. The best t-shirts are both smart (or clever or funny or poignant or kitschy or subversive) and beautiful (or visually challenging/kitschy/subversive). There’s a synergy when these elements come together that I just love. This is what Greater>Than is trying to achieve with its designs.

The t-shirt is also an unabashedly commercial art form, which is freeing in a way. T-shirts are made to be sold, not hung in a museum (although if there’s a t-shirt museum I want to go). They are also made to be worn. So, essentially, you’re looking for someone to agree that what you have to say has some sort of merit, and (at least as importantly) that the way you are presenting that information is worthy of being displayed front and center on their body. That is kind of a lot to ask when you think about it that way. It certainly helps if the message and the method are mutually reinforcing.

There are plenty of clever t-shirt designs out there, especially on the internet. That is no longer enough to differentiate a design from the crowd. My plan is for Greater>Than designs to skew slightly towards the more meaningful side of the spectrum. I think there’s an opportunity to raise the level of discussion. I think there’s an audience for t-shirts with a little more behind them. We shall see…

(Part 1) (Part 2)

As I continued to explore what Greater>Than meant to me, I realized that it could be an encapsulation not only of the product, but of the entire project. The name and symbol began to represent an ethos, a set of principles to anchor the development of the organization.

Greater>Than, to me, is both aspirational and inspirational*. It’s a statement of appreciation, a way to highlight that which is excellent. Therefore, the company must seek excellence in its operations as well as its products. This will require diligent, conscious effort, as every choice will either bring the company closer to this ideal or move it farther from it. Inevitably, mistakes will be made, but hopefully the symbol will act as a compass, a constant reminder of the correct direction. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello! I’m very pleased to welcome you to greaterthanclothing.com!

I’ve carved out this little corner of the web in order to incubate an idea that has increasingly consumed my thoughts over the past few months: Greater>Than. In my head it’s a brand, a company, a community…there are a lot of things that I hope it will become. But in real life it’s nothing. Yet. Watch this space.

I believe in the power of ideas, but even the best ones are only potentially impactful. An idea can mean something on its own, but someone has to bring it to life for it to do anything. That’s why I’ve launched this site, and that belief will be one of the key principles behind Greater>Than, whatever it becomes.

Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.

–Václav Havel