Ask Giles and/or Alex Anything
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@Alex I know there are certain things i wasn't able to purchase to do release timing and availability. It's somewhat frustrating, and somewhat a relief depending on the item that slipped away. We don't have much time to contemplate an item, and that can be a help or hinderance.
Thank you for the thoughtful response as always.
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@Alex said in Ask Giles and/or Alex Anything:
@jordanscollected hi Jeff, sorry for the slow reply - was flying back from Japan.
No, that is not how we see the retailer business at all, that is definitely how it seems at the moment, given the relative speed of sell-through everyone has, but not the intention. Far better for us to sell directly to an American than to sell to them via a retailer from a profit margin perspective, so it is certainly not the intention to just have them essentially act as drop shippers for us.
I think the demand for Iron Heart is higher then we all anticipated, and we are spread a little too thinly currently with total volume across all the outlets we sell to. We need to work out how to improve things so that the shops that stock iron Heart, and we ourselves, can carry at least core product for longer, rather than having this rapid sell through model
Yes, Yes and Yes, strategy wise!!!
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@truby Yes, you are correct in that Iron Heart is successful. They pay fair wages to everyone involved, make good products that we enjoy, and have a brand reputation that’s hard to match in the denim community.
Does that success give them the ability to just buy mills and factories? Not my place to say yes or no.
When @Giles started this, he worked out of a room in his house and slowly moved to a single unit to base
the operation. That wasn’t that long ago….They have grown and do well. I appreciate what they have done and continue to do. @Alex has done a fantastic job taking over the reigns of the business and I look forward to seeing where he goes with this.
As he mentioned, there needs to be a balance between the wants and desires of the community and what can be made without breaking the supply chain.
I trust in his leadership and abilities and know the future is in great hands.
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And, as another aside: would buying the mills remove access to weave good denim and make good clothes from the other Japanese brands? Don’t see there being any benefit for the market, there. Maybe in the removal of competition I suppose, but there’s really no comparison as their style is different. Can’t see controlling all that chain as being a benefit.
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@truby said in Ask Giles and/or Alex Anything:
@Alex pressure on the mills huh. Why don’t you guys with all your success buy the mills?
We have no interest in running mills. It is not what we are good at (for that read, we know fuck-all about running a mill).
A few years ago, we had the notion that we could fit out a workshop and make shirts, I mean, how difficult could it be? We spent a shit ton on machines, sewed up one set of UHF's (the original 101 and 102-TG's), they were made so badly we had to recall them all. We sold the workshop and slinked off into the sunset with our tail between our legs.
Haraki is amazing at designing stuff, selecting the mills to make the fabric and selecting the workshops to do the sewing.
IHUK is fantastic at building a brand, creating customer and retailer loyalty, specifying product that will resonate with our customer base and marketing.
We don't know how to make fabric and stuff.
"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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I love the casual f bombs when thinking about running a mill. Hahaha.
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Damn guys sorry question took so many keys pressed to answer.
I’m curious and some weird ass “add”
Thanks again
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@Giles I love that it's all made in Japan by people that specialise in what they produce, wouldn't want it other way and don't think it would make sense any other way
Haraki knows what he's doing and so do you guys at IHUK
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This post is deleted!
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@Giles I been wondering, what the hell is your avatar? Is it a Good Art HLYWD ring cut in half? Submerged in sand? I'm too daft to make heads or tails of it.
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@Giles what a beaut. Thanks for clearing that up!
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@Giles said in Ask Giles and/or Alex Anything:
"Just the Tip", propped up in sand
Reminds me of a time in France when I stumbled upon a nudist beach
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This is not really a question, but a guy posted it on the Face Book group 'Iron Heart Denim Underground". I spent a bit of time answering him, so thought I would copy it here, for those of you not on FB, and may be interested in my ramblings....
FB User
We all know IH has a very very slow restocking, but I've been making some considerations recently.
I've been waiting for a restock since 13 Months now, which is just an insane amount of time, but that's not all. Let me make an example: Yesterday I got an email that told that the 666 25 Oz Indigo Black were back in stock and in just one day Sizes 28, 32, 34, 36, 38 are sold out.
Imagine someone waiting for more than a year for a restock, coming back from work and seeing your model is sold out before you can even imagine.
Now don't get me wrong, as denim heads we all know quality fabric needs time to produce and there's multiple factors contributing to this. But going sold out on half of your restock (6 sizes out of 13) in one day when you have such a long waiting line is just a problem. I am wondering if everything has been designed as it should. Maybe it's time to rethink about production efficiency.
Update-
I am seeing in the comments suggestions like: setting alerts, buying from selfedge and things like that. IH is already expensive enough, adding another 150$ duties just for the sake of owning an IH to me is just nuts. Same goes for the alerts, you can set all the alerts you want, but if you’re out working you can’t just stop to buy jeans. When I say improving efficiency I mean IMPROVING. Sacrificing quality as —someone said— is a compromise, not an improvement.Me...
We feel your pain. It is a situation we have been trying to fix for years. There are massive structural issues in the denim and jeans manufacturing facilities in Japan, and there is simply no quick fix. This is not an issue that is unique to Iron Heart, it is something that is affecting all Japanese Amekaji brands. I was at Union in Berlin earlier this week, it is no fun to be told by every Iron Heart retailer that we spoke to, that they have virtually no Iron Heart product in their shops, at the same time they told us that the delivery schedules of all the Japanese brands they stock was painfully slow. We have made some drastic changes to our retailer network over the last few weeks, that was not fun for Alex who had to wield the axe, and it was awful for me. I spent 20 years growing this brand, adding retailers and expanding our product offerings, to say goodbye to retailers I recruited a long time ago is devastating. But, we are doing this so that we can reduce demand on our production facilities, take the strain off them and hopefully put them in a position where they can build from a more stable base. If Alex, Haraki or I had a magic wand, we would have used it.......Me...
There are many reasons for over demand and under supply. One of the major causes is that the big US jeans brands have suddenly realised that they chucked the baby out with the bathwater years ago and are now crawling all over the Japanese mills and creating massive over-demand for Japanese selvedge denim. It's a a tad ironic that they sold their souls to the temple of cheap shit, we picked up the baton and created a real market and associated demand for high quality (but expensive)Japanese denim, but the large US companies are now tangentially squeezing all the Japanese denim brands hard.....Not bitching, because without them we would not have a business at all, but just trying to articulate one of the issues we face.FB User
Without them inventing jeans trousers we would not have business at all, true, but that time has long gone. Also true the some American brands are more aware that quality is a plus and not a minus ( Levi’s has a made in Japan line, so does Lee), but there are a lot —and they are a lot— of other brands that utilize Japanese fabrics. Fortela, Benzak, Imjit35020, Dondup, I can go on and on… So when the excuse is we cannot produce more quality fabric than this, I sincerely have my doubts about it. I think something can be done.Me...
When Levis come in to a mill and place an order, no disrespect to the other smaller brands you mention, it is on a scale that is hard to imagine......
How do we produce more quality fabric, when the population of Toyoda looms is limited and the people who know how to keep them running decreases every year (because the younger generation are not entering the business)? Same with the workshops that make the garments, it (to Japanese) is a seriously non hip career. The number of empty and abandoned houses in and around Kojima is testament (and extremely depressing) to the flight of young people to the bright lights.
It takes 13 separate machines to make a pair of jeans, many of which (to make the quality we mandate) are from mid 20th century, to create a new production line, we need to source all of those. It takes 3 years to train a seamstress to the level we require to make garments we are happy to sell.
If you can come up with some innovative ways to solve the industries problems, I'm all ears. But you would be better off selling those unique skills into the Amekaji brands and mills, you'd make a fortune. But beware, the Japanese are not good a listening or taking advice from gaijins....FB User
I have worked in Japan, I know them quite well. No disrespect to what I am about to say, but they way you are putting it down looks like the whole denim game is about to extinct in a few years because there will be no specialists (this is actually common problem in all the fashion industry).
It’s just a bad scenario.Me...
I have worked in the Japanese denim/amekaji market for over 20 years, so I know a little about it and feel able to give an opinion. I have never worked in the fashion industry, know nothing about it, so can't pass comment. -
This is my favorite part :" It's a a tad ironic that they sold their souls to the temple of cheap shit, we picked up the baton and created a real market and associated demand for high quality (but expensive)Japanese denim, but the large US companies are now tangentially squeezing all the Japanese denim brands hard"
