00:00Well, despite tariffs aimed at luxury goods and the furniture sector, one brand is moving full
00:05steam ahead. Jonathan Adler. We recently spoke to the president, Mary Beth Sheridan, as well as the
00:10chief creative officer and renowned designer, Jonathan Adler himself, about how the company
00:16is navigating trade uncertainty and why their designs continue to resonate with consumers
00:21after three decades. Here's part of that conversation.
00:24Customers today are going from buying just a product to really buying into a brand and
00:32a lifestyle. And it's really important that that brand, that lifestyle represents how they
00:37see themselves and how they see the world today. So as long as we continue to carry on with great
00:43quality, great craftsmanship, unique designs, as you've just discussed with Jonathan, we see lots
00:50of growth for more customers, whether it be a small object in a home or designing the entire home
00:55or, you know, even a commercial project. Well, to make this personal, which I like to do, I was taking
01:00a look at the Jonathan Adler website and I thought that snake looks really familiar. And then I realized
01:06that I have a ruggable Jonathan Adler rug sitting under my dining table. And I thought that was
01:13really interesting, you know, sort of infiltrating that channel and reaching the customer that way.
01:17So how do you approach those sorts of partnerships?
01:21I want to meet the customer where they are and just make fantastic design at every price point. And
01:27I think, you know, ruggable has been an incredible collaboration. They're an amazing company. We've
01:32made amazing things with them that are at a somewhat accessible price point. And, you know, we also make
01:39really expensive stuff. I kind of, my attitude is just whatever I'm doing, make it incredible.
01:45You sort of, you know, traverse the pricing spectrum. You make things that are more accessible,
01:50such as ruggable rugs. And then you have the very expensive. And, you know, in the environment that
01:56we are right now with prices still very high across industries, the question of tariffs, where are you
02:03seeing consumers go in that environment? Are there any trends about, you know, trading down or,
02:09you know, what you're seeing when it comes to the higher end as well?
02:11Yeah. Well, you know, tariffs, inflationary pressures, it all puts a lot of, you know,
02:18pressure on our costing. However, myself, the entire team is hyper-focused on controlling what
02:25we can control. And to that end, we have a global sourcing network that is extremely diversified.
02:32You know, Jonathan and the team have built, you know, great partnerships and relationships with
02:37this vendor and this, you know, partnership community. And we feel quite insulated in that
02:42regard and that we've got, you know, sort of being on the offensive strategies to control our pricing
02:47and our factories, you know, our sourcing where we can. And as long as we're putting forth the great
02:54product, our customers are still responding.
02:56When you start to hear things in the news, though, about maybe additional tariffs or retaliatory tariffs on
03:00the U.S. or however sort of the mix is, do you react to that or do you just sort of wait and see
03:05where things go?
03:06Well, you know, I think being on the offensive like that, we have to, we don't have a knee-jerk
03:10reaction on a daily basis. We have to see where things settle in and then take, like I said,
03:15what we can do, what we can control. We control it so that we're here to, you know, run a business,
03:20but we're also here to make sure we service our customer with fair product and fair pricing.
03:25Let's talk a little bit more about where you're going, Nat, because I'm taking a look at the notes
03:28you sent over to our producers. And you really highlight three areas of expansion. You have
03:33wholesale expansion, you have your digital acceleration, and then you have interior
03:38design. And I want to talk about that. What that actually means when it comes to your interior
03:45design studio, you know, what sort of projects you're taking on?
03:49Well, yeah, interior, I started out as a potter, which is sort of the essence of what I do and how
03:56we built this company. I started out just as a potter making pots. And over the intervening years,
04:01I've expanded to make furniture and lighting and rugs, all with kind of what we call modern American
04:07glamour is how we would describe our style. And I've taken that ethos and also use it in interior
04:13design projects from private residences to huge hotels. And it's kind of all of a piece. And I find
04:22doing interior design informs my aesthetic and they all kind of are complementary to each other.
04:27And we're doing a lot more interior design. You referenced being a potter. And one of your big
04:33breaks was getting your products into Barney's department store, which for those who don't know,
04:37was kind of the premier luxury department store here in New York City. Unfortunately, it's closed.
04:43And I do wonder, when you look at some of the struggles we've seen in department stores and other
04:47retail outlets over the last few years, particularly those that did actually provide an entryway for
04:56an unknown potter to sell their wares. Is there space for another Jonathan Adler to come up? Like,
05:02who's going to be the platform that gives Jonathan Adler his break?
05:05I mean, it's a deep question. And I am sort of blessed and extraordinarily lucky. I was
05:13an unemployed and unemployable potter who, when he started making pots, I was 27. I had failed at
05:20everything. And I thought that I would make pottery and just kind of hawk my wares at rain-soaked
05:25craft fairs for the rest of my life. I never expected, you know, to make any money or anything.
05:30Barney's saw my pots and gave me a break and really launched me into the world. And Barney's sort of had
05:36this special magic dust that they could sprinkle on young designers and create brands and foster
05:43creativity in the most extraordinary way. And once I got into Barney's, it was sort of like once you
05:48could get over that speed bump and get in, then all of a sudden you were a known quantity and you
05:55could really expand. So I think at the time, the gatekeepers, there were fewer gatekeepers, but once you
06:02can get through the gate, then you could blow up. Now I think it's much easier to get a little bit of a
06:07foothold because you can market on Instagram and, you know, there's so many new points of distribution, but
06:12it's much harder to be noticed and gain scale. So in the past, the challenge was to get past the gatekeeper,
06:19which in that case was Barney's, and then you could blow up. And now there ain't gatekeepers, but nor is there
06:24the same opportunity for scale. So my kind of career, I don't know if it's replicatable. I think it was
06:32just fantastic timing and, you know, shout out to Barney's. It was an extraordinary,
06:37extraordinary vibe and company.
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