People have been asking us why we chose the name Ministry of Supply and how we went about deciding on it. Well ask no more:
We all had a monster brainstorming session where we thought about what kind of company we are and what exactly we want people to know about us. We even elicited help from friends and fellow entrepreneurs to help us procedurally set up a process of deciding on a name.
During our first brainstorming sessions, many names were thrown out—it was a stream of consciousness type of activity. Some were good and others well, let’s just say we all laughed out loud on several potential names. We then had a five-minute brainstorming session where we threw out ideas of what feelings and images we want our company to represent. At this session, a couple of ideas were shared by everybody:
“Design inspired individuals, creative, forward thinking, sleek, sexy, a support organization for the modern professional.”
It was this brainstorming session that got us thinking about how other professionals have support staff that help them attack their everyday tasks more efficiently. Naturally, as a group of engineers the first thing we thought was how Secret Agents and Covert Spies have state of the art gadgetry. James Bond and his support staff quickly came to mind.
James Bond was always supplied with the best, most effective, and useful gadgets, including cars, pen bombs, car phones etc. We began to read about James Bond’s support staff—Q. Q was the guy who always introducing and making amazing tools for Bond to use.
Q was incredibly critical to the Bond’s mission. Likewise, we think we are critical to the mission of the young professional (to stay cool, fashionable, and professional in a hectic work environment).
We began to research Q and found out that the character was actually based upon a real life person, Charles Fraser Smith. Smith developed and supplied gadgets and other equipment for section XV of Britain’s World War II intelligence organization. Smith supplied clothing and standard props (from second-hand sources) for SOE agents working behind enemy lines, but SOE directives and his taste for gadgetry led him to develop a wide range of spy and escape devices, including miniature cameras inside cigarette lighters, shaving brushes containing film, hairbrushes containing a map and saw, pens containing hidden compasses. Smith’s base and shadow organization he worked for was the Ministry of Supply.
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply.
The Ministry of Supply represents a unique support organization for the secret agent. We, similarly, are a support organization who provides the most state of the art tools for the young modern professional. We are Ministry of Supply and we are here to support the you, the modern Secret Agent.
We seek to combine the newest and most versatile fabrics to create truly state of the art clothes that would be fit for even James Bond.
And that’s why we call ourselves Ministry of Supply!
