In New York, there are stores that pay people to walk around wearing large sandwich board signs that point them towards the store. The other day I saw a guy in a bright, banana-yellow jacket with a big black logo that covered the guy’s back entirely.

At first I thought it was one of those sandwich board signs. The logo was courtesy of a big outdoor gear brand. I won’t name names, but you know.

I felt bad for the guy. The sneakiest head fake in corporate branding is tricking people into paying out the nose for the privilege of looking like walking billboards.

Not you, though. You are a legend in the making.

The Jacket is Not the Hero

Not the watch, not the knife, not the pen, not the car, not the house you own — you are the hero. And by hero, I don’t mean some ego-driven maniac.

I mean a hero in the sense of combating adversity with courage and endurance. It’s someone who lives a life that leaves a story worth telling.

There’s a life in you waiting to break out. Break through.

It’s who you are becoming.

Your legacy is waiting, but it will not chase you down. You will need to shed that heavy shell of who you once were, in order to get agile, go light, be nimble.

You make it. You write it. You build it. You live it. Creating in the chaos. Day by day, hour by hour.

My Favorite Complaint

The funniest thing to me is the people who complain that our watch dials look too empty. Too Spartan. Too austere. Feels unbalanced.

We’ve been so trained into having some logo plastered on our watches that we can feel uncomfortable without them. It can make people feel naked. Kind of exposed.

Of course I don’t think we’d ever admit it, but it’s like we’re afraid to stand on our own. We hide behind the brands we flash.

But they don’t own a piece of my wrist. They don’t own my identity. I want to remember that I own my time.

So you’ll never hear us tell you to celebrate how long we’ve been around. We don’t have fancy brand ambassadors.

We Amplify Good Signal.

Not celebs. Not bling.

When we check the time, we don’t need to see a logo, like a billboard on your wrist. They can keep their pretty ads with pretty faces and airbrushed bods.

Of course, we all signal a part of who we are by the things we buy. The cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the gear we choose.

And there are brands that I respect and have no issues rocking. But they’re subtle and understated. It’s like a wordless head nod. A sign of respect. You know the one. It’s a quiet fist bump that requires no fanfare.

One of my favorite stories is when one of our crew members found himself in the hospital, and when the doctor came in he was wearing a COURG. It was a shared moment. A bond in the crew.

That’s why we only sign our crowns and keep the brand stealth — even on the dials. You and I know it’s there, and we got your back, and we don’t need to broadcast anything.

We’re a crew that tackles missions.