‘Support Blue Collar’ apparel company a boon for US veterans - Fox Business |
- ‘Support Blue Collar’ apparel company a boon for US veterans - Fox Business
- Innovating The Fashion Apparel Supply Chain - pymnts.com
- Yanto Barker Went From Family Credit To Owning £10 Million Cycle Apparel Brand Le Col - Forbes
- Matching Holiday Pajamas With Hanna Andersson - KTLA Los Angeles
| ‘Support Blue Collar’ apparel company a boon for US veterans - Fox Business Posted: 11 Dec 2019 10:52 AM PST Combat Flags CEO Dan Berei discusses his company's American flags made out of material from duty-worn military fatigues and his use of revenue to support non-profits aiming to lower veteran suicide What originally started as a joke for Jason Tremblay and his friends in 2016 with a "Make Trolls Great Again" hat, eventually grew into a full-fledged apparel business. Within three years, Troll Co. Clothing has captured the hearts of manual workers across the country thanks to its bold stance on supporting blue-collar jobs. Continue Reading Below "Blue-collar trades are kind of old school and I think people that are in blue-collar trades are proud to have something that represents them. And I can say that because my business partner Justin and I lived it," Troll Co. Clothing co-founder Justin Tremblay told FOX Business. He explained that recognizing this absence in the market has helped the company grow tremendously in a short amount of time. The brand makes clothes for both men and women, and customers can choose from assorted hats, T-shirts, hoodies, high-visibility apparel, accessories, stickers and decals. Troll Co. Clothing's overarching theme, "building things with your hands," encourages young people to pursue blue-collar occupations in light of several trade shortages.
FROM COMBAT BOOTS TO PUMPS, HOW ONE VETERAN IS CAPITALIZING ON FASHION Troll Co. Clothing prides itself on the tagline "Dirty Hands Clean Money," which signifies the brand's founding roots in the Canadian oil patches where Jason and Justin used to work. After a long shift, whenever they saw reflections of their messed up hair and dirt-covered bodies, the pair would remark that they looked like trolls. Troll Co. Clothing's mission is more than making money, it's about giving back. In the last year and a half, the company has donated thousands of dollars to veteran causes. As of July 2019, the Maryland-based Fisher House Foundation has received over $72,000 in donations to its Hero Miles Program on behalf of Troll Co. Clothing and its generous customers. The money donated to the program provides airline tickets to wounded, injured and ill service members and their families, whether it be domestic or abroad. Uniting troops with their families during the recovery process not only boost morale but also removes financial stress for recipients.  Troll Clothing Co. "Troll Co. Clothing is obviously very dedicated to service members and military families and we're honored that they've chosen us to be one of their organizations," shared Michelle Baldanza, vice president of communications at Fisher House Foundation. Additionally, Troll Co. Clothing has donated over $14,000 to veteran-focused organizations in Canada, including Valour Place and the Canada VETS Program. Five months after its July milestone, Troll Co. Clothing has raised more than $105,000 overall for its veteran giving initiatives. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Troll Co. Clothing is based in Alberta, Canada but manufactures its apparel in California. Tremblay told Fox Business that 83 percent of the company's customer base is from the U.S. The bulk of its business is online but Trembly notes a few wholesale houses have helped to get Troll Co. gear into physical stores. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS Troll Co. Clothing has more than 200,000 followers and counting on both Instagram and Facebook.  |
| Innovating The Fashion Apparel Supply Chain - pymnts.com Posted: 12 Dec 2019 08:09 AM PST Generally speaking, fashion companies do not own the manufacturing process that produces the items sell, which can be a big limiter of innovation. Fashion brands can dictate the look of the items – their shape, color and overall aesthetic design. But the actual materials used to make those products is not always, or even often, within their control. Instead, PANGAIA Chief Innovation Officer Amanda Parkes explained, most brands must work with the materials that textile mills and manufacturers choose to develop. And that is a best-case scenario, she noted – the alternate often involves taking whatever textiles have been produced for the military or other industrial development projects and finding a way to work with it. But the siloing of these two parts of the fashion industry didn't work for PANGAIA, a fashion startup that doesn't just aim to design the clothes, but also to improve the backend world of textile materials. That means conducting material science in its R&D Lab in Florence, Italy – and then displaying those textiles via its private-label clothing brand. That private-label clothing brand is the firm's revenue engine – for now, anyway. But the longer-term business model looks to B2B textile sales, materials licensing and brand partnership for further textile development. According to Parkes, until recently, a high-capital, long-term-oriented business like PANGAIA would have had trouble finding funding, particularly after a few high-profile startup flameouts in the last year or so – but now, an "investment structure is opening up." "There are different value systems [beyond simply ROI], including impact, philanthropy and recognizing where resources need to go," she noted. Delivering on those values means providing a truly different fashion product, from material to final design. To that end, said Parkes, PANGAIA offers some out-of-the-box-sounding options. Their biggest seller, for example, is a T-shirt made of cotton and seaweed that is treated with an antibacterial peppermint solution so that it needs to be washed less often. The company's latest flagship product, called FLWRDWN, is designed as an alternative to both the animal and synthetic down available on the market today. Goosedown is full of bacteria and highly flammable, not to mention chock-full of suffering for the goose whose feathers went into the comforter or puffy coat. Synthetic down solves for those issues, but is generally made of a petroleum-based alternative that is heavily polluting. FLWRDWN, the firm claims, is the culmination of a decade-long development project that combines natural wildflowers and biopolymers to create a warm, stylish, down-stuffed fashion item that also happens to be fully biodegradable. Does FLWRDWN live up to its billing? That question remains to be answered, as the product is very new to the market and not many formal assessments have been done. But whatever the ultimate ruling on its newest product, PANGAIA's base idea is interesting. Fashion brands tend to view themselves as competitors, and when it comes to selling fashion items, they are. But when it comes to gaining access to better, more innovative materials, they have every reason to collaborate, Parkes noted – because a better, more sensitive supply chain is the rising tide that can lift all of their boats.   |
| Yanto Barker Went From Family Credit To Owning £10 Million Cycle Apparel Brand Le Col - Forbes Posted: 12 Dec 2019 01:10 PM PST  Yanto Barker, founder and CEO of British cycle apparel brand Le Col. Le ColIt's your typical rags-to-riches story: young lad brought up by a single mum on the social security payment Family Credit becomes pro athlete, creates own cycle apparel brand, crowdfunds, does well, sells equity to venture capitalists, lives happily ever after. The reality is more complicated, but it's still the stuff of dreams for college dropout Yanto Barker, who founded London-based Le Col in 2011. Along the way, the 39-year-old Welshman bought the Italian clothing factory that made his first garments, and, on December 9, his company inked a supply and partnership deal with a professional cycling team that, next year, will be competing at the highest levels of the sport. After a name change, this team—which includes in its ranks multiple Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish—recently became Team Bahrain McLaren due to sponsorship from the British Formula 1 motor racing company. Barker is well acquainted with cycling superstars, including Sir Bradley Wiggins, with whom Barker created an offshoot clothing brand, Le Col By Wiggins. (The pair were juniors together, racing for Team GB.) And Barker is now also acquainted with high finance: last year London-headquartered Puma Private Equity pumped £5 million into Le Col. This is on top of earlier crowdfunding which raised £1 million. "I'm one of the most driven and ambitious people I've ever come across," stated Barker. "I've met a few [like] me, but I'm one of the absolute highest." The headstrong Barker quit college at the age of 17. "I thought I could do a better job racing my bike for a career," he said. "My mum was a single parent, and she brought my sisters and me up on her own. She was receiving Family Credit for me attending higher education. She made it very clear that if I stopped, then that income would stop, and therefore I would need to pick it up—it was about £30 a week. I said, fine, I'll get a part-time job, and I'll cover it. "I went to college one more day, picked up my stuff, told my tutors that's what I was doing, and from then on, I was 100% full time as a cyclist." At the age of 18 he won Britain's junior road race championships and was later selected for Team GB, cosseted as part of a set-up that treated its riders "like little pops star in a bubble," said Barker. While his drive and ambition were never in doubt, he struggled to break through the ranks when he became a professional. "I didn't win the Tour de France like Bradley [Wiggins], and I've not won 30 stages of the Tour [de France], like [Mark Cavendish] but I don't believe they were keener or more committed to achieving their results than I was." At the age of 25, Barker retired from cycle sport. "I'm a very all or nothing kind of person. So when I stopped, I didn't touch my bike for 18 months, I didn't even do any kind of exercise. I was keen to change my focus." He entered the world of work but didn't take to it. Entrepreneurial by nature, he didn't enjoy working for others. "I have to be self-employed; I like to look after my own time and responsibilities," he said. He considered setting up a sport coaching business, or perhaps a cycle travel firm—two career options popular with former pro cyclists—but settled on creating a cycle apparel brand. In 2008 he started to research the market, contacting suppliers, sending for fabric swatches, playing with brand names, and teaching himself to design. And then the lightbulb moment: to promote his new brand—Le Col from the beginning, using the French word for mountain pass—Barker would return, three years after leaving it, to the world of professional cycling.  LeCol has signed a sponsorship deal with Team Bahrain McLaren. Bahrain McLaren/Le ColHe began racing again in early 2009, riding for his one-man Le Col team. Soon linking up with another squad, this team became one with eleven riders, still with Le Col as one of the sponsors. He used his training and racing to inform the designs for his putative business. "I sponsored myself, in effect, with my brand name on my jersey. Even though we weren't officially trading, I was setting up the foundations for the business to later begin trading." Barker wanted his brand to fit with his personal need to look "right," on and off the bike. In 2010, he told Britain's Telegraph newspaper that "jerseys need to fit a certain way, shorts need to be a certain length, you need to match things up, so you are color-coordinated." He admitted he couldn't ride with "mismatched anything." "Looking good is an important part of your whole facade and psyche in line with being motivated. Feeling professional, acting professional, looking professional—all those boxes need to be ticked." The first Le Col products became available in 2011. At the high-end, performance end of the market, Le Col was already a recognized brand, and now it had garments to sell. These first pieces were designed for "the discerning rider," promoted the startup. Barker didn't physically cut and stitch his first garments, but he did almost everything else in his fledgling business. "I trained every single morning during the week, [on rides of] up to 100 miles. In the afternoon, I'd look at spreadsheets; I'd look at designs; I'd sign off samples, I did all the things that needed to be done to make sure that the business continued." He was racing internationally at this point. "I was taking part in World Tour races like Tour de Dubai, Tour of Poland, Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne. And on the team bus between stages, I was trying to check emails. I did accounts; I did design. I did branding; I did website building. I did the planning; I did forecasting; I did finances. I did investment—I did every single job in this business before I hired the person that now looks after that department or that specific role." Le Col now employs 30 people, including eight in the Italian clothing factory he acquired. This factory— situated in Castelfranco, near Treviso, heart of the Italian cycling industry—made Le Col's garments from the start. When quality standards started slipping, Barker demanded changes but was told none could be made thanks to managerial disagreements. Instead, Barker was invited to buy the company. He found investors to back him, took out a bank loan, threw in some savings, and raised enough capital to buy the factory. "I bought an order book; I bought a management team and contacts," said Barker. "And I bought all of the facilities I needed to service my product." But it was touch-and-go, he remembered: "I had no idea just how big a deal it was to incorporate an overseas manufacturing facility into quite a small U.K. cycling clothing brand. [The factory was] turning over more than I was turning over in the U.K.. [But] I made it work, [although] it was very, very close for a long time, and quite stressful." By 2016, Barker and his new management team were in full control of Le Col's production pipeline, sales were strong, but cashflow remained tight. The decision was made to open up to crowdsourced equity—the company, late in the year, launched a campaign on Crowdcube. By the close of the campaign in January 2017, 344 micro investors had pledged over £1+ million for 21% equity. Barker said the two-month process had been "intense." "My wife gave birth to our first daughter in the middle [of the campaign], and there I was in the hospital corridor, taking phone calls for a £250 investment, a £1000 investment, £10,000 investment, while we were learning about breastfeeding." The new cash was spent on marketing and new hires. Ex-Sky marketing director Simon Creasey—who had been responsible for building up NOW TV and the Sky Store—was appointed as Le Col's chief marketing officer, saying at the time that he "could see the foundations [of the company] were extremely solid and there was a great platform for accelerated growth." Barker wasn't awed by the amount he had raised on Crowdcube: "A million pounds it isn't that much, [but] everything moves a lot faster with investment. You have to understand what that means for the economics of the business, your income versus outgoings, your salary bill each month, your income targets. If [the targets] don't get met, then you have to be really clear about what you're doing about it, and responsive to making sure that you have the answers." He adds: "You have to be very, very on top of your numbers; very, very on top of your expenses, and ready to make some [bold] decisions very quickly." And one of those decisions was to use crowdfunding success as a springboard to raise more funding, this time from private equity. "My job as [company] founder and CEO is to make sure that I source the resources that this business needs to deliver its targets. And one of those [resources] is money," said Barker. "I could see the trajectory that we were going on, and it was likely that we were going to need more money so I kept [the financial consultants from the Crowdcube campaign] on board." This fresh investment—from Puma Private Equity of London—was used to ramp up sales. "It shouldn't be seen as a negative that we needed more money. I'm very black and white that what we do has to deliver growth in turnover," stressed Barker. "We started talking to [Puma] in March 2018. After they completed their first tranche [of £2.35 million], they committed [a further £2.5 million] in October 2018." However, the rosy picture of a booming bicycle market painted by Le Col—now valued at north of £10 million—didn't pan out. The global bicycle industry has probably yet to reach the bottom of its current trough, and many companies have struggled to stay afloat. High-end cycle apparel is somewhat immune to the squeezing of a contracting market, but even British brand Rapha faltered in 2018. Bought the previous year for £200 million by Steuart and Tom Walton—two of the heirs to the $159 billion Wal-mart fortune—Rapha had to shed staff to cope with reduced demand. Barker sees the downturn as an opportunity: "When there's excitement in the market, and it's growing, there are a lot of [companies] trying to service that excitement. [The market] gets fragmented and you end up competing with lots of very small brands trying to get a foothold in the market by turning over £100,000 [worth of product] to their friends, which, [admittedly] is what I did at the very beginning." Le Col is growing, said Barker, partly by taking market share from its rivals, such as Castelli of Italy, Assos of Switzerland and Rapha. "We've grown 150% between last year and this year, and 200% between the year before and 2018. We've proven with those turnover performances that we can win and achieve very strong growth in what might be described as a deceleration [in the market]. I just need to win a little bit, gain just a few percent of customers [from rival brands] and we [would] grow another 150 to 200% next year." The sponsorship of Team Bahrain McLaren is a chance for Barker to again raise brand-awareness but this time on a much larger scale. "I am brave," he offered, "almost a little bit too brave sometimes, but I'm determined, and I do love a challenge."  |
| Matching Holiday Pajamas With Hanna Andersson - KTLA Los Angeles Posted: 12 Dec 2019 02:04 PM PST   Kara Carter of Hanna Andersson joined Lu Parker on the set of the KTLA 5 News at 11a to showcase pajama sets for the holidays.  |
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