The Menswear Style Podcast is a leading men’s fashion and menswear podcast exploring men’s style, clothing, grooming, lifestyle and the business behind some of the world’s most exciting fashion brands. Hosted by Peter Brooker, each episode features conversations with menswear designers, fashion entrepreneurs, innovative brand founders and industry experts from across the global fashion and apparel industry. Discover the stories behind established and emerging clothing brands, from the first idea and challenges of launching a fashion start-up to building a successful international business. Guests share their experiences and insights across fashion design, sustainability, manufacturing, marketing, branding, eCommerce, retail, social media and business growth. Whether you’re interested in men’s fashion and style, discovering new menswear brands, starting your own clothing label, or learning how successful fashion businesses are built, the Menswear Style Podcast takes you behind the scenes of the modern menswear industry. New conversations with the people shaping the future of menswear, men’s style and fashion.
Vincent Stadelhofer, Co-Founder of ANDREW & COLE / Sustainable Swimwear Brand
•Menswear Style •Episode 201
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In this episode of the Menswear Style Podcast, host Peter Brooker speaks to Vincent Stadelhofer, co-founder of ANDREW & COLE, the independent swimwear brand creating premium men’s swim shorts with a focus on comfort, sustainability and timeless design.
Founded as a family-run business, ANDREW & COLE was created to rethink the traditional swim short. Rather than using the conventional mesh lining found in most swimwear, the brand developed its own integrated inner lining designed to provide the support and protection of traditional swim trunks while offering greater comfort and freedom of movement.
Vincent explains how the idea came about after years of frustration with uncomfortable swim short linings and why he and his family decided to develop a completely different approach. He shares the process of researching materials, working with designers and refining the construction to create a more comfortable alternative to traditional men's swimwear.
Sustainability is another central part of the ANDREW & COLE philosophy. Vincent discusses the brand's move towards recycled and innovative fabrics and explains how its swim shorts and rash guards are now made using recycled materials, including recycled plastic bottles and plastic waste recovered from the ocean.
The conversation explores what it takes to build a sustainable fashion brand from the ground up, including sourcing recycled fabrics, finding specialist suppliers, attending international textile trade shows and balancing environmental ambitions with product quality and commercial realities.
Vincent also shares some practical advice for emerging fashion entrepreneurs, including where to look for sustainable fabrics and why trade shows such as Première Vision in Paris can be invaluable for discovering new materials, manufacturers and suppliers.
The episode also reveals the hands-on nature of building ANDREW & COLE. Vincent discusses being responsible for product development and production while other members of the family oversee marketing and social media, and explains how he taught himself to build the company's website.
We also discuss the realities of funding an independent fashion business. Vincent explains how the family provided the initial investment, how the business has been able to reinvest in new collections, and why crowdfunding and outside investment have not yet been necessary.
Looking ahead, Vincent reveals plans to expand the brand beyond its established summer swimwear offering, including the development of a new winter collection and further footwear and apparel categories, while continuing to grow through eCommerce, specialist retailers and international fashion trade shows.
A fascinating conversation about men’s swimwear, sustainable fashion, recycled materials, eco-friendly beachwear, product development, family business, eCommerce and building an independent clothing brand from scratch.
Discover ANDREW & COLE at andrewandcole.com and explore more menswear, fashion and style content at menswearstyle.co.uk.
Hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Men's Wear Style Podcast. I'm your host, Pope F, and today on the show I am speaking to Vincent. He is the founder of Andrew Cole, a modern sustainable swimwear brand. Their main goal is to create a new comfortable world of swim shorts without mesh. By using ocean plastic and PET materials to manufacture their premium swim shorts by showing respect and love for our beautiful Earth. It's a family-run business. I get to talk to Vincent about the design elements of the mesh itself and their plans for the future and how they managed to get everything up and running from scratch, really. I mean, these guys learned how to build websites, built their own platform, did their own imagery, the family's doing the marketing, they put all the capital in themselves. So a real interesting chat. I'm going to introduce you now to Vincent. He is the founder of Andrew and Cole. Okay, well, it's my great pleasure to introduce to the show Vincent. He is the founder of Andrew and Cole. How are we doing today, Vincent?
SPEAKER_02
Happy. Thank you so much for both for having me. Um our days just is getting great now, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Great. Well, for the listeners that don't know, obviously, we tried this yesterday, and Vincent and I were on the phone for about half an hour trying to get the technical stuff to work. It didn't work. Luckily, Vincent's been kind enough to return to the call this morning. Vincent, please introduce yourself to our audience and uh tell us about your role there down at Andrew and Cole, please.
SPEAKER_02
Well, um, since uh the day one uh uh where we founded at Andrew and Cole. So my leader role, so I'm responsible actually for the whole order management, the whole production management, and I'm also involved in the designs. I mean, on the whole development and designing of the of the product collection. We are kind of a family of it, you know, and so uh I manage everything with my sister Lyra.
SPEAKER_01
Vincent, please tell me about the shorts, the design of the shorts, and what gives these shorts their USP, would you say?
SPEAKER_02
Well, the design alone is not our USP, you know, on the collection. So the print that you see uh and the color that we shoot is not all alone the um the USP that makes the brands. Uh actually the product itself makes the brands, you know. In 2016, when we decided to fund the brand and on coal, we always had the intention of creating a comfortable and timeless and likely collection for the summer uh water of the man, you know. And also one of the most powerful is that we are uh sustainable and eco-friendly, you know. But actually, back to the product, the main product that we have is the swim shorts. And this was our first one. Yeah, I mean, everybody was thinking okay, swim shorts uh really easy product thing, but actually we created a new one. So that's not a swim short coming out with uh uh uh bordering traditional regular mesh map inside. So we uh invented a special lining that we created with a London-based designer, actually. And since then we are using this kind of system to our swimshots, and um actually it's um provides the same protection as we all know in the main swim trunk, but it's much more uh comfortable and better to work, you know. Uh because you all know I'm sure after two two hours on the beach, it's just gain very bothering.
SPEAKER_01
So, what is different about this kind of mesh lining as opposed to the typical ones that you'll find in swim shorts? What is so unique about the the lining in these?
SPEAKER_02
So um actually the lining um it's attached in in the swim short, it's a kind of uh swim short in swim shorts, and that's why it's um make the the whole thing more and more comfortable at the end, and it uh it's not if you feel the fabric is not that rough, then it can the mesh net because the meshness sometimes it depends on the quality, can be very you know hard and material fabric, and yeah, kind of uh rubber-ish, can we say? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it could get really annoying the the linings that kind of float around in the swim shorts, and they basically for guys they can just ride all the way up there, and it can get really uncomfortable when you're wearing them. So that sounds interesting. So it's kind of like it will move with your body, I guess, and it won't be kind of like this floating thing that kind of lifts and rises when you get in the water.
SPEAKER_02
Right, right, absolutely. I mean, I'm sure uh I had some friends, uh I don't know back in the time, they were always buying shrimp short and then they were cutting out the net. So then I say, why are we actually producing shrimp short with this kind of net, you know, uh if we don't need it at all? After a lot of researching, brainstorming, and talking with the with the designers, I found a solution. We found a solution to to make it the whole product like it is today, you know.
SPEAKER_01
Well, the product looks great, the website looks terrific. But Vincent, tell me, uh, going back to the start, I always like to ask people that come on the show how they managed to raise the capital for the brand, how they got it off the ground initially, because I think everybody has an idea maybe for a product or uh a clothing company, but from the very early stages, how did you manage to get it off the ground with regards to the money?
SPEAKER_02
Well, Andrew and Cole is a family business, so we we got some capital from the family. Yeah, so with the time I'm telling the collection, uh, luckily um we had a quite a good start, so then we were able, you know, to refinance the brand, the collection, everything.
SPEAKER_01
You managed to raise the capital with investment from the family, that's all being paid back now. Uh, I was gonna ask, were you ever tempted to raise the capital like crowdfunding or Kickstarter campaigns?
SPEAKER_02
Well, um, I mean, I heard a lot about this and read a lot about this, um, but actually we never you know needed really to make a crowdbounding uh over Kickstarter and everything, um, because we were able to to refinance the whole connection line with with you know with the with the brand itself. So um then we didn't then had you know the plan to go over crown founding, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Right. And what's the plan now? Would you look to get investment now to grow the company? If somebody came in and said I want to buy a share, would you be open to those discussions?
SPEAKER_02
Um I'm not sure if uh uh if we would be ready or um to if another company will buy share everything, but maybe for a bigger project that we um uh are planning to do is to you know finally after seven years to introduce uh our foreign winter collection. And maybe over there, then we uh for this collection we maybe go over uh co-abandon, shaming uh selling shares and stuff like this uh uh from the company. No, this is not our plan.
SPEAKER_01
Right. And so you were talking about sustainability earlier and how that's quite important to the brand. What is your uh and why is that so important to you? And what is the the philosophy and the pledge for the brand?
SPEAKER_02
You know, uh I didn't just uh found at Angrew and Cole in 2016 as a summer lifetime shrimp short brand. I mean, um I grew up part-time on the beach, so that's why I have this kind of connection, you know, because I was always wearing the shrimp shirt during the summer and everything. Yeah, so one day when I was on the beach, I seen you know, the whole thing that we that you really don't want to see when you are on the beach. And then yeah, I found it dangerous, and then I was uh um for the beginning on I was ready to make a uh to find a brand that to take care about something good in the future, you know. So in the early stages of the brand, there were not really like fabric around that was really recyclable and sustainable. So with the times um like around 2020, we found really the fabric that we were looking for. Um so the plash of the brand, so containing this stability and everything. We make sure that we we use the most recycled and innovated fabric that we can find around into those worlds. You know, we we put a lot of uh care and in our collection concerning using the materials and choosing them. Um we are also more than happy to um to share with you that now the whole uh shrimpshore collection line, even our Wesh guard line, is now 100% of uh coming from uh recycled materials, such as you know, plastic bottles, uh garbage from the ocean and everything. Yeah, we are really proud about that with this uh organization, you know.
SPEAKER_01
That's pretty special. So, where would you source materials like that? I mean, if people are starting up a brand themselves, and I you probably don't want to give away all the Yaces up your sleeve, but if people are looking to become more sustainable when they start their companies, where do you even begin looking for products that are 100% recyclable?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, so there's a kind of different fairs and shows um in Europe and also in the US, where you um only like fashion branded designs can get in. Um, about fabric materials, uh, all the other things like tip, uh bottoms, uh labels, everything. And actually just you know, working through the collection, the shows, and if uh uh from the electron device, one of those um uh provider of this fabric um uh you know started to kind of to find a connection and uh and I had a feeling that was promising about the materials and the fabrics. So then we started to work with this. But I mean, if you don't go to shows and fair, so it will be quite a hard way to get to this fabric, yeah.
SPEAKER_00
Right. And and any shows in particular that people can look out for?
SPEAKER_02
Premiere vision in Paris. This is one of the shows that uh is really created where I was finally remote for the fabric. Then the show uh um uh one one in Milan was called Di Mare. Uh basically this all around the summer's uh season fabrics, and there's one in Munich, but I haven't been yet there. Yeah. Because I was really happy with the band with the what I found in Paris, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Right, that's interesting. Well, it's good to know because I mean I guess people also when it comes to like recyclable fabrics and sustainability, people might want to be doing that with their brands, but might not know where the touchstones are, where the the early steps can be made. So I just wanted to get those names out there. So thanks for that. Vincent, I I also wanted to touch upon how like the imagery for the brand is so strong. Like when I'm scrolling through your Instagram, all of the photos are very, very, you know, just spot on, polished but natural at the same time. It doesn't, it doesn't look like overly staged, but it's kind of that fine sweet spot between looking very professional but not overly posy. Are you kind of hands-on with everything with regards to the imagery and the marketing with the brand?
SPEAKER_02
Well, um, the imagery, no, but with the marketing of the brand, yes. So uh I'm uh part involved with it. We present the brand, you know, the the logos and everything, like the design of the homepage and everything. So I'm involved with, but actually in the marketing, no. So my sister's taking part of it.
SPEAKER_01
Did you design the web page then? Have you got any skills?
SPEAKER_02
The web page by all by myself, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
You did that. Well, wow, that's amazing. Where did you learn that? Was that something you you had like learned growing up or go to school for?
SPEAKER_02
It's really easy. It's like uh some deep ones that you know uh part of them that you bring together to create the homepage. And um actually I was just creating the homepage, it had some difficulties. I was shocked to look in around YouTube and or uh I was asking these 24 hours um support and they and they were helping me out. Um but actually um when we all had this this two year break, so I was really focusing into this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Right. Okay, so this is kind of like a real bootstrap company where you go in and you start it from scratch, you learn as you go. It's like learning how to build the plane as you're flying it. I guess now if you had to do it all over again, it would be a lot quicker for you to do something like this.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like you said, um, we're just starting from the Gas brand, like say it, and then you know, like expanding. But um, I thought we are doing everything by ourselves. Um, so we know really each part of the brand.
SPEAKER_01
So and what about bricks and mortar? I couldn't see any stores online. Are you looking to get into bricks and mortar at all, or are you quite happy to just be an e-commerce site?
SPEAKER_02
Uh well, we are really strong now in e-commerce, um, but uh we are looking to to get some retailers. We are mostly focusing to be an online brand, yeah, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01
And if you were looking to get in bricks and mortar, would you be how would you go about that? Look to get the concessions in Selfridges or John Lewis or things like that? Are you looking that far far ahead?
SPEAKER_02
I mean, if if you want to go to tell us which would have whichever department store is, you cannot just knock on them doors, you know, because then they they would say they would say uh you're gonna turn around and work out. Um so the best thing what everyone can do is they have to go to fashion shows, like um, you know, fashion where the buyers going in and see the collection and uh hopefully take uh place in order. Um like the one that you have in Italy, it's the PT Romo. And then you have for us, it's very important that we uh go to the stream show Miami in Florida. Yeah, so if you are able to go to go to one or two uh professional shows, I mean two at least to four, it would be great, yeah. Yeah, but it's a time intensive and yeah, it's always a financial question.
SPEAKER_01
And yeah, I mean, because like you'll have to pay for flights to go out to Florida, I mean, then hotels, and then you've got to think, well, how much am I gonna make back on my expenses alone? Anyway, yeah, I I know you I know the drill quite well. Um, Vincent, give a shout out to the website and the social channels. Where can people find you and uh the best place to buy the swim shores?
SPEAKER_02
Well, the best place to buy to buy the swimshore than find us is online. Actually, the the biggest uh part of the collection is online, and we I mean we offer free shipping and return and everything. Uh, but also you can find us now in Shivik um in the Jam Molin department stores and as well as in some smaller boutiques than run here. But uh online is our main part, yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Okay, great. And andrewandcole.com, the place to go. We'll leave a link all over on the show notes over at MenswearStar so people can find you there. And the social channels, Instagram, you you run that yourself? Is that you?
SPEAKER_02
Um no, I don't mind by myself. My sister is taking care of this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
So we can get hold of your sister if we need to message the brand over at the Instagram channel there, Andrew and Cole. People will figure that out. Listen, Vincent, thank you so much for hanging in there with all the tech issues. Um, it was a real joy talking to you and learning about the brand and all the best for the future.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you so much, Vincent. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01
If you've been listening to the MenitwareStyle podcast, if you start to head over to menswarestar.houk for menusware content. An email at info at mensworthstar.ho.uk if you'd like to be a future guest on the show.
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