We’re living through a peculiar market failure right now.

Consumers have been burned by inflated pricing on mediocre goods so many times that they’ve grown skeptical of all premium offerings. At the same time, the few makers who are still committed to truly exceptional work struggle to signal their differentiation in a sea of false premiums.

The real luxury in modern markets isn’t the product itself anymore. It’s the credible signal that something was made with uncommon care. Trust, not price, has become the scarcest resource.

What we pay for and what actually deserves premium treatment have diverged. The question is whether they can ever realign.