If I Built it. They said they would come. But they haven’t.
“I would TOTALLY use an app for exchanging materials if it existed!”
“We really need some sort of shared costume stock!”
I’ve heard some version of this in almost every conversation I’ve had with other theatre designers for the better part of 2 decades.
Well, I made an app.
I made a shared costume stock.
So, WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
I know growth is slow, but I thought this was in demand! I’m dismayed that we don’t have more people participating in Conscious Costume offerings. Okay I’m not expecting THOUSANDS of people right away but maybe like 10 people on the app? Instead there’s 1 person who has signed up, and listed nothing. You can sign up here.
This is exasperating! I’ve invested countless hours into developing this marketplace and it’s been crickets on the platform since launching a week ago.
So here’s potential reasons it’s been slow
They don’t know about it - I’ve only released the platform to a small pool of sellers/providers (about 200 people) to help populate the marketplace before releasing it to the wider public. This will mean there are items to shop, examples of what to post, and we’ve worked out some of the kinks with a smaller, trusted group of people.
They don’t want it - I find this hard to believe, people have loved the idea when I’ve talked about it. We won $5k for development of the marketplace so clearly the panel of judges liked the idea.
They don’t have time for it - Changing habits is hard, learning a new tool takes time. I imagine a world where designers could take on less work while still paying their bills because this marketplace exists. I dream that material sharing could free up a tiny bit of time on each show so that sharing materials is an integral part of their career. People save time looking for costumes to borrow because everything is in one, easy to search place. Plus, they can then make a little extra money on the side with extra fabrics or costumes.
With the closing of Joann’s, I don’t want to just move that purchasing to Amazon (which also owns Fabric.com), I want to keep my money, my time, and my stuff in my community. My community is Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, costume artists, queer people, and leftists.
That’s what I’m trying to build here, a simple way for us to support each other when the US economy has left us behind.
To that end, here are a few resources that I recommend for choosing community over capitalism.
Barterloo - an ad free, investor free, barter based platform. There’s a small monthly membership fee to support the platform but I’d rather support something like this than a corporation and get stuff via bartering! I’m an ambassador so I’ll get a small kickback if you sign up.
Community currencies or “Scrip” - here’s a list of community currencies around the US, see if there’s one in your area and sign up! Also try searching outside of this list, perhaps there are start ups that aren’t listed here, or get some folks together to start your own. I’m a member of involveMINT - a community currency in the Pittsburgh area. You earn credits by doing volunteer work on the network and then spend them at businesses signed up to the network. So far I’ve bought beer at Hazel Grove Brewing and a meal from a food truck on the network! More people and businesses on the network will help it really supplement the mainstream economy and give more people access to more stuff!
Want to share why you’re not using our resources? Let me know in the comments or an email.
