
Steve Jobs Book Excerpt: Why he wore the black mock turtleneck uniform - kposehn
http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/11/steve-jobs-book-excerpt-why-he-wore-the-black-mock-turtleneck-uniform/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29
======
michaelpinto
The point of this article isn't the damned turtleneck -- the lesson to learn
is that Jobs was best friends with Issey Miyake. Think about that for a
minute: How many other folks who work in tech in the valley have any friends
who even work in fashion design? Add to that that this is the same guy who
hired Paul Rand the grandfather of American graphic design to come up with the
logo for NeXT. This is also the same man who hired I. M. Pei as an architect
and powered the team that made the first computer animated motion picture. You
can start to see why none of his peers even come close...

~~~
boop
The point of the article is not the turtlenecks or who Steve Jobs knew. The
point is that Steve Jobs was unique and followed his own path. Which other CEO
or person do you know which would wear the same clothes every day?? Most
people wouldn't and would fear they would get laughed at for doing so.

But Steve was unique. Wearing the same clothes every day made sense for Steve
and that is why Steve did that, period. He wasn't concerned about fashion or
trends or what others thought - he did what he felt was right. Period.

That is the lesson of the article.

~~~
Aloisius
_Which other CEO or person do you know which would wear the same clothes every
day??_

All the ones who wear suits?

~~~
officemonkey
That's the answer. At some point in our career, most of us end up wearing some
kind of "uniform."

I used to work for a engineering consulting firm. Kevin, the star engineer
would wear polo shirts, blue jeans, and sneakers. Everyone one else at his
level and above wore suit and tie.

One day the new boss told Kevin that he needed to wear a button down shirt,
suit and tie to meet with the client. Kevin told him "You can't make me wear a
suit and tie. My clients don't care what I wear." The simple moral of the
story was clear: "if you make it rain, you make the rules."

OTOH, he wore jeans, sneakers, and a polo shirt every day. He was hardly a
rebel.

~~~
kamaal
Well, Sorry at some places. Making it rain won't change anything. Heck, you
may make it storm, or cause a earth quake to to happen or even a make Volcano
to explode.

Some workplaces are so strict about dress codes, they just won't change for
any reason. Especially large corporate bureaucracies. They have a crazy like
beliefs that dressing in some way will help their business more than actual
work will.

And going against those norms actually will work against you.

~~~
adestefan
Surprisingly, most large corporate bureaucracies, except for finance, don't
have a dress code. I've seen more dress codes in the medium sized companies.

------
huntero
I was always curious why he would wear such ill-fitting turtlenecks after he
lost so much weight in his sickness. I guess his supply of turtlenecks had
more of a personal story behind them and it wasn't as simple as ordering a
size smaller from the local department store.

------
nostromo
Many articles have been written lately about how an outsider drop-out like
Jobs would have never been given an opportunity to succeed in East Asia.

So it's interesting that here we have a story about how Steve Jobs tried to
introduce a company uniform at Apple that emulated Sony. Especially odd given
the "think different" slogan of the era.

In any case, I love the idea of a personal brand that doesn't change -- and
also the practicality of never deciding what to wear.

~~~
Homunculiheaded
I actually tried this my freshman year of college: wardrobe of nearly
identical shirts, pants and sweaters. I was actually inspired by the idea that
whenever cartoon characters opened their closets you'd see it full of just
their signature outfit. I didn't use the term 'personal brand' but I had the
idea, and also loved the convenience.

Turns out that if you're not Steve Jobs this doesn't work so well. After I had
ended the this phase I received a lot of comments from people assuming I just
never changed clothes, or at the very least found it to be unpleasantly
eccentric behavior. I'm pretty sure that if your true goal is a personal
brand, unless you're already a very public figure, you don't want to go this
route ;)

On the other hand if you aren't interested in personal brand, or are already
branded as eccentric this does make clothes shopping and choosing an outfit
much easier.

~~~
VBprogrammer
On a more practical note but along a related thread, a couple of years ago I
threw out all of my socks and bought a stack of the exact same plain black
socks. Now I never have to worry about matching socks, when a hole appears I
just throw that sock out, when I'm getting low on socks I throw out the lot
and buy them new.

~~~
0x12
Someone wrote a businessplan around you and cleaned up nicely, check out
blacksocks.com and the 'sockscription':

[http://www.blacksocks.com/g3.cms/lang/us/s_page/79110/s_name...](http://www.blacksocks.com/g3.cms/lang/us/s_page/79110/s_name/sockscriptionus)

~~~
vl
Thanks, nice link!

This particular problem appears to be close to being solved for me. I don't
see a value in subscription, but reliable source of getting same high quality
(providing test socks are going to high-quality) socks of the same
color/design in bundles _repeatedly_ is definitely a win.

------
endlessvoid94
I'd LOVE to know any other "failures", however tiny, Jobs had after he came
back to Apple. The idea of him getting booed of the stage is not something you
hear every day.

He's defined publicly by his old failures and recent successes. I'd love to
hear more about more recent failures as well.

~~~
marknutter
They are well documented in the many biographies out there. One that comes to
mind was his time at Pixar. When he oversaw the designing of the new Pixar
headquarters, he had the bathrooms built to be communal (unisex). The
employees were mortified and rebelled against the idea until regular
male/female bathrooms were put in place.

In fact, Jobs was seen as quite a nuisance at Pixar, and the Pixar employees
did as much as they could to limit his meddling. His style of management works
at some companies, but not others, it would seem.

------
JunkDNA
A bit of a meta-comment, but I'm starting to think that I'm going to end up
reading all the surprising and interesting segments of this biography as blog
posts. By the time the book arrives, I fear all that will be left to read is
the boring stuff.

~~~
tjmc
The thing I'd really like to see in the book (but don't expect to) is why Jobs
said no to the Amiga team back in 1983-84 when they were desperately looking
for investors. This was prior to the Mac being launched and Commodore
eventually buying Amiga.

Apparently Jobs said the Amiga had "too much hardware" which confused chief
engineer Jay Miner because all the Amiga's wizardry was handled by 3 custom
chips. Wikipedia alleges that Jobs was just nervous about the Amiga upstaging
the Mac, but it'd be great to know what his thoughts actually were. I suspect
we'll never know...

------
cubix
This reminds me of an interesting story I heard about Honda. Apparently the
workers are made to wear white uniforms on the factory floor. If a smudge of
dirt is found on a uniform, it is deemed a flaw in the system and supposedly
the line is shut down until its origin has been determined.

------
mathattack
I find it very strange that non-conformist Jobs who hated 1984ish IBM would be
pro-uniform. It's a good story in the overload of Jobsian mythology. It shows
a different side of him - that he worried about culture in addition to
product, that he wasn't always consistent, and that even He could make design
mistakes. Much more human a story than the usual fluff.

~~~
stretchwithme
Just when you think a maverick is following the maverick game plan, he
deviates.

~~~
jarek
By this definition, there is no maverick game plan.

~~~
ichc-werker
Upon hearing this, jarek was enlightened.

------
egiva
>>So it's interesting that here we have a story about how Steve Jobs tried to
introduce a company uniform at Apple that emulated Sony. Especially odd given
the "think different" slogan of the era.<<

I'd say that to be different in the areas most important to you (usually
creative endeavors), you strip all the layers and unnecessary fluff off of
your life and boil everything down to pure essence. For that reason, wearing
the same thing every day actually liberates your senses and allows you to
focus creative energies elsewhere.

This obviously doesn't apply to you if you are a fashion designer =) Jobs was
a pretty busy guy, so i'm guessing that removing that extra decision each day
actually helped his productivity and creativity.

------
ary
When reading this keep in mind that the Mac was still a skunkworks project
inside of Apple when Jobs attempted to institute a uniform policy. Some of the
comments have suggested this doesn't jive with the "Think Different" ethos he
pushed. The Think Different campaign was initiated in 1997 shortly after his
_return_ to Apple. Many things transpired and he matured quite a bit in the
intervening ~16/17 years.

~~~
warmfuzzykitten
jibe

~~~
ary
Thanks. Wish I'd seen that typo before my ability to edit went away.

------
wfwef
“I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”

~~~
jackgavigan
Yeah, that struck me too.

------
Jun8
"...its ability to convey a signature style..."

This is important yet overlooked! There is a lot of advice for up and coming
founders on HN (and other places) ranging from scalability minutiae to naming
your company, which are all important of course, but there is very little
advice on how to dress to create a personal signature style.

Why hasn't a site that aims to do this hackers/startup founders crop up, with
advice like, what sort of sweater would look good with your Timbuk2 bag, etc.

~~~
untog
It's funny that it really, horribly clashes with the idea of "Think
Different", though.

~~~
kposehn
Not really - he did indeed Think Different by doing exactly what most other
CEO's (then and now) did not, imho.

------
alabut
It's the same rationale as the fashion designer Michael Kors and why he's been
wearing the same black shirt, black blazer and dark jeans for years - to
become "post-fashion" and have his own signature style that he doesn't have to
think about and coordinate every day.

And much like Jobs, he used to dress like a hippie flower child early in his
career and he realized sometime later how dated that looked, so he needed a
timeless look.

~~~
jarek
There's no such thing as a timeless look. The only look I can think of going
back to as late as the 60s - only 50 years - that could reasonably be claimed
to be "timeless" is the business suit - and even that is becoming to look...
unsuitable in an increasing number of settings.

~~~
wazoox
An ordinary black suit, white shirt, black tie and black pants would be about
ordinary from 1830 onwards. See [http://lecostumeatraverslessiecles.chez-
alice.fr/Costumes/XI...](http://lecostumeatraverslessiecles.chez-
alice.fr/Costumes/XIXe/1830-1845_masculin.htm)

~~~
ovi256
The cut, fit (tighter or looser) and details such as pant length would date it
pretty well. There's no such thing as a standard suit.

------
ForrestN
I've read a number of times references to the sweaters coming from St. Croix,
for example:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Croix_(clothing)>
[http://www.stcroixshop.com/stcroix/default.asp?s_id=0&](http://www.stcroixshop.com/stcroix/default.asp?s_id=0&);

An interesting mystery! A lifetime's supply of Issey Miyake would surely
obviate the need to by them from this random shop, right? Am I missing
something?

For what it's worth, I hope they come from Miyake, who's a genius in his own
right.

Bonus: another person who is staggeringly good at her job, wearing a black
turtleneck:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XY3AvVgDns>

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
Unless I've missed it, nowhere on their shop page does it say that Jobs wore
their turtlenecks, merely that he was a "fan" of theirs, and the Wikipedia
fact is uncited (now marked as such).

~~~
ForrestN
Another link, from the WaPo:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/steve-
job...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/steve-jobs-fashion-
icon/2011/10/11/gIQA0o6LdL_blog.html)

"Jobs preferred $175 St. Croix cotton and microfiber mock black turtlenecks.
According to Bernhard Brenner, the founder of Knitcraft, St. Croix’s parent
company, Jobs bought about two dozen black turtlenecks each year."

------
ankeshk
Interesting. I always thought how Jobs made the decision to wear the same
clothes was similar to how Feynman made a decision to eat the same icecream
(chocolate) all the time. They both thought it was pointless to decide about
mundane things and would rather spend time on other more worthy problems.

Interesting to read about how he wore a uniform for better bonding purposes.

~~~
cycojesus
That's just sad. At least in the ice-cream case just point a random flavor,
none or little more effort spent and a whole new world of potential surprises.

~~~
epo
An affectation really (like wearing a bow-tie). "I'm so important I can't even
be bothered to think about what ice cream I want", if true probably done just
to be the subject of an anecdote.

------
minikomi
Very odd. I can find no reference to Sony's uniform having been designed by
Issey Miyake, even in Japanese, other than this one anecdote.

Edit: There is some allusion to it, yet no direct reference .. However, it
seems he was generally interested in using Japanese fabrics to make clothes
for workers in the 1970s, so it is definitely possible.

~~~
ramchip
Actually, googling "三宅一生 ソニー" returns a Sony time capsule:

ソニーのユニフォームは何回かデザイン変わってますけど、1981年に採用が決まった最後のユニフォームはなんと三宅一生氏のデザインですよ。

Translation: The design for the Sony uniform has changed several times, but
the last uniform for the hiring of 1981 was a design of Issey Miyake.

Ref:
[http://www.sony.co.jp/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/capsule...](http://www.sony.co.jp/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/capsule/04/index.html)

Edit: there's an English version here
[http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/capsule/0...](http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/capsule/04/index.html)

~~~
MrKurtHaeusler
What about any actual pictures of the designs?

~~~
ramchip
I googled for a while in both languages and couldn't find one, unfortunately.
I did find a book on Amazon Japan with Sony uniform pictures (amongst other
companies), but I doubt the specific uniform here is included.

------
philwelch
The funny thing is that, watching some of Apple's product announcement videos,
some execs wear a similar black-shirt-and-jeans outfit. Scott Forstall jumps
to mind.

I actually have, from a friend of a friend, a black long-sleeved sweatshirt
made for Apple promoting iMovie. It's not quite a turtleneck but the
resemblance is interesting.

------
rastafark
I always figured he was inspired by Tom Wolfe, who always wore a white suit in
public. Wolfe emerged in the sixties and wrote novels about the counter
culture movement. Job's references to things like 'the whole earth catalog'
and other 60s icons always seem to point to his style.

~~~
3oheme
Any book or interview to read more? It sounds interesting

~~~
9999
This interview from Fresh Air on NPR is really excellent:

[http://www.npr.org/2011/08/12/139383916/tom-wolfe-
chroniclin...](http://www.npr.org/2011/08/12/139383916/tom-wolfe-chronicling-
countercultures-acid-test)

Wolfe explains why he wore the suit and how it worked in practice when touring
around with Kesey. Really great.

------
ludwigvan
I don't understand how the turtleneck was the outcome of a design by Issey
Miyake, i.e. isn't it just a standard black turtleneck, or are there some
design aspects I'm not seeing? I would love some design-centric person to
explain this "uniform" in detail.

------
mvkel
This is something I've thought about for a while. If you find something you're
comfortable wearing and eliminate the "what am I wearing today?" process from
your daily routine, your mind is that much more engaged in thoughts that
matter.

~~~
maxwell
I used to feel the way you do, before I met my girlfriend and saw myself
through her eyes. She felt about my graphic tees and ill-fitting pants the way
I did about her MySpace page's design.

I realized that what you wear affects people offline about as much as your
webpage's stylesheet does online. It shows your creativity, attention to
detail, and sense of design, or lack thereof. What you're wearing is already
influencing what people think of you, whether you choose to acknowledge it or
not. As with all those local businesses that don't think about their website.

It only matters if you care what other people think. If you can afford not to,
or only interact with people virtually, great. But, whether you care or not,
if you wear clothes that don't fit or the same outfit every day, people will
probably think you have no taste/money/fun. There's a reason Steve Jobs used
to dress like this:

[http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-BC890_Jobsda_DV...](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-BC890_Jobsda_DV_20111009180540.jpg)

You can bet he dressed differently at the Homebrew Computer Club meetings. And
nothing wrong with programming in only a towel. Fashion is dynamic. Yes, it's
just personal styling, but it's no more "superficial" than your CSS. Wearing a
black or white t-shirt/polo/button-down and jeans/khakis is like using the
default Wordpress/Posterous theme on your blog.

Does it really take that long to decide what to put on? Vint Cerf found time
to dress with style and still invent the internet.

There's a reason software hasn't eaten politics, law, finance, apparel, and
hospitality yet. Indochino and Airbnb are certainly a start with the latter
two, and no surprise, they dress with style when appropriate[1][2].

[1] [http://www.indochino.com/product/The-Ultimate-Navy-Blue-
Blaz...](http://www.indochino.com/product/The-Ultimate-Navy-Blue-Blazer) [2]
<http://www.airbnb.com/founding-team>

------
iamwil
Just like Mr. Rogers has a closet full of the same clothes.

------
Steko
I think the lesson to take away is not about the designers or fashion so much
but to see this as one aspect of Jobs getting past the bullshit to spend more
time on the important stuff.

Five minutes less spent thinking about what to wear each morning translates to
30 more hours a year you have to focus on the big things (products, strategy,
family, exercise, whatever).

Prolly also has something to do with why he drove a Benz 55 AMG with 500 hp.

~~~
brakakak
Although the story begins by describing a search for a team uniform, it seems
he adopted the standard dress for convenience and, as you note, personal
efficiency.

But you lose me with the last sentence. Nice cars allow busy people a couple
pleasurable moments to themselves - moments well appreciated by those of us
taking little to no vacation.

~~~
Steko
Was just talking about how he drove fast because time spent in traffic is like
time wasted picking out clothes to wear.

There are other more primal things that driving fast delivers too, I'm sure
Jobs didn't just drive fast for efficiency reasons.

------
zargath
I see it as: remove focus away from anything but the product. The stage is
boring, the screen is boring, the slides maybe not boring but simple, the
person is not interessting. Steve was already rock star. Just like the ring in
LOTR movies. How you make impact with such a small product. Steve wanted
everybody to hunger for creations and his work.

------
donniefitz2
I always wondered what the story was behind the outfit. I thought the shirts
were made by an European designer though.

~~~
kposehn
Kind of fascinating where inspiration can be drawn from.

------
thenewgreen
What is a brand? It's a symbol that identifies a good or service. The best
brands are instantly recognizable, and apple with a bite missing... or a guy
in black turtleneck. Both were brilliant moves.

He branded himself as "the" innovator of our times. Was the turtleneck
intentional marketing?

~~~
stream_fusion
I suspect it was a marketing decision. The consistency of his clothing choice,
helps to reinforce the brand (in this case Steve and Apple) in the public mind
via his portrayal in media. For those who are aware he always chose the same
clothes it's merely an idiosyncratic trait, however for the wider public who
are only dimly aware of leading computer figures, it aids recognition ("ahh
that's that guy, who runs Apple") above the background noise. There's a bit of
an analogy with brand connection/consistency in choosing similar product names
eg - iMac, iPod, iPhone. Consistency, helps cross-recognition and positive
association. It's all a carefully crafted narrative for the public mind.

------
itaborai83
I'm sorry he didn't get to order another batch from Issey Miyake

------
DrewHintz
Does anyone have a photo of the Sony employee uniform?

~~~
burke
I just spent 10 minutes googling for it and came up empty-handed. Odd that
it's so hard to find.

~~~
alf
So did I. It's odd that something that can't be found in 10 minutes is now
considered "hard to find".

------
warmfuzzykitten
Actually, if all I'm going to get from the book is Steve's turtlenecks, I
wouldn't buy it. Who planted this link and why does anyone care?

------
orionlogic
I wonder how apple related sites spoil most of the book content before it
arrive at my door.

------
frsandstone
As if I needed more incentive to buy the book.

------
j45
A uniform to remind him of his own discipline towards achieving his goals.
Interesting.

------
nirvana
To my mind, the bow-tie Steve and the turtleneck Steve are almost two
different people. Long hair, sometimes a mustache, vs. short hair, the and
maybe stubble. I've been following Apple and Steve for over 20 years, and
there doesn't seem to be a transition between the two in my memory.

~~~
philwelch
Steve wore full beards during the early turtleneck era with frightening
consistency.

------
infocaptor
anyone remember the episode from Seinfeld where his girlfriend is wearing the
same dress everytime they go out and Jerry suspects if she has closet full of
same dress..

