Suitsupply founder Fokke de Jong explains how he generated early foot traffic and dynamic energy after a PR stunt for their London store opening fell flat.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
De Jong forged municipal zoning blueprints to save first Suitsupply store
“And so then I thought, ok, I took a pen, I practiced as long as I could, To, you know, have almost the same handwriting as the unit where it was store written in, and I just penciled store in my unit. And then I went back to the municipality and said, but guys…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Italian luxury suit factories skimmed excess fabric for unbranded secondary sales
“And he made this sort of deal where the factory in Italy was producing suits for some of the bigger brands, right? And they would tell these brands yeah, well, you give me this cloth to make you a product, and we need 3.1 meter to make this product. But in rea…”
Insight
De Jong estimates 60 percent of corporate effort goes to internal politics
“50, 60% of the effort in an organization like that goes to the political process, right? Positioning yourself well and all that kind of stuff. It's not just doing stuff, right?”
Assertion Supported
Dutch luxury retailer Oger sued Suitsupply over a cheeky directional advertisement
“And then we had an ad that says, For a beautiful suit, you go to Auger, and then you'd take a left and a right. All right, basically just a route to go to our store. And it was sort of a little bit of a pun and we're joking. And it was a little tongue-in-cheek…”
Opinion
De Jong claims Suitsupply's Chinese factory surpassed Italian factories in quality
“This was, you know, something I'm like, I've never seen some, so much quality and so much detail before. It was probably one of the best factories I've ever seen. Better than ever, anything I've seen in Italy.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Luxury retail markups and middlemen inflated suit prices by four times
“They made a product for a brand, and then this brand goes into a trade show, and these trade show, the customers, and there's agents bringing in these customers, or agents selling it to, you know, independent stores again, and if you then add it all up, becaus…”