- 4 months ago
Designer Rebecca Minkoff celebrates 20 years, Arc'teryx unveils new NYC flagship, Vetir launches AI-powered shopping, and On introduces spray-on running shoes
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00:00On this episode of The Business of Style, designer Rebecca Minkoff looks back on 20 years in the industry and shares all of her success secrets.
00:09It's about being innovative and continuing to push boundaries.
00:13Plus, we'll dive into the future of sportswear with the CEOs of Arcteryx and Swiss brand On as they push the boundaries in performance technology.
00:22We have a robot that can spray the shoe. That machine now is the only one in the world.
00:26And fashion industry veteran Kate Davidson-Hudson gives us an exclusive sneak peek inside her new AI-powered shopping experience.
00:34The tier was really built to synchronize all of those different touch points, give it some AI power behind it.
00:41That's all coming up on Cheddar's The Business of Style.
00:45Am I overdressed a little bit?
00:47Yeah, you're a little overdressed. I think we can help you out, though.
00:49I kind of messed that up.
00:56Okay, such a great pleasure to be joined by, let's get these right, founder, author, podcaster, designer, Real Housewife of New York, Rebecca Minkoff.
01:14What else did I leave out?
01:15You left out mother.
01:16Mother! How could I forget the most important role of all?
01:19I want to go back to the very beginning.
01:21Okay.
01:21When fashion actually started with you, I think when you were eight.
01:25I was eight.
01:25Tell me about that story.
01:26So I wanted a dress.
01:28My mom and I were in Fashion Valley in San Diego at the mall there.
01:32And I was like, Mom, can I have this dress?
01:34She's like, no.
01:35Like, it's 20 bucks, which maybe was a lot of money then.
01:38Maybe that's like today's.
01:38It was, yeah.
01:39Like 40.
01:40Maybe, give or take.
01:41And she's like, I won't buy you the dress, but I'll teach you how to sew.
01:44And I was really pissed, but we did go home.
01:47She brought out her mom's like eight to 19, no, not even, like 1920s old school.
01:53Oh, I remember those.
01:54Yeah, they have to like flip up and they weigh 600 pounds.
01:57But she taught me how to sew.
01:58And I was so riveted by the fact that I could create something out of nothing.
02:02I was very, very thin, awkwardly thin, that I couldn't buy regular clothes anyways.
02:07And so I was like, great, I'll make my own now.
02:09Well, full circle back to your 20th anniversary of your company, which is incredible.
02:14Any company lasting 20 years is a remarkable achievement.
02:17But in fashion, where it changes every five minutes, how do you explain that?
02:21I think sometimes at the end of the day, when everyone else is like, I'm tapping out.
02:26This is too uncomfortable.
02:27I'm going home.
02:28You know, my brother and I said, we're showing back up.
02:31Not just my brother and I, we have an incredible team.
02:33And today, I think it's just this mentality of entrepreneurship is hard.
02:37Being a founder is hard.
02:39Everyone wants instant gratification.
02:41But I think that my generation and a little older knew that it was a longer amount of time
02:46to achieve success.
02:48So I think it's about one step in front of the other.
02:50It's about being, you know, innovative and continuing to push boundaries.
02:54We're surrounded by bags.
02:55But the morning after bag, where it all began, what's with the name?
02:58So if we all go back to that era, 2005, Sex and the City is just beginning to roll out.
03:06Women really want to reclaim the confidence of this isn't a walk of shame.
03:11And so the morning after bag was this idea of this mindset of a confident, powerful woman
03:16has a fun night, maybe has a sleepover, PG-13.
03:20And, you know, still has a bag that she can walk home with.
03:22And so that struck a nerve with women, where they were like, yes, this is my badge.
03:27And it became something greater than that.
03:29It became, I got a raise.
03:30I'm changing jobs.
03:31I broke up with him.
03:32I'm getting divorced.
03:33Whatever it was, that signifier, my brand became that bag for her.
03:37Oh, Carrie Bradshaw is an icon.
03:39I still remember getting dumped by a Post-it.
03:41So again, big Sex and the City fan here.
03:44How influential was that show in changing fashion and that image of taking the power back?
03:49I mean, I think that was one of the first big shows that brought fashion as a character,
03:54really, in the show.
03:55Like, you didn't want to just watch what was going on.
03:58Like, you needed the whole outfit.
03:59And even today, you've got your finger on pop culture with the bag right behind you.
04:04Tell us what that has to do with arguably the most marketable movie of the last couple of years.
04:09Yes.
04:10So we are one of the partners for Wicked.
04:12These bags are available now.
04:13We obviously did a Galinda bag, which really takes a lot of inspiration from, obviously, her color,
04:20but the crystal that you will see.
04:22And then this is from the Grimmery, this stud mock-up on one of our best-selling bags,
04:27you know, inspired by Elphaba.
04:29And then there's a really beautiful quote that is on the inside of the bag that says,
04:33don't hide your magic.
04:33Most of our viewers do know your designs.
04:35Yes.
04:36They also know you from Real Housewives of New York.
04:38And what I thought was interesting that you said about it is that you said it only works if I'm me.
04:42And when I look at a lot of shows like that in reality, it almost seems like people are pretending to be someone else.
04:50So your advice seemed to be the complete opposite.
04:52Yes.
04:53Why is it important to be you and not try to act like we see in other reality shows?
04:58I think that I've been a public figure for, let's just say, it's been 20 years,
05:02maybe more public-facing in the last decade.
05:04Yeah.
05:05But you know what I'm like on my podcast.
05:07You've maybe bought my book.
05:08You see me on social.
05:11And if suddenly you're like, huh, she's on TV and she's acting like someone that,
05:15that's not how she's been everywhere else, you lose trust.
05:19You know?
05:19So I had to be me.
05:21And I had no other choice.
05:22Boring, nice, whatever they want to call me.
05:24How influential is social media today in your designs, in the entire fashion industry?
05:30So for us, Instagram, TikTok, that is the platform that we use to communicate, show how the brand
05:37lives and feels, whether it's on me, models, women of influence.
05:41I think our goal is to show this is an ageless brand.
05:44I hate when people say that, but really we're talking to a girl who's in her 20s, right?
05:50And then you're talking to a woman in her 40s plus.
05:53So I think the goal is there is a first moment for every woman and it doesn't matter what you
05:58are.
05:58This is a mindset.
05:59It's not a time period.
06:01I'm curious how fast fashion and some of these brands have impacted, you know, top tier brands
06:07like yours.
06:08How has that impacted the fashion industry?
06:10Fast fashion is the biggest creator of waste in the fashion industry, period, hands down.
06:14And when you look at human trafficking and how people are treated, also the biggest, you
06:20know, offenders.
06:21And so for us, we want to educate the consumer that you don't have to buy a $5,000 bag, save
06:28up for the $300 bag and have something that's high quality that lasts, I know, 20 years because
06:33I still see 20-year-old bags walking around and maybe wait a little bit longer.
06:38You know, there is that dopamine hit that these girls want, right?
06:41That everyone wants.
06:42Oh, I just got to get this for tonight.
06:43And it's the trend now.
06:45But if you can sort of build a wardrobe of really beautiful brands that stand the test
06:49of time, and if you got to pepper in a couple things, I think that's a better and more sustainable
06:54way to live.
07:18$5,000 pants aren't just for the runways in Paris, nor the red carpets of Hollywood.
07:24They are for mountains and trails and the great outdoors.
07:28Here with the man responsible for those pants, CEO of Arcteryx, Stuart Hazelden.
07:35Stuart, $5,000 pants.
07:37I can't wait to check those out.
07:38Yeah, we got to get you in a pair.
07:39But am I overdressed a little bit?
07:42Yeah, you're a little overdressed.
07:43I think we can help you out, though.
07:44I kind of messed that up, didn't I?
07:45Yeah, yeah.
07:46What do you suggest?
07:47You know, I think there's a great hoodie here that's perfect for you.
07:49I think Stuart's got a much better idea, and that is a lot more comfortable.
07:55So with that in mind, tell me what this brand stands for.
07:59It stands for innovation, design excellence, quality, durability, and really getting people
08:05into the outdoors.
08:06This is a brand that was founded by two climbers in 1989, building products that they couldn't
08:13find to serve their ambitions in their climbing.
08:18The first product was a climbing harness, and from there, it just continued to grow for three
08:23decades.
08:24To extend into other categories, outerwear became the most successful commercially, and most
08:30recently, footwear.
08:31All of our products are designed for the mountain.
08:34They are solving a problem for a mountain athlete.
08:37If it's not intended for the mountain, we don't make it.
08:41And what we found also, the same jacket, the same footwear that serves you climbing a mountain,
08:47you know, scaling, you know, a sketchy peak somewhere, also serves you pretty well trying
08:52to get across Midtown and trying to stay dry.
08:57There are washing machines, looks like equipment.
09:00There's work going on right next to us.
09:03Where are we?
09:03So this is our Rebird Center.
09:05We are building our stores with care and repair centers that enable us to keep our gear
09:09in action, in operation, if you will, longer, extend the life of our products.
09:14And so here, we wash our jackets for our guests, as well as repair.
09:20It punctures, zippers.
09:22We do all the care and repair free charge.
09:25When someone is ready for a new product, we will also offer a trade-in.
09:29And so we'll give them a credit on a new jacket or a new product.
09:33This is a new expression.
09:35We don't have anything exactly like this anywhere in the world.
09:38And so we're inventing a new business model, a new circular business model here.
09:41It's super exciting.
09:42Here we are in your own A-frame coffee shop with your own coffee brand.
09:50This is very much a part of the mountain experience.
09:52And so the design of this is intended to echo, you know, a traditional Alpine lodge.
09:58And your own coffee.
09:59Our chief commercial officer, Delaney Schweitzer, hand-selected the coffee beans and the flavor.
10:07And so she is an expert in coffee.
10:08She actually has a coffee shop in Vancouver, and so we relied on her expertise to get this perfect.
10:14Where does the business go from here after a spectacular quarter in which revenues were around $400 million?
10:21How fast are you growing?
10:23You know, we're growing, you know, more than 30% on a year.
10:27And we have big ambitions to continue to extend our store operations in the four regions where we operate.
10:36In Europe, in North America, in Asia, outside of China, and then in China, mainland China.
10:41Finally, we've got to finish this conversation where it started with $5,000 pants.
10:46They're called MoGo.
10:48What is that short for?
10:49And tell me about what's available next year.
10:52Short for Mountain Goat.
10:53And this was a multi-year project with a Google X startup called Skip.
10:59And they brought the technology of the actual mechanism.
11:05And we brought the expertise for the apparel and how to make a product like that work on a human body.
11:13And so the combination of our expertise and their R&D and invention has created what we like to think of as an e-bike for hiking.
11:22Does it make you go longer?
11:23Does it make you go faster?
11:24Does it make you go higher?
11:25All of the above.
11:26I can't wait to see him on the red carpet at a movie premiere.
11:29Cheers, Stuart.
11:30Yeah.
11:30To your success.
12:02To see just how this part fashion, part tech company is discovering new ways to engage with the industry.
12:08The fashion industry has historically been very fragmented.
12:11You have different points of sale that are not synchronized or informing one another.
12:16So you have brick and mortar.
12:17You have the advent of e-commerce.
12:19You have social commerce.
12:20You have personal stylists.
12:22And now you have this new ecosystem emerging with these personal shoppers that leverage Instagram.
12:27The tier was really built to synchronize all of those different touch points, give it some AI power behind it.
12:34The app is for anyone who is really interested in just optimizing their wardrobe.
12:39You are able to digitize your closet.
12:42You're able to have personal stylists come into the app.
12:45They can up style what you already have.
12:47They can introduce new products that will kind of reinvigorate existing pieces in your wardrobe.
12:53The tier has spent over two years building a custom AI model to scale personalized shopping.
12:59What it really does is it works as a search functionality, both by text, by audio, and by image.
13:06You have a wedding in Capri this weekend.
13:09I need three outfits that will work for me.
13:11The AI, based on this highly cultivated model, will source both from your personal style algorithm
13:19and will cross-reference with the product that's already in your closet,
13:23with product that's incoming from our brand partner feeds.
13:26And it will create outfits or recommendations that are completely personalized to you.
13:31It's all pulled from data points on your interactions across the platform.
13:35So if you never pick anything orange, it will start to deprioritize any orange options.
13:41But if you love long-sleeved black t-shirts, it will pull a cross-section of the best ones for you.
13:47So it becomes really your co-pilot in this noise of an online space.
13:51Viteer's AI chatbot also makes recommendations based on personal styling preferences.
13:57AI, by its nature, it looks backwards.
13:59But fashion, by its nature, is forward-looking.
14:02So what we've done is we've built an internal chat in the app.
14:05And across that conversational conversion funnel that the stylist has with its clients,
14:11the AI is learning from everything that happens in that conversational conversion.
14:15If a stylist is telling a client, I just went to the Chloe show, wedges are going to be huge for next season,
14:21I'm going to try to pre-order you some, the AI is learning from that.
14:25And that's a forward-looking data point, which will then inform the product feeds
14:30and the recommendations that the AI gives to the clients moving forward.
14:34And while the platform is leaning heavily into AI,
14:37Kate also sees value in modernizing in-person retail, synchronizing the physical with the digital.
14:43We have launched this brick-and-mortar iteration.
14:47A client can come in and experience the product in person.
14:51They can sync it with their online digital wardrobe.
14:53They can be styled both online and in person.
14:56And it really becomes this overall client smart shopping experience.
15:01We have almost 2,000 brands represented across the app.
15:05Everyone from new discovery brands, small jewelers, to those heritage houses.
15:09This is a private styling atelier where you can come and meet with your stylist.
15:14It will be entirely outfitted as a store for one for you with everything in your size,
15:21everything that you need for your wardrobe needs for the season,
15:24from shoes to gowns for black tie to day wear to accessories.
15:30Even on our floor, we can look at the AI and see what's transacting
15:33and what's moving and what's trending in the app.
15:36And that informs how we merchandise the floor, what sits more forward,
15:40what brand adjacencies sit together.
15:43So it's really driving everything that we do from a data standpoint.
15:47Viteer also partners with New York Fashion Week
15:50to bring the app's video shopping feature to the runway.
15:53We've opened up, in partnership with Hudson Yards, the event space on campus.
15:58And then we've worked with WME IMG to bring in some of the key New York designers
16:03that we love that are both our partners and other brands
16:06that we really want to stand behind as a New York-founded brand.
16:09We'll use our shoppable video technology to make all of the runway shows
16:13that are showing here on campus shoppable.
16:16And then the brands also have an opportunity to do a simultaneous drop
16:20of their product in the store.
16:22Kate believes that Viteer's technology adds a new dimension to fashion,
16:25one that serves as a supporting player for her clients
16:29while still retaining the human element.
16:31Tech is very tech.
16:33Fashion is very fashion.
16:34Fashion is a little bit allergic to tech and vice versa.
16:37So to find one that can feel like a luxury experience,
16:40which is what we're endeavoring to do at Viteer,
16:42is a really compelling value proposition to a lot of these brands.
16:46And it's a time when everyone knows they need to reinvent the wheel
16:50and kind of re-look at institutionalized retail models.
16:55The way that we've done it is it's very targeted.
16:58It's hyper-personalized.
17:00And the brands really trust us in the sense that we have this cultivated knowledge,
17:04this really earned knowledge of who they are and what makes sense for them.
17:25All right, we're here with Chief Financial Officer and Co-CEO of ON, Martin Hoffman.
17:39And this really tells the story of your brand, where you were born
17:44and how you've grown in such a short period of time.
17:47Yeah.
17:47Hey, thanks for coming to ON Labs here.
17:50Here you see one of the first shoes that we basically made.
17:54So ON is really coming from revolutionizing how the outsole of a shoe is engineered.
18:00So it actually looks very much like garden horses that we glued under the shoe.
18:04But what it really does, it's an engineered solution to what a shoe is supposed to do.
18:10It's supposed to provide you a soft landing and a firm push-off.
18:14This is what you want to have when you walk, when you run.
18:17If you run extremely fast, if you walk slower, it's always that.
18:20It started with the athletes.
18:22So the athletes give the shoe credibility, which is super important.
18:25We are a performance brand.
18:26What's this shoe here and why is it significant?
18:28Our DNA is really performance, it's also design, and it's sustainability.
18:34And this is really a shoe that takes the topic of circularity to the next level.
18:41So it's a shoe that consists of one material.
18:45And basically, we want to get the shoes back so we are able to recycle them in the future
18:52and make new products out of them.
18:54And so we only offer that shoe as a subscription.
18:59And we started that two years ago.
19:01So you can actually only rent it.
19:03And then you can only get a new pair if you send us the old pair back.
19:06You rent a shoe?
19:08Yeah, because the customer is the bottleneck in circularity.
19:11You want them to return something, but you need to give them incentives.
19:15Nothing tells your evolution from 2010 like the shoes we are wearing right now that are displayed here.
19:22This technology has never been seen before.
19:26Can you kind of give us an introduction to how we arrived at spray-on shoes?
19:32Yeah, so we talked about that we started basically with revolutionizing the outsole.
19:37And now we are doing the same with the upper.
19:42And light spray is a revolution really in three dimensions.
19:47It's a revolution of how you build a shoe.
19:50Traditionally, a product goes through like 250 hands in manufacturing.
19:57So a traditional shoe.
19:59250 hands touch a shoe?
20:02Yes, touch a shoe when it's manufactured.
20:04Remarkable.
20:05And how many here?
20:05This one takes the robot three minutes to spray.
20:08So you have the opportunity to really rethink how the industry manufactures the product, where they manufacture it.
20:18Then the second thing is performance.
20:20So this is clearly the lightest upper that you can find.
20:24It's highly performant.
20:26And this is why our athletes are loving it.
20:29It's a pretty cool story how you discovered the technology.
20:31If you could tell us about that.
20:33It just speaks to the innovation culture that we have.
20:35So we gave the team the opportunity to just build something and give them the trust.
20:41And after four years, they came back and said, hey, look, this is what we have built.
20:46We have a robot that can spray the shoe.
20:48We have a printer that can print on it.
20:52And so we are able really to create a product every three minutes.
20:56We save a lot of CO2 already in the production process.
21:01So that upper has a 75% lower CO2 footprint than a traditional upper.
21:06But just to cut out all the transport, pre-manufacturing, dyeing, all those steps that you have in a traditional footwear making.
21:13So it's also a big sustainability story.
21:16So we have that machine now.
21:18It's the only one in the world.
21:20But we will start to ramp up production next year to make the shoe more commercially available.
21:26But we will be learning a lot on the way.
21:28But we really believe that it is a revolution.
21:31You can talk about a new design language that you can put in the shoes.
21:35And then really, as I said, nearshoring, automating, manufacturing, becoming less dependent on labor.
21:41So many, many upsides.
21:43It feels like a sock that I could run 10 miles in.
21:48That's the interesting part.
21:49Yeah.
21:50Is it grabs your foot.
21:52Yeah.
21:52It wraps it.
21:53Yeah.
21:54I mean, it's a helix structure that is really blown around the shoe.
22:00And this is also why this is not a customizing story.
22:03So because the fit is already so good in the standard sizes, it's really about the performance and the manufacturing.
22:11In traditional footwear making, you basically force a material in the shape of your foot.
22:16And here you can actually spray the material right away in the right shape.
22:22And so we saw the opportunity that it also has for just the performance in itself and the fit and the lightness.
22:30So, yeah, as we said, we believe in big ideas.
22:33Why is the apparel story so important for Arm?
22:35Because we want to be a multi-billion brand.
22:38And so apparel is super important.
22:40We laid it out.
22:41We want to have apparel at 10% of our sales in the next three years.
22:46And so it really brings the brand to the full body.
22:51And we can do the same that we have done on footwear, really innovating with materials, with design, with the fit.
22:58And if you look in our retail stores, which are becoming a more and more important part of our business, every fourth to fifth item that we are selling is an apparel item.
23:08So it's super successful.
23:09Now we really see that with our own stores, we can elevate a brand in a city.
23:14And we just opened our third store in New York, the biggest one yet in the U.S.
23:19More than 4,000 square feet, I think.
23:21Just in the last weeks, we opened Chicago, Austin, Portland earlier this year.
23:27We are living that culture internally.
23:30And I think this allows us to get the best talents to own in the different areas.
23:34And at the same time, we are sending millions of products from A to B in the shortest amount of time.
23:40So I think it's a team that has built the brand and that is building opportunities like Light Spray.
23:48And so really investing into that culture of innovation excellence, I think this is the secret sauce in the end.
23:57We'll see you next time.
23:57Bye.
23:57Bye.
23:59Bye.
24:01Bye.
24:03Bye.
24:16Bye.
24:19Bye.
24:22Bye.
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