Creative director cannot solve small-company conundrum
22/03/2013
Katie Greenyer, who was a designer at Christian Lacroix and at Red or Dead before its acquisition by Pentland in the mid-1990s, explained at a conference called The World at Your Feet in Northampton on March 21, that it was only after she began working across the whole portfolio of Pentland that she “started to understand branding and what brands are about”.
She said she understood the importance of a point Kirstin Deutelmoser, director of the GDS exhibition, has made about the need for smaller footwear firms to communicate better about their products instead of relying on the quality of their shoes to speak for itself. However, Ms Greenyer said she could suggest no magic formula for achieving that.
“It’s so difficult,” she commented. “I have a lot of very good friends who are footwear designers and I know some who have had to give up running their own brands and go back to being freelance. And it’s such a shame. People put their life savings into starting their own company, and they make lovely products only to find that buyers from retail chains will not take a risk on them. It’s so hard and so frustrating.”
She described as “a horrid Catch 22” the problem of being unable to attract enough attention in the market because you cannot achieve sales, and being unable to achieve sales because the market does not know you. She added that she was proud of a policy at Pentland, which began life as the Liverpool Shoe Company in 1932, to invest in small companies and help them get off the ground.
But she said: “I completely understand the question, but I’m afraid I do not know the answer. Half of it is luck, having the right design at the right time and getting the right pair of feet wearing your shoes. It’s certainly not just about the product, though, unfortunately. You can come up with what you think is the best thing you’ve ever designed and it can still be a flop.”
Share this story:
