Lastwear

We have a new website.  Go have a look - www.lastwear.com.

Also, we like you.  So here's a discount code for $45 off Steeplejacks through the month of June 2014.  Use it at checkout, and tell us about your mad adventures you had while wearing your amazing pants.

614DEVIANTPANTS

…at least for the time being.

Some of you may have noticed that the patterns are no longer available for download.

Here's why.

When we started Lastwear we were very into the idea of open information.  You might even say we were a little starry eyed about it. Open source was on the rise, people were successfully marketing themselves through free electroic distributions of their ebooks, songs etc. and still making sales to pay the bills.  It looked like sharing was the way to go.

We liked that fact that it flew in that face of conventional business practices, thumbed it's nose at corporate colonialism.  In a world where people seemed ever more distrustful of businesses large and small, open sourcing our work seemed like a way to show we were for real.  That we weren't just in it for the money.

We felt confidant that any sales we might lose to folks downloading and sewing their own gear from our patterns would be more than balanced out by the increased exposure.  We thought being the first truly open source clothing company would be something that got people talking.

Sadly, that hasn't been the case.

While it seems that many people certainly like the patterns, and a few of you have even been so nice as to voluntarily pay for them, the exposure we were hoping for never materialized.

We've had very little by way of feedback (on person to date blogged about their use of our pattern and kindly sent pictures) and we're not seeing any clothing sales that we can attribute to making the patterns available.

We have heard that some folks are sewing garments from our patterns to sell. That's fine, we never said you couldn't, but it would have been nice to be contacted .  To know that we could expect some business sent our way too?

The other big problem has been the extra work that releasing the patterns entails.  Unlike open source software, we have had to put many hours into converting patterns from the file format we use for production, into a more widely readable format.  Even once we do that then it becomes an ongoing tech support issue to try to figure out what software on what system will work to read them properly.

On the other side, amongst those of you who do buy our product, no one seems to list our open source philosophy as the main reason for buying our clothes.

So we had to ask,

If our customers don't care about us being open source, and making our work available doesn't make us any sales but instead costs us money, why are we doing it?

The truth is, we don't have a good answer for that other than to stop.

As I write this, I'm genuinely sad about it, it feels like the abandonment of a cherished belief.  Being copy left (almost militantly so) has been a big part of who I think of myself as for almost a decade now and it's very hard to let that go.  As things currently stand though, all the evidence I have says I was wrong and at this time I'm not willing to gamble my livelihood on it.

Lastwear is still committed to promoting small independent businesses and personal creativity of all types.  We still love maker culture.  We're just going to have to find other ways to support it for now.

We hope no one is too horribly disappointed about this and we certainly encourage your feedback on the issue.

I will continue to post sewing tutorials and perhaps further down the road, when we're not scraping to get by month to month, we'll be able to start offering patterns again.

-Thom B.

A curious plague has broken out at the Lastwear Journal offices: comments and messages by non-existent people. They are odd individuals, these folk without physical being. They often seem to have opinions about the items posted on the Journal, and then loose the thread; they ramble on about other topics and often blather meaninglessly. Almost as if they were the ghosts of ideas once partially formed, but are now drifting free in the Aether that is the interwebs.
The writers are, of course, S.p.@m-bots. We dare not speak their names, for it calls them onto our site. Even using the S-word calls to them. Rather we shall call this kind of post as "luncheon-meat", which is what the original product was, after all.
As an Historian Archivist of the LastWorld, we are familiar with the notion of ideas having a life of their own. If enough people believe something, no matter how little foundation in reality it has, the idea can grow and take form; have impact on the real world. In a curious way, the luncheon-meat writers are demonstrating an underlying principle of the LastWorld: If enough people believe it's real, it becomes real.
These little luncheon-meat writers are having a positive effect, however! Their level of English (And Esperanto) usage is very low: they are primitive, mindless little creatures at best. Because of this, if someone wants to have their comment posted, they must write intelligible, properly spelled, grammatically correct English. Otherwise, our Luncheon-Meat Removal Officer will simply expunge them! Please continue to reply to our journal entries, writing in clear, Standard English (or Esperanto) and be assured your words will be heard!


Were to find more lastwear ----> journal.lastwear.com/

I reject the notion of infinite economic growth as being false. Fortunately as we're an LLC and will never become a publicly traded company*, growing the business each quater to meet share holder demands is a non issue.
What is, I feel, important is to have an idea of what enough is.
It was my step uncle who I first heard express the concept of

"Work to earn a living, not a killing."

It's a pretty good mantra for anyone who's interested in both business AND ethics.
So what does a living look like?
Well personally I feel that an income of around $50k inflation adjusted, would be completely adequate with the provisos of flexible working hours, paid vacations, good health care and the ability to work from wherever I want.
So that's where we're setting our long tearm goals.
A company that can provide that level of compensation for all it's employees.

Of course, in the end it's about quality of life. So really that income figure is based upon the life that I feel would make me most fulfilled.
But it is harder to develop long tearm plans with a compensation plan that reads:

    Shelter in a modestly sized dwelling
    Plumbing and electricity
    Quality local food
    Ability to travel
    Etc.

But those were the things I was looking at when I arrived at 50K.
In the end, if you want to be happy, it helps to know what makes you happy and have a plan to get it.

*Unless regulations on capital markets and a curbing of fiduciary responsibility or a full accounting of all reality's moving pieces allows for business without externalities.

Hello there folks,
Starting Monday the 23rd (tomorrow as I write this) We will be beginning our "Staying in Business Sale"
What's that you ask?
We'll you are no doubt familiar with the crazy deals one often finds when a business goes under.
This is basically the same except that if we can sell enough stuff by the end of February we get to stay in business.

This winter has been a really hard one here at lastwear, with an unexpected drop in sales, that has really put us on our uppers.

We need to reach a sales goal of 10K by the end of February if we want to keep going. If not, we'll likely have to shutter our doors.

So here's what we'll be doing.

One or two styles a week will be seeing a dramatic price reduction on our website. We'll only be keeping each item on sale for one week though so you'll need to keep checking back or follow us on twitter to catch the great deals.
If you can help us spread the word and enough people take advantage of what will be some really low prices we might just make it through.

So if you like great deals, and you like small American businesses who make quality products then help us out and treat yourself to some awesome clothes at the same time.

Ps. To our existing customers and fans, really the biggest thing you can do if you'd like to see us stay in business, is to help us reach a wider audience.