Never mind the fact that a tough economic situation has necessitated a different relationship between retailer and brand, but do you think that the approach to working with some of the different contemporary menswear doors you were looking to land required a different approach relative to a more prototypical streetwear account? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do feel that the certain refinement that comes with the new direction of 3sixteen brings forth the need to really raise the bar in terms of packaging your brand. A simple line-sheet with template designs don’t seem to cut it.
Throughout our brand’s history, we’ve made a conscious effort to improve the way we present our line to buyers. We’ve tried different things and have always sought to communicate the nuances of our collection no matter who we were sending our linesheet to. Johan and I both know that presentation is just as important as design, so we’ve done our best to go beyond generic linesheets with simple line drawings, but a good linesheet only goes so far. The truth is this, no matter how thorough a linesheet is, the collection needs to be even more impressive in person. That’s what we work towards.
Arguably these days everybody needs to step their game up a great deal with such fierce and intense competition. Were there any particular case studies or brands that you admired who you aimed to perhaps mimic or take cues from when re-branding 3sixteen?
If there were any to look at, we weren’t aware of them. As I mentioned before, this was never a conscious decision that Johan and I sat down and made to re-brand 3sixteen. Our first collection of cut and sew looked a lot more mature than some expected of us, and the pricepoints were higher than what many of our existing retailers were used to, so it may have given off the appearance that we were trying to push 3sixteen to a different sector. Our intention was never to shift markets but to broaden our brand’s appeal; Over time, it became apparent that the brand (from both an aesthetic and cost perspective) sat better in men’s contemporary doors. Now, we are discovering a few respected brands that have made adjustments to their look and feel in order to make the style of clothing that they like, and that’s great. When people ask about our transition, I tell them that we’re still the same people who started the line and our design ideals and company goals have not changed. What has changed is our ability to execute on a collection that we are proud of, and I attribute that to time and experience.