Vogue: What is the transformation?
Daniel: We are turning the company towards a 360-degree retail model. It covers everything from assortment, supply chain, logistics, marketing, store footprint, retail design… It’s across more or less all brand touchpoints. Obviously, the marketplace now is unpredictable and anything can happen — from Covid to a shipment getting stuck to tariffs. And all these external factors affect the business, our customers and in the end, our own progress.
We needed to take control, and we decided to do it by way of a model in which we can control retail. And to control retail, we need to offer a concept and a universe that is relevant to a broader audience throughout the year. What we have basically done is we’ve gone from two main seasons to four seasons and 12 deliveries. We believe that monthly drops can spark curiosity in the consumer to further explore the brand. In connection to that, we have expanded the product range from being mainly outerwear and bags to a full lifetime concept that includes ready-to-wear, home decor, footwear, skiwear and activewear.
So this is not only a matter of building retail as the main revenue stream, it’s also about creating a universe for customers to buy further into the brand. The limitations of how we have done things previously has always been that customers buy two, three, four, five items. They love Rains, but they cannot go deeper because how many backpacks do you need? How many rain jackets?
Vogue: The last time we spoke about your business was in January, and I also saw you at your show in March. You were still operating within your old structure then. So all this change has taken place in six months?
Daniel: Yes, the shift from concept to presentation and experience has been implemented in less than half a year. And it could only happen with me making decisions that were not only based on data and historical development, but based on our gut feeling about where we want to go.
Vogue: You are turning this around fast, but how long have you been thinking about it?
Daniel: Quite some time. I also had those conversations with the previous CEO, and we did implement a strategy focused on a retail mindset. But the reality is that creating a retail mindset would take a very drastic change throughout the company. And those decisions and strategic initiatives need to be taken by those who take the full responsibility. So I had to do it myself.