I Bought the Overalls

A few months ago, Facebook served me an ad for the cutest overalls I'd ever seen. Not cute in a fashionable influencer kind of way. Cute in a joyful, expressive, somebody-actually-had-fun-designing-these kind of way.

There were chickens, bees, wildflowers, sheep, bright colors, whimsical prints.

The model looked like she lived on a farm somewhere. Or a beach. Like someone I'd probably enjoy going on a hike with.

The overalls were about sixty bucks. I ordered several. Then I waited. And waited. And waited.

When they finally arrived, they weren’t just disappointing; they were awful. The fabric felt like plastic. The seams were sloppy. The amazing fabric textures I saw in the photos were screenprinted on cheap, slinky polyester. They weren’t even fit to cut into rags for the garage, much less to donate to Goodwill. 

Then I started noticing something strange. The same overalls kept showing up. Not similar overalls. The same overalls, same carefree model, same products, same unbeatable sale, but different company names, different founders, different cities, different emotional stories. 

One week the company was based in Charleston. The next week it was Seattle. Then New York. One website told the story of a mother building a business while raising a son with Down Syndrome. Another talked about a family storefront that had served customers for decades. Another “best girlfriends” company claimed they were permanently closing and needed to sell everything. Another celebrated a twentieth anniversary.

This wasn’t just a bad clothing company. This was a scam. With stories that were heartwarming, at least at first glance. 

Scam websites used to be easy to spot. The grammar was terrible. The photos looked fake. Something always felt off.

Now with AI, the websites are beautiful. The copy is beautiful. The stories are beautiful. And they can appear overnight. Entire brands (authentic feeling ones, mind you) can be generated in less than a day. A logo takes minutes. A founder story takes seconds. A website with photos and testimonials takes an afternoon. Old trust signals we used to … well, trust. 

I've been thinking about this a lot as we build Happy Overall.

We’re trying to tell a good story because we are in the middle of living one. Real people, real products, real customers, real experiments, real mistakes, real learning, real photos from real days.

I think authenticity is about to become one of the most valuable assets a business can have, not because it's trendy, but because it's becoming rare.

When everything can be AI generated, reality becomes valuable.