My general belief is that ideas are worthless, execution is everything. Want to prove it? Talk to a random person about your “great idea” and then show a random person an actual product – great or not. Let me know which gets more interest.
With that in mind I thought it’d be interesting to look at some of the feedback we received at Campless way back when this was just an idea versus a few of the tweets we received recently.
In June of 2012, I had just started collecting data and wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with it. I posted on NikeTalk looking for help. Not only was the feedback overwhelmingly negative, but my post got shut down by a mod.
I posted:
“We are building a sneaker site around data and market analytics – what are sneakers actually worth, how can you tell, what is available in the market, how does value change over time, what does this mean for the resale market, etc. . . . We are looking for one or two part-time developers who love sneakers and want to join the team because they love sneakers . . If interested please email, do not contact through NT”
Here are some of the comments:
people collect and sell sneakers?
Trying to understand the concept.. Why does any of this matter?
Son people look at ebay’s 15 day completed sales to find value of shoes.
What a terrible idea. Shoes are worth what someone will pay. If anyone wants to know what shoes are worth go do eBay search of recently ended items. Your welcome.
And then, finally, the mod:
Do not contact through NT. In other words: “I’m not a legit NikeTalk member, I’m just here to take advantage of the community for personal gain.” Thanks, but no thanks.
OK. That was clear enough. That was the last time I posted on NikeTalk about Campless for almost two years. And to the purpose of the post – exactly zero people volunteered to help.
(fyi, here’s a link to the full thread on NikeTalk)
Now, in comparison, here are a few of the tweets we’ve received in the past two months:
@Campless Data rules all. You guys put out awesome stuff though and it’s a blast to read. Insightful and informative. Well done!
@campless I salute you for your research. It is truly game changing. I can’t wait to see what else you have to bring to the game!!
@Campless should be followed by every sneakerhead.
@Campless just wanted to congratulate you for sharing such valuable info and high brow content with everyone
And my personal favorite:
I’m gonna look back and remember when I followed @Campless when they were still small.
So there you have it – idea vs. execution. This is not to say that we don’t have detractors today or that we can’t do things better – because we do and we can. The point is simply that back when we were in the idea stage, we received exactly zero comments like these, on NikeTalk or anywhere else. And now, in addition to the kind words, we’ve had quite a few people volunteer to help – but we’re always looking for more, see “Join the Team“.
What do you think? What has your experience been with ideas vs. execution?
…..oh, wait, just realized there is no sneakerhead data in this post . . . crap, er, uh . . . quick, OK here ya go . . . there were 8 pairs of the Jordan 7 Miro sold in the past 12 months at an average price of $895 . . . whew.
