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[Music]
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this is going to be
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fun um as I
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mentioned um you're kind of operating
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you're both operating in a similar
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intersection Commerce and culture but
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how you got here how you arrived here is
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the result of two very different stories
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so I wanted to start with the kind of
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founding stories of these BRS which is
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was you know so interesting for me
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because really helps you to understand
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kind of the initial spark Yen you know
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you started from culture you had an
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existing relationship with the the clan
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Kardashian um and you had to convince
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the world first you had to talk to Kim
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about this product like tell us how you
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and Kim kind of came to this idea to
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launch a brand in shape where like why
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you chose this category why you felt
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like it was a category that was ripe for
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disruption and why you thought you know
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the the kind of intersection with Kim's
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incredible following um was a good
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Launchpad for it yeah I
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mean before brand there's product and
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you can't build a great brand without a
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great product and I mean I was a
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marketeer and in many ways I still
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identified as a marketeer you know I'm
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an old adman David's an old adman um but
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I guess we'll get to that later um it it
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um before you have an idea about a brand
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you need to have an idea about a product
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and I always say when people ask me
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about you know what this the story of
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skims or uh obviously marketing is
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visible it's something that it's it's
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it's it's out there that people are
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partaking even if they're not customers
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of the brand but really Brands is about
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product and it's number one it's number
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two it's number three and then comes
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everything else so about three years or
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so before we launch skims we started
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developing Fabric and I think of schim
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did you already know you wanted to do
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shapeware like when you say developing
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fabric I mean part of the innovation of
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skims is
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obviously the fabric but like fabric for
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what purpose well I think you know
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people use the term shapew wear I mean
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it's a small portion of what we do we
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launched with multiple categories but um
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you know what I learn in life is that
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it's how you come to Market is tends to
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be how you are
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defined and um I think that goes for
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most Mo most brands so I'll take it um I
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felt it was just a category where the
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customer was being really underserved
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where there wasn't a lot of innovation
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it was a multipack discount business all
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over the world and people were paying
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too much for what they were getting and
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I start all my thought process is around
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Innovation which is and Innovation can
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be two things Innovation can be um a
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fabric or innovation that just wasn't in
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the market you know I think of David's
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I'm so in awe what David has built and
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his partners are on and where would they
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be without cloud Tech this iconic
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branded Soul where would schemes be
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without you know fits everybody or
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seamless sculpt or some of the fabric
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Innovation that we have where would Nike
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be without air where would it be without
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dry fit so to me a brand is really about
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innovation of fabric first so that what
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we spent years doing and at at some
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point through that journey of expiration
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it it was just evident that you know
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there there was a brand there and how
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did you know
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that I think that Kim had a view VI of a
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um of a pallet uh of a woman of an
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ideology even and uh that I got
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personally very excited about trying to
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bring to life and of course Brands grow
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and and uh we evolve over time um but I
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think we I think when people think about
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schms they think about hopefully um you
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know identifiable colors to the eye and
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identifiable um fabric to the touch
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that's really the foundation and then
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marketing is always built upon that okay
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David long before Roger Federer was even
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part of the on story you and your
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co-founders
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identified this
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opportunity in you know in sportsware
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starting with
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shoes in Switzerland and I remember
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early on when I started reading and
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learning about on it was like you had
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this like massive massive market share
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in Switzerland this tiny little country
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but you know talk a little bit about
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your starting point in Switzerland not
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necessarily known as a you know place
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for starting the kind of brand that you
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and your partners have built but like
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what role and how did you
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build uh your product around Innovation
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before tapping on the cultural side you
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know um I was fortunate that um that
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Casper and I have a friend Olivia
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Bernhard and he's a dlon world champion
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six-time Iron Man winner so he had a lot
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of time to think about innovation in
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Footwear and uh he kind of asked himself
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um hey why is it that we haven't seen
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really strong innovation in the
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Outsource of shoes and uh how can we
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bring instead of just kind of a better
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mattress underneath your foot how can we
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innovate on the engineering and so he
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had cut a garden hose at his home home
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and Glu these pieces underneath the sole
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to prove kind of actually you have an
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innovation technology that can give you
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very soft Landings but then compress and
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give you at the same time very
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responsive energized push offs and so wa
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cloudtech started by taking a garden
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house and cutting small bits and then
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layering it under I mean I imagine
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there's like some laboratory and all
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this stuff involved cuz no it was
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actually a carpentry Workshop where he
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did that so it was super super Scrappy
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at the at the beginning but just to
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prove to prove the concept and so on is
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really an innovation brand at heart and
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then of course when you do that in
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Switzerland and when you have these
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conversations it's not just kind of hey
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let's do it but it's kind of going back
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and forth isn't it too crazy to do that
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off out of such a small market and so in
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that conversation we also talked about
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the industry at large and kind of
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Liberation moments and uh I'm almost
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thinking about 100 years ago there was a
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Liberation moment in fashion because
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Koko Chanel decided to do pants for
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women and so that that had a decisive
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impact and so um when we started on that
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was 15 years ago so that was 2010 and we
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felt Sports is the new Liberation moment
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for fashion because Sports used to be
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mainly happening on the weekend and was
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seen and sportsware was seen as
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equipment
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but now kind of over the last 15 years
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is sports got interven between life and
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work and and sports and so it's the new
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uniform it's part of our personality and
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um and so because it becomes part of our
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personality is also elevated to a whole
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different level and so in a sense it
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becomes fashion and we saw an
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opportunity in that because of course
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that means also a whole
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premiumization of um of of Sports in the
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industry so um we're building the most
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premium Global sports brand um but
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that's now so at the beginning it
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started very very small and how and why
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did you get Roger Federer
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involved well that was uh much later so
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at the beginning it was super Scrappy
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because kind of when you do an
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innovation brand and you have this
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technology the the advantage is that
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it's very visual techn visual technology
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so for a young young audience talks
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about the the great VC appeal of um of
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on So You discovered a lot so it was
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very much grass through people saw the
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outso when we kind of were somewhere in
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tube in London we were approached what
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is that and so it was Discovery and then
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kind of Runner started their friends
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their families and that has been a
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gradual shift and this discovery
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actually happened with Roger as well
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because um Roger posted um in on shoes
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from Roland garos at the French Open and
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he didn't have a sponsor at the time
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that required him to wear like he just
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kind of had um quit kind of relationship
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with his current sponsor so he was kind
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of in his own Liberation moment and uh
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and and he he he started to post on
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Insta and we we took that as an
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invitation to a date and uh Switzerland
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is small and uh so we had this dinner
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date and so we just HD It Off in a great
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way we talked about fashion and sports
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and Innovation and he challenged us and
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said hey couldn't you bring cloudtech to
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tennis shoes and so he said hey visit us
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two months later two months in our lab
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and he came he was excited he said how
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can I get involved and we said hey you
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know we're a we're a we're a young brand
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we're not so much about big big Sports
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endorsements so why don't instead of us
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giving you money why don't you give your
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money to us and and uh and invested on
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and so he became a co- entrepreneur
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amazing that is an incredible story and
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I did this uh podcast on interview with
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or live interview during covid uh with
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Roger which was the story about how you
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can kind of connect with someone that
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you don't know because they they endorse
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your shoe your product before without
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any obligation because they really enjoy
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it and see the benefits so that's that's
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interesting so yesterday morning uh here
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at bof voices our trusted Sports
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correspondent uh Daniel y Miller
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together with some of our other team
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members you know hosted a breakfast on
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this like phenomenon of the intersection
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of sports and fashion which as you said
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has been kind
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of gathering momentum now for 10 15
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years but something in the last I'd say
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12 to 24 months there's been an
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explosion and Yen's skims is also doing
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stuff with sports so like talk to us
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about this this intersection this
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growing uh Synergy between the sports
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world and the fashion world like why do
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you think it's happening like what
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what's happened in the last 12 to 24
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months let just make it made it go yeah
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we started our relationship first with
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Team USA and the Olympics we're an
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official Olympic sponsor and Team USA
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sponsor uh we're also a partner to the
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NBA and
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WNBA um and beyond that continue to find
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exciting Moments in Sports like when we
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work with Jude Bellingham just after he
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won La Liga and the week before the
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Euros it's quite simple I think we live
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in a well we do live in a world right
00:11:45
where our world are very vertical we
00:11:48
live in our own algorithm we live in our
00:11:50
own Echo Chambers we are more divided
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than we ever been one of the probably
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the only thing in culture today that
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cuts through the only platform where we
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meet today as Americans Europeans tend
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to be sport so sport is this great
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unifying uh platform where everyone can
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partake and I
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think as a result of it sport has never
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been more important to us and Sport
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stars are now becoming celebrity in
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their own right so if you have a brand
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like
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skims uh and you want to reach a broad
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demographic not just be very important
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to the very few but you really want to
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re you know reach a country sport is the
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platform to do it okay do you think that
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fashion also has that element to it
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because when I was thinking about this
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observation I think that for me like one
00:12:53
of the interesting things about this
00:12:54
intersection is yes everyone is
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connected to sport but everyone is also
00:13:01
in some way or another connected to
00:13:03
fashion and you put those two things
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together and it's kind of this explosion
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I mean David the the the is the fashion
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industry taking over sport or is Sport
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taking over fashion or like what what
00:13:19
what is this explosion that's happening
00:13:22
you know I think it's interesting you
00:13:24
could say that Sports is the new fashion
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because it's really a moment where
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Innovation becomes more more important
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because um it really in our lives it's
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an opportunity Sports it's the it's the
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it's the big public moment and I really
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love how skims then Taps into these
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moments and kind of creates the momentum
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but then it's also in our lives how uh
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can we decouple more and we see from uh
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especially also very young consumers
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from London to Shanghai um just kind of
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this decoupling to Nature so and that of
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course also means decoupling from your
00:13:59
devices and really living in the moment
00:14:02
and so you want to have not just craft
00:14:07
and Provence and Heritage that are very
00:14:10
much kind of connected to Fashion but
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you also want to have the Innovation
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moment how does my foot wear but also
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how my sports wear how my apparel
00:14:20
supports me in that activity now we're
00:14:22
seeing like for example in China um for
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young women bouldering is the fastest
00:14:28
growing sport
00:14:29
because it's that moment where you're
00:14:32
completely in the zone and we heard so
00:14:34
much about for those of us who don't
00:14:35
know what bouldering is so kind of rock
00:14:37
climbing so kind of it's probably the
00:14:39
sport that you most have to be in the
00:14:42
zone it's it's deadly if you're not in
00:14:43
the zone and so it it sport is an
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opportunity to decouple from everything
00:14:49
that is going on around us I could add
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to that which is I think that athletes
00:14:54
have understood that fashion is an
00:14:57
accelerator even a super superow to
00:15:00
build their own brand beyond the sport
00:15:03
and you see examples of that I would say
00:15:07
weekly or daily and some of our biggest
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stars in sport we experience or we live
00:15:13
with them or we consume the
00:15:14
entertainment that they put out through
00:15:16
the fashion that they wear not
00:15:17
necessarily just the sport that they
00:15:19
practice so I would say that fashion has
00:15:22
become a super power for athletes
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okay I mean you can collaborate with
00:15:27
other athletes and but your biggest
00:15:31
star is Kim Kardashian four I mean last
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I checked like roughly 400 million
00:15:37
followers on Instagram you know the
00:15:39
reach and visibility many more than me a
00:15:42
few yeah the the reach is incredible but
00:15:47
how much of the success like could you
00:15:49
have built skims into what it is without
00:15:52
Kim's
00:15:53
reach how like how much of her reach and
00:15:56
her visibility you said marketing comes
00:15:58
second right so we got the Innovative
00:16:00
product but without that marketing
00:16:02
element would you have been able to
00:16:04
build it into what it is it's a hard
00:16:07
thing to decouple one from the other I
00:16:10
think that the starting uh thesis has to
00:16:13
be that the product and the brand the
00:16:17
product is so good that eventually it
00:16:19
would find its Market without
00:16:23
marketing but I could never have built
00:16:26
skims without Kim Kardashian because she
00:16:30
is a phenomenal creative director and
00:16:32
the brand is a result of her Creative
00:16:35
Vision and her product Vision so the
00:16:38
answer to that is absolutely not um
00:16:41
without our social following absolutely
00:16:44
not in the speed that we did it because
00:16:47
it allowed us to have uh near Global
00:16:51
awareness you know very early on yeah
00:16:54
overnight almost yeah almost overnight
00:16:57
um part of the
00:16:59
formula that you and Kim have been using
00:17:02
is to not and and it's similar actually
00:17:04
a story at on is that you haven't stayed
00:17:06
in your own lane you haven't stuck to
00:17:09
just working with Roger you have you
00:17:12
know you do been doing stuff with Zena
00:17:15
and Jen you and Kim haven't just been
00:17:18
focusing on Kim and her reach you've
00:17:19
been doing all these other things in
00:17:20
sports and otherwise today there's a
00:17:23
special announcement about a new
00:17:26
collaboration that you're we're going to
00:17:28
reveal here at B voices yes of course do
00:17:31
you want to tell us a little bit and can
00:17:32
we show the embargoed image on the
00:17:35
screen
00:17:39
please there we go so tell tell us about
00:17:42
Dolce gabana and
00:17:44
skims so I mean this is our second large
00:17:50
collaboration um with an Italian fashion
00:17:52
house the first one was a few years ago
00:17:54
with Fendi um I love what we did with
00:17:58
doce as all
00:18:01
collaborations I I always say first it
00:18:03
has to be organic it has to start from a
00:18:06
point of friendship or you know Mutual
00:18:09
admiration for what one does but also it
00:18:12
has to bring something to the customer
00:18:16
that they just haven't had before or to
00:18:19
both companies and for us at skims we
00:18:22
have a very defined aesthetic Lane right
00:18:27
so for our team
00:18:29
for our company for our culture the
00:18:31
ability to go outside of those
00:18:34
parameters and experiment creatively and
00:18:37
push the brand to an aesthetic place
00:18:39
where it doesn't normally live is
00:18:42
exciting for us and for dolge the
00:18:45
ability to reach our 10 million
00:18:48
customers and be able to give a dolge
00:18:51
experience at a very different um
00:18:54
frankly price point um but that still
00:18:59
retain so much of the quality and
00:19:01
integrity um was exciting to them so I
00:19:05
think we're both coming into a territory
00:19:08
that that one would never be in without
00:19:11
one another so that's always the best
00:19:13
collaborations and um we're announcing
00:19:16
this today I think right after this talk
00:19:19
and um is launching on Tuesday um next
00:19:22
week and I'm incredibly excited to and I
00:19:25
hope people be excited about it as as we
00:19:27
are and if I'm int because I received
00:19:30
zero information about this I just
00:19:32
received an image if I'm intuiting
00:19:35
correctly from the imagery it's taking
00:19:39
some of skm's innovative fabric
00:19:42
Silhouettes and shapes and taking the
00:19:44
Dolce gabana DNA I see like a leopard
00:19:47
print and other things and it's layering
00:19:49
it on top of that product yeah so
00:19:52
exactly that this is this is not
00:19:54
necessarily this is product we would
00:19:56
only do because we're doing it with
00:19:57
Dolce so for us I have this philosophy
00:20:03
you know in everything I do which is I'm
00:20:05
I and my team and my company is the
00:20:08
customer what we do so we tend to pursue
00:20:11
ideas
00:20:12
collaborations that we ourselves would
00:20:15
like to buy and I just measure
00:20:18
everything from are we as a team excited
00:20:21
about what we're doing we never think
00:20:23
about the market we don't do customer
00:20:25
service we don't try to be clever about
00:20:27
the stuff am I excited about what I'm
00:20:29
doing chances are someone else's too if
00:20:32
you're not that excited about what
00:20:34
you're doing chances are no one else's
00:20:36
either okay one thing that the markets
00:20:40
are excited about is a potential IPO of
00:20:44
the gim's business I said in my intro
00:20:47
that David has had the experience of
00:20:50
taking a company public I'm calling for
00:20:52
advice exactly well I'm going to ask him
00:20:54
for some advice in a minute but can you
00:20:56
comment on the IPO plans as is that
00:20:58
something that's definitely on the road
00:21:01
map I've said before that at some point
00:21:05
schemes deserves to be a public company
00:21:07
we have institutional shareholders and
00:21:10
they deserve that
00:21:12
optionality I think in the building
00:21:15
phase of a company and schemes is
00:21:18
aggressively expanding from a category
00:21:20
point of view or physical retail we're
00:21:23
opening Flagship stores all over the
00:21:24
United States and soon to be Europe and
00:21:27
uh and elsewhere
00:21:29
it's exciting to do that together with
00:21:32
your team and away from the public eye U
00:21:35
but there will come a time where where
00:21:37
that will be the case it's just not
00:21:40
right now not right now but sometime in
00:21:44
the future David if if you were Yen
00:21:47
thinking about taking a company public
00:21:50
what what advice would you have to offer
00:21:53
you know probably the advice is take it
00:21:55
as a stepping stone so for us it was a
00:21:58
21 when we um when we did this IPO and
00:22:02
it was quite a cultural moment because
00:22:03
we were just coming out of of covid and
00:22:06
so we were actually running to Wall
00:22:08
Street so we had a group of 200 people
00:22:11
our team that ran together to Wall
00:22:13
Street and we hadn't seen each other for
00:22:15
a long time so it was a cultural it was
00:22:17
a cultural moment and a personal moment
00:22:20
it was a personal moment but it was only
00:22:22
a stepping stone for us it created
00:22:24
optionality to kind of also fun the
00:22:27
future um fortunately we're a very
00:22:29
profitable business so currently we're
00:22:31
funding our future ourselves uh it was a
00:22:34
liquidity event for some of our early
00:22:36
investors but it also gave us as founder
00:22:39
the the voting majority on on so to make
00:22:42
sure that between kind of shortterm
00:22:44
pressures and the long term and the
00:22:47
future we're at the steering steering
00:22:49
wheel because we're as an innovation
00:22:51
brand we're always about the future like
00:22:53
doing projects like light spray that we
00:22:56
had just unveiled in the Olympics that
00:22:59
gives you the opportunity to spray a
00:23:00
shoe in three minutes and so this is
00:23:04
something really really hard to do and
00:23:06
we want to be able to continue to do
00:23:08
hard stuff okay very quickly because we
00:23:10
are over
00:23:12
time one really important piece of
00:23:15
advice from each of you on Brands
00:23:20
entrepreneurs designers who want to
00:23:23
leverage culture Sports film all these
00:23:27
these areas that you've both done so
00:23:29
successfully what's your one piece of
00:23:31
advice on how to do it right Yan you
00:23:33
first don't overthink it I think most
00:23:37
Founders most companies I've met over
00:23:40
think it they spend too much time
00:23:42
thinking what is perfect what is the
00:23:45
moment who aligns most with us I've
00:23:48
always taken the approach that we do and
00:23:51
I try to build a brand that is in the
00:23:53
intersection of culture and commerce and
00:23:55
that means that I'm looking for you know
00:23:59
how can I have a little part in this
00:24:02
moment in popular culture and I do some
00:24:05
will be right some will be wrong that's
00:24:08
okay it's more important than do than
00:24:10
not do okay David so my advice would be
00:24:15
to be really really close to the needs
00:24:18
of of humans to the the consumers so
00:24:21
it's great to have all the hype but kind
00:24:23
of what's really important for for for
00:24:26
the customer and in our case at our
00:24:28
mission is to ignite the human Spirit
00:24:30
through Movement we feel if you move in
00:24:33
whatever form something not just
00:24:35
happening to your body but something is
00:24:37
happening through your mind as well and
00:24:39
so on on really tries to be very close
00:24:41
to the consumer and be the brand that
00:24:43
helps the explorers and the dreamers and
00:24:46
probably even the rebels to ignite their
00:24:49
spirit and I think that's what's really
00:24:51
really important right now in this
00:24:53
moment that was a great
00:24:55
answer congratulations to both of you
00:24:58
I'm super honored that we managed to get
00:25:00
both of you here and that we made this
00:25:02
really big announcement thank you both
00:25:03
thank you so much
00:25:10
[Music]
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