This is really confusing me:<p>> ...in many cases of design, copies are inferior because the new ignorant designers just did not understand the value of the features that were present, or absent ... (a)s designers know, often the most important parts of a design cannot be seen and are not even part of the design, but were what was learned in the long series of iteration as they groped towards a design that seems, in retrospect, inevitable;<p>But the author keeps going back to Red Wing boots. Flannel-clad hipsters are buying the <i>same</i> boots that professional loggers, construction workers, and firefighters are buying. I also have a wildfire-fighting relative, and siblings that did wildfire training when they worked for the National Park Service (you get a small bump in your hourly rate to get certified and available to be called up). I assure you, they are buying their boots at the same Red Wing store that sells to any hipster who walks through the door.