Sufficiency: Black Friday at Vitsœ

A letter from Mark Adams on sufficiency, and why there is still no Black Friday at Vitsœ.

I last wrote in January – about what we don't do at Vitsœ.

But, after the northern hemisphere summer that has just passed – and despite my implied promise – I feel compelled to write again. Many have confused (hot) weather with climate (breakdown), culminating in collapsing glaciers reminding us shockingly of the seriousness of what is unfolding.

Then the AI titans relayed their belief in the potential for human extinction at the hands of ... their technology. And, if those two were not enough, the bond markets have become a little nervous, reminding us that ever-greater levels of debt might not be the solution to our ills. Perhaps we should have listened to our grandmother after all.

“Why are you telling me this?” as, for example, governments urge us to prepare, and Black Friday looms. Because, in the light of such external forces, the only power each of us has is to put our own inner house in order. One word that resurfaced in recent months was 'sufficiency': the notion that we can all live contented healthy lives without constantly striving for more. Indeed, back in 2016, the academics Bocken & Short cited that Vitsœ “exemplifies 'sufficiency' by actively striving to eliminate built-in obsolescence through its design and production systems, and consciously eschewing short-lived fashion cycles or trends.”

In 2026 we are half a century after the industrial designer Dieter Rams said of Vitsœ, “We make the effort to produce products like this for the intelligent and responsible users – not consumers – who consciously select products that they can really use.”

Which is why – for 67 years – we have never been interested in selling you more. (There is good reason Vitsœ is smaller than it might be.) But we are interested in finding the many folk who have never heard of Vitsœ; those who might value dealing directly with intelligent human beings at a company that prides itself on selling dependable quality at the honest price that allows it to exist. (We are regularly reprimanded by those who discovered Vitsœ later in life than they wished. You know how to address that one.)

It only remains for me to reassure you that you will not be hearing from Vitsœ again in advance of Black Friday because you know the deal: the same fair price for everyone, all of the time. No commission. No discounts. No sales. And no more hectoring in your inbox. Yet more tedious evidence of what we don't do.

Yours eternally optimistically
Mark Adams