According to an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs published by Gawker, at one point, Jobs looked to create a uniform for Apple employees after visiting Sony, whose company uniforms were designed by Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake.
“So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”
So, Jobs ended up with a uniform of his own:
In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wearing the same thing every day means one less meaningless daily distraction. (Note to our turret lookouts: Keep an eye out for fashionistas bearing torches and pitchforks.)
MacDailyNews Note: From the author of the bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs.
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.
Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.
Pre-order for US$16.99 via Apple’s iBookstore, expected release date Nov. 21, 2011: Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
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Simon & Schuster ups Steve Jobs biography to October 24th – October 6, 2011
Taking a page from Eistein’s book. Learning from the giants that preceded him…
I preordered for iBooks and getting a physical one also. For those in the family that cannot adjust to digital for some reason. lol
I have a cataract and can read books on my iPod touch with no difficulty. A 300 page book turns into 2200 pages, but easy to read.
I’ll have it on my iPad 2 so it should be a lot less in pages. 😉
More for your money!
I hope one ends up in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History next to things like Archie Bunker’s chair, Fonzie’s jacket, and Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers. It’s truly an American icon.
Along with a pairs of his jeans and sneakers. Maybe a pair of his trademark glasses while they are at it?
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
— Oscar Wilde
Already pre-ordered in Kindle form, and tweeted about the Turtleneck thing about 10 mins ago hehe. Just brilliant stuff.
Good stuff, I’m buying the book on day one. And I’ll probably finish reading the next day. But I’ll do it on my Kindle. Much as I want iBookstore to succeed, I cannot read 400+ pages on iPhone/iPad.
Why the hell not?
I pre-ordered the physical book 🙂
“I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”
So, what was that article on MDN last week where some haberdasher in the Midwest was saying there’s been a run on $175 mock turtlenecks, and that Steve bought a dozen a year?
As far as Steve’s uni, it occurred to me that I often wore a black cotton turtleneck with Levis and running shoes back in college in the early 80s, before Steve did. I also wore a white cotton turtleneck as well.
Now my turtlenecks are the synthetic types that you wear for outdoor sports.
“I often wore a black cotton turtleneck with Levis and running shoes back in college in the early 80s, before Steve did. I also wore a white cotton turtleneck as well”
Aha, but did you stand in front of a huge black/grey gradient Keynote presentation, thusly hued so as to match your attire, and not muck up the press shots?
Steve Jobs: CFG
Crazy.
Fucking.
Genius.
The earliest Jobs’ photo with the turtleneck comes from 1990, and, very probably, original use of this clothes back to 1980s.
So whether someone wore it “before Steve did” is highly questionable.
(I mean in the combination with the jeans and running shoes.)
Yeah, sorry to be so tongue in cheek there, I was suggesting that Steve intentionally matched his theme of the Keynote slides to his wardrobe so he would highlight the product perfectly during big launches (yes I understand it’s a Black/grey gradient, not a Black/denim one hehe).
Can you imagine how bizarre and distracting it would look if we walked out in a business suit? Those black on black photos are just classic.
Pristine.
Didn’t Steve wear a black button-down shirt in 2008 at WWDC? Or was it some other launch event?
Uhm, I went to college from 1980 to 1984, so yeah, I think my outfit precedes Steve’s.
Yeah, but did you think up a personal computer?
Supposedly there is some steve university left behind to train apple executives… anyone else hear that?
I hope it gets leaked/released- I’d love to consume it.
Apple University, they hired a Yale Dean or program director (i believe) to head it up.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10073097-37.html
The Japanese have a different type of society due to all those years in isolation and citizens are taught to conform to society from very young. America, the melting pot? Forget it. It’s everyone must do their own thing. Uniforms for American workers in private industry, hell, no.
When’s the last time to went to a Mcdonalds?
How ’bout a Starbucks? 😛
The majority of current Apple employees DO wear a “uniform,” because they work at an Apple Store.
Is that fact? I’d think it hard to believe apple store employees make up the majority of all apple employees.
there are about 30,000 working in Apple retail and 20,000 non-retail, so yes, the store employees are the majority.
I’m not sure I would classify Apple Store employee attire as a uniform. The definition of a uniform is basically everyone wearing the same thing. A t-shirt in multiple colors with whatever pants, jeans, or shorts and whatever kind of tennis shoes, sandals, flip flops you want to wear is not really a uniform. I haven’t been to multiple Apple stores as some here, but the couple I have been to everyone seems to wear pretty much whatever they want. About the only thing that seems to separate them from the customers is that they are wearing an Apple t-shirt and an Apple badge and ask folks if they need help as they wonder around the store.
Interesting product placement on Biggest Loser. They had iPads using FaceTime between contestants and their families.
Thankfully the uniform policy never took off.
Id honestly wonder about a place that claimed creativity and had a uniform. Lol those two princepals just don’t jive
Ah. I remember my old principal Mr. Weiner. He couldn’t do the jive either.
Principals…. f*cking android
It’s actually “principles” in the context you’re using. Don’t blame android.
Retail employees do wear a uniform. So in the end, he did get his wish.
Stanley Kubrick, another well-known perfectionist, also wore the same thing every day during shooting of his films. He is quoted as saying that it relieved him of the task of having to always figure out what he was going to wear. Great minds I guess.
Wish all places would have comfortable uniforms. I hate picking out clothes in the morning. If I could get away with doing it Steve’s way, I would!
Schools definitely should have uniforms. Would be a great equalizer.
I can see having one’s own uniform, but I despise the idea of wearing someone else’s- at work, school, or training conference. When I was younger, one of the most frightening thoughts about being drafted was having to get a haircut and wear a uniform. And get up early. And oh yeah- get killed.
Surely the uniform and haircut are the least frightening thing about being drafted…
Apple has an uniform. It is t-shirts. T-shirts, t-shirts
I have a uniform. I just put on the next clean t- shirt on the top of the clean ones in my drawer. When I’m down to the last one. I do some washing. They have jimmy Page wielding his Les Paul. A photographer gave me half a dozen of them.
In summer it’s short’s. and flip flops. Actually in winter it’s shorts and flip flops. Same principle.
It’s warm where I live.
That’s meant to be lover not lober. What’s a lober?
Someone once asked Einstein why he always wore white shirts and black pants. He replied, “I have more important things to think about.”
Exactly. THAT is the point of a uniform; to eliminate a distraction from purposed effort. Some people here believe wearing a uniform would crush creativity. I think the opposite is true. A uniform can be liberating in that it requires YOU to be different, unique, and special rather than putting on the mask that is fashion.
Thats why schools with strict uniform policies… Out perform schools without.
Also in schools it helps cut down on kids making fun of what some other kid chooses to wear, they all have to wear the same thing.
Even though I pre ordered the book months ago, I may buy the iBook version as well. Just cause.
Sorry MDN- I almost always agree with and admire your “takes”- but this one really smacks of having drunk too much kool-aid. Steve was unquestionably unique in so many ways and should be admired and respected for all his amazing accomplishments.
But wearing the same thing day in and day out is the antithesis of creativity. I love variety. And while his “uniform”/branding of black turtleneck and jeans is fine for him, I cannot support that as an example for the rest of us (he also had no license plate on his Mercedes- should we follow that example too?). I shudder to think how horrible it would be if each of us had just one thing to wear (even if each person had something different- it’s still boring).
Steve set an amazing example (to be followed) in so many ways- but clothing was not one of them…
Just my 2¢ worth…
C.S. Forester in his novel The Commodore lets his main character Horatio Hornblower philosophize over the merits of a uniform over civilian clothing: While wearing civilian clothing everybody would assume that he dressed according to his tastes (even though he was married) and could ridicule him over his (or rather his wife’s) choices. A uniform, by contrast, had to be worn as it was specified, and nobody could fault him for the looks.
Not advocating uniform here, just thinking that uniforms are great for people not interested in fashion.
“According to an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs published by Gawker . . .”
When I first read that, I thought it was saying that the BOOK was published by Gawker – yikes! Then, I realized that the “published by Gawker” must have been referring to the word “excerpt.”
The funny thing is that Steve was a bit of a clotheshorse at one time. He wore double-breasted suits, bow ties, vests, funny jackets without lapels, etc. It was after he left Apple the first time that he decided to deemphasize the clothing.
He was announcing it when some chick ran in and threw a hammer at the video screen he was appearing on.