Apple isn't most people...in their world, "printing money" is a much higher bar. There's also significant reputational risk if it turns out to be a flop (as it easily could have). That's why I assumed they started with very low inventory, to be able to tout it as an item that "sold out" as opposed to "flopped".
IDK I live in the same world as them. They sold out of what are essentially $200 socks. I’m happy to disagree but it’s certainly printing money by my definition.
Without knowing how many units were sold, how much the famous designer was paid, or how much they spent on marketing (probably not a ton because it got a lot of organic coverage due to how outrageous it seemed), I'm unable to determine whether anyone made a material amount of money. If the designer made $10M I'd say he printed money. If Apple made $10M I'd say that's not remotely material to their bottom line.
I’ll admit that I think it’s a BS product.
I find it funny that our little HN seems to agree yet Apple’s over there basically printing money.
How much money could they have printed if they've sold out already? Seems like it would have been very low-volume.
Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they only produced somewhere around 20,000 to 70,000 units. (45 +/- 25 ?)
Millions, enough to make a difference for most people.
Apple isn't most people...in their world, "printing money" is a much higher bar. There's also significant reputational risk if it turns out to be a flop (as it easily could have). That's why I assumed they started with very low inventory, to be able to tout it as an item that "sold out" as opposed to "flopped".
IDK I live in the same world as them. They sold out of what are essentially $200 socks. I’m happy to disagree but it’s certainly printing money by my definition.
Without knowing how many units were sold, how much the famous designer was paid, or how much they spent on marketing (probably not a ton because it got a lot of organic coverage due to how outrageous it seemed), I'm unable to determine whether anyone made a material amount of money. If the designer made $10M I'd say he printed money. If Apple made $10M I'd say that's not remotely material to their bottom line.
Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45930847