Why do I want to visit a Rivian showroom when I'm not buying a car?

I'm not in the market for a Rivian.

I have no practical reason to walk into their showroom in San Francisco and ask someone to show me around, but I want to.

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The pull is real and I can't entirely explain it, which is the most interesting thing about it.I've been thinking about Rivian a lot lately in the context of brand worlds. What they've built feels different from every other EV maker, and I think I know why.

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Tesla, in its prime, had this. The sense of belonging to a movement, like you were early to something important. But it was always organized around a person (who shall not be named). When that person became something else, there was nothing underneath the culture to hold it together. The world evaporated because it was never really a world. It was a following.

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Rivian feels different. Gear Guard Gary has his own merch and his own video series. The Rivian Spaces feel like outfitters, not dealerships. The Adventure Network is a statement about what the truck is for and who it's for and what kind of life it's imagining for you. There's even a Halloween costume for your car. This transcends marketing tactics and becomes a way of being.

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Porsche has owned this for decades. Porsche people were Porsche people before there was a Porsche lifestyle brand. The culture accumulated through shared obsession and the pleasure of belonging to something not everyone understands. Rivian is trying to build that feeling deliberately and fast, which should be impossible. It seems like they're starting to pull it off.

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This is the hardest thing to manufacture in branding. The feeling that the world existed before you arrived.

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I'm going to visit the Rivian Space soon. I want to see if the inside matches the outside.