State of Leather Luxury - Are We Buying Golden Handcuffs?

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I've been in love with the craft of leather since childhood, but over the past decade, I've developed a keen interest in behavioral science, spiritual enlightenment, and personal finance. While I'm not much of a traditional reader, I'm an avid listener of audiobooks. I've probably finished 500-600 books on these subjects, and recently, an idea started to emerge—like distant dots slowly connecting to reveal a new silhouette I'd never noticed before.

This thought is somewhat wild, especially the analogies that occurred to me when trying to verbalize it. It's this: today's so-called luxury fashion is one of the powerful tools keeping millions in a form of modern slavery. Yes, I said slavery—but bear with me as I explain further.

This new form of taking people's independence isn't achieved through force, but through powerful psychological and communication tools that make you decide to opt into this limiting chamber. Here's how it works: a conglomerate acquires a brand name, often a well-respected designer who built something special in their time. They then use their financial power to create appealing experiences for guests, making them feel part of an elevated lifestyle. This image is supported by heavy advertising campaigns to concretize this aspirational identity in the target customer—someone who usually isn't there yet but yearns for that financially abundant and free lifestyle.

Of course, this feat is challenging and costly, making the this pseudo-luxury product quite expensive. Once all that expenditure has been made and the risk taken, the brand prices the item as high as possible. This seals the thought that this is absolutely a state-of-the-art object worth all that jazz, making you feel like you're living that dream life.

Now here's the twist: almost always, this product is mass-produced. It's usually of good quality, but nothing of exuberance worth that price tag. It absolutely doesn't have magical powers to change your lifestyle or mood—at least, not for more than a couple of hours after acquiring it. Once that initial excitement passes, you realize it's not what you expected. Plus, now you're out thousands of dollars, which probably took you a few steps away from that financially free life you're aspiring to. This means you've got to go back to the job you may or may not like, to sweat for a couple more weeks to make that money back.

This reminds me of a book called "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," which tells the story of countries employing a similar scheme. They convince developing nations they need something; an infrastructure, a new technology, something, then lend them funds to acquire it. This allows them to control these nations' futures through the financial obligations created under this scheme. A similar concept is occurring in the personal space, though probably not orchestrated by a unified mastermind. What's happening is that middle to low-income individuals are being further trapped into serving the wealthy few, who continue to get richer. I don't think anyone single-handedly plans and executes this, but the collective picture operates with these dynamics.

This scheme is legal and transparent—no one is forcing you to do anything. The corporation makes huge expenditures to paint this picture, and you like it and choose to chip in. It's a profitable operation, and as long as it's profitable, it will grow. But at some point, a realization comes—usually a mass realization, almost like a collective awakening of sorts.

This is where my reading in various areas started to merge. In my spiritual "woo-woo" books, many channelers relaying information from entities beyond the human realm mention a significant shift in human consciousness in 2012. It's described as a mass awakening for the good of the universe and humankind. Interestingly, I've noticed many brands entering the luxury leather space starting in 2012-2013, gaining huge buy-in from customers and growing rapidly. They're so successful that they're attracting significant capital in this space, legacy conglomerates becoming investors in these disruptors.

What these new brands offer is a purely good product, stripped of the pseudo-luxury aura and offered at a fair price for customers who like to buy quality things at a reasonable cost. This type of consumer now makes up the fastest-growing segment of the market. I think with this shift in our collective consciousness, more of us have realized the worthless hype of luxury labels and are rejecting it for the true luxury of financial freedom. This comes from being smart with your finances: investing in good pieces, consuming less, and not wasting money on things without substance.

I believe a new phase of this era is showing itself with scrambling luxury label executives. The playground is shrinking, and there may be a fierce fight to be the last one standing. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some legendary names leaving the arena defeated in the coming years as a result of this awakening. It could happen quickly for some brands because these so-called luxury houses are built on enormous fixed costs. A quick downturn in sales could lead to uncontrollable financial bleeding, triggering catastrophic events for huge corporations with investors. In the end, the investors were there to make money, and they'll be the first to leave when they see the opposite happening.

So, my friends, here's my emerging opinion from observing a few distant fields of interest. It might sound a bit like a conspiracy theory or a far-fetched prediction, but hey, that's what I think, and I wanted to share. As always, until next time, stay leathertained!