7 ms·

You know the ends of shoeleaces, those little plastic bits? Roughly a 800,000,000/year industry Cardboard box industry in USA is bigger than the NFL, NHL, NBA,

by Swizec 7y ago

You know the ends of shoeleaces, those little plastic bits? Roughly a 800,000,000/year industry Cardboard box industry in USA is bigger than the NFL, NHL, NBA, and the other major sports leagues combined

chii 7y ago
> Roughly a 800,000,000/year industry there's 7 billion people on this planet, and most of them wear at least 1 pair of shoes (so 4 end bits), which means there's about 4x7,000,000,000 pieces of these things. I'm surprised it's only a 800,000,000/year industry! That means they are able to produce it so cheap (i.e., less than 2c per bit, which is an over-estimate)!
- aabhay 7y ago
  Yeah, now multiply 28 billion by... three cents. Also, just because an industry brings in lots of revenue doesn’t make it a good industry. I’m sure there’s trillions of dollars exchanging hands in the plastic bag market, but I’m also sure that the margins are getting squeezed so tight that even a PhD in OR couldn’t find a percentage point to optimize. The margin per bag is essentially zero.
  - chii 6y ago
    > The margin per bag is essentially zero. that's a good outcome imho (and it's not zero, it's just very low). But this means that the value of the bag and the cost of production is very, very close, meaning it's available to as many people as possible!
- gruez 6y ago
  You assume that on average, each person buys 1 pair of laced shoes per year. How realistic is this? Maybe affluent consumers in developed countries can afford 1 pair of shoe per year, but I doubt it's affordable for consumers in developing countries (where most of the world's population are). Even in developed countries, how many of those shoes have laces? Many women's shoes don't have any laces, for instance.
  - pkalinowski 6y ago
    You know, it's called estimation. Maybe come up with better number?
ianmcgowan 7y ago
If you had kids of the right age, into Phineas and Ferb, you'd know those little plastic bits are called aglets ;_)
- daseiner1 6y ago
  i’m really sorry to do this to you, but also, if you’re a recent grad of the right age ;)
philiplu 6y ago
Those are called aglets, and when I just now googled for “aglet manufacturers”, I got way more hits than I expected.

by Swizec 7y ago

chii 7y ago

> Roughly a 800,000,000/year industry there's 7 billion people on this planet, and most of them wear at least 1 pair of shoes (so 4 end bits), which means there's about 4x7,000,000,000 pieces of these things. I'm surprised it's only a 800,000,000/year industry! That means they are able to produce it so cheap (i.e., less than 2c per bit, which is an over-estimate)!

aabhay 7y ago
Yeah, now multiply 28 billion by... three cents. Also, just because an industry brings in lots of revenue doesn’t make it a good industry. I’m sure there’s trillions of dollars exchanging hands in the plastic bag market, but I’m also sure that the margins are getting squeezed so tight that even a PhD in OR couldn’t find a percentage point to optimize. The margin per bag is essentially zero.
- chii 6y ago
  > The margin per bag is essentially zero. that's a good outcome imho (and it's not zero, it's just very low). But this means that the value of the bag and the cost of production is very, very close, meaning it's available to as many people as possible!
gruez 6y ago
You assume that on average, each person buys 1 pair of laced shoes per year. How realistic is this? Maybe affluent consumers in developed countries can afford 1 pair of shoe per year, but I doubt it's affordable for consumers in developing countries (where most of the world's population are). Even in developed countries, how many of those shoes have laces? Many women's shoes don't have any laces, for instance.
- pkalinowski 6y ago
  You know, it's called estimation. Maybe come up with better number?

ianmcgowan 7y ago

If you had kids of the right age, into Phineas and Ferb, you'd know those little plastic bits are called aglets ;_)

daseiner1 6y ago
i’m really sorry to do this to you, but also, if you’re a recent grad of the right age ;)

philiplu 6y ago

Those are called aglets, and when I just now googled for “aglet manufacturers”, I got way more hits than I expected.