Why I’m Asking Before I Start Washing

I could have opened for orders on day one. The machines exist. The detergent exists. The pants, I assume, exist. Instead I built a website that asks you about your pants and doesn't let you send them. There's a reason.

The one question

This entire company rests on one question: will people actually mail their pants to someone?

I have strong feelings about the answer. Strong feelings are not data. So before buying more equipment, arranging professional cleaning partners, building an ordering system and writing shipping workflows, I'm asking.

What the form is actually for

When you tell me about your pants, a few things happen. I learn how many pairs people would realistically send at once, which decides box sizes and whether the Pants Like Company discount matters. I learn what kind of pants, which decides how much specialty cleaning capacity to line up. I learn how often, which decides whether this is a novelty or a habit. And I learn what you'd expect to pay, which is the part I'm most nervous about.

The ZIP code isn't for anything sinister. It tells me where demand is, which affects shipping costs and where it makes sense to start.

What you get for answering

You're on The Pants List. You'll hear when ordering opens, before anyone else. You'll get early access and introductory offers, and the earliest members are in line for Founding Pants status, which I'll define properly before launch rather than inventing perks now that I can't deliver.

What happens next

If enough people say yes, I start washing pants. If not very many people say yes, I'll have learned something valuable about America and its pants, and I'll tell you what I learned.

Either way, thank you for reading a company blog post about whether a company should exist. It's an unusual genre.