Latest / Presented by Speaking Human / #203: Cold-Weather Brands

Transcript

#203: Cold-Weather Brands · Presented by Speaking Human

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Speedcking Human.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Today on Speaking Human, we brave the chill to spotlight
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the brands that come out of hibernation every winter, thawing
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: out why they own the season when things turn icy.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Specking Human.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: marketing for humans. I'm Shad Conley and with me is
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: my co host, Patrick.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Jebber, your co host. We're friends, right, you would say
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: that when you yeah, off air, we're friends off air.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: On air sworn enemies.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: We're just co hosts on air.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we keep it professional.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: We're pros. We've been doing this a long time. For
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: those who know us, it might not seem that way.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: When you hear us, you go, is this their first
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: time podcasting?
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe we want to make it seem like we're complete
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: amateurs who have never done this before. On every episode. Yeah,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and I think we're succeeding at that.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Like you're coming in and starting the journey with us
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: for the first time every episode. So if you started
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the journey with us two hundred and two episodes ago,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: you're like, why are we still starting this journey together? Yeah,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: let's tick it up a notch.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: But now you know it's intentional makes us relatable.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're trying to climb that mountain. We're trying to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: traverse the peak and leading into that nicely. Is a
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: trivia question, Chad? Now I'm going to give you multiple
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: choice this time for trivia good which Cold Weather brand
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  Speaker 2: accidentally became a pop culture icon in the nineteen nineties
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: thanks to hip hop artists and urban street wear, despite
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: being designed for mountain nearing and extreme expeditions. Is it
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: A but the gonya B north Face, The north Face?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I should say C Columbia or D Canada Goose.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna say it's I'm thinking as my first thought,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I'm like, it's like Starter and Starter Jackets.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Is it D Canada Goose?
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Canada Goose.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I love that name. It is not Canada Goose, not D.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: It is the north Face, the north Face. Yeah. So
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: The north Face founded in nineteen sixty six in San Francisco.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: It's an American brand. Did you know that?
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I did.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I guess I always just assumed it was like, you know,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Swiss or something.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I didn't know that, nor did I know it
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: was that old.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the early focus was mountaineering next peditioning gear, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: it was an early influential adopter of gore Tex. Like
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: they were one of the ones that sort of like
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: got gort Tex on the map. I think love gor Tex. Yeah,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: But in the nineties it was like a hip hop
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: sort of like status icon thing, kind of like Timberland's, Yeah,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: the same kind of concept. They started wearing the north Face.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Then it caught on and you know, now it's this
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: fashion brand.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think of that now. I didn't know that
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: about the nineties and like the kind of hip hop association.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Ll right, I don't at least have that in my head.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: So this is new, This is good information. Yeah, so
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: not Canadian goose. Nobody in hip hop is like give
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: me that Canadian goose jacket.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Maybe those hip hop artists in Canada.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Big and Canadian hip hop. Yeah, that's why I.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Said that they just called goose there. They don't have
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: to call it Canada goose because it's just implied. Yeah,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: in Canada. Clearly, I thought for sure you were going
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to get that. To be honest with you, I didn't
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: think Canada goo was even No.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: I was thinking it's funny, I was I was thinking
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: of Starter, and I was thinking of Timberlainds. Obviously none
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: of them related to the answers there. Yeah, I honestly
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: didn't know the answer because I wasn't making an association
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: of any of those brands, so I kind of shot
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: out a guess. But yeah, I didn't know that about
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: the north Face.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It's funny you brought up Starter, not a cold weather
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: brand necessarily, but super huge at the time.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: And it's a big warm jacket.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm. You remember how they were super puffy.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: It's super puffy. I should say, I don't know if
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: it was warm, but it was very puffy. I don't
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  Speaker 3: know how much like insulation or down was actually in there,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: but it was very puffy. Could have just been air.
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  Speaker 2: Those just let air right through them. You could never
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: stay warm in a Starter jacket.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: It's not made for climbing a mountain.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Probably, So today we're talking about cold weather brands since
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: we're sitting right in the middle of winter we are.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: And it's been a you know, it's been cold. It's
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: been real cold, and as we've talked about before this episode,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: it's wearing us down.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: It is just like the rest of the universe, you know,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: in humanity. When Shad and I get on and we
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: talked before the episode airs, before we broadcast this out
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: to the world, we do the same thing that every
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: other human does. We talk about the weather. You know,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: we hop on, how's the weather. I'm so sick of
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: out of this snow shoveling.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: I gotta get out of this.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: So we do the same things. So we were talking about, man,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: how bad this winter feels right now, and it's just
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: dragging on. And what better episode to be talking about
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: that right before than the cold Weather brand episode.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, got to embrace it. You gotta climb into it
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: because we're stuck in it one hundred and one episodes
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: ago pretty much. You know, halfway through our podcast history
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: back in twenty eighteen, we were in a different mood.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: We were feeling the warm, sunny vibes. We recorded an
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: episode titled the Brands of Summer.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Now, in that episode, we shared some of the brands
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: we strongly associated with the hot season, brands like Dairy,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Queen Ballpark, Frank's Super Soaker, and six Flags. Do you
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: remember that at all? Patrick, bring any bells?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I love that episode because, for one, it's summer and
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: it you know, just feels good. I feel like we
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: should have had the Beach Boys playing the whole time.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure we use an image of surfboard on
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: top of a Volkswagen or something, you know, for that episode.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: It just felt good, you know, it was light, cheerful,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: the sun. You know, it's the vitamin D from the
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: sun that really gave us the energy in that episode.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, if you listen to that, we one sound younger,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: to sound like, you know, these guys drank twenty five
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: energy drinks and they're just really enjoying life. Different point
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: or phase, different season, if you will. So, yeah, I
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: feel like I should go back and listen to that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Maybe it'll change my whole mind. At anyway, here we
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: are eight years later. It's February. It's been a brutally
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: cold winter on the East coast Midwest. So we thought,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: you know, what better way to cure our winter woes
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  Speaker 3: than to share our top cold weather brands a sort
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  Speaker 3: of spiritual sequel to our brands of Summer episode, And
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: who knows, maybe we'll do one of these every one
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  Speaker 3: hundred episodes with a different season brands of fall. I
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: think we've kind of touched on that before a little bit.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: We did Mabel and Punk and Spice, but there's probably more, right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I know, we're only going to talk about five different
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: brands in cold Weather and we don't touch on them all,
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  Speaker 2: and there's always real reasons to touch on more. There's
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: some for the fall, there's some for the spring.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: We could make up some new seasons.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, why not. We've done it in other episodes. I'm
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: pretty sure we made up seasons in the Fuzz.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: It's very possible. So what we've got going today is
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  Speaker 3: we've got a top five lists of cold weather brands
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  Speaker 3: to share. The first one we decided on together, So
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  Speaker 3: we'll talk about that together and then we'll each share too.
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  Speaker 3: We came up with on our own. Does that sound
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: right to you?
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, totally, totally right.
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  Speaker 3: So our first one, our number one that we decided
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: on together, were like, this one's just a shoe in
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: we got to talk about it. It's when you think
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  Speaker 3: about being cold and what you need the first brand
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  Speaker 3: that popped into your mind?
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  Speaker 2: What was it, Patrick, Columbia Sportswear.
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  Speaker 3: Columbia Sports. Yeah, yeah, definitely, first of all, the first
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  Speaker 3: place I go when I think of cold weather brands
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  Speaker 3: is probably too apparel in jackets, and this is I
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  Speaker 3: think the number one that pops out in my mind.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing I will say, you know, comparatively to
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  Speaker 2: like maybe not the North Face or Patagonia, is that
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  Speaker 2: it is the most accessible. Colombia is the most budget
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  Speaker 2: conscious version of cold weatherwere but it also still elevated
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  Speaker 2: a bit over like brands that are sort of like
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  Speaker 2: in like a Sam's Club or a department store, because
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  Speaker 2: it's a little better, it seems. It's just that one
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  Speaker 2: that's staple that's been there for a very long time.
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  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, going back to nineteen thirty eight when it
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  Speaker 3: was founded in Portland, Oregon, originally as the Columbia Hat Company.
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  Speaker 2: That's the one thing you don't really think of when
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: you think of Columbia.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Really, no, not at all. I definitely don't think of hats.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: I think of coats. Yeah, but yeah, you're right, a
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: little better, I think, a little warmer. They pioneered some
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: technology like their omni heat reflective insulation supposedly retains up
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: to twenty percent more body heat than traditional insulation. So
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: they're kind of known for things like that, Like we're
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: you know, we're always doing things. If you go to
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: their website, first thing I saw, at least the last
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: time I was there was like people getting you know,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: a bunch of water like dumped on them, showing like
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: how weather proof their kind of gear is. They also
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: own Mountain Hardware Sorrel, which is another surreale Sorrel. Yeah,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: I say that exactly. I just bought my wife some
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Sorrel boots for Christmas.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: They're very good boots, that's what they say. They're proprietary
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: technologies that they own are those Omni so they've got
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the Omnitech freeze shade. Those are all three separate things.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Omni Tech, Omnifreeze, Omni shade, Omni Heat, which is everybody
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: kind of knows like if you buy a pair of
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Columbia boots, right, you get the Omni heat and there
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: you have a.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Pair of those. I don't should I.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I actually got a pair years ago, and I mean
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I didn't know if it was going to be good
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: or anything, but it's actually those boots are very warm.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: They have better versions of what I got, Like I
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: just have like the normal, but they have some that
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: actually do I think warm up. Oh again, just they
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: deliver pretty good quality at lower price points than some
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: of the other premium outdoor brands.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's some that get really high out there in
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: the hundreds, close to one thousand for like a you know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: insulated coat or something like that. Obviously appealing to more
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: toward the outdoorsmen, people who are going into the mountains,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: things like that. One last thing I'll note about Columbia
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: as you even see their you know, logo in some treatments,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: the name that kind of like icy blue they use
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: sometimes mm hmm, very much in the spirit of winter,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: like we're talking about it, that association you know, it's cold,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: We're going to keep you warm.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: And they had the famous tagline it's perfect, now make
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: it better, attributed to Gert Boyle. I don't know who
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: that is, but that's who it's attributed to.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Gert Boyle was the daughter of the founders, okay, led
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: the brand into their peak stage or what they became today.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: She also starred in some Columbia ads in the eighties
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: and nineties. Became kind of like known as this tough
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: graandma figure.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they called her the tough mother.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, I don't remember them the ads completely,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: but I saw some of them, and I'm like, okay,
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: this is kind of familiar.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: That was the seventies. You know, they say that she
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: gave way to their no nonsense identity, like the blunt
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: It's perfect. I'll make it better, just like that.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Get your nonsense out of here. We're trying to make coats.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Come on, you think Gard's gonna wear those boots?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Hell no. They also have been the official outerwear supplier
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: for the US Olympics, so you know it's a staple
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: of winter.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, big name and obviously the first one that came
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: to both of our minds as we're thinking about cool
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: weather brands. What else came to your mind? Patrick?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: We had a long list that we looked at, right,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, we shared a list together. I don't know
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: if this stuck out to you, but it's one that
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I thought, you know, because we've talked about a lot
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: of brands over the last thirteen years two hundred and
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: three episodes. I was trying to be kind of sensitive
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to that because I feel like there are times where
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: our listeners would probably argue on our behalf that it's
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: not our fault. We've lost our mental faculties, and I
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: appreciate that to those of you who argued in our
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: on our behalf. So I'm sensitive to the fact that,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: like I'm trying to think of brands that relate to
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the episode and the topic at hand, but isn't something
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: I would have picked in the past. Smart Wool is
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: one of those. Yeah, there are some brands that I
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: think sometimes do really well in other seasons as well,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Like smart Wool probably does great in the fall, probably
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: even does great in the summer because they do talk
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: about their moisture wicking that they breathe a lot, like
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: so in the summer months, you know, you can find
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: socks that are smart Wool socks that keep your feet cool,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: but smart Wool as a whole, you think of keeping
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: you warm. So smart Wool founded in nineteen ninety four
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: in Steamboats Springs, Colorado, another American brand made in America. Yeah,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: it's crazy. They introduced Marino Wool to the US performance
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: ski market, so they were kind of like the first
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: there Marino Wool socks. They helped repositioned wool as lightweight, technical,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: and odor resistant, which is a big thing if you
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: remember back in the day when we were kids. Even
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Chad Wool Wolf socks itchy. They had a negative connotation, right,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: You're like, they're itchy, they're hard to maintain and manage
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: because like wool, if you put it in the washer
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: and then put it in the dryer, it would like
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: shrink up. Right, you never knew what you were gonna get,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: like Forrest Gump and Life and his mom in the
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: box of chocolates.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: But they helped reposition wool in that way. And they
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: also focused as a core on bass layers and socks.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: That's their sort of like core offering, the things that
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: they focus on in their product lineup. Essentially, Smart Wool
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: is this fabric slash fashion manufact Now you find sweaters,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: smart wool, jackets, things of that nature in stores, but
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: it's a very cold weather brand.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah. As soon as you said it, I was like,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: wool socks, not much screams winter like that. I mean,
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: how many other times of the year are you like
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: begging for some wool socks or something to keep your
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: freezing toes warm. Interesting other fact you know related to
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: smart Wool is you said nineteen ninety four was when
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: they started, right. Yeah, around that same time the brand
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: dumb Wool, their stock just plummeted dumb wool. Smart wool
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: comes out and all of a sudden, dumb wol. Nobody's
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: interested in it anymore. They can't sell this stuff.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Well, that's what original wool was. It was dumb, that's true.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: It was dumb woolf like, what are we going to
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: do to make wool smarter? And they're like, we're just
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: gonna call it's smart wool.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I mean it's a good It is a good name
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: because you're like a better version of wool, which you're right,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: going back to those early times, did suck wool was
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: like I think of the itch I'm like, this is
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: something itchy, this is something I don't want on my skin. Now,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: they made wool so much better.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: That's the thing I would probably say they did the
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: best as a brand is they reframed how you think
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: about a fabric. They just created a better version of
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: wool to the point now where you get a lot
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: of wool things that you probably wouldn't have gotten before.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Maybe because of this brand.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: They flipped the script on wool. The more dumb wolf. Yeah,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: that's great. When I like where you're going there, I
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: like how where you were thinking and how you're thinking about.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: The feet, always thinking about the feet.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: So you're on the ground, I'm going up more to
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: toward the sky.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: All right, you know.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: For my first pick, kind of kind of a little bit.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: So I'm going with the Weather Channel here, oh, one
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: of the most popular apps now in terms of weather apps.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: And again, you know, we're talking about these colorations like
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: we were talking about with Columbia, We've got the Weather
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Channel colors that blue and white. These are cold colors,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: these are the colors of winter. But this is a
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: brand that goes back nineteen eighty two. It was launched
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: in Atlanta, Georgia as a cable channel, and it was
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: revolutionary what they did at the time, which was a
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: twenty four hour channel devoted entirely to weather forecasting. It
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: sounds like nothing now, but you got to remember at
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: the time, one, there weren't a lot of twenty four
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: hour channels, the things that were running NonStop, and there
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: weren't a lot that were just like, we're going to
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: show weather all the time. You know, we're gonna show everybody,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: give them their local forecast, give them an idea what's
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: happened nationally. As it evolved, they kind of started blending
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: storytelling in there. You know, we'd have these shows about
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: like we're going to talk about hurricanes and what's happen
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: opening and how they work. Got like people like Jim
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: Cantore who became like a famous meteorologist on there. All
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: these things that the Weather Channel kind of popularized, that
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: we forget polar vortexes, these terms like that went into
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: the mainstream through the Weather Channel. Storms having names like
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: what they were calling hurricanes. That wasn't like a common
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: everyday people weren't like, oh, irma or something like that.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: It wasn't until you know, the Weather Channel started reporting
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: that stuff that people kind of picked it up. Now
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: the app obviously on a lot of phones. Some may
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: say not the best weather app. That's a point of debate.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of people tell you what the best
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: one is. I'm not going to weigh in there. I'm
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: just gonna say the Weather Channel is a very well
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: known brendan definitely one that people have. It are opening
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: up repeatedly in this season. What's my weather look like today?
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: How cold is it? What do I need to wear?
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: How much snow am I getting? What kind of hell
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: am I walking out into today? That's what the Weather
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: channel brings us on a daily basis and has for
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: you know, the last forty some years.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what you let in with is the most important
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: part of this brand. At one time it was the
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: sole source for twenty four hour protection from the cold weather.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: And really that's what you're talking about. Protection knowing what
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: the weather was going to be at all times. It
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: was really hard to come by. Now I can kind of, hey, Google,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: what's the weather going to be like today, you know,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: answering me right now as we speak. That's the difference.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: A little sad for the brand.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: It's funny even to think just how obsessed we are
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: with knowing the weather, you know, and how much of
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: our lives are like dictated by the weather, and how
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: much it's like every day, like I need to know
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: what I'm what the temperature is, and is the sun
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: going to be out? And how much we're just like
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: kind of culturally obsessed with the weather. We just don't
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: want to walk out into the unknown.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, this is the thing that keeps
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: humanity and our lives interesting. You know, if I live
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: to the ripe old age of let's say eighty five,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I'll have eighty five winters and yet we still all
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: want to talk about the weather every day.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, what will we even talk about without the weather?
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I have my second. This is unconventional, I think,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: whether you want to argue it or not, it's universally
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: known as a cold weather brand. Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate Yeah.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Founded in nineteen fifty seven, originally named Swiss Miss Chocolate Company,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: it was among the first instant hot cocoa mixes mass
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: marketed in the US. It's one of the dominant players
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: in the US instant cocoa category. Swiss Miss is ex accessible,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: one of those accessible brands like Columbia. You can walk
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: into a store and you don't feel that's a little
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: beyond my reach.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: It's too good for me.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: It's too good for me. Swiss Miss feels like something
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: that you can obtain. And here's the thing. It's emotional insulation, right.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: You know, you think about hot chocolate and the feeling
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: that you get and after a really hard day of work,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: I'm just I'm gonna have a hot chocolate and it's
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: just this like little thing that it is emotionally insulating you,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: maybe from the outside world, but definitely cold weather.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Would you agree this is a great one. I'm
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: glad you picked it. I'm glad glad you brought it in.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: It's the classic. You're a kid, you're out playing in
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: the snow, you come inside, you get a cup of
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: hot chocolate. I mean that is definitive winter right there.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: And I know people drink coffee and tea every day
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: all year long. Right if you drinking hot chocolate in
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: the summertime, you're a maniac. There's something wrong with you. You
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: need to go talk to somebody. There's yeah, there's something
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: not right in your head.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: It's true. It's true. Like you could maybe make the
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: argument like when the cooler nights, like in summer, when
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: leading into fall, when you're sitting around a campfire, things
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: like that. But if you're in like ninety degree weather,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: eighty degree weather at night around even if you were
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: around a campfire, which I also think is sort of obscene,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: you might be Patrick Bates in American Psycho Bateman. What
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: did I say?
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: Baits h Norman baits Norman Baby Norman.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Bates or Patrick Bateman either one. You know what's so
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: great about it is, you know the it's this sort
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: of like comfort that comes from the psychology of the brand.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: The brand itself is more about not the product, even
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: though like the product exists and it's good, you know,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: it does the job. It's about a moment building a
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: snowman and you're having hot chocolate with some marshmallows when
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: you're a kid, it's that moment that you remember what
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: hot chocolate was I drinking. I have no idea, but
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: it might have been Swiss Miss because it's one of
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: the most popular, you know what I mean.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just found this too. Here's a little trivia
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: question for the audience. What was the original name of
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: Swiss Miss Brown Swiss? It was brown Swiss after the
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: dairy cowbreed. According to you know, our friends at Google,
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: brown Swiss rebranded to Swiss Miss in nineteen sixty one.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was part of that whole instant convenience fifty seven,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: you know, rode that like post war consumer trend of
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: you know, like how do we make this shelf stable,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: mass produced thing. That's essentially what made that brand, just
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: like most were created during that time period. But it's
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: like got this Alpine inspired branding, which I think is
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: what is funny about it because it's not it's not Swiss.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Well it's kind of like Columby. You feel like it's
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: a little higher end, but it's not.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I think that's a great pick. I think
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: you need that. You know, the cold weather, you want
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: to warm beverage on there, So moving from the interior
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: of the body to the out side of the body.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: You know, the skin, the parts of your body that
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: you know, just get a little brutalized in the winter.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: You got to take care of them a little more.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: And what better way to do that than with this product,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: this brand Vasileine.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I had a feeling when you were talking
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: about it. I was like, is he talking about something
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: he's gonna you know, like loube up with or.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Something something he's gonna rub all over with. Yeah, yeah,
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about vasoline. Okay, vast as I call it
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: my household. A Vasoline goes all the way back. You know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: we've had a lot of historical brands here. This one
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: goes back to eighteen seventy in the United States, created
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: by this guy named Robert Chessbarrow after he noticed oil
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: workers using a residue called rod wax to heal cuts
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: and burns. Fascinated. He refined the substance into petroleum jelly
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: and vasoline was born. I was interested. I'm like, where
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: did this word vasoline? This seems kind of like a
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: weird word. Where did that come from? Comes from a
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: blend of the German word wasser water and the Greek
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: word elion oil. I don't know if I'm saying that right.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Probably not butchering my Greek here, but combination of those words.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: We get vasoline to signify its you know, water oil properties.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: But this, you know, all purpose healing ointment, locks in moisture.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: It's been used for over one hundred years, especially in
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: harsh climates and cold weather. You know, they've come out
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: with more lines of products over the years. They've come
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: out with lotion, they've come out with lip care. You
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: can take this stuff. You can slather it on any
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: dry part of your body, anything that's worn out. It's
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: going to help you out. Over one hundred documented uses,
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: from skincare to mechanical lubrication. They're like, you can only
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: have one brand to take care of you for your
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: rest of your life. You should probably choose vasline.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Vasoline doesn't moisturize, it seals.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: I mean it's even better. One more fun facts. I
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: told you this guy, Robert Chessburrow Cheeseboro, Chessbarrow, you know,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: kind of invented vasaline in the eighteen hundreds. Reportedly, he
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: also ate a spoonful of vasaline every day to prove
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: that it was safe.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in front of crowds. Yeah I read that.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, talk about a committed salesman.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, vasoline is one hundred percent petroleum jelly.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: I used to remember that as a kid, Like if
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: you saw the jar of vasoline in the bathroom or something.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's right that you call that jelly,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. It's almost daring people to eat.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: It, which seems fine according to Cheeseboro.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Every time I hear the word vasline, I think of
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: the band Bush and their song Glycerine. I don't know
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: what it is about. It's been so many years since
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: that song was popular. Then in my head sometimes when
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: I hear the word vasline, I go is that the
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: song by Bush? Because I can't remember glosery.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Jo Let the Days Go by h Vassilene.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: I mean it could be a commercial for vasiline, because
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: it's it must be your skin. I'm sinking in. It
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: must be for real, because now I can feel that's true.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: True, that was a mist. I mean they should use
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: that now.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, you could make an argument to take Bush's
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: song and apply it to a vaciline commercial and it
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: would be gold.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Somebody should jump on that right away.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: I do love that you picked this because it's a
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: brand that I didn't even really think of. But it
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: makes perfect sense now that you mention it, because you know,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: in the winter time, this is a staple of every household.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: It has to be dry lips, yeah, dry noses dry,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: you know where you're putting it, windburn, frost nip.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, but you never know. I will make the
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: argument here on air for the world to hear. I
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: actually do prefer aquafor over vasiline.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Controversial.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: I think aquafor is a more healing product, but that's
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: just me. We had this argument in our house recently
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: and other people were like, and I love aquafor. There's
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: a time and a place for vasiline.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it depends what you're using. If you're going into lotions.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: I like the vasoline lip versus chapstick, which I used
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: to use before. I think vasoline is better than that. Yeah,
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: so we use that a lot on our lips in
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: our house, like, especially as they've gotten real dry.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Here's the one thing about vasoline too that I think
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: is it has a better outcome over time. I think
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: chapstick eventually your lips become more dry when.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: You use it, you just you just become addicted to it.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to use it. Whereas vasoline protects you.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: It's not making your worse or it's not like it's that.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: Changing your the you know, your the makeup of your body.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I liken chapstick to a drug and you have
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: to stay on that drug.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: It's pretty much like fetanol in your pocket, right yeah. Classic.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: So yeah, these are great cold weather brands, some of them.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I'm super surprised. Your choices were great.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: Kind of you know, went in different directions like all
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: over the place where we covered. Obviously I got the
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Weather Channel in vasoline, you went with smart wool and
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: hot chocolates. So you know, you got a drink, you've
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: got like a fabric, you've got an app, you've got
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: you know, whatever the hell vascilline is. That's a real
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: you know variety and then Columbia obviously is like your
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: staple a jacket, but you're kind of hitting the different spot,
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: which when you're doing the exercise of thinking about these
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: that's one of the things I was trying to think.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: I was like, all right, I think beyond just a
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: warm coat.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Or a hat in Colombia's case, because the start off
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: as a hat company.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true, all right.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: So as a takeaway here, I kind of framed this
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: up for you. The best cold weather brands turn inconvenience
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: into identity, discomfort into ritual, and cold into something you
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: actually look forward to. And this this is the key.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: If you think about how many times you look forward
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: to a season, especially a cold weather season, because of
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: a product that you enjoy during that season. You're thinking, Patrick,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: I don't know what you mean by that. Think about
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: your favorite sweater, cozy pajamas, fluffy slippers, pumpkin spice lattes,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Swiss miss hot chocolate. You might not be looking forward
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: to vasoline, but you get what I'm saying.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: You might be the you might want to like slather
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: your slather up in vass and drink some hot chocolate.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Slather up in vass. The fact that you guys have
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: given it a nickname. So good.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: It's a good takeaway. I like that look forward to.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: It feels like a stretch right now. Yeah, but maybe
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: even like you know, make it, make it not so bad.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, in the summer months, you know, sometimes
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: when you're real warm, you're thinking, I can't wait to
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: like snuggle up by the fire, you know, or whatever
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: in my smart wool. You know what I mean.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I do when I'm hot sometimes, you know, I'm
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: sweating in the summer, I'm like, I look forward to
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Usually it's fall, I'm like wearing a sweatshirt or like
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: a jacket, you know, walking around in a jacket and
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: a sweatshirt or something like that feels all right. So
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I look forward to that. I don't know
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: if I'm ever like, can't wait to wear my winter coat.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: I think you're always thinking it must be your skin
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: I'm sinking in. It must be for real, because now
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: I can feel.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's so good, it fits so well, it's
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: so good.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Fast.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: All right. That's it for today's episode. You can find
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: current and past episodes of the podcast on Speaking human
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: dot com.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: We'll be back in two weeks with another episode of
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: speaking human Catch You, then humans.
• 32:55
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• 33:01
  Speaker 3: S,