Kyle Pulli: Pony Renaissance | Hypebeast

What has been your best-selling model these past few seasons? Do you feel there’s a particular reason?

Our Feed the Cat program has really put us on the map. Simple style, link to our past, innovative construction, wearable, and the right price are all reasons for the initial success. This program also symbolizes our unwavering commitment to have a unique point of view even on mainstream styles. In a sea of vulcanized offerings in the market we have managed to build ours with a twist; our signature “holistic” tape construction, which connects from the sidewall up through the eyestay. The Feed the dog concept was inspired from our vintage “shooter” model and redone to fit within our “PLAY” collection.

How important are the athletes and personalities that Pony signs to endorsement deals? How do they factor into the lifestyle segment of Pony?

Extremely important because we need vehicles to drive brand awareness. Due to our modest marketing budget we must be extremely strategic in our selection process and have to make sure we are building a true partnership that will benefit us cross categorical. Ultimately we aim for athletes that compliment and support our brand ideology and direction.

Do you have a personal favorite of yours this season?

It is hard for me to single out only one shoe as we have a fairly large range of exciting product. If I had to choose, it would be the “Well Suited” Feed the Cat mid.

With that said, my role is to ensure we have a solid collection of shoes that communicate a story to the consumer hopefully resulting in a lasting connection with our brand. Some brands are fortunate enough to have that one shoe that defines their entire existence and everything else becomes a halo. We hope to become more than a one item brand.

What does the future bode for Pony?

We are in a great spot right now. We finally have a moment to reflect and evaluate our progress and current positioning. This “incubation” phase is a refreshing departure from the head down, light speed approach thus far. Until now we simply haven’t had the time to take a deep breath and evaluate things on a rational level. We have made some headway with our lifestyle portion of the business and are looking forward to 2010 to be a key player in the performance arena. Basketball, baseball, and football are all categories PONY has a solid heritage in and therefore we are attacking aggressively.

- Pony Website