TODD SNYDER SHARES SUCCESS SECRETS
Once again, it was another fascinating “Swimlessons” forum last week, hosted by UBM Fashion and sponsored by FIKA, MMG, Hilldun and Retail Assistance Corporation. The all-day event is designed to offer UBM’s exhibiting brands guidance on a range of essential topics, from social media and e-commerce to finance and legal issues. This time around, the topics were Successful Tradeshows, Selling 101, DL1961, Financing Fashion, Fashion Law, The Art of Retailing, Big Drop, Robodress and an MMG Panel on Capitalizing Fashion.
Among the highlights was a conversation between Todd Snyder and blogger Marcus Troy, who moderated the event. Snyder’s humility and total lack of arrogance made listening to this menswear designer a refreshing experience. An Iowa native, Snyder studied architecture before he realized its complexity and switched to fashion.
With considerable talent and a little luck, he’d already acquired an impressive resume before venturing out on his own, having worked first for Ralph Lauren and then for Mickey Drexler at Gap and J.Crew. “I soon sensed a void between the basics at Gap and J.Crew and the extreme fashion coming from new designers like Thom Browne. Ralph was getting older, Perry Ellis was getting cheaper, and I saw a need for something between the $450 Thom Browne shirt and the $75 J. Crew shirt.”
So Snyder took all the money he’d saved from a top job at J. Crew, and in 2011, he started his own business. “I had a business plan but it was 100 percent wrong; they usually are,” he admitted. “It was rough at first. I did lots wrong, and often spent more time putting out fires than designing. I learned you’ve got to be flexible and entrepreneurial and roll with the punches. I was lucky that I knew a lot of people: Tommy Fazio called the day I left J.Crew and said he wanted me in Bergdorf’s. Then I did the Project show and somehow ended up with both David Witman (then GMM of Nordstrom) and Russ Patrick from Neiman Marcus at my booth at the same time. Trust me: this doesn’t happen often!”
While exhibiting at Project, a few Japanese retailers also stopped by his booth, resulting in a partnership and (currently) four stores in Japan. “But believe me: I leveraged every penny I had until I got to year three or four: this isn’t an easy business.!”
Snyder spoke candidly about his design process, his collaborations with other brands (Champion, Timex, Birdwell Beach Britches and a few pending), his NYC flagship (complete with tailor shop, barbershop, eyewear boutique and soon-to-open restaurant), his e-commerce launch (in fact, e-commerce now accounts for 70 percent of his sales), the importance of the right factors, and other topics.
His best advice to aspiring designers: work hard, be innovative, and be nice! “So many people screw up that last one, but if you’re a jerk, no one wants to help you out.”