We don’t need to.
I have a seasonal wardrobe. I’m sure you do too.
Shorts when I get to go somewhere hot or if a summer turns up in the UK. A cotton sweater for a chilly evening on those summer days.
But I’ve got a Merino sweater and a range of sweatshirts for the colder months or for when I find myself in a colder climate.
I know when to pull them out of a drawer. I don’t need an ad campaign or a shop window to tell me what to buy when. And, why does everyone try to sell me summer stuff in February when it’s still freezing. Get a grip!
If I want to buy a Cashmere sweater in July, why can’t I?
I might not wear it then, but maybe it’s my birthday and I want to spoil myself, or maybe I’ve got a ski trip booked to Patagonia. Just let me decide what I want to buy and when.
Oh, and when I do, please let it be the same cut and colour and quality as the one I bought several years before.
Again…, I loved it the first time. So, don’t change it.
People have asked us, though, won’t this mean your range becomes boring?
We don’t think so and, let’s face it, our business plan is based on us being right.
We’re not prescribing a uniform for you to wear every day. Rather, we’re giving you the nuts and bolts to make up the whole.
Our core range will fit together for a coherent look and style but, given their timeless design and quality, our clothes will fit with the rest of your wardrobe.
We’ll end up with thirty to forty core items in a limited range of around four or five colours per item.
In business speak, that’ll give us maybe two hundred SKUs.
What happens when we’ve reached that point? When the product release roadmap has been fulfilled?
Well, time will tell. The world moves forward and, as we’ve all learnt lately, massive change can and does occur.
Can we see a point when people won’t buy our core range – the wardrobe staples?
Not really.
We’re nailing ourselves to this belief.
That men want to buy a limited range of great clothes made up to a quality and not down to a price.
We’ve bet on the fact that they will repurchase those items in a range of colours and will love the clothes that we make.
That we’ve made it simple and pain free for them to look good, feel good and know that their clothing is ethically sound.
Will we expand outside the wardrobe staple line?
Yes.
How?
We’ll likely add occasional short lived colour variations of the core garments. Yes, we know that goes against the ‘you’ll always be able to buy this’, but doesn’t that contradiction just make us human? (The core range in the core colours is what you want to have available always. Now and then a pop of colour is just the change you need.)
We also have a plan to make limited runs of less regular pieces. We’re looking to do this as collaborations.
It’s early days for these, but imagine an Elgin/Barbour collaboration. Our take on that classic piece that we make with the skill and insight that only masters of that style can bring. (Barbour, feel free to get in touch.)
These ‘Elgin Workshop’ pieces might be short runs or they might become a template for a future wardrobe staple.
We’ve also got an idea about recycling some classic pieces as another line. Better to get a quality garment back into use than into landfill, right? It’s a germ of an idea at the moment but you’ll see it when we manage to make it happen.