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Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by ryanmercer on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @12:33PM (#22425172)
>The scene is from the story of the warrior-hero Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948–1021) who, once when sick, was visited by an evil priest in the guise of a giant spider. Yorimitsu saw through the disguise and attacked the spider priest, and his four attendants (who were playing a game of Go while guarding him) leapt up to track the intruder back to his den

That's... an interesting thing to put on your fire coat. I bet a lot of modern departments would love these. They are all about identifying as their individual groups and taking pride in being a team. Aramid is naturally the yellowish color that bunker gear already is but can be dyed, although you might have issues with fumes from the dye being heated in fires.

You could skip bunker gear entirely though and just do a startup making custom jackets like this. The aramaid used for bunker gear is woven so just develop a machine to weave using x number of colored threads and do fairly simple patterns like this. This would beat the heck out of embroidered jackets for teams/agencies/social clubs too and you could even resurrect some historical art like this spider. There's already computerized embroidery, computerized custom woven jackets would be awesome. Forget "ugly Christmas sweaters".

In the past beautiful patterns and designs in textiles showed pride and wealth, now a name sewn on the label does. Resurrecting stuff like this with tech, so that it is affordable to the masses, would be an awesome thing.

Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by huebomont on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @12:59PM (#22425453)
not everything is a startup
Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by ryanmercer on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @01:15PM (#22425620)
People always need textiles. People will always like textiles that are flashy and look cool. What's so wrong about making cool woven textiles with modern practices given they mostly don't exist anymore via traditional methods outside of living history pursuits like the SCA and living history museums?

I for one would love to have something akin to my winter Carhartt gear with some cool woven scene on them instead of plain, boring, without-imagination black. I'd even be willing to pay a 10-20% premium for it and order it months before the seasons I'd be wearing it in.

The only real place you have cool customization like this still going on with any regularity is sneakers.

Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by hfdh434535 on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @01:35PM (#22425789)
There's nothing wrong with making cool woven textiles. I suspect if someone had a problem with your comment, it's because it sounds like you're workshopping a startup idea. I get that this is a very startuppy place, but even other startup founders probably get exhausted by all the business ideas shared on this website. (As the saying goes, ideas are cheap and execution is what matters)

I'm not saying you did anything wrong. Just sharing why I think your comment was downvoted.

Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by huebomont on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @05:05PM (#22427878)
It's a great idea that I'm sure some people would want. It doesn't have to be a "startup"
Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by scarejunba on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @01:58PM (#22426011)
Unlike the other people I enjoy workshopping ideas like this and am glad you contributed. Thank you.

I think the problem is that you have a thing with no moat. Once you start getting any traction, you'll be hit by the drop-ship and print-on-demand guys who'll lemonize the market. You see this with 'Vaporwave' and 'retrowave' clothing which had a short Renaissance.

The opportunity is for the guys close to manufacturing who can rapidly print out each one and then spend the rest of their budget on marketing (say on Instagram).

Alternatively if you have a big brand, you can pull off stuff like Supreme's Dragon Work set (which I do have) but otherwise it's hard for people to spend because they'll assume they're buying from a fly by night print on demand Shopify site.

Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by Ma8ee on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @01:13PM (#22425597)
Of course it is. The only thing that it really is too much of right now is money looking for something to do. I think they are better used making some founders rich, even when the business case is a long shot, than inflating the stock market even more.
Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by huebomont on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @03:35PM (#22427037)
everything could be a small business, not everything is a startup.
Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by Ma8ee on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @04:36PM (#22427612)
VCs don't throw money on small businesses.
Re:Japanese firemen’s coats from the 19th century by huebomont on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @05:05PM (#22427870)
exactly. not everything needs vc money.