What's In The Box
The brand new podcast from BOXTEC. Join us as we invite guests from retail and hospitality to discuss the issues of the day, with one unique twist: uncut, unedited and each episode just fifteen minutes long - because we're busy and we know you are too.
What's In The Box
From Night Shifts to National Brands
Yeah, don't think we were in a very good place financially in terms of the uh confidence in the market. But my myself and my partner, John Powell, uh, we worked together in a business called McCall's, and we were really quite busy there doing a lot of work. But in the evenings, John and I did even more work, and that became so busy. I shouldn't say this because uh I don't know if I'd encourage other designers to do the same, but we were working until two and three in the morning on freelance work. That became so busy that we had to leave our day job. We'd like you to start work for us tomorrow. This was on Friday at four o'clock. This was River Island, so just after the rebranding from Chelsea, Chelsea Girl, okay. Chelsea Girl Concept. Yeah, yeah. And they said, uh, so Friday at four o'clock, what are you guys doing tomorrow? It was it was all a really good relationship. And I I guess if I was to look back on my career, the most striking thing is relationships rather than projects. So working with the Lewis family, later on getting to know the Primarch team, Seamus Halford, Arthur Ryan, the ex-Primarch team. So the web is really important to make it easier for your customer. But I don't feel, and I don't know if I'm completely right, but I don't think that the web recruits fans as much as the space can. So when you land something in Oxford Street or in Westfield, uh, if it works, you get immediate payback. And people like JD understand this, people like Next in a Way understand this. Uh and I think that this momentum that you can get with stores can carry through into the web, but I don't think the web can necessarily create it on its own. So when we see newcomers into the market, and we see UniClo having their fourth, fifth attempt to come to the market, they're expanding so fast. And I think it is because of the product, first and foremost, and then the stores, and then the web, which works. But if it was purely web, I don't think we'd get there. I don't think they'd get there.