Jenny Joblin: Federation founder on the brand celebrating its 25th anniversary

A new era is on the way for one of the nation's most iconic fashion labels.

Urban streetwear brand Federation is celebrating 25 years in business this year. 

To mark the occasion,  founder Jenny Joblin is taking a step back, handing the reins to her children to evolve the business for the next generation.

"When we hit this milestone, we were like - okay, we need to pause for a moment and just really look at all these different chapters and celebrate it."  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
A new era is on the way for one of
our iconic fashion labels, Urban Streetwear brand Federation is celebrating
twenty five years and business this year, and to celebrate
founder Jenny Goblin, Joblin is taking a step back, handing
the reins to her children to evolve the business for
the next generation. Jenny Joblin is with me now, good morning,

(00:33):
Good morning. Firstly, you're twenty five years in the fashion industry. Congratulations.
It has been a bit of a roller coaster though,
hasn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Jenny, Oh, completely, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
So how significant does this milestone feel to you?

Speaker 4 (00:49):
I guess it's just kind of a bit crazy life.
So much of the time you don't really pause and
stuff along the way. And then when we hit the smilestone,
we were like, okay, we need to pause for a
moment and you know, just really look at all these
different chapters and celebrate it and the fact that all
three of my not young children now a part of
the business.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
It was, Yeah, it was just a time when I went.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Okay, it's probably time to start entrusting them with a
little bit more in myself, with a little bit less
of it.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
So it hasn't been easy. As we mentioned, you went
into liquidation in twenty fourteen, you rebuilt the brand from
the ground up. What have you learned about creating and
running a successful fashion brand in New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
I think just the fact that it's I guess, in general,
with having a business. Sorry, i'm a little bit sacofh
I'm sounding a bit nasily.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh no, you're good.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yeah, with having a business in general, it's a matter of,
especially if you're a creative person, you've got to always
balance the business and the creative and it's yeah, it's
just a matter of looking at it constantly and analyzing.
But at the same time, there's only so quickly you
can pivot a business, especially when it's moving at a
significant rate and there's other people involved and you know

(02:00):
it and it's a significant size. So I've learned a
lot about the balance of facing reality, Like I'm a
definitely a half full person, like the cups half full,
but facing that reality of okay, where are we at today,
where are we at in six months? As well as
being optimistic that tomorrow is always going to be a
bit better. I feel like that's something I really learned
during that time.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I was interested to read about your experience overseas because
you were picked up by hundreds of boutiques around the world,
but it wasn't a sustainable option for you. How hard
is it for a New Zealand label to really make
it overseas?

Speaker 4 (02:33):
I think that specific point was a really big one
when it did come to the point where we were like, okay,
there's no choice. We had taken on a lot of
stores in Europe at that time, and I guess without
the foresight of like we did send them a lot
of stock without payment in advance. I guess the kind
of excitement of having stores versus reality of you know,

(02:56):
are you actually just sending product into the abyss was
a big thing at the time. And we did also
go through other smather issues with our factories and yeah,
that to that point.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
So what have you learned as well over that period
of time of twenty five years about you know, having shops,
you know, the actual brick and water shop, and also
dealing with online and the demand of online.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
That's been a huge change in our industry in New Zealand.
You know, like when we.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
Started twenty five years ago, I was driving around to
the factories and I did all the pattern making myself,
and you know, like watching everything get made to then
the reality that we weren't it wasn't sustainable to make
all our garments here anymore.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
So that was quite a big change in that way.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
And then also like a lot of different retailers, Like
we really loved the fact that you'd gone to a
store and it would be all the different brands, and
you know, just for that, I guess is reflective of
people's wardrobes a lot of different things. And then lots
of those stores then developed their own vertical product, which
is a big change for us. So it is really
coinciding that with then making sure making the most of

(04:07):
our own vertical and our own online business.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
So the new evolution of Federation, your children, Writer, Monty
Dusty are about to take over the reins. How long
have they been involved in the business.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
A writer does all our marketing and sales, and she's
the most like a full time involved staff member. And
then Monty and Dusty both work part time. So Dusty
is still at high school. He's about to go off
to work now, So.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Brilliant, So what did they bring to the brand?

Speaker 4 (04:36):
I think that it's just I guess in general, with
whatever you do as you age, it's really easy just
to age your whole brand with you, you know, and
your whole market with you, whatever you're doing. So it's
good to have those fresh eyes to give you the
perspective of someone who's literally you know, not.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
You know, that generation younger.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
So that's been really refreshing and then balancing that with
maintaining our federation customers that have you know, loved our
brand so much and not losing them at the same time.
So I guess it's just it brings like a really
great perspective, a little bit more of a diverse than
just yeah us as aging ones.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, I mean, I think you've seen it with Kate
Sylvesta passing on with Sylvesta Range to her sons as well,
who've sort of refreshed it and given it life. And
I think when we see a lot of New Zealand
brands stopping trading, it's it's a wonderful option to have
a new generation come in, isn't it and give it
some fresh ah exactly.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
And I think that's and it's the truth of the matter,
like to sell a brand isn't necessarily going to reflect
or the hard work that you know, someone like Kit
or myself have put into it, and my art's are
like super important to me. So that's something I'm really
looking forward to be able to focus on a bit
more and let what's going to be the crystal ball
game of the fashion industry sometimes.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
So, Ginny, are you going to be good at standing
back and leading them, you know, take over?

Speaker 3 (06:02):
I think to a point like I'm still going to
be involved.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
It's not like a full you know, change over, and yeah,
I still need to get you know.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Unfortunately, it's just not that realistic. I still need a
day job. It's not like.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
We're mortgage free and fancy free over here, so you know,
so I still will be part of it, but it's
just letting them guide the brand a bit more and
have that face to Facebook customers is kind of exciting.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Oh well, congratulations on twenty five years and thank you
so much for talking to us when you weren't feeling great.
That was Jenny Joblin there from Federation.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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