Because my last letter was so long, this week's is brief. Those who pay close attention have the chance to win a free sweater (worth $100+) — instructions are at the end of the letter.

Lots of people can draw. All sorts of people have ideas for products. Very rarely do these ideas come to life. Ever since I began this journey, I assumed that the biggest barriers to creation would be A) money and B) initiative. Nobody told me that communication would be so crucial. Developing a garment is relatively simple — no health approval required, no complex materials, and durability testing is essentially optional these days. Efficiency and ideal execution, however, are elusive.

Brooklyn art collective MSCHF recently released a product playing on the gap between designers and manufacturers. By purposefully communicating poorly with several factories in what they called "Global Supply Chain Telephone," they created a wonky bag that looked totally different from their original design and sold it for $650 (pictured above).

I wish the flaws in my samples were as deliberate as the Supply Chain bag. But the wonky bag is a reminder that maybe something even better will emerge from the struggle.

Precisely the issue is not the factory, but me. I know my manufacturer is not moving mountains to fulfill my vision, but why should they? Naturally, my factory has to fill the gaps in my knowledge where I am clueless in offering instruction. Knowledge of this industry will come, and so will the product.

But enough complaining. Incredible things are are happening. I'm about to run a very small pre-pre-seed investment round to help ensure that this collection runs smoothly. I'm still mostly bootstrapping and relying on pre-order sales to fund the project, so I'm calling this my Dirt funding round — before you plant the seed, you must have dirt. A friend just became the first in the class of H2025 to raise Series B funding for his startup. I'm the first in the world to raise Series Dirt, so who is really doing better?

Speaking of firsts, the first person to guess the two colors that will be offered for the upcoming collection of sweaters gets their sweater for free. The clues are concealed in this email. Click below to submit your guesses.

Finn