I Owe Sarah a Dinner — Anywhere She Wants, Whatever She Orders. She Earned It.
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I Owe Sarah a Dinner — Anywhere She Wants, Whatever She Orders. She Earned It. 🏳️🩷
Two months in. Final score: Neon Pink 189, Black 86. I'm a man of my word, and my word right now is: she was right, I was wrong, and she gets to pick the restaurant, the menu, and every single course. No budget, no input from me. Her night.
Alright. I'm just going to come out and say it.
She won.
Not just won — she doubled me. While I was sitting here quietly confident that the good, sensible, practical people of Australia would rally behind black, the good, enthusiastic, passionate people of Australia were out there buying neon pink at roughly twice the rate and sending photos of their kelpies and cattle dogs wearing it with the chaotic energy of someone who just found their new favourite thing and will not shut up about it.
I have reviewed the numbers. I've refreshed the spreadsheet more times than I'd like to admit, hoping the data would come to its senses. It did not. If anything it just got more pink.
The Official White Flag. It's Up. It's Waving.
Adam concedes. Formally. In writing. On the internet, where it will live forever and Sarah will absolutely screenshot it and use it against him for the rest of his life.
Where it all went wrong for me
I built my entire case on logic. Practical buyers. Working dog owners. The ten people at every market who asked for black. And yes — they came. Eighty-six of them, bless their sensible little hearts. They bought black, and I appreciate every single one of them.
But I underestimated something. I underestimated that when a kelpie wears neon pink, it goes on the internet. I underestimated the country girl market, which does not browse quietly and leave — she shares it, she tags us, she shows her mates, and her mates buy one too. I underestimated the sheer contagious joy of a bold dog in a bold collar.
Black is great. Black is still great. But neon pink apparently has an emotional response that black simply does not. Nobody's heart has ever leapt at the sight of a black collar. People are having actual feelings about hot pink on a working dog, and those feelings are converting into sales at a rate that has left me staring at a spreadsheet with the look of a man who should have just agreed two years ago.
"Ten people asked for black at every market. Noted. But how many people stopped, grabbed their phone, and took a photo of a dog wearing neon pink without even being asked? That's the number you should've been watching."
But here's something I genuinely didn't see coming — and I've been watching the postcode data closely. A surprising number of these orders aren't heading to the paddock at all. They're going to beach suburbs. City postcodes. The golden retriever crowd, the inner-city cavoodle owners, the girl at Bondi who wants her pup to stand out on the esplanade the same way the country girl wants hers to stand out at the yards. Turns out neon pink doesn't care where you live. It just wants to be seen — and people across the country figured that out faster than I did.
I underestimated the country girls. I underestimated the beach crowd. I underestimated the city girls whose dogs already run the show and just needed a collar that proves it. I underestimated pretty much all of it. Sarah didn't underestimate any of it. And the scoreboard shows exactly what that looks like.
📊 Final Score — Two Months In, Bet Officially Over
Nearly 2:1. I've seen tighter scorelines in a kelpie vs. tennis ball match. The kelpie at least had a chance.
Sarah's response — the floor is yours, love
🩷 A Note from the Winner
I want to start by saying I am being very gracious about this. I am not doing a victory lap. I am not going to say "I told you so" more than a reasonable number of times.
But — and I say this with love — I told you so.
I told you that our customers don't come to Jacaranda Collars because they want something that blends in. They come because they want something that stands out. They want people to stop them at the dog park and ask where they got it. They want a photo that actually stops the scroll. Black is a perfectly fine colour. It's just not us.
Neon pink is us. It's unapologetic, it photographs beautifully, and once one girl in a paddock somewhere straps it on her kelpie and puts it on Instagram, we're done — the orders just come. And they did. You're all looking at the scoreboard.
I am incredibly proud of every single one of those 189 sales. And I am choosing the restaurant. Somewhere lovely. Somewhere with a proper wine list. Adam can look at the menu. I'll be having the entrée, the main, the dessert, and probably a cheeky cocktail to start.
And to everyone who voted neon pink with their purchase — thank you. You didn't just buy a collar. You won me a dinner. I won't forget it.
🍽️ The Dinner — When & Where
Per the terms of the bet, the loser buys dinner. Somewhere nice.
Sarah has full authority over the booking. Date, restaurant, dress code — all of it. Adam has zero input and has accepted this with the dignity of a man who knows he's earned it.
Updates to follow. Adam is ironing his good shirt and practising his "yes, you were right" face in the mirror.
"Black is a great colour and I stand behind it. I just accept that neon pink is apparently a force of nature that cannot be reasoned with. Congratulations to my better half, the dog collar prophet."
"Dog collar prophet. I'm putting that on my business card."
Both colours are still available — because black is genuinely great and 86 people proved it. But if you want to join the winning side, you know where to find us.
Handmade in Orange, NSW. Built Tough for Aussie Dogs. And now with confirmed data about what colour you actually want.
(Sarah would like it noted she is extremely, correctly, vindicated)