Anthropology

Preface : 
Anthropology is the comprehensive, systematic study of humanity. It explores human evolutionary origins, biology, distinctiveness as a species, and the immense diversity of social and cultural existences across the world and through time. 
A formative part of humanity as a species has been its social nature. A core part of our behaviour as social animals is what we consume. Built Anthropology is an encapsulation of our study in this direction. In building what we aim to build we wanted to document not the journey as much as the philosophy. Beyond just product. The study of why people buy what they do, how they do it, and what different facets of our pursuit could entail. 
The Anthropology is an evolving manifesto, developed physically and intentionally. It is at a location that it is structurally locked to with key driven pad lock, and will only move as our head quarters move. Every extension of our business will in some shape or form be traced back to a citation from within here. We will attempt to document every thing we learn along the way, and make it available to all those who seek it. The hope is that this never stays stagnant and evolves as frequently as possible. The anthropology is available for all members of our organisation and outside to contribute. Submissions can be made to anthropology@shopbuilt.com. I personally will read every mail that comes in and will put together relevant updates into the physical binder before the website is updated. 

Index :
1. Natural Movement
2. Brand 
3. Manufacturing 
4. Business 
5. Advertising

 1 . Natural Movement
When we started talking about building in footwear, one of the first things that came to mind was that we needed a right to exist. A clear, memorable reason to create something. Not to say we didn’t want to be “another footwear brand” or something of the sort. I felt like in an environment as crowded as consumer markets in 2026, people will not care to to remember something new unless accompanied by a meaningful mission that carried some form of status value, physical benefit, and an accessible feature set. It would have to be easily boiled down to a few words in passing. 

That being said, Natural Movement just kinda came to us. I have personally spent the better part of the last decade being barefoot as much as possible. I’m not sure why. I have early memories of playing golf when I was really young, my mother walking alongside barefoot. She’s talk about how wonderful it was to walk on fresh grass early morning, to connect with nature. I think that stayed with me. I liked the idea of connecting with the ground under my feet - whenever allowed. 

When it came to working out - I stuck to being barefoot. When I got my first real cabin in an office we had - I had a no shoe rule for within the space. Something between wanting to use the space as freely as possible. Sit wherever I want, et al. Coincidentally, just below, was a mini temple/religious shrine. Every time I chose to do something barefoot it just seemed like the universe would reward it with some form of an affirmation. When we arrived at a conversation about what kind of shoes to do, natural movement just came to us. Sure enough, as we started building on it, the universe affirmed it. It feels like the right thing to do as a mission. 
Technically - natural movement product entails a form of protection for your feet that does not interfere with the movement of your musculature via cushioning or otherwise. It is philosophically more enabling, less supportive. The barrier to living our lives barefoot are dirt, debris, and such. Natural Movement shoes are supposed to mitigate these barriers. But that’s all. Our feet are very capable, but have been stifled by many generations of product interference. I’m not entirely sure why. 
As a culture, an abnormally large percentage of the general populous has feet that are not in the best of shape. It is pretty insane that we’re still peddling shoes to most people that are technically bad for them. Most shoes prevent strength building between toes, lead to bunions, poor posture, and then some. But this is almost like big industry lobbying. Incumbent brands wouldn’t want to make a shift like this. It’s hard to make product that looks good and feels “comfortable” in this setting. So no one wants to say it out loud. Consumer culture is changing though. We are more health aware as a people. My favourite high status trend has got to be a healthy body. It is amazing. 20 years ago, it was cool to not care about health. It was cool to drink a lot and never hit the gym somehow. 

The Built mission is to make bicycles for the feet. Not cars. We don’t want to replace effort. We don’t want to replace natural strength. We would like to support it. 
The bigger challenge while doing this in the format of a consumer brand, is making this kind of consumption desirable. Unless the product is desirable independent of the mission, adoption will have to be forced. We need this to speak to people from the lens of desirability. 

 2 . Brand 
I’ve often struggled to articulate my feelings about what a brand really is. In conversations with other people, but also with myself. I can’t seem to figure out how to take what seems like an extremely firm gut feeling, and articulate it. How do you explain to people that certain businesses aren’t actually brands. That what they’ve achieved, although remarkable, is NOT brand value. It is not with malice that I say this. When I take a firm argument against certain commodity oriented businesses being referred to as brands. But seemingly what I know so far - is that a brand is the outcome achieved when a large set of consumers purchase what you make, not for what it is, but for who you are. Maybe that’s why it is so hard to articulate, because it isn’t really tangible. Does that make sense? I’m not sure. Time will tell. 
I have found that the best way to win an argument, prove a point, or have people believe in your ideas - is to make it happen. 
Jeff Bezos in one of his earliest Amazon shareholder letters famously quotes - the stock markets are, in the short run, voting machines, and in the long run - weighing machines. I didn’t really understand what he meant when I first read this. But as time passes it makes more and more sense to me. Largely, the implication is that if there is real value in what you’re doing, the short term sentiment of people around - be it customers, investors or spectators - will not matter. You will be worth your weight. Your weight being distribution, profit, cash in bank, etc. Whatever it may be. Markets will reflect what you’re actually worth in the long term. 
I see brand in a similar sense. You may try telling people that you are one thing, that you belong some place. Unless your work really reflects this in its most authentic sense - it will not resonate in your identity. It is a patient process. As all forms of mastery are. Building a masterful, resolute business - is a long, patient, pain staking process. Building a brand is a similar pursuit. A parallel one. It involves depth in vision, irrational commitment to counterintuitive decision making. Very often, brand conducive decisions are seemingly not supportive of business growth. This is a short term view. In the long term - if the right balance of brand and business growth are kept in check - the outcome is meaningful. The articulation of a successful brand and business is extremely difficult to do, hence so rare, and meaningful when it happens. This is also not permanent. Like in business and all forms of success, brand value is not something that is owned. It is rented, and rent is due every day. In every decision you take.  

3 . Manufacturing
Martin Scorsese has a famous quote, that goes “The most personal is the most creative”. It is very important that when making something, it is made personal. Not that you cannot learn from the world, reference, even imitate. It is imperative that you are attach intent to every detail. I’ve always been fond of making things. I don’t think the experience of taking a figment of imagination and leading it to a physical entity in your hands is a feeling that will ever get any less exciting than the first time you feel it. 
The most eminent facet of the world of manufacturing, to me, is cohesion. Cohesion shows intent. If every nook and corner of your brand experience does not show intent, such that everything that touches the outside world looks and feels seamlessly like it was created by the same team, by the same creatives - it will lead to an inauthentic energy. It will get in the way of forming the ever so elusive brand value that we keep touching upon. 
Manufacturing is about the details. It is about rolling up your sleeves and putting the time in for the grunt work. It is cathartic, but largely uninspiring. Because it involves repetition, labour, and such. But if not for prowess in this department, the idea of building anything is DOA. Dead on arrival. 
Developing product needs to be incredibly evolving in nature. 

4 . Business 
Business business business. Everything eventually boils down to this. It is the most important of all things because a business being successful in it’s truest sense will allow you to pursue a higher purpose. If your business has money coming in and is making a profit(as is the real end goal of businesses as a construct), it will allow you, as participant of said business to chase a higher purpose. For eg: if Apple wasn’t selling enough phones and making meaningful money year on year, they wouldn’t really be able to afford the privilege of caring for that sexy unboxing experience. Some might argue they make the profits *because* they care for the unboxing experience(metaphor for little details et al), but I think it’s a bit of a chicken and egg game. Also extremely closely linked to brand. I find it tough to segregate my thoughts on the two right now, considering the end goal of our efforts is to build a successful business via a successful brand. Does that make sense? 
The business heading comprises my feelings about how of course the ultimate priority in any business is success of business. We have a slightly finer tuned intention. We want our business to be successful via successful brand building. Not at any costs. That will involve a lot of hard decisions along the way. If we are to achieve said goal, we will have to (most probably) compromise on our brand goals and our brand ambitions in lieu of achieving success in the business. Doing this in a manner that is accounted for, such that brand growth can be achieved soon enough, and is thought through - is the important part. Hope that makes sense. 

5 . Advertising 
Advertising is such a beautiful world. A blend of passionate creatives and hard core business folk have slightly overlapping objectives. More on this later. Maybe in a world where we were less bound by algorithms, a communist internet where everything was given an equal distribution of attention, the world would be a more beautiful place. But we are challenged with the maladies of business metrics - it makes the idea of building integrity in advertising a lot more challenging, but that much more valuable. It is rare. For advertising to be a compoundable activity. Most entities are faced with the opposite path. Advertising is negatively compounding. It comprises brand value. And as they scale, they seem to stray further from who they are and what they could be, erring way too deep into the business objective path. This does lead to growth. It is not the only way. The other way is slightly slower, more thoughtful, and involves significantly more effort per unit of output. Advertising, in the effort of building/achieving brand value - needs to be treated with just as much passion and weightage as manufacturing, product design, and such. If not more. Often time we see bad product sold, and good product unsold. In a setup where good product is sold, it keeps customers coming back and pays its dividends in the form of brand value.