how can brands capitalise on new found fashion trends
Pity Naomi Campbell, who could have been saved from appearing in endless memes and listicles, two decades after her catwalk tumble in 1993, if she had been sent down Vivienne Westwood’s catwalk wearing a pair of sturdy, hiking sandals such as Tevas.
Fashion’s unlikely embrace of practical shoe brands in recent years – with Birkenstock-inspired footwear appearing on the catwalk of Chloé and designers Prada and Marc Jacobs paying homage to Tevas – has spawned a trend known as “ugly chic”: worn by celebrities, endorsed by fashion bloggers and subject of many summers’ worth of #footselfies.
Boot brands such as Hunter, Timberland and LL Bean boots have been coolhunted, while the rise of athleisure – sportswear worn all day – has also seen Nike, Adidas, and other sports brands up their fashion game.
Many commentators call this movement towards practical fashion normcore – the supposed style trend that favours the mass market and mundane over individual and quirky.
But normcore soon enough spun out to be a modern media retelling of The Emperor’s New Clothes and, as it turns out, practical brands getting swept up in fashion hype is hardly a new phenomenon; in 1997, the New Yorker charted the rise of Hush Puppies shoes, while five years ago Sloane Ranger staple, the Barbour jacket, also experienced a similar revival.
With the life cycle of fashion trends punishingly short and accelerated by social media, how can brands capitalise on new found fashion fame, while at the same time not alienating their core customers?
In the case of Birkenstock, it boils down to the fact the orthopaedic footwear brand from Germany doesn’t really care about fashion. Appearing on the feet of celebrity influencers such as Chloë Sevigny and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (who wear theirs with socks), and opined over by Vogue, fashion’s 2013 love affair with the sturdy shoes seems to have fizzled out.
“We don’t want to be a super trendy fashion brand and don’t want too much glamour around the brand,” explains Jochen Gutzy, head of communications at Birkenstock, speaking from Brazil, where he is working on the brand’s launch there.
“We are weird and strange and this is how we want to keep it. This is what customers expect from us – not to be too loud, but talk about their expectations in terms of quality, function and affordability,” he says.
Birkenstock’s surge in popularity was a combination of internal and external forces, says Gutzy. The 241-year old family business began a restructuring process under its chief executive Oliver Reichert in 2013, helping Birkenstock, which has historically done most of its sales through wholesale, build a closer connection to the market. These changes also included the creation of its first marketing department, which is still relatively small for a brand with a reported 80% awareness globally.
The rest is a case of the right place at the right time. As a company focused on the quality and longevity of its products, made in its own factory in Germany, Birkenstock has captured the increasingly conscious consumer zeitgeist; it attracts customers who not only care about the supply chain, but want footwear that enables them to live more active lifestyles.
Word of mouth, combined with social media, spread the brand like wildfire, which is remarkable considering the company does not work with any agencies and currently has no social media function. Now its high fashion frolic seems to be over, Birkenstock’s focus is expansion to new markets, particularly South America, opening 100 flagship stores around the world in the next two to three years.
Similarly, being recognised by the fashion world was not Teva’s grand plan, but rather “the icing on the cake,” says Kirby Todd, social media director at Teva’s digital agency Heat.
Unlike Birkenstock, Teva’s surge in popularity over the past few years is the result of a strategic marketing push. A few years ago, the company recognised that the outdoor apparel market was shrinking and decided to reposition itself as a lifestyle brand, bringing on agency Heat. While Teva has collaborated with fashion retailers including Nasty Gal and Opening Ceremony, the company, which was founded in the Grand Canyon in 1984 as footwear for white-water rafters, is selective about its fashion partners to ensure it remains authentic to its core audience.
“It’s about trying to strike balance in the middle – for people who care about what they look like, but also want to be comfortable,” says Todd. The sort of person who goes for wine with friends after visiting the farmers market, she adds. Teva sees itself as an “ageless” brand, so it does not alienate it’s existing customers, while trying to attract younger generations.
This summer, Teva focused its marketing on festivals, with various activations including branded content and influencer campaigns, with a heavy social media component. Its Road Trip activity, which involved sending four Instagram influencers, including Natalie Off Duty and Dylana Suarez, on a road trip from New Orleans to Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, saw it gain 3,500 new followers in one week.
For Teva, its next push will be building more awareness to its boot line, with another collaboration in the works for autumn.
Technology will have a major role to play in helping these brands stay relevant in the future, says Julie Noiman, managing director, digital, at Spring Studios in New York, citing Converse and Vans as good examples.
“They offer the ability for a person to customise their shoe online, purchase and share their creation socially,” she says.
For example, in March this year, Converse, which has remained enduringly popular since its All Star trainer appeared in 1920, launched a campaign that showcased portraits of customised Chuck Taylor trainers from around the world, including ones by Andy Warhol and Patti Smith. The campaign encouraged fans to share images and stories of their Chuck Taylors, as a way to “celebrate self-expression around the world,” Ian Stewart, vice president of global marketing at Converse told Adage.
“A brand that embraces personal expression of their own product enabled by technology,” says Noiman, “will always have an advantage to maintaining their relevance for the long term.”
