Hiya,
Thanks for reading this. For some reason you’ve felt like knowing more about our company besides our guides.
The short version of this post is that:
If you don’t want to read the whole blah-blah (which I think is worth reading), feel free to scroll until you see “the announcement is here, if you’re skipping” written in bold, bigger text. If not, stick with me as I’ll explain what this Newsroom thing is about and… just read the whole thing if you’ve got time!
I’m in a weird spot to be honest, as I don’t think you, our readers, are very fond of reading lots and lots of stuff.
Us, gen Z + millennial people, prefer videos and whatnot.
I mean yes, we can see our readers spend a lot of time reading the fake vs real comparison guides (spending north of 5 minutes per article, most of the time), but I just assumed that happens because.. you know, your hundreds (or thousands) of $ are at stake — your want to prevent wearing a fake item.
So if you’re here reading this — thanks!
For some reason you thought this is important.
We created this place here called the Newsroom. And I wanted to talk to you a bit about it, along with our first announcement.
We’ll share here information about our company: milestones, new products, new great things we want to do for you.
I’m not very good at sharing stuff about my life, so I am to write stuff like milestones we’ve reached or what else we’re up to — but I might forget. If I do, it means I’m building something else along with the team… something for you hopefully!
Anyway, onto the big news.
So here’s the deal: Legit Check By Ch initially started as the Legit Check App. An iOS-only app which had 4 guides on how to spot fake sneakers. These guides were for:
The full history of LCA may be for another post, but fast-forward to today, my brother Ch David has joined as a co-founder along the way (in April 2019, to be precise) into what became Legit Check By Ch.
From initially just 4 guides, we’ve built in time hundreds of guides for hundreds of items, gathered millions of users and thousands of authentications (and built an authentication service in the first place!).
All of it was built for the streetwear/high-end community.
Yes, I understand that to those of you haven’t been in for the whole journey it just looks like a business, but the truth is:
Here’s the thing though: between the initial Legit Check App and Legit Check By Ch, there were many months in which… no progress was made.
I neglected it.
But then that changed. Let me paste a relevant bit from the “History of Legit Check By Ch” letter I reserved for another post:
After seeing a certain number of users I can’t remember, I decided this thing (Legit Check App, as a product)… this thing wasn’t going to be my main activity or even a business, but it deserved more attention. I just checked analytics and I can see that on the 1st of April 2019, we’ve had 350k all-time users. To me, 350k users deserved better than a barely-put-together app with limited UI/UX and only a handful of guides (at most 10 guides by now).
So the moment I decided to make this more serious was when I noticed a bigger number of people that I expected used the app.
My personal needs didn’t include doing something out of the Legit Check App — I spent time doing graphic design gigs.
What I go on and say in that post is that, after a certain point, it’s not about me and my needs anymore.
Rather it’s about the position in which I was put in: it’s in my hands to do something about what 350,000 people (at that time) have spent on average 3 minutes of their life. That’s more than a million minutes, which means:
Don’t get me wrong — I’m not boasting about the lucky position in which I was put in (I actually do, involuntarily, but as a side effect). I’m trying to draw attention to the fact that 2 years of humanity’s time were spent on something I had made, but also upon which I had more control to build.
What I’m trying to say is that there is some sort of responsibility. And the thought of leaving that to waste (which was what happened with every day of neglecting it) was… somehow a pressure.
No one likes to waste potential, regardless of whether we admit it or not. It’s in our brains (because of our ancestors who’ve managed to reproduce) to have a system against wasting potential.
I made this overdramatic story in which I acted as if I was a grandpa telling his kids about “the days in the beginning” with a cause.
No, it wasn’t because I believe I made “this great thing” and that “I’m successful, buy my ebook” or that sort of crap.
No, I get that what I’m doing is irrelevant to 99.9% of the world and I do not act as if I’m the man. Plus, what I made so far is only “the early days” compared to what I’m set out to build.
What I trying to get to is that I find myself in the same situation today:
We’ve reached the 2 million mark in all-time users recently and the same feeling is grasping me: the responsibility that we, as a company (and as a brotherly duo), can do more than is in our hands. And that if we’re not doing it, it’s a waste.
Yes, the guides are helpful — but they’re already there. Sure, we will write more guides — but there are only so many items we can cover for fake vs real comparisons.
We wanted to look at what’s wrong in the marketplace and who we can help. Who is within our reach to help. And here’s what we’ve done.
So this new tool is called the Legit Check By Ch Organizer.
I know — what a long name, right? If only I wasn’t narcissistic enough to want that “By Ch” in everything we do, the name would’ve been shorter. But that’s who I am so the name stays.
Anyway, we’ll call it the “Organizer” for short.
It’s a tool made for the independent resellers: a class of resellers that we don’t want to die.
We’ve written the background for this tool here, in this public letter, so do have a read to understand why the independent reseller is dying.
And I can already hear some of you, not resellers, who will not like this. But the truth is: independent resellers were always part of the streetwear community, and seeing them disappear in front of the platforms/middlemen companies will make the situation even worse. There are those who hate resellers and complain nonetheless, since they don’t get sneakers/items easily for retail. But that’s the fun of the community.
Onto the tool, however!
I won’t explain here how it works, as that’s why we made the presentation website.
Over there, you’ll see for yourself how it looks, what it does and how it does it.
The point of this post was to announce it and to tell you one thing: we’ve worked hard on it, think it’s a great tool and it’s… our “gift”, so to speak. I know, we’re charging for it: it’s an unspoken contract in which, if people reward us with their money (because the Organizer actually helps them), we upgrade it so that it helps them even more.
I have the audacity of calling it a gift because, if you’ve read the letter, here’s the big problem: no one is taking care of the independent resellers.
The middlemen platforms are pretending to do that, but pretending to care and taking a % out of a reseller’s profit — those are two different things.
The problem is simple and clear: the independent resellers are getting swallowed by % fees and platforms that are bigger than them.
They need an alternative. I’m not against disbanding these middlemen platform, but I think there should be an option: the option to be independent or, as a last resort (or in some cases), sell through a middleman platform.
A world in which more resellers are swallowed by the platform looks darker: what about the nice feeling of meeting someone for a pickup? What about the hustling and all that… you know… street contact, since it’s called streetwear?
All these are going away, one UPS delivery at a time.
Streetwear is moving online. But it cannot be resumed to just people going on the street to take pictures and then online-only. No, it’s in the name: there are more “street” elements than just the background of an IG fitpic.
Part of it implies meeting with your plug to buy your things. And every now and then becoming friends or cracking a joke with them.
You know what’s jokes with middlemen platforms? The message you get back from customer support that, if you don’t like your item, you can resell it on their platform (obviously, at a loss).
All these are going away, one UPS delivery at a time.
So that’s why we made the Organizer. Two more things I wanted to note about the tool:
The Organizer is far from done and wants to do something bigger than what it does now. It’s why I’ve taken all this time to write all this context: what we plan to do is to create a network of serious resellers.
This way, if independent resellers are connected to each other, they won’t be swallowed by middlemen platforms.
Yes, it’s got a high price of entry, but that’s what you might want as well.
If we charged, say, $5/mo for a subscription, the rate of people who are not serious about it would be higher. We decided to give out this pre-order offer simply because if you’re reading this, you’re an early adopter.
But ultimately we want to have only serious resellers within this network. A place where people can only get in if they’re serious about reselling (and that implies a strong filter of entry).
As you might see on the website, the Organizer is not available yet for purchase. We’ve announced our launch here, as well as a deadline (end of October 2020), since we’re still refining the tool.
The tool is available for pre-order with an offer: if you pre-order it now, you will be receiving two sets of discounts:
In other words, we’d like to return the favour of supporting us in our mission before our launch.
To make thing easier, we’re also offering a lenient refund policy, so if you change your mind, are strapped for cash for whatever reason or simply don’t want the pre-order offer anymore, email us and we’ll refund with no hesitation. Besides, you’ll also have a 30-day no-hassle refund window, from the moment we launch. Again — if you won’t like it, we’ll return your money.
The streetwear community deserves more than non-caring customer support emails from non-caring middlemen platforms.
Buying from a middleman platform means supporting someone who doesn’t care what happens after the sale, because they’re too big.
Buying from a reseller (a respected one) means you’re supporting someone who’s hustling and who will (most likely) take care of the situation if it goes wrong in any way.
The independent resellers deserve to be taken care of with tools. A proper technological upgrade. A proper type of help.
We’ve taken care of exactly that.
Thank you if you’re supporting us in our mission, and if not… thanks anyways for reading this long post! It means something to us, and we’ll keep doing our best to help the streetwear/high-end designer community, just like we’ve done so far.
If you want to help us in a different way (or in another way!), share this post somewhere: your local Facebook group, to your friend or to your cookgroup — we wish other people would know about a weird bunch of people who write software and authentication guides in an effort to help the community! (that’s us)
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My name is Ch Daniel and you can read about everything I’m doing here, along with my masterplan.
The main projects I’m focusing on right now are the CH Group and the software we make as part of the group, and Legit Check By Ch, an authentication company for streetwear/high-end luxury items.
