Kyle Pulli: Pony Renaissance | Hypebeast

Interview with Kyle Pulli

How far along have you guys come since the initial re-launch?

As you can imagine redefining brand strategy and direction is a process that takes time and doesn’t just happen over night. A lot of heavy lifting was involved to ensure we were setting ourselves apart. With that said, we have managed to make tremendous strides since our re-launch. We are now functioning on all cylinders regarding product direction, timelines, commercialization, and even PR. Its easier to get people geeked about your brand direction and ideology when you have tangible product to push. And as expected, initial reaction to our product has been extremely positive.

How competitive is the current footwear market? Has this required you to approach things differently as a younger company as opposed to your work with larger companies such as adidas in the past?

I think the footwear market is more competitive than ever. As a consumer you have so many choices. Ironically, as bad as things are with the economic uncertainty in the marketplace, I think it will ultimately have a positive effect within our industry once the dust settles. It will essentially “trim the fat” in this over saturated market and allow only the strongest brands to survive. In addition, it will hopefully raise the bar for innovation, as we know it. This is where we hope to flourish. Our company functions in a true entrepreneurial fashion and employees are forced to wear several hats. A smaller more intimate brand of our size offers clear advantages. It allows us to act swiftly to continually market change and therefore our response can be more efficient and tactical. While the larger brands are playing “damage control” and holding on to their assets we on the other hand are pushing innovation. We have often found ourselves at the forefront of a market trend because of this. Because we are only in the early stages of our brand re-launch we can afford to try new things with out worrying about losing existing business by anniversarying the same old things. History has shown time and time again that this philosophy is a clear advantage during such an economic downturn.

In your eyes, has the current economic conditions had a profound effect on the design and aesthetic of footwear design?

As a manufacturer, the effects have certainly been felt behind closed doors. We have to find new ways to be creative in bringing costs down without compromising value. This is a difficult juggling act. Not sure these internal, brand-centric challenges have transitioned into the consumers eyes just yet. Despite this “fear” driven economy we feel this is the most opportune time for us to take a different approach. Rather than focusing on a “band aid” approach we are using this time as an opportunity to innovate and redefine traditional manufacturing and construction methods. A perfect example of this was the development of our “5oz” last year. Completely unique and minimal construction all based on searching for ways to reduce cost. This thinking resulted in a radically innovative trainer for $55. Once again, we were ahead of the curve on this one.