When the opportunity first arose to interview the guys over at King Apparel, I was initially dubious, seeing as the boys at the Daily Street had already done a fine job. However, I decided to go a different route, and talk about the trials and tribulations of starting up and running a UK streetwear brand. You see obstacles and pitfalls are something that King have had their fair share of, yet regardless of this, have built and amazing brand in a relatively short space of time. When I went to shoot the photos to accompany this interview yesterday, Tim (right) told me of more recent challenges they’re currently facing, just proved that its not all fun and games running a brand.
The brand is currently maturing, and after seeing a sneak peek of next years collections, I’m really impressed with where they’re going, really good quality cut n sew pieces with intricate details, while still retaining it’s London heritage and without moving away from the brand’s ethos. Tim took time out to answer some questions on the above matters, so check it out!
So firstly guys, how are you?
I’m good man, tired but energised, optimistic and in control.
Take me back to the very start. What were your motivations to start king and how did you start?
Well, I think it had a lot to do with circumstance, where we were personally in our lives, where streetwear culture was at that time and so on. I was a pro snowboarder and had a series of pretty bad injuries. I had been helping with r&d on my clothing sponsors’ ranges with some really good results and was taking a bigger interest in the brand marketing and design that was exploding in snowboarding at the time. Paul was a graphic design graduate and was looking to get his teeth into something as the job market was not the best at the time for grads and had a lot of good ideas.
We saw what was coming over from the States in terms of clothes with so much detail and lifestyle statements, and there just was not anything like that anywhere over here. It was frustrating, because instinctively both us of knew what we wanted to wear and what wearing that clothing would project, but, like I said it didn’t exist. The whole concept of starting your own label just didn’t really exist. So, we thought, “lets just do it ourselves then.” Paul has the technical graphic knowledge, I had loads of contacts in action sports and the UK underground music scene too, and it all fit perfectly. We had no fashion background at all, but that didn’t matter. We were not constrained by convention and dogma, there were no boundaries and most of all we had the instinct for what worked and what didn’t. In a nutshell, we had no money, so we went to the Prince’s Trust, Business Link and a bank, and through a year of hard work and hustle, we got the money to kick things off.
What were some of the first trials and pitfalls you experienced?
There are tons and tons. Overall, the sacrifice of having no money – I mean no money. Working all the hours God sends, no social life and a constant struggle to bring your ideas to life. Plenty of times you question whether its worth it, but that’s where the talkers and the doers are separated; the doers actually hang in and are motivated enough to make their stuff work. We had banks turn us down for overdrafts, had to convince Dragons’ Den style panels at Business Link to loan us money to start our business. Stores went bust and owed us a bunch of money, garments were coming in that were nothing like the samples. Really just a lot of stuff that all fashion businesses go through. There were some hard lessons to learn.
Was there ever a time you wanted to give up?
Ha ha, see above!
Was there a point when you thought, “yeah, this is working”?
Definitely. The Winter ‘05 collection. We went out at the start of ‘05 with samples for a collection that we knew we couldn’t afford to make. We just worked so hard with that collection, and at the end of the sales season we had tons of orders. So we put the pre-order in with the suppliers to make the collection. We then had six months to find the cash to make it. That summer we worked as hard as we could to look for a little bit of outside help and managed to secure the sickest mentors literally with two weeks to go. Their guidance was invaluable in being able to juggle paying our suppliers and giving us a footing to build the business every season thereafter. We are still very close with these guys and they have been instrumental in helping us to focus on moving our brand and business forward.
How fast did King progress then?
It was pretty quick. We had taken a big risk and it had paid off and now we had the confidence to look at our business 6 months to a year in advance and put things in place with the idea of having targets set. If we hit those targets we could pay for things like the new member of staff we had employed, or moving suppliers or investments in new equipment etc.
Weren’t you the first guys to do a New Era hat? Because everyone is doing them now!
We were. That comes back to the instinct thing I was talking about, combined with the fact that we were prepared to make that happen. We knew they were going to be big. I don’t know how but we just saw it. I remember watching a Busta Rhymes video way back and saying to myself, “We need those hats”. New Era wasn’t even available here. So by hook or crook we set up a meeting with them as they just set their operation up in the UK and sold our ideas and brand ethos to them. We’ve never looked back and have had an immense 7-8 years working with them. I like to think that we really pushed the envelope when it came to the 5950 in terms of what could be achieved design and construction wise. We did designs where we thought, “They are never gonna be able to make this’ and yet they did it. Just amazing stuff. It was truly an exciting time. We have some stuff in the pipeline that’s gonna change things up again in 2011.
What advice can you give to other people wanted to start a business like this?
I would say follow your heart, your instinct and work as hard as you possibly can. Never doubt yourself and it will come. Surround yourself with positive people. Listen to everything everyone says, take it all on board, and then filter away the bullshit. All feedback is good, because you always get something from it – a lot of times I have come away from conversations thinking, “Cheers dude, now I know how not to do it”. Don’t be overly precious with your brand or take it personally, not everyone is going to like it. Prepare for the haters, because some people when they are not doing it themselves just want to hate on it and say it’s shit. Those people know who they are. Opinion that is unconstructive and without respect is not opinion, it’s just… Drivel! Don’t go around thinking you’ve made it or you are a fashion guru because you run a fashion label. I always say those people who talk and talk are those that feel they need to prove something. Those that are doing it, are those that you often don’t notice, because their output speaks for itself.
What’s next for King? And what have you learnt along the way?
Well, we’d like to try and grow the brand through this bitch of a recession; there have already been a lot of casualties. We’d like to continue to project our brand as one with integrity and that represents the lifestyle of the people that wear it and the culture that we are all part of. That is the foundation of our brand and we must always remember that. We’d like to make a bigger cross section of people aware of what we do and try and infiltrate as many parts of the world as possible – dethrone the corporates. We have better and brighter ideas and they know it. It’s just a matter of time.
Thanks!
Thanks for the opportunity to put our voice across. I’d also like to say that there are a lot of other streetwear brands coming through in the UK and we all need to support one another. Just check our Twitter and you will soon know who I’m talking about. Thanks again to everyone who buys our stuff and is into our brand, we are stoked on you lot.
