The Human Condition

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====== Bespoke Goods ======

Merriam-Websters defines bespoke as custom-made. We might broadly define bespoke goods as the hand made or labor intensive product of any art or craft, a product that might be replaced at a lower price by a mass produced substitute. 

In the context of economics, especially theory of value, that would mean bespoke goods are akin to [[analysis:economics:value:veblen_goods|Veblen Goods]] in that the pleasure or use a consumer gets from them depends on them being rare, or at least comparatively high in price.

[[wp>Thorstein_Veblen|Thorstein Veblen,]] (who obviously lent his name to Veblen Goods) would probably say that consumers chose bespoke goods over some lower-priced industrial version because owning the handmade is a way for the consumer to  display [[wp>Conspicuous_consumption|conspicuous consumption]] or its cousin, conspicuous leisure.

That answer seems incomplete to us - take a consumer who has three choices, a set of cheap and utilitarian dishes, a set of expensive dishes trimmed with gold leaf, or a set of handmade dishes from a potter. The hand thrown pots and the gold trimmed plates might both demonstrate conspicuous consumption, but their appeal (their [[0main| value]] to the consumer) is clearly different.

Maybe consumers can feel more of a connection to things they know the history of. Maybe they get some satisfaction from supporting artisans. Be that as it may, some subjective theories of [[0main| value]] like those of Veblen or Mike Benedikt suggest that bespoke goods should become more popular once industrial products reach a saturation point, in other words where they are cheap enough for everyone to afford.
The Human Condition

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