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 numerous times (both for professional projects and for happy hours).

We have 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 our own and creating our own brand.

Our background: the origins of the two Robins

Robin Hureau, law student converted into craftsman

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

A few weeks later, after discovering dozens of independent brands, Redingote was born. Quite quickly, the blog was a little 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 that I had always been.

One thing led to another (hehe), I found myself a salesman at FrenchTrotters in Paris, then manager of their boutique on rue de Charonne. I then assisted Nicolas Gabard at Husbands and followed up with a brief stint in marketing at Dymant, a start-up which 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. In my free time, I started tinkering on my own, in my tiny Parisian studio, watching videos on Youtube and raiding Amazon.

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

Célia Granger was the first to give me time for an interview and, during our exchange, I began to understand that her lifestyle was exactly what I was trying to build: we took the time to do things. , in a sustainable manner 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 certain: I continued to be bored at work.

One morning, she suggested that I come to the workshop for a few hours a week to improve my skills and discover the real tricks of the know-how. The dream came true...

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

Neither one nor two, I decided to give up everything to take a CAP “Saddlery/Leather Goods”. It went perfectly with my law degree.

Robin Nozay, passionate about fashion and product

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 loomed...

I then decided to try to make a living from what I was passionate about: fashion . So I started studying again, 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 which were above all 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 Credentials in hand, I couldn't see myself working on the line at Vuitton, Chanel or even Hermès. These are very prestigious houses but they are too big to try new things, since we are timed for each operation.

Indeed, 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 employed there and many no longer see it as a passion, but as a living job that they forget once the weekend arrives.

It quickly became obvious to me: I had to set up on my own, determined to cope (hehe again) with the difficulties that were going to present themselves.

“What catastrophic thing could happen to me?”

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 activity, I had to be able to continue to live in a decent way, which goes through several stages:

• Drastically reduce my expenses : it'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 over instead of going out to restaurants, stop buying clothes and spend my vacations cycling. . For the question of rent in Paris, the answer was obvious: I would follow my Swedish friend to Malmö, Sweden, where she was returning to study. Although the cost of living is the same as in Paris, rents are much lower (both for spacious apartments and premises that can be used as a workshop).

• Finding additional income : no luck... locally, jobs in cafes were being taken over by young Swedes. By having difficulty aligning two words, I was not going to make the competition pale. While I learned the basics of the language, I returned to fashion: a major women's ready-to-wear brand selected me to accompany them during short sales missions in a showroom. 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. Quite quickly I also found a way to teach saddler sewing in Sweden.

• Testing the activity of saddler/leatherworker : No collection, no workshop, so it was in a corner of the kitchen that I made my first tailor-made orders, where the customer (family, friends and friends of friends) could choose everything. With few resources and a lot of constraints, we become creative very quickly! We are doing a lot of experiments and solutions are emerging. Delighted, the first clients allowed me to quickly test my know-how and push it forward, to ask myself good questions and to be ever more demanding.

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

• Each object created took me much more time than expected compared to 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 tailor-made is rare: he requires that he knows his tastes well and has a very precise idea of ​​the object he wishes to have in his hands.

• Finding material for custom-made products is complicated: suppliers of high-end leathers, used to dealing with large companies, ask for minimums which are not compatible with the creation of unique pieces. Complying with it would involve stockpiling, which would not have been good in my case.

The need to develop a collection that meets the needs of a wider range to develop the activity finally became apparent quite quickly.

The project and the development of the concept

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

At the time, “Making a wig” or “Working in a wig” meant working hidden, surreptitiously, in a workshop. It is an expression used by artisans 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 on the job: we sometimes added to the blog during lunch breaks or even met designers during our working hours.

So we started with Laperruque and it stuck. We also realized quite quickly that the name of the brand did not make the product, so we quickly focused on the essentials 😉

After all, isn't one of the biggest success stories right now called Acne ?

Take an interest in your environment to get started better

Establish an observation on the market

When we started working on Laperruque, we didn't find ourselves in any leather goods brand on the market. We made several observations:

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

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

• A high-end offering that no longer offered beautiful leathers: luxury brands, which continue to sell simple shapes, have turned massively to embossed and treated leathers like 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 specialists in leather goods, charge prices that are completely uncorrelated with the level of quality of their products. Indeed, accessories have been used to make dreams accessible for a long time. As a result, they have become a gigantic, ultra-profitable source of revenue, with margins much higher than those of most of their other products.

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

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:

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

• This is a product that does not need to be tried: it is therefore easily sold on the internet.

• There is no size. Unlike clothing (or worse, shoes), there is only one size per product, thus limiting investments and the risk of making a wrong purchase.

Know your product

Set 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:

• Quality: as amateurs, we wanted our products to be of impeccable quality. Beautiful sewing, good finishing, is not necessarily visible to the untrained eye but it allows you to add 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 has 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 biases on our products. We wanted to let the quality do the talking. As Le Corbusier said, “decoration often serves to distract 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 that could appeal to as many people as possible, both for amateurs and purists.

• Discreet branding: we don't think our clients should be walking billboards. We don't pay them for that. As customers, we shy away from anything with a logo that is too visible so we didn't want any on our products.

• Durable: in general, card holders and wallets are 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 ourselves in the choice of leathers, the know-how that Robin would use and the shapes to be made:

• Leather: we decided to work with some of the most beautiful leathers in the world. Our ambition for durability and patina made us move towards a natural Swedish vegetable leather, light beige when purchased but which will quickly “tan” to take on a beautiful caramel color. Furthermore, 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's discreet, functional (it makes access to cards easier) and aesthetic.

• Know-how: to stand out from the “raw” offer of the competition, we used the traditional know-how of French saddlery and leather goods. Thus, all our products are lined in French goat leather, 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 main 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 then distributes them within third-party multi-brands. Multi-brands take care of part of the brand communication work, in addition to distribution.

• The “direct to consumer” business model , very popular 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 difficulty here is to make yourself known, which involves 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 move further and further up the supply chain and even go so far as to buy tanneries or even livestock farms to control all the stages. This requires knowing how to manage many different professions (from industrialist to merchant, etc.), but allows optimal control over the product, its image, and the way in which it is sold.

Limited intermediaries

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

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

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

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

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

The next step: building your image

When you are pragmatic and interested above all in the product, you focus on it. As amateurs, we wanted to be impeccable with our product, which for us is the basis without which nothing can exist.

However, we are also very sensitive to a “beautiful brand”, that is to say a brand which has a polished image, which takes beautiful photos or beautiful films to present its product, which 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 fantasized image completely out of sync with reality. It would just be enough to achieve this in an aesthetic and contemporary way.

Exit therefore all the visuals seen and re-examined practiced by many leather goods brands: the old craftsman (an actor), who works by the light of a candle for a client (a model), who will use his briefcase while smoking a cigar before going for a spin in his vintage convertible 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 keys. We take it out to the market, to the café, to work. It’s truly something universal.

Final stretch before launching the brand

To launch Laperruque, we needed finished products, a website that made people want it 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 therefore applied to our situation:

• Creating the Collection Plan : The first step is to decide which 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 didn'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 called each other on Skype to think together about how this prototype could be improved. Robin (Hureau) then took these comments into account to create a second prototype, then a third, and so on until the product appeared perfect. We know we have the right product when it seems normal, natural, obvious. It's hard to describe but something really happens, sometimes you just need to add a few millimeters for a piece to suddenly become just right, as if its shape was obvious.

• Sampling : once the shapes have been validated, Robin makes a sample of each model in each selected leather, so that we can assess 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 build a website, and Robin still having some knowledge from her computer engineering diploma, we decided to use a CMS , and “customize” it so that we like the result.

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

Take the right photos

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

The packshots

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

The result was quite satisfactory, but presented many problems:

• The textures “crush” the product and draw attention away from it.

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

We then went to a fine arts equipment store to acquire beautiful sheets of Canson paper, with colors that we considered to be in fashion, 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 remained 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 parts.

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 vacation 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 case was lying around in the car. A lovely ray of late afternoon sunlight fell 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, appealed to us. So we decided to explore this avenue.

We especially 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 in the homes of personalities (a bit like The Selby or Freunde von Freunden ) without the apartments being too prepared. We loved the spontaneous side of these shots.

So Robin did a few tests at home with some of his wallets, just to see:

We found that these photos looked 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 photos of our products 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 right on time. It was launched in mid-November, just in time for the holiday season.

The results were quite positive, boosted by orders from our loved ones. We thought that the bellows would fall and that orders would stop suddenly in January, once New Year's Eve had passed and the sales were approaching.

Conversely, helped by word of mouth and blog articles that talked about us, sales continued and even increased. At 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.

Formalization and financing

We therefore decided to take the next step: join forces and set up an SAS. In fact, the brand has until now operated under Robin's self-employed status.

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

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

• Meet our working capital needs : orders from stores take place 6 months before they are invoiced, so we must advance collection development and production costs.

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

We had two avenues to build up initial capital: crowdfunding and possible fundraising.

Crowdfunding has the advantage of not diluting our stake in the company and of creating a community dynamic around our project. So this is 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 reduction to people wishing to give us a helping hand .

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

To make it even more attractive, we wanted to offer some of our future products, the release of which was only planned for the following summer.

We were lucky to have a friend who was an editor for designer brands, who perfectly understood our story and produced 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 in order to communicate on it, and that is when Geoffrey and Benoit suggested that we write this article in order 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 , don't hesitate to help us!

Editor's note: If the notion of crowdfunding interests you, we invite you to (re)read our article on the subject.

And then...

After this financing stage, many adventures await us:

• Buy second-hand machines in Paris to bring them to Malmö, probably with a rental van. We will take the opportunity to import beautiful vintage Swedish furniture into France for our friends on our return journey.

• 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.

• Make a first attempt at physical distribution with a pop-up shop for the holidays.

There's no risk of getting 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 your greatest moments? Tell us about it in the comments!