This is what the subreddit mentioned in the article sort of "discovered"; they spend a lot of time obsessing over the details and subtle variations they can get

This is what the subreddit mentioned in the article sort of "discovered"; they spend a lot of time obsessing over the details and subtle variations they can get by working directly with factories and artisans in China. By using a real design as a template they cut out the difficult part of designing the whole concept from scratch and can work from a template but still achieve quality with some minor tailoring.