Double Bubble Trouble: Eric Janszen and NAU
Every now and then, working at Scribe, I get hit with something unexpected when I walk through the front door. Sometimes, literally, like a tripod to the forehead or an inertial birthday cake to the chest.
This time, however, I came into our studio to find Eric Janszen in the hotseat, talking about iTulip, home to his contrarian economic forecasts. I knew not of iTulip at the time. However, I was aware of Janszen, as he had recently published “The Next Bubble”, the cover article in the February 2008 Harper’s Magazine, home to all things good and true.
Before I could put my bag down and check through my RSS, Peter grabs me and tells me that I’m interviewing Eric as soon as he’s done with his iTulip piece. Great rainy day to do a cold interview, I think to myself, only to realize that I elected to dress down in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. And my hair’s a total mess. Whoops.
Luckily, what should have arrived that morning but my delayed xmas gifts from NAU. If you haven’t heard, NAU is the most visionary ecological and socially just clothing brand to grace these United States. Also, if you haven’t heard, their clothes are now collector’s items, but more on that later.
So, I rip into NAU’s thoughtfully minimal packing to find an appropriate dress shirt that I throw on top of my modest tee and I’m good to go interview a Harper’s cover author. Awesome.
Considering I had very little prep time, the interview didn’t come off half-bad (perhaps, because I looked half-decent juxtaposed to Mr. Janszen’s suit and sweater.) In the interview, we discuss the economy, the prospect of another bubble (or bubbles) impacting financial markets and what makes clean technology industries so enticing to investors right now. He even laughed at a few of my jokes. Maybe he liked my hat.
But little did I know that this little conversation of ours would end up coming around to haunt the fine folks at NAU.
As I alluded to earlier, NAU items are now collectors items…for now, at least. Let me explain:
I was startled to receive an email from an old friend (and roommate) of mine, stating that NAU had gone under amid the “current highly risk-averse capital market”. Ironically, this means NAU has bowed out due to the sort of bubble Janszen and I were discussing. Cursed, dreadful irony.
Now, if I were a good little capitalist, I would smugly sit back and watch the value of my now-rare NAU duds rise in value. Not my style. Instead, I would like to ask (ok, plead) that anyone with the resources, connections or know-how to please get in touch with NAU and resuscitate their business ASAP.
NAU tried to do everything the right way, the entire way and were well on their way, until they got smacked down by a seemingly unrelated market force. They showed a lot of vision and care for both the environment and their communities, local and global. Their clothes were also ridiculously fun and comfortable to wear. I think it only fitting that the ‘clean and green’ community show how much they care about businesses like NAU by rescuing it from ruin.
Curtiss P. Martin grew up in a geodesic dome on the side of a mountain in Southern Appalachia. Now he serves as ScribeMedia's clean technology editor in a tall building in downtown Manhattan.
[…] the forehead or an inertial birthday cake to the chest. This time, however, I came into our studiohttp://www.scribemedia.org/2008/05/07/janszen-nau/At least one NAU program on probation Arizona Daily SunDespite NAU’s overall success in the […]