Why Is Everything Proprietary These Days?
After 10 years of loyal service, the motorbike jacket that I wear most often gave up the ghost recently and ripped. Being a piece of protective clothing, a rip isn't a good thing, so I've been shopping around for a replacement.
But you see, motorbike jackets are complex, heavy garments that are littered with protective pads. They used to come with back protectors too, but it was later decided that these were too expensive, so you had to buy one separately.
No problem, they're standardised so you buy a good one and it can last you decades. There's just a big void in the back of the jacket with a number of velcro patches that any back protector will cling to.
That's what I have in my old jacket, and I assumed it was still the same now.
So today I bought myself a new jacket. It cost me £380 (on sale!) but you can't put a price on safety, right? I also have protective trousers that zip to my jacket all the way around my waist.
But the zip on my new jacket isn't compatible with the zip on my old trousers (how the fuck can a ZIP be incompatible??) so I bought the matching trousers for the new jacket, costing another £300.
So now I'm £650 lighter in the bank, but I have good quality motorbike clothing that should last me another decade.
This evening I went to swap the back protector from my old jacket to the new, only to find that many manufacturers now have brand-specific pads for their clothing that sit in perfectly sculpted pockets.
The specific back protector (which is a bit of rubber with some holes in it) for my jacket is fifty fucking pounds. So now I'm at £700.
Fifty quid's worth of rubber, apparently
Fuck that. I've bought a generic (but good quality) one, and I'll cut it to size.
Vendor lock-in
Whether it's phones, social networks, communication platforms, printer ink, laptop chargers, smart home systems, games consoles, coffee machines, electric toothbrush heads, camera batteries, or fucking motorbike jacket back protectors. Nothing is interchangeable.
It seems that every day another piece of standardisation is being washed away, and we as consumers need to make our choices, invest, and stick to a brand. You can switch, but it's gonna cost ya!
It's fucking ridiculous.
Over and over again we get shafted, and there's not a single thing we can do about it. I'm so tempted to take the jacket back for a refund, but what do I do then? I need a jacket for riding. I'd be screwed.
Fuck bike jacket manufacturers that do this. Fuck vendor lock-in. Fuck. This.
</rant>
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