To want to be unique is a desire we can’t resist

The world’s top three makers of sports footwear are Nike, Adidas, and do you know what comes next? It’s Puma, though I thought it was New Balance. I like sneakers and buy at least one pair every season, but I’m getting tired of the above four makers, to be honest. “To want to be unique is a cliche, and that way of thinking itself is not unique.” This is what I knowingly wrote in the past article, but I have to admit I might like to have something different from others, subconsciously. This tendency seems to be especially true in Generation Z (people born after the late 90’s or early 2000’s). Sneakers now popular among them are “Dad sneakers.”

Dad sneakers are good in design?

If you don’t know what dad sneakers are like, you can find anywhere online how they look like. Dad sneakers look very comfortable and more like walking shoes preferred by people who don’t pay attention to the appearance of shoes. OK, let me say straight out. They look ugly from my perspective, as their names suggest. Generation Z may just show their resistance to traditional values or emphasize function (comfortability in this case) above all. In case of the former, it can be interpreted they try to turn the existing definition of good design upside down. In case for the latter, they appear to ignore the value of design.

Everything is commoditized in the market

You can’t dismiss this tendency just as the rashness of youth because even Millennials (people in one generation older than Generation Z) give the most importance to sustainability or eco-friendliness in their purchasing decisions. Now that there’s no big difference in the price, quality, and design of various products in the market, this may be a natural consequence.

We’ve tried hard to develop furniture with good design, but we should stop and think about what good design is. I believe the raison d’etre of our company expressed by the words “Making furniture by forest” meets the needs of the times like sustainability and eco-friendliness. We should focus more on how we can express our mission in design, rather than merely whether the design of our products looks good or not.

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