Svpply, Cool-Hunting that's Simple Enough for Mom to Use

It's not rude to say my mom is technologically challenged. She'll be the first person to point out that she is easily confused by what happens online. She has figured out e-commerce though, and often dabbles in shipping things out my way, often through sites I've pointed her to directly. In some ways, though, this has taken the fun out of gift giving. I simply act as a conduit between the goods I want and the person who wants to give them to me.

This is why I was shocked when, for my birthday this year, my mother sent me a backpack I had coveted. And I didn't even alert her to it. I had to ask, what brave new world was I living in where my mother could read my mind?

Of course, her knowledge of this backpack didn't stem from something supernatural (dope as that might be). Instead, my mother, through her own means, discovered an account I set up on the product curation site Svpply. Svpply—yeah, that's a "v" in place of a "u"—is a site that allows you to bookmark and aggregate products you find on the internet, following others who do the same.

This appeals to me on many levels, not just a social media hoarder, but also as someone who likes to brag about having good taste. This site feeds all of that ego and consumption, but not invasively, and definitely not sleazily. It would seem pretty easy for a site that involves curating and buying to make you feel bad about yourself, but surprisingly, Svpply avoids that. The minimalist design that Ben Pieratt created allows for you to blast your wants and desires, but doesn't make it cluttered or obtuse. My mom figured it out, after all. Though she is weirded out by my constant appetite for Euro-made winter jackets, because I'm a) not European and b) living in Los Angeles.

Svpply allows you to create a gift guide or wish list of your own cadence, constantly filling it out, manifesting in a rich world of things, without the problem of finding space for them. It means gems like a backpack you posted three months ago can find its way to you as a birthday gift, the element of surprise still intact. Now I'm looking forward to Christmas, excited to see what awaits me under the tree. And my mom is thrilled because she can brag to her coworkers about how she's using some cool new site that only the kids know about.