File: Shelving her career to found her leather goods brand

For 10 years, we have been interested in men's fashion through our blog Redingote and have followed BonneGueule since its very beginnings.

Our respective stories have evolved in parallel and our paths have crossed on numerous occasions (both for professional projects and for happy hours).

We had quite different biases on our respective blogs, but always with very similar values.

Today, realizing these years of curiosity and passion for men's fashion and leather goods, we are launching out and creating our own brand.

Our background: the origins of the two Robins

Robin Hureau, law student turned craftsman

Oddly enough, it all started on the benches of the law faculty of Orléans. The classes were great but left a lot of free time. The idea of ​​a blog on men's clothing began to emerge, a little by chance, without any real knowledge in this field.

A few weeks later, after discovering dozens of independent brands, Redingote was born. The blog quickly became a bit successful because there weren't many people at the time. I became passionate about this environment where independent brands abounded, where quality and creativity stimulated the curious person I had always been.

One thing led to another (hehe), and I found myself as a salesman at FrenchTrotters in Paris, then manager of their boutique on rue de Charonne. I then assisted Nicolas Gabard at Husbands and followed that up with a brief stint in marketing at Dymant, a start-up that produced exceptional objects.

These experiences helped me realize one thing: I was too far from the product. I only wanted one thing: to get as close as possible to it. So in my free time, I started tinkering alone, in my tiny Parisian studio, watching videos on YouTube and raiding Amazon.

Very quickly, leather and its secrets became an obsession and I found myself collecting leathers, books and tools, almost unhealthily. Obviously, I used Redingote to satisfy my curiosity and go meet people who had gold in their hands: the artisans.

Célia Granger was the first to give me time for an interview and, as we talked, I began to understand that her lifestyle was exactly what I was looking to build: we took the time to do things, in a sustainable way and on a human scale. Without necessarily dreaming of buying a yacht.

After our meeting, ideas and questions swirled around for several weeks, but one thing was for sure: I continued to be bored at work.

One morning, she suggested that I come to the workshop a few hours a week to improve my skills and discover the real tricks of the trade. The dream was becoming reality...

As you can imagine, it didn't take me long to realize that I was a hundred times happier with my hands in glue than behind a cash register.

Without further ado, I decided to drop everything and take a CAP in “Saddlery/Leatherwork”. This was the perfect accompaniment to my law degree.

Robin Nozay, passionate about fashion and products

For my part, it was when I was a computer engineering student that I started blogging about men's fashion.

After a first professional experience of a year and a half in finance, boredom was looming...

I then decided to try to make a living from what I was passionate about: fashion . So I went back to school, first with evening classes at the London College of Fashion (to test the waters), then with a master's degree at the Institut Français de la Mode.

Passionate about the material, I first did product development at Frenchtrotters, then Burberry . I then became a men's fashion buyer for Printemps , followed by a stint as marketing director at Balibaris .

Different experiences that have above all been guided by this passion for men's fashion.

The leap into the unknown: starting out as a freelancer (Robin Hureau)

The need to be independent

With my CAP in my pocket, I didn't see myself working on the assembly line at Vuitton, Chanel or even Hermès. These are very prestigious houses but they are too big to try new things, since you are timed for each operation.

In fact, the slightest technique must be validated by the “Methods Office” and, obviously, the craftsman has no say in the choice of leathers or models.

Most of the graduates of my training are working there and many no longer see it as a passion, but as a bread-and-butter job that they forget about once the weekend comes around.

It quickly became obvious to me: I had to set up my own business, determined to deal with (hehe again) the difficulties that would arise.

"What could possibly be catastrophic?"

Problem: how to start without income and without capital, armed only with passion and good will?

There, I had to count the cards I had in my hand and keep in mind what sounds like a mantra for many entrepreneurs: "At worst, what catastrophic thing could happen to me?"

Before trying to start the business, I had to be able to continue to live decently, which involves several steps:

• Drastically reducing my expenses : that's a good start, no family to support! So all I would have to do is give up beer (ouch), learn to cook at home and invite my friends instead of going out to restaurants, stop buying clothes and spend my holidays cycling. As for the question of rent in Paris, the answer was obvious: I would follow my Swedish girlfriend to Malmö, Sweden, where she was returning to study. Although the cost of living there is the same as in Paris, the rents are much lower (both for spacious apartments and premises that can be used as a workshop).

• Finding additional income : no luck... on site, jobs in cafés were taken by storm by young Swedes. By stringing two words together with difficulty, I wasn't going to make the competition pale. While I was learning the basics of the language, I went back to fashion: a major women's ready-to-wear brand selected me to accompany them during short sales missions in showrooms. Dream job for a project leader: it allowed me to generate enough income to spend time on the development of what would become Laperruque, and time to perfect my know-how. Fairly quickly, I also found a way to teach saddle sewing in Sweden.

• Testing the saddler/leather goods business : No collection, no workshop, so it was in a corner of the kitchen that I carried out my first custom orders, where the client (family, friends and friends of friends) could choose everything. With few resources and many constraints, you become creative very quickly! We do a lot of experiments and the solutions come thick and fast. Delighted, the first clients allowed me to quickly test my know-how and push it forward, to ask myself good questions and to be always more demanding.

Happy to live my dream (finally) and to convince my clients with my achievements, I nevertheless remained lucid:

• Each item I made took me much longer than I had expected based on my price estimates. No matter, only delivery and customer satisfaction mattered, so it was up to me to work more efficiently,

• The customer who needs custom-made products is rare: it requires that the customer knows their tastes well and has a very precise idea of ​​the object they wish to have in their hands.

• Finding material for custom-made products is complicated: high-end leather suppliers, used to dealing with large companies, ask for minimums that are not compatible with the production of unique pieces. Complying with them would mean building up stock, which would not have been good in my case.

The need to develop a collection that meets the needs of a wider range of customers in order to develop the business ultimately became apparent quite quickly.

The project and the development of the concept

We wanted to work together on a larger project than the blog - this for a long time - knowing that we had energy to spare.

At the time, “making a wig” or “working in a wig” meant working in secret, in a workshop. It is an expression used by craftsmen or workers to designate objects made under the noses of their employers , using the tools and materials available within the company.

Ultimately, this is also what we did with Redingote when we were in office: we sometimes updated the blog during lunch breaks or even met designers during our working hours.

So we started with Laperruque and it stuck. We also realized pretty quickly that the brand name didn't make the product, so we quickly focused on the essentials 😉

After all, isn't one of the greatest success stories at the moment called Acne ?

Take an interest in your environment to get started better

Establish a market assessment

When we started working on Laperruque, we did not find ourselves in any leather goods brand present on the market. We made several observations:

• A mid-range offering that lacked quality and finesse because it mainly consisted of products with rough treatment (unlined leather, rough seams, unfinished edges, etc.),

• An impertinent offer that thought it had to reinvent the wheel with a “creator” positioning, and products with often complex and not very functional shapes,

• A high-end offer that no longer offered beautiful leathers: luxury brands, which continue to sell simple shapes, have turned massively to embossed and treated leathers such as Saffiano. This type of leather is plasticized and is thus protected from water and marks, but it loses everything that makes it a living material. It is also a leather that costs much less,

• Its inconsistent prices: luxury brands, even those specializing in leather goods, charge prices that are completely unrelated to the quality level of their products. Indeed, accessories have been used to make dreams accessible for a long time. As a result, they have become a huge source of income, ultra profitable, with margins much higher than those of most of their other products.

There was therefore an avenue open to a brand that wanted to create products with simple, functional shapes, in the finest materials and at prices that were finally realistic.

The advantages of leather goods

We had one of the best craftsmen in the world on hand, but beyond that, leather goods are a sector that has many advantages:

• Easy to manage stock: stocks do not take up space, so there is no need for warehouses or reserves at points of sale.

• It is a product that does not require testing, so it is easily sold on the internet.

• There is no size. Unlike clothes (or worse, shoes), there is only one size per product, thus limiting investments and the risks of making mistakes in purchases.

Know your product

Setting requirements

Once this “hole” in the market was identified, it allowed us to draw up a list of requirements that Laperruque products had to meet. We wanted them to:

• Quality: As amateurs, we wanted our products to be of impeccable quality. Beautiful stitching, good finishing, it is not necessarily visible to the untrained eye but it allows us to bring that je ne sais quoi that will make the product stand out from the crowd.

• Simple and functional: our experiences are complementary, but none of us have studied or worked as a stylist or designer. We believe that it is a real profession and that it cannot be improvised, so we did not want to take strong stylistic positions on our products. We wanted to let quality speak. As Le Corbusier said, "decoration often serves to divert attention from poor quality" . Simplicity was also a way for us to address a wide audience without being divisive.

• At the right price: we wanted products that remained accessible in terms of price. We wanted an affordable product, which could speak to the greatest number of people, both for amateurs and purists.

• Discreet branding: We don't believe our customers should be walking billboards. We don't pay them to do that. As customers, we shy away from anything with a logo that's too visible, so we didn't want one on our products.

• Durable: Card holders and wallets are typically kept for many years, and are used every day. Our products therefore had to age well and, like Japanese jeans, become more and more beautiful over time.

Make the wisest choices possible

All these requirements allowed us to guide us in the choice of leathers, the know-how that Robin would use and the shapes to be produced:

• Leather: we decided to work with some of the most beautiful leathers in the world. Our ambition for durability and patina led us to choose a natural Swedish vegetable leather, light beige when purchased but which will quickly “tan” to a beautiful caramel color. In addition, we work with Novonappa and Baranil, leathers well known to purists, which have an exceptional feel and a magnificent patina although a little slower.

• Style: we started with the archetypal shapes of each type of product. Our only bias in terms of style was to make rounded edges (with a radius of 2cm), present on all of our products. It is discreet, functional (it facilitates access to the cards) and aesthetic.

• Know-how: to stand out from the competition's "raw" offering, we have used the traditional know-how of French saddlery and leather goods. Thus, all our products are lined in French goatskin, the saddle stitch we use is finer than that usually used, even in luxury, and the edges are dyed then waxed with beeswax.

How to choose your business model?

The three major categories today

Today, we can distinguish several major business models at our level of range:

• The “classic” business model: the brand buys the materials, has the products made by an external workshop and then distributes them within third-party multi-brands. The multi-brands take care of part of the brand’s communication work, in addition to distribution.

• The “direct to consumer” business model , very fashionable at the moment. This is notably that of BonneGueule, Everlane , or Atelier Particulier: the brand continues to work with an external workshop for the production of products, but controls all distribution (via a website and/or a network of stores). The whole difficulty here is to succeed in making yourself known, which implies additional expenses.

• The “vertically integrated” business model : this is the case for luxury brands today, which often control both the manufacturing and distribution of products. They are increasingly moving up the supply chain and even buying tanneries or even livestock farms to control all the stages. This requires knowing how to manage many different professions (from industrial to retailer, etc.), but allows for optimal control over the product, its image, and the way it is sold.

Limited intermediaries

We had to select a business model that was consistent with our constraints and strengths: no budget, a craftsman ready to get the needles turning, a good knowledge of the distribution professions, some leftover IT skills allowing us to create a website.

We therefore finally opted for a model combining in-house distribution (at full margin) and distribution via a multi-brand network (much less profitable). Our objective: to achieve a healthy balance between these two distribution methods.

Our competitive advantage, that of controlling our workshop , therefore allows us to sell in-house as well as through third-party distribution, while practicing direct-to-consumer prices.

Indeed, and this is our strength, we limit the intermediaries upstream of the value chain.

However, this involves a major constraint that we encounter very quickly: hiring and training artisans, managing production rates, regulating production throughout the year, etc.

The next step: building your image

When you are pragmatic and interested in the product first and foremost, you focus on it. As amateurs, we wanted to be irreproachable about our product, which is for us the basis without which nothing can exist.

However, we are also very sensitive to a “beautiful brand”, that is to say a brand that has a polished image, that takes beautiful photos or films to present its product, that tells its story and inspires.

It is clear that to reach a wider audience, you have to be “cool” and “sexy”. We therefore wanted to have a contemporary image, highlighting Robin’s traditional know-how.

We also wanted all of our customers to be able to recognize themselves in this image. Just as our products are functional and simple, we did not want to present a fantasy image that was completely out of touch with reality. It would just be enough to achieve this in an aesthetic and contemporary way.

So out go all the visuals seen and reviewed by many leather goods brands: the old craftsman (an actor), who works by candlelight for a client (a model), who will use his briefcase while smoking a cigar before setting off on a trip in his convertible vintage car (rented for the shoot).

In real life, we leave our wallet lying around in our pocket or on our coffee table, next to our cigarettes or our keys. We take it out at the market, at the café, at work. It really is something universal.

Final stretch before launching the brand

To launch Laperruque, we needed finished products, a website that people would like to buy and beautiful photos of these products.

Product development

Product development within ready-to-wear or accessories brands almost always follows the same process, which we have therefore applied to our situation:

• Creating the collection plan : The first step is to decide what products we would need for our first collection.

• Prototyping : Robin then made shape proposals for each of these products, using scraps of leather so that it wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg (Robin needed both to sew 😉).

• Back and forth : the most complex things to achieve are often the simplest in appearance. When Robin (Nozay) received the prototypes in Paris, we would call each other on Skype to think together about how this prototype could be improved. Robin (Hureau) would then take these comments into account to build a second prototype, then a third, and so on until the product seemed perfect. We know we have the right product when it seems normal, natural, obvious. It's hard to describe but something really happens, sometimes all it takes is adding a few millimeters for a part to suddenly become right, as if its shape made sense.

• Sampling : Once the shapes have been validated, Robin makes a sample of each model in each selected leather, so that we can appreciate the rendering of the finished product. These samples are then presented at trade shows and photographed for our online sales site.

We were therefore able to produce 5 products on time for our launch, before the Christmas holidays.

The website, or how to get your hands dirty

Not having the budget to have a website created, and Robin still having some notions from his computer engineering degree, we decided to go with a CMS , and to “customize” it so that we like the result.

We opted for Tictail, a very easy-to-use Swedish solution, using a basic theme that gave pride of place to product photos. Then we had to get our hands dirty and modify the CSS code to make something unique.

Taking the right pictures

Our site being ultra-minimalist, we needed beautiful images of our products. Descriptive images (which we call packshots) but also more inspiring images presenting the products in context, which ultimately became our first “lookbook”.

The packshots

At first, we thought we would take these shots on textured materials, marble, concrete, wood... So we did some tests with some pieces of leather goods that we had on hand.

The rendering was quite satisfactory, but presented many problems:

• The textures “crushed” the product and diverted attention away from it.

• The realization was complex because the textures were quite difficult to find. It was also not easy to control the light to have a consistent rendering between the photos.

We then went to a fine art equipment store to buy some beautiful sheets of Canson paper, with colors that we thought were in tune with the times, in order to try them as backgrounds for the photos. We were able to try them on the products that Robin was making for our friends and friends of friends.

The result looked really good, so we decided to do all our packshots this way.

All that was left was to photograph our 20 products from every angle (hehe no. 3) and to retouch everything so that the images were sufficiently bright, the colors absolutely identical to those of the pieces.

Creating the lookbook: bringing the products to life

We also needed photos of the products in situ.

Robin Nozay used to take a lot of holiday photos using an old film camera. Coming back from a short work trip in the south, he had to finish a roll of film and a card holder was lying around in the car. A nice ray of late afternoon sunshine was falling on it. He took two photos, just to see.

After development, the photo was not exceptional but the grain, and its anchoring in an everyday situation, seduced us. So we decided to explore this avenue.

We didn't want to have the polished universe of most accessory brands. We were greatly influenced by a decoration magazine that we like, Apartamento .

This magazine has the particularity of taking photos at the homes of celebrities (a bit like The Selby or Freunde von Freunden ) without the apartments being too prepared. We liked the spontaneous side of these shots.

So Robin did some testing at home with some of his wallets, just to see:

We thought that these photos were good but that their universe deserved to be more controlled. We also needed models, people who would use the products and could embody the brand.

We finally decided to go visit some friends, and took pictures of our products in situ in their apartment.

This gave great results, we had a lookbook of which here are some photos:

The launch, the financing, and what's next...

A launch at the right time

The site was ready just in time. It was launched in mid-November, just in time for the holiday season.

The results were quite positive, boosted by orders from our friends and family. We thought that the wind would die down and that orders would stop abruptly in January, once New Year's Eve had passed and the sales were approaching.

Conversely, helped by word of mouth and blog posts that talked about us, sales continued and even increased. By the end of February, we were not far from the breaking point: our initial investment (admittedly minimal) was almost reimbursed, and we had to reinvest this sum to buy new skins.

Officialization and financing

So we decided to take the next step: join forces and set up an SAS. In fact, the brand had been operating until now under Robin's self-employed status.

The opportunity to put down in black and white everything that we had not had the pleasure of doing until now: a business plan, a development strategy, a cash flow plan, forecast balance sheets, etc.

It was also an opportunity to realize that we were going to need funding, our respective contributions having only allowed us to buy the leathers, rudimentary packaging and to develop our products. To develop, we needed money at least for:

• Meeting our working capital needs : since store orders are placed 6 months before they are invoiced, we must therefore advance the costs of developing collections and production.

• Investing in tools and machines : until now, no machine is involved in the production of our products but our prices have been calculated for products produced with the help of a press, a trimmer and a saddle stitcher.

We had two options for building up our initial capital: crowdfunding and a possible fundraising campaign.

Crowdfunding has the advantage of not diluting our participation in the company and of creating a community dynamic around our project. This is therefore the solution we considered first.

Crowdfunding

After seeing the (very good) results of brands like Gustin in the USA or Atelier Particulier and Asphalte in France, we said to ourselves that we could offer our products as well as new products with a small discount to people wishing to give us a helping hand.

Crowdfunding is a real project: you have to develop content specifically for it, and keep it active throughout the campaign .

To make it even more attractive, we wanted to offer some of our future products, which were not scheduled to be released until the following summer.

We were lucky to have a friend who is an editor for designer brands, who perfectly understood our story and made a video presentation of our project for us:

One of the keys to a successful crowdfunding project is communication. We therefore approached several media outlets to communicate about it, and that's when Geoffrey and Benoit suggested that we write this article to share our experience with the BonneGueule community. A difficult exercise but one that we hope will be successful!

You can take a look at our campaign here , please feel free to help us!

Editor’s note: If you are interested in the concept of crowdfunding , we invite you to (re)read our article on the subject.

And for the rest...

After this funding stage, many adventures await us:

• Buying used machines in Paris to bring them to Malmö, probably with a rental van. We will take the opportunity to import into France, on our return trip, some beautiful vintage Swedish furniture for our friends.

• Carry out all production of crowdfunding orders.

• Develop our Spring-Summer 2018 collection and present it at a trade show in June.

• Take all the photos of our Fall-Winter 2017 collection and put it online by mid-August.

• Develop new packaging that is more consistent with our brand and our products.

• Develop a new, more personalized website.

• Do a first test of physical distribution with a pop-up shop for the holidays.

We won't be bored! In the meantime, we invite you to visit our crowdfunding page .

And you, have you ever made a career change? What were your struggles and highlights? Tell us about them in the comments!