Evolution is the design process of nature, but nature doesn’t always “get it right” on first glance.

Giant pandas, for example, must spend up to 16 hours per day consuming between 70 and 100 pounds of bamboo. Their dependence on such a time-intensive, low-nutrition food source seems like a vulnerability, but it is this sort of peculiarity that has helped pandas and other evolutionary anomalies survive over millions of years.

Brands are no different. Some of the most enduring ones have similarly counterintuitive DNA.

It takes a single artisan (with minimum five years of training) at least 18 hours to craft a single Hermès Birkin bag, using leather-working techniques dating back to the Middle Ages, and analog tools ranging from awls to needles to wooden grips originally used in saddle-making.

While cold efficiency can be a winning strategy in the short-term, it can be even more effective over time to accentuate those mysterious traits that cannot be rationalized, accelerated, or copied.

This strategy has certainly worked for giant pandas, the oldest surviving bear lineage, and Hermès, stronger than ever after 187 years.