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You're receiving this Thursday Briefing as part of your membership. Thank you for supporting independent publications!
 

The MAEKAN online store is live now. We’ve pressed the metaphorical big red launch button today and you get to shop it first.
 

We want to say thank you to MAEKAN members, as it’s your ongoing support that has gotten us this far, so we’ve prepared a couple of things:

  • 20% off a one-time purchase with the code MOREMAEKAN
  • 10% off anything at any time (reusable) with the code MAEKANSQUAD
  • A members only colorway of the MAEKAN logo tee with a 3M reflective logo, password to access the product page is GLOWINTHEDARK

We’re launching with a small selection of products that we can really get behind. Almost all of them were created in collaboration with other independent makers (the pins and logo tees being the exception, if you were wondering, as our logo remains unchanged since day 1) and we’re excited to keep working with people we love to produce more objects that will hopefully add to your day-to-day.
 

Keep scrolling to read more about the MAEKAN x DSPTCH tote bag. We’ve published a long editorial feature with audio on Richard Liu, founder of DSPTCH, and if you weren’t already excited about this bag, this feature will probably have you not just checking out the MAEKAN tote, but everything else they make.


We welcome hearing from you about the shopping experience and products. If you encounter bugs or other issues, you can email shop@maekan.com or hit us up on Discord.
 

Join us in popping open some celebratory drinks wherever you are!


- The Team
 
Indestructible: The DSPTCH Origin Story with Richard Liu
For the MAEKAN and DSPTCH family, we’ve watched each other grow with great interest. Both of us share a similar perspective on creating and putting things out into the world. So when we first decided to explore creating product, DSPTCH was a natural first partner. Their flexible in-house manufacturing meant lower minimums and utilitarian design philosophy vibed with our perspective on what we wished to put out into an already crowded world. 

The timeline for this project took far longer than anticipated, yet the conversation that supported this project and the underlying premise behind how we collectively run our companies are unchanged. 

We’re excited to both share this thoughtful conversation and the release of our MAEKAN x DSPTCH “Done Slow, Done Right” Tote Bag, available now in our online store. 
 
 
The best links from across the Internet.
 
1. 🗑️ The Myth of "Best Before" Dates

Researchers found that "best before" dates, besides increasing pre-mature food wastage when dogmatically followed, are confusing and also inaccurate with regards to food spoiling.


2. 👕 Why renting clothing is worse for the planet than we thought

One more for good intentions (or not): in spite of brands pushing the sustainability of recycling and renting clothes, a Finnish study suggests the opposite. The research team analyzed five different ways of owning and disposing of clothing: basic use, resale, extended use, reuse (resale), recycling, and renting. It turns out renting clothes had the highest environmental impact and the most sustainable is buying fewer things and using them for as long as possible.


4. 👃 Move over New Car Smell, it's MACH-EAU, Ford's gasoline-scented fragrance to troll Tesla.

Possibly as their answer to Tesla Tequila, Ford unveiled their fragrance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Certainly tongue in cheek and not actually available for sale (yet), the fragrance comes in a bottle shaped as a gas pump and was developed with fragrance consultancy Olfiction to give off notes of gasoline, rubber, smoke, and an undisclosed 'animal' element in a nod to the Mustang.


5. 📱 A helpful framework for social apps

Smirk, a newsletter for social apps, has released a guide for new social apps that gathers best practices from the authors and those in the space. Some of the key takeaways include a high level of accessibility, compatibility for sharing content with existing networks, and an emphasis on metrics over aesthetics.


6. 💡 Technical University of Dresden showcases 10 industrial design projects

Germany's Technical University of Dresden recently put on a show for its Industrial Design Engineering course. The show was supported by technischesdesign.org and includes innovative projects including a vibrotactile feedback suit, a lamp made of marbled recycled plastic, and an AR interface for robot programming.


7. 🧠 Out of your depth: when imposter syndrome meets creativity

Belgian freelance 3D illustrator and animator Loulou João's, illustrator and animator Zipeng Zhu, and Pentagram designer Harriet Richardson each share the self-doubt that seeded early in their careers and a few helpful steps that they use to combat it today.


8. ⚽ The psychology of soccer hooligans

An analysis of football-related violence by cognitive anthropologist Martha Newson that finds football violence is not predicated purely on race, ethnicity or 'social maladjustment' but stems from a sense of identity that is built in fans when they're young.

"Identity fusion is the ‘oneness’ we feel with the people that help make you ‘you’ – your family, for instance. This intense form of bonding leads to extraordinary pro-group behaviours; we see it in people so fused to their nation that they promptly give blood following a terrorist attack, or among military insurgents so closely bonded to their comrades that they’ll risk it all on the frontline. When I began this research, some naysayers doubted that fusion would even exist for a social target as ‘arbitrary’ as football. I wondered if these critics had ever witnessed live football in Europe or Latin America."

9. 🖼️ Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland debuts in fine art world

Coming off a successful sale of NFTs earlier this year for charity, Roiland recently debuted an acrylic painting titled mypeoplefriend that is currently on auction through Sotheby's. It features dozens of vibrant cartoon characters with large eyes and is reminiscent of the iconic cartoon series he helped create.


10. 🎮 Valve's Steam Deck promises to succeed where its Steam Machines failed.

Game company and distributor Valve is stepping into the console space again with its upcoming Steam Deck. Despite its Steam Machines ending in utter failure six years ago, the new console promises to be the handheld gaming PC its predecessor hoped to be with both hardware and software being handled by the company.

 Flows of cooled and molten lava from an Icelandic volcano