Brand profile: street-wear label Superdry
Superdry is the funky new label loved by the hoodies brigade. Despite its Japanese designs, its links lie closer to home.
BY PHONG LUU | 10 FEBRUARY 2010
'Extremely… dry…," enunciates my friend, deciphering the oriental text on the fluoro-orange shop sign. "Ah, Superdry," she reiterates, reading the English translation beneath. "Funny name. What are the clothes like?" Muttering something about "street wear" and "trendy Japanese brand", I swiftly usher her onwards, lest she queried me further, rumbling my super-sized vacuum of knowledge.
Consumer ignorance about this slow-burn label is a conscious tactic on Superdry's part. It is one of the fastest-growing women and menswear brands in the UK, has a strong international presence, counts Kate Moss and David Beckham as fans, and will float on the stock market this spring - but you won't hear it from them.
"Superdry has crept onto our radar over the past couple of years," says Tilly Macalister-Smith of Vogue. "Considering it never advertises, it's admirable that it has managed to do so well."
In these tough times, when brands eulogising their wares seems suspect (if it's that good, why are they pushing it so much?), silence can do more to articulate the quality of a product.
It's a risky strategy, but one that seems to have paid off: shoppers can't get enough of its hoodies and tees. Over the past year, total sales almost doubled to £119 million, and like-for-like sales in the five weeks to January 2010 were up 29 per cent. These are extraordinary figures considering Superdry launched only seven years ago as a T-shirt company in Cheltenham.
Yes, Cheltenham. With its pseudo-Japanese offerings, the common misconception is that Superdry hails from the land of the rising sun. Coats bear its Japanese logo; "Tokyo" is stamped on sweaters; its store sign is the luminous orange of the Japanese flag; and stock Asian iconographies, such as the roaring tiger, recur on tops.
The reference to the Far East isn't completely arbitrary, though. James Holder, who co-founded Superdry with Julian Dunkerton - the brains behind its parent company Supergroup - fashioned the label after an enlightening trip to Japan.
"I loved the look of Japanese street wear, with its graphic prints and bright colours," he says, "and knew it was the direction I wanted Superdry to take." Presumably, he also knew that design ties with Japan, the spiritual home of street fashion, served with a side of vintage Americana and prep, would lend the brand that elusive, sales-pulling cool factor.
Holder claims it is "unique", but that doesn't quite hold up (how boat-rocking can jeans and T-shirts be?). Where it has the edges, though, is in attention to detail. A hood jazzes up its best-selling ladies' lumberjack shirt; lapels are unexpectedly lined with wire for that preppy "popped-collared" look; shirts come in the softest washes; and double-collars appear on jackets (a style signature that Primark was accused of copying in 2008; the two companies settled out of court).
"I think Superdry has tapped into a zeitgeist look - it's Skins meets Gossip Girl," says Victoria White, editor of Company, which features a lot of the brand's clothing. "It doesn't follow trends, but dresses young people to match their lifestyle."
That it has cult status among image-conscious teens comes as no surprise, sharing as it does the upmarket polos-and-jeans aesthetic of Abercrombie & Fitch, and the publicity-free philosophy of Jack Wills, popular youth brands on whose territory it has been muscling in. Price-wise, it has the advantage for teen budgets - a basic Oxford ladies' shirt costs £44.99, as opposed to nearly £60 at Abercrombie and Jack Wills.
But it has also managed to reach beyond its young fan base, appealing, as Robert Johnston, associate editor of GQ, puts it, to the "type of gents who have never grown out of their hoodies". And this has kept the cash-tills ringing. Mark Lemon, manager of the Covent Garden flagship store, says that his shop is "busiest during the lunch break and after-work hours, when businessmen in their mid-twenties and thirties visit". He reckons his customers are "roughly 60/40, with a majority of men," a split that reflects its strength in menswear.
But Superdry is taking steps to improve its womenswear, starting with Vintage Thrift, which launched in 2008. "The addition of Vintage Thrift is a clever move," says Macalister-Smith, "as it will appeal to new, more fashion-conscious customers. There are pieces that reference catwalk trends, but that retain sportier elements, like racer backs, so as not to alienate its existing customers." Looking at the racks of twee jersey smocks and stripy string vests, though, I don't think Topshop should be quaking in its boots just yet.
"Superdry's success boils down to three things," says Johnston. "One, it has been very clever with its Japanese idiosyncrasies. Two, the 'right' celebrities have been seen wearing its designs. And three, it has a powerful sales tool in its concessions in House of Fraser."
It opened two menswear concessions in House of Fraser in autumn 2008; there are now men and women's concessions in nearly all 60 UK stores. The low costs of running concessions, coupled with phenomenal sales from those concessions - the store won't reveal figures, but a spokesman acknowledges that it has "become one of the most important and influential brands stocked at House of Fraser" - means it now has the money to expand its stand-alone stores.
Superdry opened 18 stores in the UK and Ireland last year, and plans to open another 20 this year.
The brand is also continuing its expansion plans abroad, having spent the past 18 months establishing itself in the Benelux region, France, Venezuela, Panama, Australia and the US. And then there is the small matter of its spring flotation, which former Vodafone marketing supremo, Peter Bamford, is overseeing.
And what has the company got to say about its achievements? Well, despite its policy of silence, I do believe I hear a roar of delight at Superdry's HQ.
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