// CULT
While I was on holidays, I jokingly remarked to someone at dinner that I could take or leave the 100 ft floating gin palaces tied up in the harbour. My idea of arriving in style was a 1960's vintage Riva speedboat. Oh really? He replied. I've got one - lets take the girls out tomorrow.
He wasn't joking. About the boat anyway.
It was a 1964 Riva Superflorida. A total classic - handmade, sleek and every single one unique in its dimensions and fitout. It got me thinking about a favourite topic of mine - cult brands.
A cult brand is not something you will ever see on an Interbrand survey. Ignore the hype. Coke, Levis or Sony will never be a cult brand. To be cult is by definition to be obscured. You know because you are obsessed, not because you have watched a 30 second spot on television.
Brand history is a big part of cult appeal. I'll tell you a story about one of my favourite cult brands. Its also a story of how I started taking pictures.
About ten years ago, I was in a second hand camera store in San Francisco. There were a bunch of old cameras in a dusty display case. Most were cheap. One, that was particularly beat up, was also insanely expensive. What's with that one? I asked.
You don't know? Replied the shop assistant incredulously. Its a Leica. They invented cameras. He told me the story of the inventor Oskar Barnack and how he had experimented with making a portable camera using some spare 35mm movie picture stock. And then Cartier Bresson, and his classic Paris spontaneous photography, who used the discrete, fast and quiet operation of Leica cameras to capture the decisive moment. I was hooked. I handed over twice the amount of a new camera to buy a dented, vaguely operational one. Why? I wasn't buying a camera, I was buying a dream.
That's the great thing about cult brands. You feel like you are part of something bigger than the object itself. In almost every category of things there will be a standout secret brand that only the most devoted know about. I don't know them all. I know a couple. You will almost certainly know a few yourself.
Don't be shy. I'd love to hear about them.
