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    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    How we are coping as a business during the Covid-19 Pandemic

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    • S
      Snowy
      Joined:

      🙏🏻 thank you for sharing G. I can only imagine how difficult this is for everyone involved in the supply chain. I've been thinking of you all a lot recently and am hopeful you can find a way to ride through this safely. It sounds like everything that can be done is being done, fingers crossed!!

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      • GilesG
        Giles
        IHUK Crew
        Joined:

        One of the issues we have is that the Japanese side of the business has been shrinking for some time, it has been the international market that has been helping out.  The Japanese market will shrink a lot more because of CV-19, we have to hope that the international side of the business can keep it's head above water enough to compensate for the domestic drop in demand.  It's going to be tough…...What we look like when we come out the other side depends entirely upon how this thing lasts (obvious point, sorry)....

        "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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        • O
          Omega Man
          Haraki san Student
          Joined:

          Thanks for the explanation.  Not a situation to be lightly taken.  This has become a global problem.  I am hopeful everything will work out for everyone at the end.

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          • louisboscoL
            louisbosco
            啓蒙家
            Joined:

            when stringent measures starting taking place, shops began mostly trading online as an alternative. now, i'm slowly starting to see online shops closing. hanon boutique, a store that mostly do sneakers and based in scotland, announced their closure of online shop and warehouse for outgoing shipment a few days ago.

            do you think it'll ever come to this situation? is there a way to mitigate it from becoming that way?

            "Loyalty is a two way street. If i'm asking for it from you, then you're getting it from me."

            • Harvey Specter
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            • GilesG
              Giles
              IHUK Crew
              Joined:

              For us to continue with the online store in the short to medium term, it depends on 4 main factors.

              1. That our staff remain well.  One of the reasons we only have only 2 people in the office, is to protect the others.  If one of the 2 contract the virus, then they will both have to self isolate, but we can back-fill with other staff.
              2. UPS still pick up in Japan, still deliver to our office and still deliver to customers
              3. The Kojima store remains open, Haraki is working on implementing a staffing regime like we are doing in the UK
              4. The UK government continue to allow our staff to go into work

              We are doing everything and will continue to do everything we can to keep the online store open.  In all honesty, we need to create as much revenue as we can to survive until the other side.

              "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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              • GilesG
                Giles
                IHUK Crew
                Joined:

                We have just had a very useful and uplifting video call with H, Tom and Sarina.  We discussed our individual challenges, so we are all aware of what is working and or hurting each party and we discussed what each party could do to make things easier for us as a whole.  Haraki is off to visit the factories now, so he can have similar discussions with them.  He liked te Zoom meeting so much, that he will probably start doing the same thing with the factories going forward.

                "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                • S
                  Streetwise Hercules
                  Raw and Unwashed
                  Joined:

                  That’s good to hear, Giles.

                  I clumsily mentioned to the other half at breakfast that I’d like to buy something from you guys to help out. You know, selflessly.
                  She’s not exactly onboard, but I think I may break her yet.

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                  • GilesG
                    Giles
                    IHUK Crew
                    Joined:

                    How very selfless of you….

                    Thank you..... 🙂

                    "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                    • O
                      Omega Man
                      Haraki san Student
                      Joined:

                      I have noticed a number of retailers are having a sale.  Would this be a viable fix to smooth out cash flow in the short term?  This is far from being a "normal" business cycle, every stage from the supply chain to its end users are influx.  I do not own/run a business, so my perspective and knowledge is very limited.

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                      • GilesG
                        Giles
                        IHUK Crew
                        Joined:

                        Personally, for a brand and the brand's whole ecosystem, I think that holding a sale is very bad business.  If the reductions are not policed, reductions become a race to zero and everyone loses out.  If we did suggest that IHUK and our all of our retailers do reduce product by a set amount, IHUK would be the ultimate winners. We are an online store, that's really all we do, so we are fucking good at it.  We have stacks more inventory than any of our retailers and certainly some of our retailers cant even run their online stores at the moment.  So basically we would screw our retailers.  And say we did hold a sale to shift stuff, we could come out the other side with compromised inventory levels and it would take months to build up stock with money we don't have because the retailers have not had bricks and mortar customers for weeks if not months, so they still need extended credit terms.  I have heard of some shops that have already had sales, let's say at 25% off, the sale went amazingly well, but guess what? They now have fuck all product and less money to purchase restocks.

                        We agreed this morning with Haraki, IHUK will take out loans to protect our business from the impact of retailers slowing down payments and/or possible bad debts if a retailer simply can't pay (we think we have a $20K exposure in this regard already), Haraki will give us plenty of leeway with payment terms to him.  Haraki, on the other hand, will take out loans so that we can still place orders on the workshops, we need to protect them so that they stay in business.

                        Have we got it right?  Have no idea, never been here before. Could my position change?  Yes, the world changes every day at the moment.  Twelve days ago I wrote to Haraki and said, when I met with you 4 days ago and I had said "by the middle of next week the whole of our retailer network will likely be shut", you'd have thought me mad.  When I went out for dinner with him 2 and half weeks ago, the biggest problem we discussed was a possible shortage of constructional thread…

                        "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                        • Bfd70B
                          Bfd70
                          Raw and Unwashed
                          Joined:

                          I really enjoyed that response. Because relatively speaking IH is a small operation it made it easy to wrap ones head around the impact of the current situation to businesses.
                          In the meantime money isn’t going to my barber or bartender so a CPO and a Westpoint are one the way.

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                          • Madame ButtonflyM
                            Madame Buttonfly
                            IHUK Crew
                            Joined:

                            Thanks all for your encouragement and support  😘

                            As G said we've never expected or encountered anything like this before.  One of the questions from the bank about the emergency loan was:

                            "When the Pandemic is resolved, how long do you believe it will take you to start recovery?"

                            I found that tricky to answer.  I wanted to say "We've no bloody idea when it will be resolved, so I've no bloody idea!"

                            Instead I wrote "Another difficult question to answer, because none of us knows when the Pandemic will be resolved.  If we base this on a period of 4-6 months before the Pandemic is at least considered “under control” then we should be able to start to recover quickly.  We expect to keep our staff team intact and motivated, and we are extremely fortunate to have a very large, loyal, international customer base." Which is the truth, and we're very grateful for it.

                            If they ask any more impossible questions, I might be reaching out to you guys to help with my responses!  😃

                            AKA Mrs G

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                            • S
                              Snowy
                              Joined:

                              Can we send you photos of both new and worn gear from around the world to attach as "Appendix A"? Maybe 5-600 photos in a day or two to show loyalty? 🙂  😃

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                              • SeulS
                                Seul
                                Joined:

                                "Give them the loan or the bunny gets it!.."

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                                • Madame ButtonflyM
                                  Madame Buttonfly
                                  IHUK Crew
                                  Joined:

                                  Nice - if very different - tactical suggestions @Snowy and @Seul  😃

                                  Happily I think we'll be fine getting the loan, just may take time because we entered this strange phase of our business life in a strong position, my bank manager will understandably be prioritising the businesses who need the dosh soonest.

                                  AKA Mrs G

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                                  • steelworkerS
                                    steelworker
                                    見習いボス
                                    Joined:

                                    😶

                                    Those are my principles, and if you don't like them…
                                    Well, I have others.

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                                    • D
                                      Danny RnH
                                      Raw and Unwashed
                                      Joined:

                                      I appreciate Iron Heart's practical approach to this outbreak. Good communication really helps us plan a route through this working together.

                                      We started out online in 2012 so it feels like we have temporarily returned to those halcyon times before we opened the physical stores. Although the London and Manchester stores are closed to the public we are able to receive deliveries and ship to our online customers.

                                      3 days a week one of our employees on a voluntary basis goes to the store (mainly James who lives near the London store and can crack on with his PHD in peace and quiet) He gets online orders ready to ship and leaves them by the door 8 metres away from the DHL driver who comes to collect. He also cycles a short distance to the store thus avoiding any public transport.

                                      We too are talking to the banks about loans to get us through this period. We have to support the brands as without them we won't have a business on the other side of this. We are grateful to everyone who supports us at this time. We are very much all in this together and together we'll come out battle weary but in tact  at the sunny end of this dark tunnel.

                                      Danny
                                      www.rivetandhide.com

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                                      • Madame ButtonflyM
                                        Madame Buttonfly
                                        IHUK Crew
                                        Joined:

                                        Thanks for update, @Danny RnH - as you say, good communication is key, and it just so happens that we love talking to you, so it's a bonus to stay in touch even more often  😘

                                        Good luck with everything.

                                        AKA Mrs G

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                                        • D
                                          Danny RnH
                                          Raw and Unwashed
                                          Joined:

                                          @Madame Buttonfly Let's have that social catch up via Zoom in the coming days -Have you got enough "supplies"? 🙂

                                          Danny
                                          www.rivetandhide.com

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                                          • Madame ButtonflyM
                                            Madame Buttonfly
                                            IHUK Crew
                                            Joined:

                                            @Danny RnH - yes let's do that. Supplies are good, thanks - Giles bought 3 more bottles of white wine today, not exactly a business essential, but it definitely helps with the anxiety!

                                            AKA Mrs G

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