Tough Times: A Look Into the Current State of Streetwear
Frank Liew – Qubic/Quarters
What is your current strategy to keep busy and continue surviving given the current economic conditions?
The best advice I could give to anybody is to simply focus. That’s it, really. Don’t get swayed, don’t get distracted by side projects that might derail your focus. Stop complaining and mulling, and make it work. Focus on the business end, it’s easy to neglect it. I think most retailers will understand what I’m saying.
How have sales worked out for you, how important and necessary of a retail tool is it? What sort of effect will these massive sales throughout retail affect the consumer when things pick-up again?
So far we haven’t had the need to run any more sales than we normally do during our retail calendar, it’s a necessary retail tool to clear excess stock and free up cash flow as you can’t have 100% sell-through of every single brand in your store, otherwise you’d have nothing to sell two weeks after new product arrives. An empty store isn’t going to help you pay the rent. However, it is getting a bit tiresome if other stores on the street are doing it. On our street there have been retailers doing half-price sales since October 2008. I worry about how this devalues their brand – what’s going to happen when everything comes right again? You’re simply conditioning the market to then expect a certain price range and type of service from you. I’d be careful.
Have you been more keen on certain types of advertisement or more willing to open up if you traditionally didn’t advertise?
Not really. We have a much different approach to conventional advertising compared to other retailers though – in that we’ve never spent a cent on direct advertising. That’s been a strategy we’ve followed since our opening and it’s worked well for the foundation years of our business. We focus on advertising ourselves through different channels and with partnering up with other entities. We’re always thinking up of different ways of positioning our business, so even if we run a massive poster or magazine campaign in the future, we’re try and do something crazy or quirky about it. In my opinion there’s no excuse for lack of creativity, economic doom or not.
What sort of lasting effect will the current situation have on your business/direction down the road?
To be honest, I’m not sure. I don’t think the situation has affected our business per se, but I think it has affected the market. I think people are no longer going to accept what’s simply placed in front of them, and rightly so. Retailers are going to have to stay sharp on their toes if they want to keep up in the future. It’s already happening now.
What sort of positives can you draw from this economic downturn if anything?
I’m sure this will be echoed a lot through the other interviewees, but I believe the ones that come out of this “downturn” will cement themselves as the new order – both brands and high profile retailers. I’m not going to lie or sugar coat it, this economic situation is going to claim a few victims. As to who, only time will tell, but I think the ones who do show true passion for this industry and have so since the beginning will be the ones that will outlast the others. Perhaps a trial by fire?
In the current economic landscape, what sort of styles do you feel are an easier sell, has buying become a little more commercial?
The “commercial vs cool” battle is something that we tackle all the time, regardless of what economic situation we’re in. Perhaps this situation has pushed this a little further up the priority list in our buyer’s minds but I personally don’t think our buying has differed much. We have a certain look and selection for both our stores that we will maintain. You’ll always need commercial items to sell-through to sustain your “cool” items. Every successful store knows this, it’s the plain nature of the business. At least I hope they do. That said, for the uni-branded stores selling their own collection, don’t give up on your progressive items.
You can still do a few pieces per collection to maintain your identity, don’t give up on it yet.
How do you approach risk-taking in this environment?
The most important thing is to at least recognize that the risk exists. I’ve spoken to quite a few retailers over the past few months, and it’s the ones that continually believe that they are absolutely invulnerable to the current economic situation that sort of worry me, especially the ones who are telling me this whilst standing in front of their very obviously overloaded (stock) store. You might be trading well now, but what’s there to say that you might not be affected in the back end of the year when your indents arrive? Think ahead and make calculated steps. Think twice about your steps before you make them and don’t let little voices influence you. That’s how we approach it.
With many people stressing that through hard-times emerges new creativity and opportunity, how true is this?
I’m not sure if I could call it new creativity, as I don’t think creativity should be limited or exacerbated by “economic” factors, but I suppose it is a good time for brands and other creative fields to really re-think their work, and look internally to see what they can do better. That said, I personally believe this is more due to the saturation of our market over the past few years than the tough economic climate.
For small start-up brands, do you have any suggestions given both saturation and economic factors breathing down their neck?
Take it easy. I know sometimes you just want to make massive leaps and bounds but remember, five great products can speak a helluva lot louder than fifty generic ones. There’s no need to come guns a blazin’ and try and to create a gargantuan collection to prove a point. Pick your steps carefully. Good products position brands.
Although a relatively general question, what has had the biggest impact on you from a business and personal perspective?
It’s been interesting seeing a textbook scenario come to life, and seeing the way a certain market reacts to it. This to me is a real privilege, as it’s quite a rare occurrence that you can see a single event slowly ripple outwards to such far reaching parts of the overall spectrum. I’m all for learning lessons, and I’m in awe of this moment in history we’re in. I don’t see it as a bad thing, if anything, it has made all of us understand the market and consumer a lot better. It has also been comforting for us to see that what we’ve done over the past couple of years have been the right steps, as we’re still trading above our 2008 figures right now and hitting our growth targets. Sometimes knowing when you’ve done something right can be a lot more harder to find out than when you’ve done something wrong.
Any closing notes you’d like to finish off with?
I think everybody needs to stop and breathe for a second. Consumers, support your independents. Retailers, stop blaming everything on “the recession”. Don’t be lazy. It doesn’t explain why you should ignore customers who walk in your front door. You know how it works. People moan to me about how it’s all media hype – but I don’t entirely believe that. I think there is a general paradigm shift at the moment kick-started by the economic situation in where people are now waking up and evaluating the way they’ve been spending, regardless of whether or not they’ve been hit in the pocket by the housing crunch or lost an entire stock portfolio. For our industry, I strongly believe the spending is still out there. I see it every day when I view our reports. People who were into it before the crunch are still into it now, I don’t think I’ve met a single person who’s completely given up on buying clothes & footwear just because the GDP has shrunken for the last two consecutive quarters. People still appreciate good product, and good service. It’s still a relatively young crowd, they’re flexible. Remember why you got into this in the first place. The need, the addiction, the want. That’s what your customers still feel, despite what you may think. If you can capture that then you’re set.
