1/ The reddit debate rages on. Is @Arcteryx losing its way by doing a collabo with Palace/Jil Sander because it's moving away from its core? Can it not cater to both performance and lifestyle?

2/ Here's the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/arcteryx/comments/k9hnyn/a_rant_on_the_recent_proliferation_of_collabs

3/ A long-time friend at adidas back in the day always referred to channel adequacy.

In short, people of different demographics don't always overlap (think Pharrell a few years ago doing BBC and obscure French bag collabos).

4/ In the case of Arc'teryx, it's a brand that crosses over into multiple worlds. The hardcore mountaineer, the yuppie soccer mom, the long-time streetwear crowd with BEAMS / Harold Hunter days, the fashun crowd with VEILANCE etc. You get my point.

5/ One thing that's changed and further compounded channel adequacy is media fragmentation. The filter bubbles are so strong that they reinforce our interests even more. By doing so, it's increasingly harder to access different information organically unless we seek it out.

6/ My favorite example is looking at anybody's list of people they follow. How many 6-figure followers do you have that your friends have never heard of cause they simply aren't interested in the topic?

7/ To that point, it means that the mountaineering crowd, who doesn't check into the world of fashion, will have a reduced chance of ever knowing these fashion-related collabos exist.

How many people know of the VEILANCE Chito collabo?

8/ I only know cause I follow VEILANCE quite closely.

9/ TLDR: The abundance of the "content" x media fragmentation through algorithms means you are even less likely to see things that aren't deemed to be of relevance. This has a weirdly protective approach towards brand building.

10/ In the beginning, I mentioned that "should they choose" in terms of Arc' continuing its run as a performance-centric brand.

11/ I'm not part of the mountaineering crowd but some suggest that the lack of backing towards several product lines means that Arc' has misaligned intentions about being performance first.

12/ This I don't know but as long as said Palace collabo continues to apply things borrowed from the performance line/world, I think there's no reason to think they're moving away from their core.

13/ Cross-industry pollination is always helpful and I think there's significant upside to two brands from slightly different worlds (Arc' mainline that is), in different parts of the world, to work together in COVID times.