Shop Vintage or not?

What is up with the vintage fever? I think that some people are going crazy over it. I see it from two perspectives:

It is nice to recycle, be more sustainable, think about our planet -be “green”.

However, some people “go vintage” just because the “looks” of it. Ok the style is nice and always, when there is a crisis, when our world is falling apart, we tend to recur to the idiom “good old days” -vintage is better.

Today I was riding my “new” bike -bought from a guy, which bought it from another guy- and I had infront of me a “vintage new” bike. Well, the seat looked uncomfortable,  I bet it had cost a small fortune, and then comes the sustainable part of the “vintage fever”. This girl did not recycle an old bike because of nostalgia, she bought it brand new because of its looks.

Is it not the main point of buying vintage to recycle, to help our planet, to reduce consumerism? Well, if you buy a “new vintage” you are destroying the whole point.

I am happy as hell with my “new” road bike, with my soft silicone seat, my 8 gears and my disc brakes, and my 11kg bike -try to ride Aarhus’ “little hills” with less than 8 gears and more weight… How much did I pay? 150€. And then, try to ride with an uncomfortable leather seat -hard as hell, 3 gears, no disc brakes, and 18kg of bike -700€ minimum.

So, what is the point of going backwards? Vintage is nice but do not be stupid. If it has the looks, the price and the comfort -go for it, if not…well, you might answer the questions yourselves.

Sunday Thoughts

We should never forget that…we are here -make it count.

Planned Obsolescence

Obsolescencia Programada (Comprar, Tirar, Comprar) from Benjamín Mejías on Vimeo.

This documentary is one of the most interesting programs I have seen in a while.

I know, it’s in Spanish, but it’s worth a try -some of you may understand it. I’ll try to make a little summary anyway.

Wikipedia says about it that: “the planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time. Thus, the consumer is under pressure to purchase again”.

Companies can use the least expensive components that satisfy product lifetime projections. In other words, some companies do worse products with worse quality components exclusively so we have the need to buy more as soon as the product breaks down. This fact is shown in this documentary, like a light bulb that it has been working for almost a century, within others.

Our only hope it’s to buy more responsibly and sustainable, and see if this barely legal practices come to an end.

**********

Os dejo con el documental de la obsolescencia programada. Muchos de vosotros habréis oído hablar de él, incluso algunos lo habréis visto. Vale la pena sentarse y ver los escasos 30 min que dura.

Nuestra única esperanza es el comprar mas conscientemente e intentar ser sostenibles. A ver si así combatimos esta práctica que roza casi la ilegalidad.

Shit Girls Say

I laughed insanely loud with this video. I could recognise me in some of this situations. Which girl doesn’t?

Any way, it has gone viral and is all over the net.

Have a good laugh -it’s one of the best things in this world!