24
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
24 points (100.0% liked)
TechTakes
2562 readers
54 users here now
Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.
For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
What the fuck happened here. How did a shoe company get so high and how on earth did it lose 98% of its value? Were shoes really big during covid and then the demand disappeared, wtf
@V0ldek @techtakes
Bro we all run on tank tracks these days, we're all absolutely crushing it in the workplace Bro shoes are so pre-AI, you can't grow forever all the way to upload heaven on a sole
(Pops another Special K)
@cstross @V0ldek @techtakes I don't know what "Special K" means in the context of "Pops another Special K", but I choose to visualize opening one of those snack sized boxes of Special K cereal and chugging it down in one go.
@isaackuo
yes, though it's the extra-ketamine flavour box :D
@cstross @V0ldek @techtakes
@Landa @cstross @V0ldek @techtakes Oh wow. The BOX is flavoured? You don't even have to open the box. You just chomp it down along with the contents.
This is brilliant! Quick I need to Shark Tank pitch this and get rich quick. And then when the product tanks I'll pivot to AI and get even richer quicker!
@isaackuo Movers and shakers ain't got time to unpack, just chomp down on the whole box.
It will make you instantly look like the alphaest of ~~Alpha^WSigmas~~
Lots of fibre too!
@cstross @V0ldek @techtakes
@isaackuo @Landa @V0ldek @techtakes AI is so 2026, Bro, to get ahead of the game for 2027 you need to pivot to Quantum Computing, ideally on the blockchain in an orbital data centre.
@V0ldek @sansruse
Didn't you read the 4th or 5th volumes of the Hitchhikers trilogy? Where the Golgafrinchan's (?) economy went through the "Shoe Event Horizon" after the B-ark left, and the survivors took flight, very literally. Built a 5km tall statue of DentArthurDent throwing a teacup, and nested in the teacup.
All predicted. Techbrodudes making reality match (published) history.
The Golgafrinchans shipped off the B Ark and then died of a plague (book 2). The Shoe Event Horizon happened on Brontitall (radio series) or Frogstar World B (book 2).
@V0ldek @sansruse
The shoes are/were good. I wear them daily now. Every librarian I know in New Zealand wears them to work, a quick poll in my wider development team at work had 80% of the people wearing them that day and 90% owned at least one pair.
My guess is someone convinced the founders they could break into the US market and become billionaires, so they took on debt and VC funding and were crushed under the repayments when it didn’t work out.
If they’d been happy making good shoes, taking home a million bucks a year and staying a profitable business in NZ, I think they’d still be doing that.
Greed mucks everything up…
@V0ldek @sansruse I'm sure a lot of people thought what with the mRNA vaccines people would grow at least one extra leg.
When that didn't happen, well...
@V0ldek @sansruse
There was a big consumer migration from brick and mortar to online. All of the people who thought themselves the smartest people in the room just knew that would last forever And that the trend in growth would never stop. "Line go up forever!"
The line did not got up forever, and in 22-23 when there was a return to brick and motor many online businesses were hurt from Amazon to online shoe retail.
@V0ldek @sansruse another Meme stock, like Tesla and OpenAI? Where the valuation bears no relation to actual sales or profitability.
And now it seems they are trying again.
@V0ldek @sansruse @cstross The serious answer is that, like many smaller high street retailers, its business - and its business model - got entirely destroyed by the pandemic.
@V0ldek @sansruse
Shoes were *huge* during Covid, do you not remember when all our feet swelled up?
Sorry