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Nathan Brown
Lodger Footwear
Based on London’s Clifford Street, Lodger Footwear is combining cutting-edge technology with classic shoemaking, bringing a new generation of formal shoe to trainer devotees. The Montebury met with Lodger founder Nathan Brown to discuss the influence of sports fashion, the subjective nature of fit and the return to classic footwear.
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Background: Italian Weekend Slip on Tassel in Deer Skin
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The Montebury — What is your background?
Nathan Brown — I grew up in Beaverton, Oregon which is the world headquarters for Nike and the US headquarters for Adidas and I have worked for both brands. I worked for Adidas in the US and in Germany, running their global tennis business. So, my background is very much in sports fashion. I then decided to do an MBA at London Business School, which is what got me to London in the first place. After graduating, I worked for Puma, so I have worked for the top three sports brands in the world. When I was working for Adidas in Germany, I would sit down with my friends who were at the time launching Adidas Originals (now a €3.5 billion euro division) in early 2000. The idea was to stop working for the man and to start our own company. We all loved beautiful, classic products and the task was to combine the technological innovation from our current industry with the products we were so passionate about.
I went to London Business School from 2000-2004, so the idea was always sat in the back of my head, brewing. After I graduated, I worked with several small fashion ventures, and then I decided to go for the idea I had been chewing on for quite a while. That is where Lodger started.
Did you have any support?
NB — Well, it ended up with me being completely on my own. One of the guys who was there at the start was working for Fila in London and so I grabbed him to start working on a prototype. He originally came up with the name ‘Lodger’, however he then got poached by Reebok because Adidas had just bought Reebok. They moved him back to Boston, and I was left here on my own. We had received three prototypes from three different factories already, so I decided to see if I could raise some finance and go for it. I gave myself a six month deadline and told my wife over Christmas 2006, which went down like a lead balloon. My daughter was about three months old at the time and I told my wife that I was going to quit my job and try to start a company. But, I was able to find some great investors and kick things off. |
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Why the name ‘Lodger’?
NB — Well, historically a lodger was a traveling shoemaker who would go from town to town, farm to farm, lodge with a person for the night and make a pair of shoes in return for a small sum and a place to stay. In the world before shoe shops, that was the only way you could have footwear made. You certainly couldn’t go down to the mall and pick up a pair of shoes. We really liked the idea of traditional craftsmanship, but using modern day technology.
How are the shoes manufactured and why is Lodger unique?
NB — To be very blunt, nothing that Lodger does is unique. Each component of what we do has been done by other companies although I don’t feel it has been packaged in the same way. So, the laser scanner we use was invented for use by Japanese running shoe brands. The CAD program we use is used by an English company for making orthopedic footwear, which mainly services the NHS. The manufacturers we use are one hundred year old English and Italian factories, but we control the technological and design inputs. So, rather than trying to invent something new, it was about pulling pieces of innovation and technology together and packaging that in a way never done before. There are lots of great ideas that already exist, so if we can bring that into classic shoemaking, it is a great opportunity. It is a wonderful craft, but things have certainly moved on in the last hundred years. To not embrace that seems silly. |
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Below, background: Italian Contemporary 2 Lace in Rum
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Why is there reluctance to move on?
NB — Whether you are a small family workshop in Napoli or an old English factory in Northampton, you will not be exposed to the innovation in companies like Nike. Those guys are working on concepts that are ten years ahead. I think there is an opportunity for somebody who straddles fashion, design, footwear and business, which is why I bring something unique to Lodger. I have a business background, I have worked on five of the seven continents, I have a background in technology from the athletic industry which can be applied to classic shoemaking. I am not a craftsman; I have made two pairs of shoes in my life, both hideously ugly, but I cut the patterns and stitched them myself. Lodger is about pulling together all of the strands.
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“ We understand that men don’t want to suffer the pain, so we spend a lot of time making sure that our shoes are comfortable from the moment you put them on ”
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Has online changed a lot?
NB — When I kicked off Lodger, I did some analysis because we have a fully operational e-commerce site which we are very proud of. However, The amount of money it takes to acquire a customer online as opposed to through a store, is between 10 and 20 times more. This is because there are zero barriers to entry, so there is a lot of competition and it is difficult to get your voice heard. There are certainly a lot more blogs out there writing about smaller brands, however the customer that is going to take a chance on those brands is a small segment of the market. Most customers want to touch and see before they buy. I have been surprised about the amount of online traffic we have received, because it is nowhere near what I predicted. It is a nice little business, but when people have bought a pair or two, they still like to come back into the shop to pick up another pair. My thesis was that once you have bought the first pair, all you need is an image because you trust the fit and quality of Lodger. It is also more convenient to buy online.
A full e-commerce website is still very valuable, because there are lots of people who don’t like to go into shops or don’t like to be seen to be shopping. There are also customers in locations where you don’t have a boutique. We ship around the world all the time, so there is certainly a market online. People like to be immersed in the environment, and customers anywhere near London have proven to us that they like to come into the shop for the experience. I think that any future of retailing is going to be a combination of multiple touch points.
What does the customer experience when they come into the Lodger boutique?
NB — It really depends. When we started Lodger, we wanted to use modern technology to improve the process of fitting and selecting. We have learnt that for a lot of guys, they do just fine buying shoes off of the shelf. Rather than trying to reinvent anything, we try to provide good, old-fashioned customer service. Most guys come off of the street, try on a standard size 8 and buy the shoes. Other customers are interested in the technology, so we do a laser scan and try on a few pairs of shoes. We can use the laser scanner to make shoes for a customer and make what appears to be their perfect size. However, we have realized that fit is incredibly subjective and there isn’t a correct algorithm for what people like. If you have a wide foot and you have been buying shoes off of the shelf your whole life, you will be used to the shoes being a little bit tight. I have a long, narrow foot so I prefer my shoes to be a little bit shorter, and a little bit wider because that is how I have become accustomed to wearing my shoes. When I make myself perfect fitting shoes, they are a little annoying. So, the process is about using the scanner to make sure that you get the right fit, size and using customer service to make sure you get the right style, material etc.
Does the collection work in seasons?
NB — Yes, we are working in seasons but we also have our shoe of the month, which changes every 30 days and then that shoe is never available again. That is something which is unique to Lodger. Our classics won’t go away, such as the country brogues and the summer suedes. A classic shoe doesn’t have to change every six months. Classic shoemakers are a little too slow and fashion brands are a little too fast, so we try to sit somewhere in between. |
There are a lot of people who want to start up companies in the fashion industry. What advice would you give to them?
NB — Having worked for a large, multinational company means that I have a strong background in sourcing and in fact, my first job with Adidas was in sourcing. I know how to work with factories and I understand about manufacturing on a scale. I think that one of the real benefits was understanding how the larger industry works and then backing into doing it on a smaller scale. I understand where the progression needs to go in terms of my business. I have mentored quite a few young design students, in terms of business and manufacturing. The single biggest challenge is that they may have wonderful design expertise but without commercial understanding, it is very hard to grow into a profitable company. So, the best designers are the ones that have teamed up with a business partner. If I had to give any designer advice, I would say that after graduating, go and get a job for a big commercial fashion house. I am not talking about LVMH, but a full-on, mass-market brand like Zara. You need to understand what that global machine looks like and then you need to let that experience influence how you build up your own collection. That type of knowledge is invaluable when setting up your own company.
With the recent financial crisis, do you think there is an opportunity for smaller brands to push through?
NB — To be honest, it is exactly the opposite. If you look at the route to market, there are three ways. Number one, you can open up your own shop which is capital intensive and a lot of start-ups don’t have that ability. Number two, you go through wholesale, which is what most people do. The problem is that when you get into a downturn, most buyers from either department stores or boutiques tend to anniversary their business, liquidate last season and try and do the same thing again. In a downturn, when your sales are falling, the people running the departments are telling the buyers that they need to cut back twenty percent of the brands they supply. Rather than seeing it as an opportunity to experiment, they return to the big names. The buyers won’t even take a look at new brands until they have come out of that cycle. The market may turn, but they won’t be looking at new brands for at least a season. To be honest, it is even tougher. The other way is online. |
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“ We like to dress the guys that are into shoes in a new way ”
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Have you seen a trend in men returning to a classic shoe?
NB — I think that guys are tending to dress a little more classic now. I don’t know whether that is a pendulum swing or a fashion look. Brogues are huge at the moment and lots of gents are wearing brogues where they may have worn trainers before. You have a whole generation of guys who have grown up wearing trainers and a lot of them are getting to the age where they have to dress smartly for work or they enjoy dressing. An old pair of jeans and a pair of Superstars are not going to cut it anymore. We like to dress the guys that are into shoes in a new way.
Do you think men find traditional shoes too uncomfortable?
NB — Hugely. We spend a lot of time making sure that our shoes are comfortable and flexible. Our country boots are rather rigid and heavy although if you compare that to a standard English country boot, it is much more flexible and much lighter. A generation ago, men understood that you had to break in shoes. It was a painful process, but once you broke them in it was fine. You now have an entire generation of men who have never had to break in a pair of shoes because they are used to pulling a pair of trainers out of the box. We understand that men don’t want to suffer the pain, so we spend a lot of time making sure that our shoes are comfortable from the moment you put them on. All shoemakers will have to do that going forward.
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Background: English Classic Desert Boot in Navy
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How would you like to see Lodger develop?
NB — Well, I would like to see Lodger around in another five years. We are still here after our first year and the shop has been growing very well. Our month on month growth against last year is very strong. We are expanding into wholesale at the moment, with sales agents in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Japan. That is going to be a hard battle because it is a tough time to launch a wholesale collection at the top end of the market, however it is something we are committed to. I am having conversations with business men in other regions and we are looking to franchise Lodger into other regions, along with new retail concessions. As I mentioned before, there needs to be a balance between retail, wholesale, online and franchise and we are pushing forward on all fronts. Whatever you see from Lodger in the next few years, I think it will be geographically diverse, and we will move our price point down even though you will never see anything below £200. I still think you can make a beautiful shoe at £200/£250 retail up to everything we are doing now at £600. You will continue to see innovation of design and we are trying to push that innovation even further. We will always base ourselves in craft and quality. |
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“ Classic shoemakers are a little too slow and fashion brands are a little too fast ”
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All photographs Copyright © Andy Barnham.
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— May 2010
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