A lot of emerging designers are creating for an imagined customer instead of a real one. In many cases, they’re designing for a version of themselves that doesn’t actually exist in real life. That disconnect shows up in the product.

If you want to sell a theme park–level experience, you can’t build it on Amazon and AliExpress costumes. The difference is in the assets you invest in — pieces that are engineered to perform, photograph well, and hold up under real use.