* * * * *
                                        
                               Not bad for $56 …
                                        
> Last summer, Kalman was asked to come up with ideas for a New York City
> design show built around functional elegance, He was struggling when he
> accompanied his children to the shoe store and a clerk pulled out the
> device. There it was, exact and symmetrical, unchanged since the days when
> Kalman used it as a boy. 
> 
> “Perfect,” he says. … 
> 
> Most shoe stores don't get rid of their Brannock Devices for 10 or 15
> years, until the numbers finally wear away from so much use. While Charles
> is guarded about production—he says the company makes “tens of thousands”
> each year—that total could be more. It would require switching to plastic,
> which would guarantee that each device would quickly crumble into ruin. 
> 

Via utopia with cheese [1], Brannock Device foot measuring device [2] 

I've never really given them a second thought. Every shoe store I've been in
has them; I don't think I've ever seen an alternative to the Brannock Device
[3], and I think it's wonderful that the company makes a device that will
last years and won't scrimp on quality just to make a quick buck. 

Alas, if only more companies would follow suit … 

[1] http://www.inu.org/cgi-bin/ensue?200209-009-000
[2] http://www.brannock.com/history.html
[3] http://www.brannock.com/

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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