December 9, 2022 • 22 mins
Blake Mill is a premium men’s fashion designer, based in Manchester, which makes completely unique and high-quality men’s dress shirts. Founded in 2018 by Steve French, Ross French and Ken Price, with a passion to make high quality dress shirts for people who want to express their individuality through clothes. The brand aims to help their customers stand out from the crowd. That may be as simple as sporting an interesting collar and cuff lining on a beautifully made white shirt. Or it may be as bold and brash as a neon impression of real brain waves rendered on the entire body of the shirt.
The three founders collectively have over 50-years in Fintech, and they want to drive even more technology innovation into Blake Mill. From the design concepts and prototyping, to how shirts are made and authenticated - think QR codes that tell the customer exactly where the materials are from, how they were sourced and how the shirt was made. Customers will also be able to register their products on resale markets, allowing shirts to live a longer life.
In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview Ken Price, Co-Founder of Blake Mill about the founding story and what differentiates the brand from other men's shirting brands in the market. Our host Peter Brooker and Ken talk about the design process, the Seedrs crowdfunding campaign, harnessing customer feedback, sustainability efforts, and Art licensing.
Whilst we have your attention, be sure to sign up to our daily MenswearStyle newsletter here. We promise to only send you the good stuff.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
PB (00:10):
Hello, welcome back to another episode of the menswear
style podcast. I'm your hostPete Brooker and today on the
show I'm talking to one of thecofounders of Blake mill Ken
price. And a little bit ofinformation about Blake mill
taking inspiration from theworld around us and bringing to
life stories with bright, boldand beautiful prints. Blake mill
makes shirts to suit everypersonality. From Japanese
(00:32):
flowers to the map of the world,you can dress the part from head
to toe in a selection ofwearable art that will transform
the way you feel founded bythree friends, Steve French,
Ross, French and Ken price witha passion to disrupt the men's
fashion industry by making highquality dress shirts for people
who want to express theirindividuality through clothes.
(00:53):
And here, in his own words totalk about Blake mill is one of
the co founders Ken price.
Unknown (01:00):
So I'm Ken price co founder and CEO of Blake mill,
we're a men's fashion brand inIn essence, what really
differentiates us is our designour original designs. And that's
something we put a lot of effortinto. Steve and I both come from
finance technology and databackgrounds. But we have a lot
(01:23):
of interests in things rangingfrom music and literature, to
history and science. And it wasthose passions and interests
that started to result increation of some of these
designs, which ended up on tomen's shirts, and started to
create quite a lot of interestoriginally in the retail
community and ultimately,through to to our customers
(01:46):
directly. So we're really allabout original design and
creating those original designsand creating an environment for
generating those designs, whichwe can talk about in a little
bit.
PB (01:57):
Sure. But how to how old is the brand now then can when did
you start this up?
Unknown (02:05):
The company started up quite a while ago. But we really
set ourselves up as a direct toconsumer business in middle of
2018. So we've been going forthe better part of four years.
And very, you know, just beforeCOVID. And now just after it. So
we had a little bit of astruggle as everybody did in in
(02:26):
those two years. But things arejust starting to grow really
fast at the moment.
PB (02:30):
And I think I'd have to talk about the designs of the shirts,
because I think these are themain key elements really, of
when people can look at theseshirts. And if anyone's on our
YouTube channel, and I'm justgoing through a couple of slides
now. I mean, these are some ofthe more I want to say prestige
shirts for the more outgoingflamboyant shirts, but you also
do have something some shirtsthat are a little bit more
(02:52):
dialled back where say thepattern would be on the inside
of the collar or on the insideof the cuff. But perhaps just
just touch upon these ones thatare a little bit more outgoing
and the design elements please.
Unknown (03:06):
Well, we try to cater to the bold and brave as well as
to the more subtle and coolvibes. And as you say, we were
noted a lot for the vibrantcolours and the bold designs
that you're showing here. A lotof these designs start out
really from internet searches onthings that are inspiring to us
(03:31):
as individuals. So my businesspartner Steve lived in Japan for
a while so some of our shirtsare Japanese inspired from
security to Cherry BlossomFestival. We've got strong
interest in science. So we'vegot some we've got one shirt
with computer code writtenacross it. We call that shirt
(03:52):
Burn baby burn because that asthe name of the software
programme, where we got thatcomputer programme and that
software, sorry, we got the onesand zeros and that computer
programme launched Apollo 11 Tothe Moon. So we try to put some
cheeky meaning into some of ourdesigns. Some of them are just
skulls, for example, that arecoloured and styled in unique
(04:14):
ways. And some of them are justreally basic polka dots with a
little a for anarchy stuck intothem, all kinds of different
things. So we try to shake it upand cater to people that want to
be really out there as well aspeople that are trying to be a
little bit more reserved. So I'mactually wearing one of our Lex
jerseys. And we've got one ofour designs built into the the
(04:39):
accent of the shirt here. Sothat's a Marrakech design that
we've got, which is, you know,again, when it's another
inspiration that we're pullingfrom, from the world around us.
Really.
PB (04:51):
Yeah, I love that. So it's something that's quite personal
to you guys, where you'repulling the inspiration like you
said, from even places you'velived or or appreciation of the
arts or sciences. But I guess aquestion, how would you draw the
line between if they, forexample, I love the band Queen?
(05:12):
I guess everyone does. But thenI'm gonna write, okay, I want to
put a mash together of FreddieMercury, Brian may want to have
it all in like one big face. AndI'd be like, Well, that looks
good to me. That'd be a greatshow that I would wear. But then
how do you decide what is goingto be commercial with that as
well with those designs?
Unknown (05:30):
It's a great question, Peter. And this is really the
beginning of our collaborativedesign process. And we do a very
rudimentary approach to this atthe moment. And that's by
emailing our list of customers,all of the designs that we're
considering for production. Sowe let them we create a survey
(05:52):
and we let them vote on whatthey liked the most. Then we let
them place orders for them. Andif anything is, if I can use the
term total dog, then we'll we'lljust negate that order. But we
get our customers involved inour followers in the selection
process. The next step, andwe're, as we were discussing
(06:13):
earlier, we're in the middle ofa crowdfunding exercise at the
moment, to raise capital toimprove the I guess,
sophistication by which we canstart the collaboration process
so that we can start engagingartists from all over the world
really, in creating some ofthese designs and then opening
(06:35):
that design gallery up not justto our customers, but to that
same community to startcontributing to tweaking and
then arriving at differentdesigns that we can start to
commercialise both physicallyand digitally. So the whole
collaboration and communitydevelopment of these designs is
part of what Stephen I've donefor a big chunk of our careers
(06:57):
in FinTech. And we're aiming tobring that through to the
fashion.
PB (07:02):
Well, the UK is the greatest place for FinTech right now
reading the Evening Standardyesterday. Leaders?
Unknown (07:10):
Well, our previous business was a FinTech business
in the UK. So
PB (07:14):
you're in good, good ground.
So just clarify for me, they saythat the crowdfunding campaign
that's going on at the moment?
Is this designed for artists,any artists that might want to
come in and have an idea and go,Hey, guys, can we have a talk
about putting my designs on yourshirts? Is that how it works?
Unknown (07:35):
Well, the crowdfunding is around raising capital to
help us do a number of thingsthat includes expanding our
product range and starting togive us the ability to sell more
effectively into othergeographies, because we are
primarily selling into theUnited Kingdom at the moment.
But some of that capital will gotoward our community development
(07:56):
and our technology developmentso that we can start to create a
platform for these independentartists to come in. We currently
work with independent artists,but just a few of them. And
that's on a point to pointbasis. They don't actually
collaborate with each other,they they interact with us. So
we want to create an environmentthat will enable artists to
collaborate directly with Blakemill, but also with our
(08:17):
customers, as well as with otherartists, so create cohorts that
can start to generate mashups ofdesigns that wouldn't otherwise
have come together. And that'sreally what we're about is the
originality and creating anenvironment where originality
can thrive.
PB (08:32):
Fascinating. And so the campaign's going in at the
moment, I believe you said itmight be running up until
Christmas, I forgot that right?
Unknown (08:39):
Yeah, that's exactly right. We're running live on
cedars at the moment. So you cango into the cedars.com platform,
and you can invest in blackmail,if you choose.
PB (08:48):
And we'll put a link over on the show notes. You can also
find a link, I believe over onyour site, can Blake mill not
code at UK as well as all theother great shirts? How does it
work becoming a member? Is itjust a case of signing up to the
newsletter? Or is there a littlespecial portal?
Unknown (09:05):
Well, the special portal is what we'll be
beginning work on in the newyear. At this stage, though, we
work with our our email list ofcustomers and followers. So all
of those people have theopportunity to vote on our
designs today. And we get someof our dedicated customers and
(09:26):
followers, you know, willinteract with us quite
regularly. We've had peoplecontributing, we had one person
contribute a I would almost callit a manifesto of 20 pages of
text, just talking about thedifferent designs and
inspirations that they have. Andit's just fabulous to get this
feedback. And we you know, someof it is incredibly useful. Some
of it we can't use, but that'sthe sort of collaboration we
(09:49):
already have. It's it's not aterribly sophisticated platform.
It's simply email going back andforth. And that's what we're
aiming to really ramp up.
PB (09:58):
Right. And that's it Yeah, it's great to have, like
onboard, and responsive feedbackinstantly. So it's something
that you might want to thinkabout making. And if you do ever
design, and it's kind of votedon by the community, do you have
to have a certain amount ofnumbers and pre sales in order
for you to produce these? Andare they limited editions as
well? Unlimited prints?
Unknown (10:19):
Okay, so a couple of questions. The first one in
terms of the voting numbers, wehave had a few experiences where
the absolute top contender whenit came to votes, did not sell
at all, it just was absolutelyhorrible commercially. But
everybody thought it was goingto be great. So they voted for
(10:39):
it. So now we do a little bitmore of an acid test. And we
tend to do a pre order, oncewe've confirmed that people
actually want to buy theproduct. And we have quite a
quick turnaround with ourmanufacturing base. So that's
all very feasible. So that'ssort of the the way we make sure
(11:00):
that what our community isasking for is indeed what the
market is willing to pay for,which is important. You know,
that's important from everythingto from efficiency and inventory
control through tosustainability, because you
don't want to have a whole lotof inventory, sitting around and
not getting sold. It's not goodfor for business, nor is it good
for the environment, if youcan't sell all your product.
PB (11:21):
Yeah. And do you have like one eye on sustainability with
what other brands might do? Ordo you? How else do you
implement some sustainabilitypledges within the brand.
Unknown (11:34):
Sustainability is becoming a bigger and bigger
criteria for people when theyare looking at what to buy when
it comes to fashion inparticular, which has not got a
great history when it comes tothe environmental
sustainability. We've startedthat process in a fairly
simplistic way by ensuring ourpackaging is recycled and
recyclable. We keep our garmentsplastic free, so you won't see a
(11:59):
plastic sleeve on the shirt whenit comes in. Its in its box or
in its tube. We're now in theprocess. We have a new lead
buyer joining us next weekactually. And one of her
charters is going to be toexpand our product range in
conjunction with our supplierbase and the suppliers that we
(12:20):
will expand to we'll all have anobligation to stick with the
appropriate levels ofsustainability criteria that
apply to that particulargarment. And of course, if
you're doing a 100% cotton shirtthat has one one level of
sustainability criteria versussomething that may be a poly
blend, which starts to involveother aspects of sustainability.
(12:45):
And then they're the dyes thatgo into the shirts. So we need
to make sure those are done andcreated in an environmentally
responsible way. And then rightdown to the reuse. And you know
what happens to a shirt when itno longer has a place on your on
your rack. Some of our customersbuy our products for an occasion
(13:05):
and they may only wear it onceor twice. So because these are
unique designs and they all getretired after a certain point,
they start to take on a value oftheir own because there is a
level of uniqueness. And withthat in mind, we're looking at
now putting together a secondarymarket or at least uniquely
identifying every shirt so thatthey can be valued more
(13:26):
appropriately on a secondarymarket so that they're not going
in the bin or not getting notgetting used. There's got
PB (13:33):
to be a Blake mill exhibition somewhere like I
imagine some of these prints,especially the ones that
everybody said, Yeah, let's havethat and then didn't buy it. I
mean that that must be like themain centrepiece in the Blake
mill Museum.
Unknown (13:47):
You know, we there is a level of art and we actually do
licence, some works of art thatgo on to our prints. So we work
with Museum in Italy. We'relicencing Botticelli painting
that goes on to our Renaissanceshirts. We work closely with the
Lowry here in Manchester, andhave one of his works on one of
(14:11):
our shirts. And those are quitegood sellers, actually. So not
everything is dead original, interms of being created by Blake
mill, or our design partners,but we're about expressiveness
as well. So sometimes it's amatter of taking what's already
a brilliant piece of art andbrilliant image and making it
(14:31):
available is something you canwear.
PB (14:33):
Do you ever come across any slight sensitivities when it
comes to licencing? For example,I'm very well versed in the
world of James Bond, when itcomes to logos and not putting
James Bond stuff on us, shall Isay, and I'll just leave that
there. But do you have whereit's happened to you where you
(14:55):
thought this is innocent enough?
I can put this on the shirt.
It's either an astronomer or amathematician or a famous
scientist, and then perhaps outof nowhere, got one of them.
They're more for Red Letterdays.
Unknown (15:09):
We had one very recently and I just referenced
the Bata Celli painting, whichwe were looking to do a press
release on. And I was just in aworkshop with my colleagues, I
did a quick internet search andfound that a big French fashion
house was being sued by theItalian art museum for use of
(15:31):
that exact same painting in someof their garments. And we had
only produced this garment abouta month before and I was going
oh my gosh, do so. For somereason, this particular fashion
label wasn't responding to themuseum's requests. And as a
result, legal action was beingtaken. So we reached right out
(15:52):
to the museum. And within acouple of days, we had a royalty
arrangement in place with themand everything is fine. So we
were told by our legal counsel,that if the artists had been
deceased for over 70 years, thenyou're generally free and clear
to us that work. That is notalways the case. And we learned
that quite quickly. Andfortunately, we were able to get
(16:12):
everything sorted quickly and noharm no foul.
PB (16:16):
Oh, my god, yeah, I love these sort of lessons in life
where you're learning the legalstuff along the way. And then by
the end of it, you could, youcould almost become like a I
don't know, a licenced lawyeryourself with all the homework
that you put into it. Right?
Unknown (16:29):
When when you're a small company, you don't have a
legal department or you know,all the various experts to hand
to manage these things yousometimes have to learn along
the way. But fortunately, Steveand I are relatively experienced
in a number of these thesethings from a different
industry. But excuse me, sothat's not my dog.
PB (16:50):
That's Roger. He's talking his own shadow. Sorry about
that.
Unknown (16:55):
So in Cata. So in any case, we were able to get that
button down. And it's all good.
PB (17:03):
Give relief. Well, I mean, so are we outside of the
campaign? Are we looking anyfurther beyond the campaign at
the moment plans for 2020? Free?
Any exhibitions? I know thatI've seen you guys down at the
one of the centres down atWembley centre a couple of times
back in,
Unknown (17:22):
probably pure down.
That's right. Thank you. Yeah,Earls Court area, actually. So
we haven't been doingexhibitions, obviously, the
COVID outbreak kept everythingquiet. In 2023. We're looking at
all kinds of different optionswe brought on earlier this year
Head of Marketing, who's reallybeen helping a shake up our
(17:44):
branding and getting our messageout there to a much wider
audience. So in fact, we werejust having a conversation this
afternoon about sort of lookingat how we're going to budget for
2023. And what are the differentways we can start to make a
larger audience aware of theBlake meal brand, what we do,
(18:04):
etcetera. And that will dovetailwith the design, collaboration,
outreach that we're planning for2023 as well. So exhibitions may
well be part of that we haven'tmade any final decisions. But
you know, some of these thingsare going to be sort of a little
bit of guerrilla warfare, we'rejust starting to do a lot more
PR. And we have quite a strongemphasis on our influencer
(18:28):
programme, which has been verysuccessful, some design,
collaborations, etc. So theworld is a lot different now
than it was 1520 years ago. Soyou've got to keep no changes
literally every month. So youhave to keep on top of the
different channels to market. Soyeah, keep your eye on the space
and will be, you will show upprobably in some places you
(18:48):
wouldn't expect.
PB (18:50):
Yeah, hope so well, this space would be Blake mil.co.uk.
And I encourage everyone to havea look at the site and enjoy the
designs because I think there'ssomething for everyone. And in
all occasions as well. It's notjust the party shirt or the
holiday shirt. There's also thebusiness shirts and things in
between that your your enjoyover there.
Unknown (19:10):
Can you relate to say, from the bar to the boardroom,
PB (19:13):
the bar to the boardroom has much better you see, that's
where you get the big bucks over
Unknown (19:17):
the border into the bar. You don't actually want to
go from the bar to the board.
Well, the other way around
PB (19:23):
depends. Depends what office you're in. But yeah, we can you
were going to tell me how yougot from chyzyk to Manchester
off air. We were talking abouthow you're you were choosing
height and then before movingand migrating up to Manchester.
So what's the story there?
Unknown (19:42):
Well, I actually moved back to Canada where I'm
originally from after living inchyzyk. Back in 2002, and then I
started my my business partnerfrom that previous life when I
lived in London, reached out Tome back in I guess it was 2017
(20:02):
when he had started to puttogether this business and I
invested and started workingwith him in 2017 from Canada and
then after a couple of yearsdecided it was time to double
down. We saw the businessstarting to grow and move to
Manchester in mid 2019. Andyeah, we've just really pushed
(20:23):
hard on the business and builtwe've moved our office we were
actually in town calledBollington, south of Manchester.
But we started out by actuallymanufacturing our own product.
So everything was done in housewe had our own equipment or on
seamstresses are on warehousing,we were doing our own picking
and packing. So we decided if wereally wanted to scale this
(20:44):
business and focus on the designside of the business, then we
should start outsourcing tospecialists, specialists who
actually do the manufacturing atscale and do the warehousing and
picking and packing at scale. Wedid that. And we moved our head
office into Manchester, whereit's turning out to just be a
fantastic Centre for expertisein marketing and finance,
(21:05):
advertising, design fashion. Sowe're just flooded with
expertise here. And it's been afantastic move. So we're really
happy to be based here inManchester.
PB (21:14):
Wonderful. Well, the old cotton Nepalis the foundation
for British fashion and in fact,
Unknown (21:21):
our offices in M coats right in the middle of the
cotton field, cotton train,
PB (21:26):
you go so you're in you're in good hands over there. Ken,
great, great to finally talk toyou after I've known known you a
while we've we've been back andforth back in the day. As we
discussed offline, that willmean nothing to people listening
to this, but it was good tofinally catch up with you and
best of luck. And again, Blakemill Dakota, UK is the place
(21:50):
people go. Until next time,brilliant.
Unknown (21:54):
All right, Peter, thanks very much.
PB (22:04):
You've been listening to the menswear style podcast be sure
to head over to menswearstyle.co.uk For more menswear
content and email info atmenswear startup code at UK if
you'd like to be a future gueston the show. Finally, please
help support the show by leavinga review on iTunes or wherever
you're listening to thispodcast. Until next time
Hello, welcome back to another episode of the menswear
style podcast. I'm your hostPete Brooker and today on the
show I'm talking to one of thecofounders of Blake mill Ken
price. And a little bit ofinformation about Blake mill
taking inspiration from theworld around us and bringing to
life stories with bright, boldand beautiful prints. Blake mill
makes shirts to suit everypersonality. From Japanese
(00:32):
flowers to the map of the world,you can dress the part from head
to toe in a selection ofwearable art that will transform
the way you feel founded bythree friends, Steve French,
Ross, French and Ken price witha passion to disrupt the men's
fashion industry by making highquality dress shirts for people
who want to express theirindividuality through clothes.
(00:53):
And here, in his own words totalk about Blake mill is one of
the co founders Ken price.
Unknown (01:00):
So I'm Ken price co founder and CEO of Blake mill,
we're a men's fashion brand inIn essence, what really
differentiates us is our designour original designs. And that's
something we put a lot of effortinto. Steve and I both come from
finance technology and databackgrounds. But we have a lot
(01:23):
of interests in things rangingfrom music and literature, to
history and science. And it wasthose passions and interests
that started to result increation of some of these
designs, which ended up on tomen's shirts, and started to
create quite a lot of interestoriginally in the retail
community and ultimately,through to to our customers
(01:46):
directly. So we're really allabout original design and
creating those original designsand creating an environment for
generating those designs, whichwe can talk about in a little
bit.
PB (01:57):
Sure. But how to how old is the brand now then can when did
you start this up?
Unknown (02:05):
The company started up quite a while ago. But we really
set ourselves up as a direct toconsumer business in middle of
2018. So we've been going forthe better part of four years.
And very, you know, just beforeCOVID. And now just after it. So
we had a little bit of astruggle as everybody did in in
(02:26):
those two years. But things arejust starting to grow really
fast at the moment.
PB (02:30):
And I think I'd have to talk about the designs of the shirts,
because I think these are themain key elements really, of
when people can look at theseshirts. And if anyone's on our
YouTube channel, and I'm justgoing through a couple of slides
now. I mean, these are some ofthe more I want to say prestige
shirts for the more outgoingflamboyant shirts, but you also
do have something some shirtsthat are a little bit more
(02:52):
dialled back where say thepattern would be on the inside
of the collar or on the insideof the cuff. But perhaps just
just touch upon these ones thatare a little bit more outgoing
and the design elements please.
Unknown (03:06):
Well, we try to cater to the bold and brave as well as
to the more subtle and coolvibes. And as you say, we were
noted a lot for the vibrantcolours and the bold designs
that you're showing here. A lotof these designs start out
really from internet searches onthings that are inspiring to us
(03:31):
as individuals. So my businesspartner Steve lived in Japan for
a while so some of our shirtsare Japanese inspired from
security to Cherry BlossomFestival. We've got strong
interest in science. So we'vegot some we've got one shirt
with computer code writtenacross it. We call that shirt
(03:52):
Burn baby burn because that asthe name of the software
programme, where we got thatcomputer programme and that
software, sorry, we got the onesand zeros and that computer
programme launched Apollo 11 Tothe Moon. So we try to put some
cheeky meaning into some of ourdesigns. Some of them are just
skulls, for example, that arecoloured and styled in unique
(04:14):
ways. And some of them are justreally basic polka dots with a
little a for anarchy stuck intothem, all kinds of different
things. So we try to shake it upand cater to people that want to
be really out there as well aspeople that are trying to be a
little bit more reserved. So I'mactually wearing one of our Lex
jerseys. And we've got one ofour designs built into the the
(04:39):
accent of the shirt here. Sothat's a Marrakech design that
we've got, which is, you know,again, when it's another
inspiration that we're pullingfrom, from the world around us.
Really.
PB (04:51):
Yeah, I love that. So it's something that's quite personal
to you guys, where you'repulling the inspiration like you
said, from even places you'velived or or appreciation of the
arts or sciences. But I guess aquestion, how would you draw the
line between if they, forexample, I love the band Queen?
(05:12):
I guess everyone does. But thenI'm gonna write, okay, I want to
put a mash together of FreddieMercury, Brian may want to have
it all in like one big face. AndI'd be like, Well, that looks
good to me. That'd be a greatshow that I would wear. But then
how do you decide what is goingto be commercial with that as
well with those designs?
Unknown (05:30):
It's a great question, Peter. And this is really the
beginning of our collaborativedesign process. And we do a very
rudimentary approach to this atthe moment. And that's by
emailing our list of customers,all of the designs that we're
considering for production. Sowe let them we create a survey
(05:52):
and we let them vote on whatthey liked the most. Then we let
them place orders for them. Andif anything is, if I can use the
term total dog, then we'll we'lljust negate that order. But we
get our customers involved inour followers in the selection
process. The next step, andwe're, as we were discussing
(06:13):
earlier, we're in the middle ofa crowdfunding exercise at the
moment, to raise capital toimprove the I guess,
sophistication by which we canstart the collaboration process
so that we can start engagingartists from all over the world
really, in creating some ofthese designs and then opening
(06:35):
that design gallery up not justto our customers, but to that
same community to startcontributing to tweaking and
then arriving at differentdesigns that we can start to
commercialise both physicallyand digitally. So the whole
collaboration and communitydevelopment of these designs is
part of what Stephen I've donefor a big chunk of our careers
(06:57):
in FinTech. And we're aiming tobring that through to the
fashion.
PB (07:02):
Well, the UK is the greatest place for FinTech right now
reading the Evening Standardyesterday. Leaders?
Unknown (07:10):
Well, our previous business was a FinTech business
in the UK. So
PB (07:14):
you're in good, good ground.
So just clarify for me, they saythat the crowdfunding campaign
that's going on at the moment?
Is this designed for artists,any artists that might want to
come in and have an idea and go,Hey, guys, can we have a talk
about putting my designs on yourshirts? Is that how it works?
Unknown (07:35):
Well, the crowdfunding is around raising capital to
help us do a number of thingsthat includes expanding our
product range and starting togive us the ability to sell more
effectively into othergeographies, because we are
primarily selling into theUnited Kingdom at the moment.
But some of that capital will gotoward our community development
(07:56):
and our technology developmentso that we can start to create a
platform for these independentartists to come in. We currently
work with independent artists,but just a few of them. And
that's on a point to pointbasis. They don't actually
collaborate with each other,they they interact with us. So
we want to create an environmentthat will enable artists to
collaborate directly with Blakemill, but also with our
(08:17):
customers, as well as with otherartists, so create cohorts that
can start to generate mashups ofdesigns that wouldn't otherwise
have come together. And that'sreally what we're about is the
originality and creating anenvironment where originality
can thrive.
PB (08:32):
Fascinating. And so the campaign's going in at the
moment, I believe you said itmight be running up until
Christmas, I forgot that right?
Unknown (08:39):
Yeah, that's exactly right. We're running live on
cedars at the moment. So you cango into the cedars.com platform,
and you can invest in blackmail,if you choose.
PB (08:48):
And we'll put a link over on the show notes. You can also
find a link, I believe over onyour site, can Blake mill not
code at UK as well as all theother great shirts? How does it
work becoming a member? Is itjust a case of signing up to the
newsletter? Or is there a littlespecial portal?
Unknown (09:05):
Well, the special portal is what we'll be
beginning work on in the newyear. At this stage, though, we
work with our our email list ofcustomers and followers. So all
of those people have theopportunity to vote on our
designs today. And we get someof our dedicated customers and
(09:26):
followers, you know, willinteract with us quite
regularly. We've had peoplecontributing, we had one person
contribute a I would almost callit a manifesto of 20 pages of
text, just talking about thedifferent designs and
inspirations that they have. Andit's just fabulous to get this
feedback. And we you know, someof it is incredibly useful. Some
of it we can't use, but that'sthe sort of collaboration we
(09:49):
already have. It's it's not aterribly sophisticated platform.
It's simply email going back andforth. And that's what we're
aiming to really ramp up.
PB (09:58):
Right. And that's it Yeah, it's great to have, like
onboard, and responsive feedbackinstantly. So it's something
that you might want to thinkabout making. And if you do ever
design, and it's kind of votedon by the community, do you have
to have a certain amount ofnumbers and pre sales in order
for you to produce these? Andare they limited editions as
well? Unlimited prints?
Unknown (10:19):
Okay, so a couple of questions. The first one in
terms of the voting numbers, wehave had a few experiences where
the absolute top contender whenit came to votes, did not sell
at all, it just was absolutelyhorrible commercially. But
everybody thought it was goingto be great. So they voted for
(10:39):
it. So now we do a little bitmore of an acid test. And we
tend to do a pre order, oncewe've confirmed that people
actually want to buy theproduct. And we have quite a
quick turnaround with ourmanufacturing base. So that's
all very feasible. So that'ssort of the the way we make sure
(11:00):
that what our community isasking for is indeed what the
market is willing to pay for,which is important. You know,
that's important from everythingto from efficiency and inventory
control through tosustainability, because you
don't want to have a whole lotof inventory, sitting around and
not getting sold. It's not goodfor for business, nor is it good
for the environment, if youcan't sell all your product.
PB (11:21):
Yeah. And do you have like one eye on sustainability with
what other brands might do? Ordo you? How else do you
implement some sustainabilitypledges within the brand.
Unknown (11:34):
Sustainability is becoming a bigger and bigger
criteria for people when theyare looking at what to buy when
it comes to fashion inparticular, which has not got a
great history when it comes tothe environmental
sustainability. We've startedthat process in a fairly
simplistic way by ensuring ourpackaging is recycled and
recyclable. We keep our garmentsplastic free, so you won't see a
(11:59):
plastic sleeve on the shirt whenit comes in. Its in its box or
in its tube. We're now in theprocess. We have a new lead
buyer joining us next weekactually. And one of her
charters is going to be toexpand our product range in
conjunction with our supplierbase and the suppliers that we
(12:20):
will expand to we'll all have anobligation to stick with the
appropriate levels ofsustainability criteria that
apply to that particulargarment. And of course, if
you're doing a 100% cotton shirtthat has one one level of
sustainability criteria versussomething that may be a poly
blend, which starts to involveother aspects of sustainability.
(12:45):
And then they're the dyes thatgo into the shirts. So we need
to make sure those are done andcreated in an environmentally
responsible way. And then rightdown to the reuse. And you know
what happens to a shirt when itno longer has a place on your on
your rack. Some of our customersbuy our products for an occasion
(13:05):
and they may only wear it onceor twice. So because these are
unique designs and they all getretired after a certain point,
they start to take on a value oftheir own because there is a
level of uniqueness. And withthat in mind, we're looking at
now putting together a secondarymarket or at least uniquely
identifying every shirt so thatthey can be valued more
(13:26):
appropriately on a secondarymarket so that they're not going
in the bin or not getting notgetting used. There's got
PB (13:33):
to be a Blake mill exhibition somewhere like I
imagine some of these prints,especially the ones that
everybody said, Yeah, let's havethat and then didn't buy it. I
mean that that must be like themain centrepiece in the Blake
mill Museum.
Unknown (13:47):
You know, we there is a level of art and we actually do
licence, some works of art thatgo on to our prints. So we work
with Museum in Italy. We'relicencing Botticelli painting
that goes on to our Renaissanceshirts. We work closely with the
Lowry here in Manchester, andhave one of his works on one of
(14:11):
our shirts. And those are quitegood sellers, actually. So not
everything is dead original, interms of being created by Blake
mill, or our design partners,but we're about expressiveness
as well. So sometimes it's amatter of taking what's already
a brilliant piece of art andbrilliant image and making it
(14:31):
available is something you canwear.
PB (14:33):
Do you ever come across any slight sensitivities when it
comes to licencing? For example,I'm very well versed in the
world of James Bond, when itcomes to logos and not putting
James Bond stuff on us, shall Isay, and I'll just leave that
there. But do you have whereit's happened to you where you
(14:55):
thought this is innocent enough?
I can put this on the shirt.
It's either an astronomer or amathematician or a famous
scientist, and then perhaps outof nowhere, got one of them.
They're more for Red Letterdays.
Unknown (15:09):
We had one very recently and I just referenced
the Bata Celli painting, whichwe were looking to do a press
release on. And I was just in aworkshop with my colleagues, I
did a quick internet search andfound that a big French fashion
house was being sued by theItalian art museum for use of
(15:31):
that exact same painting in someof their garments. And we had
only produced this garment abouta month before and I was going
oh my gosh, do so. For somereason, this particular fashion
label wasn't responding to themuseum's requests. And as a
result, legal action was beingtaken. So we reached right out
(15:52):
to the museum. And within acouple of days, we had a royalty
arrangement in place with themand everything is fine. So we
were told by our legal counsel,that if the artists had been
deceased for over 70 years, thenyou're generally free and clear
to us that work. That is notalways the case. And we learned
that quite quickly. Andfortunately, we were able to get
(16:12):
everything sorted quickly and noharm no foul.
PB (16:16):
Oh, my god, yeah, I love these sort of lessons in life
where you're learning the legalstuff along the way. And then by
the end of it, you could, youcould almost become like a I
don't know, a licenced lawyeryourself with all the homework
that you put into it. Right?
Unknown (16:29):
When when you're a small company, you don't have a
legal department or you know,all the various experts to hand
to manage these things yousometimes have to learn along
the way. But fortunately, Steveand I are relatively experienced
in a number of these thesethings from a different
industry. But excuse me, sothat's not my dog.
PB (16:50):
That's Roger. He's talking his own shadow. Sorry about
that.
Unknown (16:55):
So in Cata. So in any case, we were able to get that
button down. And it's all good.
PB (17:03):
Give relief. Well, I mean, so are we outside of the
campaign? Are we looking anyfurther beyond the campaign at
the moment plans for 2020? Free?
Any exhibitions? I know thatI've seen you guys down at the
one of the centres down atWembley centre a couple of times
back in,
Unknown (17:22):
probably pure down.
That's right. Thank you. Yeah,Earls Court area, actually. So
we haven't been doingexhibitions, obviously, the
COVID outbreak kept everythingquiet. In 2023. We're looking at
all kinds of different optionswe brought on earlier this year
Head of Marketing, who's reallybeen helping a shake up our
(17:44):
branding and getting our messageout there to a much wider
audience. So in fact, we werejust having a conversation this
afternoon about sort of lookingat how we're going to budget for
2023. And what are the differentways we can start to make a
larger audience aware of theBlake meal brand, what we do,
(18:04):
etcetera. And that will dovetailwith the design, collaboration,
outreach that we're planning for2023 as well. So exhibitions may
well be part of that we haven'tmade any final decisions. But
you know, some of these thingsare going to be sort of a little
bit of guerrilla warfare, we'rejust starting to do a lot more
PR. And we have quite a strongemphasis on our influencer
(18:28):
programme, which has been verysuccessful, some design,
collaborations, etc. So theworld is a lot different now
than it was 1520 years ago. Soyou've got to keep no changes
literally every month. So youhave to keep on top of the
different channels to market. Soyeah, keep your eye on the space
and will be, you will show upprobably in some places you
(18:48):
wouldn't expect.
PB (18:50):
Yeah, hope so well, this space would be Blake mil.co.uk.
And I encourage everyone to havea look at the site and enjoy the
designs because I think there'ssomething for everyone. And in
all occasions as well. It's notjust the party shirt or the
holiday shirt. There's also thebusiness shirts and things in
between that your your enjoyover there.
Unknown (19:10):
Can you relate to say, from the bar to the boardroom,
PB (19:13):
the bar to the boardroom has much better you see, that's
where you get the big bucks over
Unknown (19:17):
the border into the bar. You don't actually want to
go from the bar to the board.
Well, the other way around
PB (19:23):
depends. Depends what office you're in. But yeah, we can you
were going to tell me how yougot from chyzyk to Manchester
off air. We were talking abouthow you're you were choosing
height and then before movingand migrating up to Manchester.
So what's the story there?
Unknown (19:42):
Well, I actually moved back to Canada where I'm
originally from after living inchyzyk. Back in 2002, and then I
started my my business partnerfrom that previous life when I
lived in London, reached out Tome back in I guess it was 2017
(20:02):
when he had started to puttogether this business and I
invested and started workingwith him in 2017 from Canada and
then after a couple of yearsdecided it was time to double
down. We saw the businessstarting to grow and move to
Manchester in mid 2019. Andyeah, we've just really pushed
(20:23):
hard on the business and builtwe've moved our office we were
actually in town calledBollington, south of Manchester.
But we started out by actuallymanufacturing our own product.
So everything was done in housewe had our own equipment or on
seamstresses are on warehousing,we were doing our own picking
and packing. So we decided if wereally wanted to scale this
(20:44):
business and focus on the designside of the business, then we
should start outsourcing tospecialists, specialists who
actually do the manufacturing atscale and do the warehousing and
picking and packing at scale. Wedid that. And we moved our head
office into Manchester, whereit's turning out to just be a
fantastic Centre for expertisein marketing and finance,
(21:05):
advertising, design fashion. Sowe're just flooded with
expertise here. And it's been afantastic move. So we're really
happy to be based here inManchester.
PB (21:14):
Wonderful. Well, the old cotton Nepalis the foundation
for British fashion and in fact,
Unknown (21:21):
our offices in M coats right in the middle of the
cotton field, cotton train,
PB (21:26):
you go so you're in you're in good hands over there. Ken,
great, great to finally talk toyou after I've known known you a
while we've we've been back andforth back in the day. As we
discussed offline, that willmean nothing to people listening
to this, but it was good tofinally catch up with you and
best of luck. And again, Blakemill Dakota, UK is the place
(21:50):
people go. Until next time,brilliant.
Unknown (21:54):
All right, Peter, thanks very much.
PB (22:04):
You've been listening to the menswear style podcast be sure
to head over to menswearstyle.co.uk For more menswear
content and email info atmenswear startup code at UK if
you'd like to be a future gueston the show. Finally, please
help support the show by leavinga review on iTunes or wherever
you're listening to thispodcast. Until next time
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