Introduction
Quint may look like your friendly neighborhood clothing brand, but they are out for blood. Quint’s whole thing is saying, “We offer luxury and insane quality for dramatically less.”
This is a $160 Suven cotton t-shirt. Suven cotton is a very nice cotton that is grown in India, very expensive. That cotton is spun into a Japanese lotus yarn, which is a proprietary name from a Japanese company. Then knit, then sewed all in Japan.
$160 from James Purse. And then we have this shirt from Quint made from Japanese lotus yarn in souven cotton. It retails for $29.90.
Quint doesn’t say, “Hey, our clothing is better for less.” They openly attack other brands. They put it on their website, always having a graphic showing you just how much the competition is actually ripping you off.
What the topic means
Quint’s model and data gathering is about looking for what the best sellers are at other companies and then looking at reviews from review sections, Reddit, and stuff all around the internet.
Quint’s algorithm may have scraped that the Filson Machino cruiser is selling well, so they need to make one. But immediately they may have seen on reviews or in discussions that people wish that they didn’t use plastic buttons, so they switched to horn buttons.
Filson’s wool is also known to be just a smidgen rough and also it’s not lined. So what do you do? You use a 90/10 wool cashmere blend that is quite soft and you add a lining.
And Quint is saying, “Yeah, that is a better jacket.” It’s the same form, but it addresses a lot of common customer complaints. So it’s better regardless of price.
Main points
Quint has been sued by Ugg’s parent company, Coach’s parent company, Yeti, and William Sonoma.
The William Sonoma lawsuit says, “When William Sonoma discovered Quint’s false comparisons, they notified Quint with the hope that Quint would correct the errors and compete fairly in the marketplace. Instead, they asserted William Sonoma’s claims were frivolous and challenged them to a legal battle, stating Quint would welcome a public skirmish.”
Five things were bought from Quint and their more expensive counterpart.
$160 shirt versus $30 shirt. $500 shearling versus $2,600 shearling. Expensive linen versus cheap linen. This wool cruiser jacket versus the wool cruiser jacket and their $50 cashmere sweater.
The $50 cashmere sweater became one of Quint’s flagship marketing products. Quint’s graphic this time chose Todd Snider as their opponent, a $320 cashmere sweater.
The linen from Vince is described as super fine, shiny, very smooth, with not a lot of slubs or imperfections. Quint’s linen is still linen, but uses coarser, fatter, less shiny, just not as nice, not as fancy yarns.
Quint’s website basically always has a graphic showing a price breakdown of whatever they’re making. The long sleeve linen shirt is much nicer than the cheaper shirt, but also much more expensive.
The price of a linen shirt could double just because the brand wants to sell it to retail partners. Nothing changed. The price had to just go way up.
Sometimes Quint delivers near 100% or sometimes even 110%.
For the Lotus T-shirt, the percentage Quint was keeping was -5. They were losing minimum with no returns just by shipping the shirt, $1.52 per shirt.
The Italian pebbled leather slim wristlet was sold for $39.90, but it cost them $45.12. They lost like $6 with every wristlet sold.
Quint’s hero flagship marketing products are generally priced at unsustainable margins for a regular business. Caviar, champagne, cashmere, a souven cotton shirt.
Quint doesn’t need to sell that shirt to survive. What they need is for that shirt to convince someone that their luggage, which has a 63% margin, is a clear buy.
Quint recently raised $500 million in investments, and they’re not even saying they’re profitable yet.
Quint wants to sell their technology and know-how to other brands because Quint is a technology company before anything else.
Clothing can be subsidized through everything else. It’s not the first time it’s ever happened, but it’s one of the first times it’s ever happened this way.
Examples
Suven Cotton T-Shirt
This is a $160 Suven cotton t-shirt from James Purse. Suven cotton is grown in India and is very expensive. It is spun into Japanese lotus yarn, then knit and sewed all in Japan.
The Quint version is made from Japanese lotus yarn in souven cotton and retails for $29.90.
Linen Shirt
The linen that Vince is using is super fine, shiny, very smooth, with not a lot of slubs or imperfections.
Quint’s linen is still linen, but uses coarser, fatter, less shiny, just not as nice, not as fancy yarns.
Shearling Jacket
The Quint shearling jacket is $500 compared to Goral’s $2,500 shearling jacket.
Filson Cruiser
Quint’s algorithm may have seen that the Filson Machino cruiser is selling well. Reviews and discussions said people wished they didn’t use plastic buttons, so Quint switched to horn buttons.
Filson’s wool is known to be just a smidgen rough and not lined. Quint used a 90/10 wool cashmere blend that is quite soft and added a lining.
Cashmere Sweater
Quint’s $50 cashmere sweater was compared with a $320 cashmere sweater from Todd Snider.
Cashmere is described as very soft, lightweight, and natural. Sheep’s wool can be almost as soft, if not as soft as cashmere, while being stronger and durable.
Practical tips
The transcript describes comparing exact products rather than only brands.
The comparison can include:
- Which one is cheaper
- Which one has better reviews
- Information about the product
- The quality of the product
The transcript also describes looking at what people say in reviews and discussions, including Reddit and other places around the internet.
Quint’s technology scrapes reviews and uses customer complaints to make changes to products.
Filson is given as an example where the brand makes deliberate compromises with its product for what it is. Filson wants rougher wool because it’s tougher.
Common mistakes
One concern in the transcript is expecting a cheap product to be exactly like a much more expensive product.
The linen shirt example shows that a cheaper linen shirt may use coarser, fatter, less shiny yarns.
Another point is that price alone does not explain everything about a product. A brand may have a different reason for making compromises.
Filson is described as making compromises and rules that go into a Filson Machino cruiser. The jacket was built for timber cruisers in the forest, so toughness is important.
Another issue discussed is cashmere being used as a luxury marketing tag. The transcript says that if you’re willing to not use cashmere, you can get a way better product out of sheep’s wool, which now you can get almost as soft, if not as soft as cashmere.
FAQs
What is Quint’s whole thing?
“We offer luxury and insane quality for dramatically less.”
How much is the Quint Suven cotton shirt?
It retails for $29.90.
How much is the James Purse Suven cotton shirt?
It is a $160 shirt.
What does Quint’s algorithm look for?
It looks for what the best sellers are at other companies and reviews from review sections, Reddit, and stuff all around the internet.
What happened with the Lotus T-shirt?
The percentage Quint was keeping was -5. They were losing minimum with no returns just by shipping the shirt, $1.52 per shirt.
What happened with the Italian pebbled leather slim wristlet?
Quint sold it for $39.90, but it cost them $45.12. They lost like $6 with every wristlet sold.
What is Quint trying to sell besides clothing?
They want to sell their technology and know-how to other brands because Quint is a technology company before anything else.
Conclusion
Quint’s model and data gathering and stuff makes it very hard to make a legendary product that these types of products get compared to.
At the time of making this video, there always has to be some overarching compromise or strong viewpoint a brand has to have in order to make a legendary product.
Quint’s model and data scraping is always going to be pushed to making a unicorn sweater. It needs to be impossibly soft, impossibly durable, impossibly sustainable, and impossibly cheap. All while also being made only from cashmere.
The greatest strengths just so happen to also be the greatest weaknesses.
When looking at brands that were responding to this, they were saying authenticity. But the transcript also describes deliberate compromises, rules, and ideas behind products as something that can matter to people.
Quint’s model and data gathering is what makes this so crazy.
