We know you love IH, but where do you think we can improve?
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Two points…
1. In your online shop I'd like to see which retailer has the item in stock, incl. a link to their online sales channel. Think platform economy. Everybody wins. Customers are more likely to get what they want in the size they need, retailers sell more, you sell more, faster movement of goods, ...
2. No more Discounts ("Sales"). It's a sweet poison that eventually leads to the dark side of the force. I understand the short term benefit for you and your customers, but long-term it just costs you money, customer loyalty and brand reputation.
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- Almost impossible to do at anything like a sensible cost. We'd have to have real time links (or a batch update once per day or so) into their systems. We have enough trouble keeping our own stock levels accurate.
2a) We love doing a 10% or so off sale from time to time, it's a great way to create some buzz and we gain lots and lots of first time customers (who usually become repeats). Do we need to do it, no, but it's quite fun.
2b) We make a lot of mistakes - all retailers do. We order too much of a product, we think something will be super popular and its not. The only way we can move it is to discount it. I know that everything we make will eventually sell, but we have 3 restraints - i) Physical space ii) Capital tied up in stock iii) Website real-estate - we simple do not want a website with 100's of things that only have 1 or 2 items. There is no better way of pissing customers off than have them click on dozens of products to find we only have 1 x XS and 1 x XXXL left.If someone has a better solution to 2b, please let us know. We'll be all over it like a rash…
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You provide the platform. Retailers pay for the integration. Prices for these solutions drop monthly. Jump on it when feasible, but early.
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Brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Apple, IKEA, etc. face the same challenge, but decided to deal with it differently. Not because they enjoy burning money. I think to make it work you have to know your customers extremely well and your fear of figuratively burning your brand has to exceed your fear of literally burning surplus production.
Just food for thoughts.
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Brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Apple, IKEA, etc. face the same challenge, but decided to deal with it differently.
Man, are you oblivious of the size difference between a brand like Iron Heart and the companies you mentioned?
I'm sure if IH had such a huge customer base then they'd approach discounts differently as well, but you're comparing a tiny fish to that of a whale. -
Thanks, I appreciate the thought and input.
I think we do know our customers extremely well. This forum helps us do that. But we still screw up. I think one of the most interesting pants we have made in the last few years are the IH-816DD, I thought these would sell brilliantly. They are on special and still we have 53 pairs left.
Perhaps the brands you mention are extremely profitable and can afford to destroy stock, we are not and we can't. Perhaps they want world dominance want to make hyper-sales and hyper profits, we don't. Apart from the moral objections I have about destroying perfectly good product, I'd far rather offer the product at a price that allows us to give some people who otherwise may not buy them a bargain price and at the same time bring some money into our coffers. If, say we get USD100 per pair for those IH-816DD that's $5,300 that we don't have to find from somewhere else, like raising prices on other products..
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You have to remember that high cost fashion brands such as LV or Hermes make such a small runs of products or have very long lasting traditional product runs there is very little need to manage stock by discounts. I remember LV made SUPER awesome bag back (and f***ing) expensive around $14,600. Is sold out immediately. Seriously in hours or in couple days or so.
- Brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Apple, IKEA, etc. face the same challenge, but decided to deal with it differently. Not because they enjoy burning money. I think to make it work you have to know your customers extremely well and your fear of figuratively burning your brand has to exceed your fear of literally burning surplus production.
Just food for thoughts.
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IKEA goes on sale… At least in Australia.
Apple may not go on sale but their retailers do, not often but it happens (twice a year).
Louis Vuitton and Hermes are only sold in their boutiques or concessions, they have full control of their product... Iron Heart have independant stockists all over the world, they can't stop them from going on sale even if Iron Heart decided never to.
Also, IH isn't a luxury brand, it is a brand intended for everyone but not everyone can afford it. Sales give customers a chance to buy something they normally couldn't.
** Apple's revenue $230 billion, IKEA 35 billion, Louis Vuitton 10 billion, Hermes 1.35 billion **
**** Levi Strauss & Co revenue $4.5 billion… And they go on sale **** -
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You provide the platform. Retailers pay for the integration. Prices for these solutions drop monthly. Jump on it when feasible, but early.
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Brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Apple, IKEA, etc. face the same challenge, but decided to deal with it differently. Not because they enjoy burning money. I think to make it work you have to know your customers extremely well and your fear of figuratively burning your brand has to exceed your fear of literally burning surplus production.
Just food for thoughts.
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Such platforms are not cheap. This is a niche market, retailers do not make big profits.
The companies which do what you have suggested are large with high turnovers, their retailers are also large. -
You cannot seriously compare Iron Heart to any of those companies, or even the markets they operate in.
Having sales are a part of any retail market. In my opinion they create more positivity than negativity to a brand and its customers.
Poor customer service and limited or no interaction to customer base is what hurts brands more than anything else. -
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This is a niche market, retailers do not make big profits.
Actually nor do we. Nor does anyone in our supply to retail chain.
The margins we make out of retailers is a non-sustainable business model. Part of the reason we have a retailer network (and they know this because I tell them), is that they drive customers to Ironheart.co.uk. None of our retailers can afford to or has the space to carry more than about 15% of our range.
Customer goes into retailer, sees Iron Heart, falls in love, goes home, Googles Iron Heart and see all the other goodies that we sell (our retailers know this happens, because we tell them it will), we then sell a product at a higher margin than we would selling to a retailer, which allows us to continue what we do without increasing prices.
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Poor customer service and limited or no interaction to customer base is what hurts brands more than anything else.
^yup.
Great customer service and remarkable, nay, unparalleled levels of interaction with the customer base are two of the unique qualities of IHUK.
Also it's not just new customers with limited buying power who appreciate the Specials or an odd 10% off. The regular customers who use a solid proportion of their income buying often at standard prices also really appreciate getting the opportunity to buy items at a reduced price now and again. So I fail to see how that tarnishes the brand.
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Actually nor do we. Nor does anyone in our supply to retail chain.
The margins we make out of retailers is a non-sustainable business model. Part of the reason we have a retailer network (and they know this because I tell them), is that they drive customers to Ironheart.co.uk. None of our retailers can afford to or has the space to carry more than about 15% of our range.
Customer goes into retailer, sees Iron Heart, falls in love, goes home, Googles Iron Heart and see all the other goodies that we sell (our retailers know this happens, because we tell them it will), we then sell a product at a higher margin than we would selling to a retailer, which allows us to continue what we do without increasing prices.
ha, that's exactly what happened to me. I bought my first Iron Heart clothing in Rivet & Hide several months ago and it is already my favourite brand!
^yup.
Great customer service and remarkable, nay, unparalleled levels of interaction with the customer base are two of the unique qualities of IHUK.
I have bought clothing online many times, and I can honestly say I had the best customer service when I made my first order with IHUK.
I also like how on the forums you can talk freely about other brands that are operating in the same niche market.
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The regular customers who use a solid proportion of their income buying often at standard prices also really appreciate getting the opportunity to buy items at a reduced price now and again.
Sounds like the voice of personal experience…
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I think one of the most interesting pants we have made in the last few years are the IH-816DD, I thought these would sell brilliantly. They are on special and still we have 53 pairs left.
My thoughts on these are that, for me, the only time I wear anything other than jeans is at work. If it weren't for my job, I would just ALWAYS wear jeans. That's just me. And as beautiful as this fabric is, it fades (beautifully), effectively making these pants jeans as far as my job goes. So they don't work for my job, and when I'm not at my job, you won't catch me dead in anything but jeans. Chinos just aren't my style. I'm just weird like that lol. But maybe some others here are too?
Having said all that, I still need chinos for work that don't fade, so if you could just go ahead and convince Haraki to make some 707's in the 12 or 16oz Superblack denim, that would be super awesome.
With a coin pocket while you're at it. 
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I think one of the most interesting pants we have made in the last few years are the IH-816DD, I thought these would sell brilliantly. They are on special and still we have 53 pairs left.
My thoughts on these are that, for me, the only time I wear anything other than jeans is at work. If it weren't for my job, I would just ALWAYS wear jeans. That's just me. And as beautiful as this fabric is, it fades (beautifully), effectively making these pants jeans as far as my job goes. So they don't work for my job, and when I'm not at my job, you won't catch me dead in anything but jeans. Chinos just aren't my style. I'm just weird like that lol. But maybe some others here are too?
Having said all that, I still need chinos for work that don't fade, so if you could just go ahead and convince Haraki to make some 707's in the 12 or 16oz Superblack denim, that would be super awesome.
With a coin pocket while you're at it. Agreed somewhat. I love the 816DD but they're not quite casual enough for me to wear day to day with something like sneakers. I've always liked the chino-style pants that had patch back pockets for this reason - can easily be dressed up or down, wear well, etc.
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A minor suggestion. It appears that the more recent 634 cut jeans have departed from the traditional longer back rise measurements. For example, a tagged 34 in the 634S/634S-GR/634SII/634-UHR/634-XHS/IH-634-DD all have a back rise of at least 15.5 inches. However the newer denim, 634B&SRAW, 634S-14, 634S-WH all have barely 15 inch on the BR at tagged 34. I didn't consider the 634-19L due to the unstable denim and 634-B due to the overdying process.
I don't believe it has to do with the specific denim, as the 633-14 from SE has the usual 634 BR.
I hope the upcoming vintage 18 oz, vintage 14 oz, yenim, and SBG jeans have the BR sorted out!
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^^^Right there with you. Hoping that the 634 remains more a mid than low rise. I need the larger thigh vs. 666, and if the rise shrinks too much, the cut becomes untenable for bigger legged Western guys (I am a tag 33 for reference). The 55 comes in precious few options.
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^^^Right there with you. Hoping that the 634 remains more a mid than low rise. I need the larger thigh vs. 666, and if the rise shrinks too much, the cut becomes untenable for bigger legged Western guys (I am a tag 33 for reference). The 55 comes in precious few options.
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Agreed on all points- the 634 has just the right waist:back rise:thigh ration for me, 555 tend to be too slim in the lower leg and 666 too slim in the thigh. The 633 is quite a good fit, but they've had some inconsistency in the back rise too (just the 633N really).
It's interesting how much the BR can affect the overall topblock fit, I've had to size up in the recent 634 cuts to accommodate for the shortened BR and it's worked so far.
. Budget=exploded 
