SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Men's Wear Style Podcast. I'm your host, Pete Brooker, and today I'm going to be talking to the owner of Designer Pop-Up Store, Robert Freeze. So the Designer Pop-Up Store, or DPUS outlet as it's perhaps better known, is a discount designer outlet that lives in the heart of East London. Robert is going to talk about the minutiae of the business, so I won't go too much into what it is here, but it was a fascinating chat, and I love talking to him about how the business was run and how he manages to keep all these high-end brands under the same umbrella and keep everyone happy. We also talk about the fashion industry as a whole and what it takes to get an e-commerce site off the ground. I have some background in this area. Anyone that has listened to previous episodes will know that. I used to run an independent fashion shop myself, so I was really interested and keen to get Robert on and hear how he made a success of this company. But before we get into all that, some general housekeeping, make sure you head over to the menswear style site, menswearstyle.co.uk. We run competitions, giveaways, and there's always new events and launches that we cover on the site. So if you want to stay on top of the latest trends, then make sure you're checking us out there for daily content. If you type menswear style into any of the social channels, then we will come up magically. Make sure you give us a follow and let us know you're listening. Also, we have an app. Type in menswear style to the app store, and we will come up. And lastly, if you want to get in touch with the show, then email info at menswear style.co.uk. Okay! Here is that interview with Robert Freeze, company director of Designer Pop-Up Store. Like to introduce to the podcast Robert Frees, owner and company director of Designer Pop-Up Store. Designer Pop-Up Store, well, Robert, hello first of all. Perhaps you could introduce yourself and tell hi and maybe maybe tell us a little bit about Designer Pop-Up Store, please.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, well, we're a discount designer outlet based in the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch. We've been trading for there from there for since 2007, so 12 years now. Um we've actually rebranded slightly from Designer Pop-Up Store to DPUS outlet because we wanted to get away from the pop-up store side of things. So to give confidence to people that we are there all the time. Um it's a bit of a complicated sort of story of what happens in the summer months. It's just that on a shortened version, basically the whole of the Truman Brewery gets taken over by all university graduates. So as a such, our space is a really wanted space by its uh free range, and they showcase all their talents. One week it's photography, one week it's art, and after they've graduated, and we have to move out. So that's why we become that's why we were a pop-up store. Hopefully. But we always they always find us another location, whether it be on Hambury Street, just off commercial street, opposite Spittlefields Market, or within the brewery on Drew, where Rough Trade Records is, and uh Sun Stag number six. So we're always in the Truman Brewery, but they they were moving us about, so that's why it was a pop-up store. However, negotiations are going on at the moment that next summer we won't have to move out, so hence why we've we've rebranded, we're now DPUS Designer Outlet. So the main concept of the store is that or the ethos of the store is that everything is discounted all year round. So it's sort of upmarket TK Max if you sort of look at the actual business um side of it, in that we we tend to sort of have heavier discounts on older collections, but we do tend to get new collections this season's which there'll be a much smaller discount, but there will be a discount. So, you know, for instance, this season's Stone Island that we have at the moment is like 10 to 20 percent off what it is, what the RRP is. So, um, yeah, that's basically the ethos and and what we do at the store. Great. Uh, and it's been working okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah, and uh for anyone listening to this, they should really jump online also to designerpopupstore.com, and you can check out a 3D tour of uh the actual shop so people can have an idea of the space and you can really have a great feel for some of the brands that you got in there. I mean, like you say, you've got some really good marquee brands, Montclair, Marc Jacobs, um, Burberry. I can't I mean they're all on the website, so people can check out on the website.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

I saw the 3D um tour uh last night that was shown to me. It's very impressive, it's really good the way that you could actually go around through all the different sort of avenues and alleyways in within the store to actually get close up to what each product was. It's amazing actually how how good it was. So, yeah, it's definitely worth checking out, guys, if you were or ladies as well. We're not just the menswear store, we are 50-50 um menswear and ladies, probably stronger on clothing on men's, but stronger on accessories on ladies, handbags, and the footwear. Um, but yeah, I was really impressed with the uh the 3D tour. It's uh it's yeah, very innovative.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

So, uh Robert, I've got a couple of questions regarding the products and the brands. Um, what is the vetting system for getting the collections in and getting you know certain products from certain brands? Do you have to see them all before they go into the store, before they go online? How does it work?

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Um well basically we've we've got agents working for us all around the world um sourcing stock that we can sell discounted. Um some of it comes directly from the brands, some of it comes from agencies who do distribution for the brands, some of it comes from actual retailers who large retail outlets throughout the world who have collections left over from previous seasons and just want to sort of move it on. I mean, this is this is how where the whole concept started was that I actually had a menswear store at the end of the 90s, early noughties. It was called Arena, and we're based in in Bromley in Kent, and we had some great brands. We had Stone Island, Moncler, well before, which is when it was with Bond Street agencies, um Bellstaff, Condor Garson, Prada Sport, Hugo Boss. But what we found was that we just get left with so much stock at the end of each season. Obviously, the buy-in wasn't so great, but the brands control what you do when you've got accounts with brands. So you can't mix spring summer with autumn winter, you can't mix old collection with new collection, which is understandable because it's got to be an image of a collection that they've designed for that particular season.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

And we we we ended up with so much stock that I said to my partner that I was convinced with at the time, I said, you know, what should we do with this stock? And so we just and this is before social media, internet in its infancy stages. So we just had a clearance out as such in like a Churchill theatre, it was, and we literally advertised it in the local paper, we sent flyers out, we had a small mailing list, and we sold it all at like 70% off or something along those sort of lines, and we cleared literally all of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Great.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

So I sort of came up with this concept, this idea of what do all the other independents do with it. So I contacted a few guys that I know within England who had sort of they said, Well, it's the same as you, we just put it in the warehouse, and then every sale time you let you can have one rail that you'll do 70% off, but then as soon as the new collections come in, it's got to be put back in the warehouse. So I I went on a road trip with an Italian friend of mine, and we just went through the whole of Italy, um, and in every small little village, every town, there's always a high-end designer boutique shops and stuff. So, and we said to them the same thing, what do you do? And that with all your stock, and they said the same as what what what we do back in the UK. So we that's how it started. So we were clearing shops throughout Italy, and we set up um uh uh our first sort of outlet as such. It was a concession in a shop called House of Hanover in Hanover Street, just off Regent Street, and we just concentrated on high-end ladies' handbags and accessories, and men's footwear and accessories, and weren't doing any clothing at the time. It was literally we just sort of thought because it we wanted to see how it went, and that's where it started, basically, and then from there it just snowballed into people know what you're doing, so people want to clear old collections, uh, people sample ranges, and then oh, we get emails uh every day, basically, with stock that's out there, you know, and you you get you can either go visit the country and go and look at it, or nowadays you just Skype it or just have a look at lists, and then uh and yeah, and and basically there's so much old stock out there that it's um yeah, it it it really is uh it's it's that's not the hard part of it. Yeah, the hard part is selling it.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

And and I was speaking to Keaton, uh who I believe your digital marketing manager, I don't know if that's the right term for him. Um that is correct, yeah. Um and he he said that you guys didn't have an e-commerce site until just a couple of years ago, if I'm right. So I mean, how did you manage to survive uh until then?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

I did have one. It was called uh Labels Labels for Less. And I started it probably uh when I was in Hanover Street, so that must have been about 14, 15 years ago, but it wasn't well managed, and the problem that we were finding was that we didn't have enough depth in stock because we were picking up sort of three pieces of that, four pieces of that, two pieces of that, and then by the time that we actually got around to loading it, putting it on there, it was sold out in the store or one of the the various pop-up shops that we were doing around London at the time. And yeah, it was just a bit mismanaged, and and in the end, and I was and at the time as well, it was really hard to sort of get traffic to the site, and so I was spending a lot of money on on Google search words and and uh and I just sort of pulled the plug in it because I didn't feel it was it was it was doing enough for us, and we were so busy doing these sort of pop-up sales, and it is only really when sort of Keaton came along that um you know he couldn't believe that we didn't have uh an online presence as such. We had an online presence, but you couldn't buy from that. So the e-commerce then started, yeah, probably about a year ago now, and yeah, it's it's getting busier and busier, so it's and it does, it opens you up to the whole world, especially where we are in shortage. We have so many clients from all around the world. So once they've visited the store, they've got confidence within the website because they know that you know the shop's legit, someone's just not selling it from their bedrooms or such. Yeah, and then uh so now we've we send all around the world, and we've got great clients in Korea, in Japan, uh in Mexico, you know, we we do really sort of send all around the world now. So it's worked in tandem with uh the social media getting a lot stronger, with the shop being a lot stronger, because now uh we we get a lot more stock, uh depth in stock than we did in the early years in the infancy stages. So yeah, it was uh bit of a late start on the e-commerce, but um but yeah, but now it's up and running.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, I mean you're you're kind of reliving some of my older life. Uh it feels like another life when I actually ran an independent fashion shop. I'd told you briefly off air, but if you I'll just give you a very quick thumbnail sketch of us setting up an independent fashion shop, uh, me and my best friend from school, out in Cambridgeshire, and this was way out in the sticks, you know, just in the middle of farmland. We didn't expect to do anything in the shop. It was just going to be a very sleepy town with a designer set up selling, I guess not as high end as you guys are, mid-range, more super dryer, Luke, etc. Okay, yeah, yeah. Um but we were hoping that the e-commerce site would just be the main breadwinner, and anything we made on the shop floor would be a bonus, and we had a great lease on the building, and we just considered the shop as a warehouse basically, um with a shop with a shop floor. Uh and but trying to get the e-commerce site off the ground uh was just so hard because we didn't have any capital or any kind of marketing budget. I mean, we did something similar like you with the Google uh keywords and the ad clicks, etc. And that brought in a little bit, that kind of you know, we trod water for a while. And I guess we could have kept on going treading water, but it was such hard work for what we were getting out of.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

And the reason why but just it's it's a long-term plan, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

It is, yeah. And we just couldn't compete with you know some of the bigger names that are doing you know what we were trying to do, but with more brands. And I think when I looked at your site, and I was trying to say in my mind I was thinking, how did this work and how did ours not work, as it were? Um and I think you have a great USP for your brand, in that you you are in uh you know London and you have a you have a great presence, you know, bricks and mortar is really buttress. I mean, it's a real store as well, it's not like just a an afterthought of a store, but you have the discount and you have you know the upper echelons of the brands, you have those, you know, that USP is that you can buy some really nice brands, products, uh, for a discount price. And uh I thought, well, that's probably the key difference.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, the yeah, I think yeah, one I think one of the main things that that makes the e-commerce work is not just the the shop, because the shop does draw uh so many people, but also we do a lot of other events away from the store as well. We worked with British Fashion Council, we were the biggest stand at London Fashion Weekend for five years. Um, it's slightly changed now because they're the ethos of what they're doing is uh sustainability and good work practice and stuff. So that's it, but we did it for five years, and that's like an event we do twice a year with 14,000 people attending, and we got built up a lot. We do little pop-up things around the West End as well. So wherever we are, we plug the website, and you know, no matter who you've got doing your your marketing, your advertising, there's nothing better than a customer who's actually bought from your store because you've got them, then they've you've got the they've got confidence in you, they know that what type of stock it is, the discounts are good. So you've then got them locked in. The main thing is getting their email address because obviously with Instagram it could be a fad, we don't know what's going to be around the corner in five, ten years' time. But you got their email address. I mean, I know I've had my email address for 20 years, so uh it's key, it's key, and then and then really sort of hitting people with with newsletters, updates, promotions. Um, but yeah, the the stores are the main thing. Obviously, if you're in a little sleepy town, where do you start? How do you build it up, you know, without investing fortunes? You know, I've got other friends of mine who have got stores, and they've got a lot of money into their sites, and it's taken them a long time to be successful. But they are successful now, but it took them a lot of hard take, a lot of headache, and a lot of you know not being sure if it was the right decision to do. But I can understand where you're coming from. Yeah, it's true, it's very hard for people to get off the ground.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Well, you know, congratulations. Um, I think you've made a great success of this particular shop, and the site looks great as well. And uh I think I'm I'm guessing that you've had to establish over the years a great relationship with these brands, and so that you can, you know, you there's a conversation and there's always a dialogue of how you're gonna represent them on their behalf and how you're gonna do it, you know, at a certain price, um, you know, at a certain time of the season, etc. Would you mind just talking a little bit about that? Is that something that you've built up over years?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Um, yeah, I mean, it depends really. So some of the brands uh that that we work with are fine and they're quite happy to that you know old stock gets sold on, and so it it it it makes the wheel go round in that money's circulating round because if we're buying stock from from clients who have got or or shops that have got accounts with these brands, that they're getting a cash flow that they they can pay for their new collection. So some of them are fine. I mean, we if I'm honest, there are a couple of brands, I don't want to name any, that they're not too sort of happy that we we sell some of their brand, some of their stock slightly cheaper than what they do in the stores, but it's all legit, it's all above board, and there's you know, it's is there's we try and do it in a way that that we don't devalue the brand is because a lot of these brands obviously won't sell to the likes of TK Maxx or Costco because it devalues the brand, which I can totally understand, but we do it in it in a way that it it it makes the brand look you know what it is rather than sort of devaluing it in any way.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

So, how do you manage to go about that then, Robert? If their brands, some of them might just be a little bit okay, well they're doing it. I'm not overly happy about that. How do you how do you manage to dance between the raindrops on that one?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah, well, you've just you know, as long as you've got full paperwork from whatever country you've bought it from, then it's it's really a non-starter. We don't really get any hassle, it's just that I know people within the business because I've had accounts with all these brands when I had shops, you know, you hear whispers, it's quite incestuous this world. Um, and everyone knows everyone. And you hear a little few murmurs of what people say stuff, you know, but um, but we can't sell the product at the same price as what it is in the store because then we're not doing what we're about. So I don't think I don't think there's a problem um so much with old collections. I think sometimes we do we do get new collections, um, even so even though we're slightly cheaper, um it there's no real problem really. It's just obviously they want to keep it in line with what their their accounts are selling it at, you know, their other accounts, but um, but yeah, I mean we've been doing this long enough, uh long enough now. As you know, as I said, we started in 2007, so 12 years of it, um we haven't had any problems, so it's yeah, you you've got to work with people and you've got to understand, you know, and uh and it yeah, it seems to work okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

It is interesting how some brands uh I don't know if some brands turn a blind eye to it or some brands embrace it and then some brands kind of oppose it. I'll give you a little insight into uh what I had to deal with with um Super Dry when I ran my store. Uh they had they were fine to sell a super dry concession on the shop floor, but at that time they said you're not absolutely no way are you allowed to put this on your website. Um and we were kind of like blown away by that. So, well the super dry on the website's absolutely flying out, or you know, and we're talking about four or five years ago now. Obviously, they're they're kind of having a a bit of a hard time super dry now, but uh we we were we were just amazed that they were so precious about not having any competition with their own brand online when really it was just churning out. I can't tell you. I mean, we were at one point just saying, why don't we just become another super dry outlet? Because not only is it flying out on the shop floor, it's you know absolutely hammering it online. And if every brand that we had under our umbrella was performing as well as Super Try at the time, you know, we would we would be rolling in it. So it is strange how but they you know we had we had to do it we had to do it on the slide, we had to do it on the secrets.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah, yeah, no, I can understand that completely. A lot of the of people that I know who've got accounts with these brands have got that stipulation that they can sell it in their store, but they're not allowed to do it online um because this the brand itself doesn't want any more competition from elsewhere because they're all they've all got an online presence, an e-commerce presence. So they yeah, that that's not um unusual in any shape or form. Um where with some of the brands that we don't buy directly from them, we buy from agents around the world, um, they've got no hold on us. It's sort of going back to what we were saying about when I had shops with accounts with that they they govern you really, they they really tie your hands up. You know, there's well, I remember when we had um Prada. First it was actually odd um to get Stone Island, we had to have a refit because they weren't I mean the shop was beautifully enough, but they wanted it to step up, they wanted it you know, uh marble floors or glass shelving or stainless steel, you know, and it was a lot of money to to get it done. We and we did, we invested to get it done. Yeah, to make to make sure that we could get first we got CP Company and I think Ivisu at the time, and then uh and then we got Stone Island, which was you know the Holy Grail. And then we thought, okay, it's fair enough. They want the image of their their shop. Then we went to the shop that they're selling from. Then we went to Italy, uh we went to Germany, got Hugo Boss, they weren't too bad. We went to Italy to get the account for Prada, and Prada would stipulate what brands that you we could sit next to it and what couldn't. So they were. But we'd already put orders in for for certain brands, and they'd say, Nope, you've got to cancel that order. We don't want it in the store next to our brand. And it was really and sometimes it was sort of it's really quite unusual. I don't know if you remember there's a brand called 6876, which was a really sort of cool label at the time, but it was very niche, very uh small, and it and they wanted us to have that next to their brand, but they wouldn't allow us to have a commercial brand, something like I don't think it was Hugo Boss, but it was something along that which was quite a commercial, strong brand that was being very popular. But they they didn't they they said no, sorry, you can't sell that. We want 6876, but we don't want you know, I can't remember, it wasn't Hugo Boss, but it's something along those, an Armani or something like that. Um and yeah, and that that and we'd have twice a year they would come into our store and would say, We like that, we don't like that, you know, we're not happy that you've got that reduced, and and they govern what you do, you know, and it's hard enough when you've got to sort of buy across the board in their collections, you know, when they because with it with every collection, there's always a certain part that's strong, whether it be the trainer, whether it be a winning jacket, or whether it be a sweatshirt, and you want to buy heavily into that side of things, but they'll say no, you've got a limit you've got to buy, you know, across the board because they want their collection represented as a whole. But the problem is that your money gets tied up, your profits get tied up in the stuff that isn't selling, that's the more sort of fashion side of stuff, when really what you want is what what sells, so what pays the bills, you know. At the end of the day, we are retailers, you know, we're we're here to earn money, and as much as we like to have sort of uh everything looking beautiful and pretty, and it's the difference between sort of the the creative fashion side and the business side, and I think we try and be somewhere within the middle of that. Um and yeah, that they they they do control you. So um now that the uh chains have been taken off and we're quite sort of free to do what we want to do.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Well that's fantastic, and do you know what just listening to that just brought back so many memories that I'd I'd almost forgotten about how the brands like to line up along other brands in the shop, and you know, because they're I guess they want to s be seen amongst other big hitters in the industry, but you're almost saying the opposite there, that they didn't want to be seen. Well, yeah, it depends.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Do you know what? It depends sometimes who the who you're dealing with. You know, it is sort of like you know, what's the current sort of flavour of the month and who's comes and sees you and what they sort of say, but obviously you can understand them not wanting to be next to lower brands, you know, because they are high-end, they need to be around other higher brands, that's just natural. However, what we were facing was that they were actually they wanted more sort of happening now, trendier sort of what brands that were more up and coming, really, and a little bit more niche. When sometimes you just wanted something that was a little bit commercial, but it was a big brand, but um, but sold, you know, and uh so yeah, we I mean this this is quite a few years ago. As I said, it was the early noughties when when we had arena, I think we closed it down in 2005. Um and yeah, it's just I felt at the time I always remember saying that you felt you feel like you're working for the landlord, the Vatman, and for the brands, you know, and we're putting all these hours in um and not getting as much return uh from what we feel we should be getting.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

You know, that's that's so true. That's well, it sounds so true because you have to kind of appease everybody at the same time. I mean, effectively, I always called our shop the pirate ship, you know, where you know we built the pirate ship from nothing. Uh, we got all the brands by hook or by crook, we got them in there. Um we like to we like to think that that we're the boss of ourselves when really a lot of the time we're not. You know, we can we have to answer to a lot of the brands, and they do have you know ultimately the majority shape. So it is yeah, it's kind of a weird mix.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Yeah, yeah, it's hard because you know, as I say, everyone's got to work with each other, and you want to sort of you know keep good relationships and such, but at the end of the day, you've got to sort of you know uh do what's to right for your own head rather than for other people, so um, yeah, it's just getting balanced right, really, as well. I think sometimes they can be a little bit too much, but um you know it's it's part and parcel of the game, really.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

So, Robert, what's next for uh DPUS? I'll I'll start calling it DPUS if that's all right.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah, I mean we've got we've we've got a couple of things in the part we've been approached by um by a couple of few different projects that one of them is is the the London Fashion Weekend um sale that we've done for many years with British Fashion Council is now they're they're reinventing it under a different banner, and it's gonna be a four-day sale for 12 to 15,000 people in uh Bloomsbury, Victoria House. It's gonna be a four-day sale, which uh which uh they want us to be the biggest stand there, the best location, because we've been so strong with them in the past, and that's something we really want to go into. It fits in line with London Fashion Week, so it's one in February, one in September. Um so that's something that we're looking forward to. And another project that I don't know if have you have you seen the icon outlet at the O2 in Greenwich? I have, and I've heard about that?

SPEAKER_00 27:29

I was actually talking to Keaton about that, but I'd love for you to tell us.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Yeah, well, well, they've they've approached us, they've followed us on Instagram, they've been looking at our website, they've come into the store, and basically they they want to offer us uh a space there in a really good place next to Cheney, the shoe people, um Aspinall, um Calvin Klein. So, Tommy, you'll be they've got a lot of middle range brands basically, and what they want us to do is to lift it up a level into having a big sort of designer outlet superstore as such, doing the higher-end brands. So we're in negotiations at the moment. I went and had a look um last week, and it's you know, it's it's a lovely centre, it's beautiful, it's it's in the 02, so obviously there's certain times are busier than others when there's events on, it's gonna be a lot busier than a Monday afternoon and such. And um, but the shops look beautiful, it's you know modern state-of-the-art um new new centre, so it's something that we've got to think about. Um, but we yeah, we may go for it 2020 because it's just as in infancy stages, so it's only been open a year, so it's not as busy as uh we would like it to be, and we don't want to stretch ourselves too much, but I do think it's got a lot of potential in it. I really do. I think you know if you've got O2 back in you, you know, because obviously their marketing team's got to be strong, you know, they've got to really make it work. They've just built another floor, which they've got Nike and Adidas in, but you've got to sort of they've got to make it like a destination shop for people to go to because it's on the outskirts, they're trying to they're rivaling Bista Village, basically, that's where where it's all come from. Um, and it's great that they want us to sort of you know spearhead the sort of higher end of of fashion, and uh and I think it it possibly it could be a long-term thing for us rather than a quick sort of short-term pop-up. I think it would be better to do like a long-term because you need to tell people that you're there, so people know because at the moment I think people might be going there just for the sort of mid-range brands because they're unaware of it. So, yeah, that that that's sort of gonna be the plan for 2020 and make sure that the the website grows, the Instagram. Um, yeah, and so uh let's hope so.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Well, I mean, I know inside the O2 there must be uh a huge amount of footfall that you get with people going to the gigs and concerts. I guess your question would be you know, are they gonna walk past your door? Are they gonna get to you know engage and see your shop, etc.?

SPEAKER_01 30:14

The footfall graphs are very impressive in the amount of people that go there at the weekend. Saturday, Sunday, you get normal shoppers anyway. It isn't very much a destination point that people go to as a shopping centre on a Saturday Sunday. But mixed with the events, the footfall is is is amazing. But and I spoke to a few different retailers who said that. But what we'd like to know is what the conversion rate is from footfall to sales, because if you're going to go and watch a concert, I know personally I wouldn't want to carry a bag with me. However, I've I had a small meeting on the phone with them today, and they one of the they the concerns was what what I'd said about the conversion of footfall to sales, and they said that they have a bag drop, which when shoppers they shop before the concert, when they've had their meal, they go shopping, they leave it at a bag drop, free of charge, it's the icon outlet, um, advertise, it's all over. You know, you don't no need to take your bags into the auditorium, you can leave them at the bag drop, they're 100% secure, insured, etc. And uh, and so that made me feel a lot better because I know that I wouldn't be too you know, I wouldn't want to be too happy carrying a bag of shopping with me when I'm going to a concert or such. So that's that that's quite interesting. Um, yeah, that it I think that it's gonna be uh something to look into.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

And they've got massive development plans as well just outside the O2, I believe. So I think I was down there last year, I had to review uh uh an apartment building, um, and they opened up all these blocks of apartments that actually overlook the O2, so you kind of go out onto the balcony, whatnot, and you get all these great views. But they showed me all of like the tiny the tiny miniature models and everything that they plan on doing, and because there's just so much space down the embankment uh this and all of the I guess the idea was that all of the artisans and all the creatives can't afford to live in East London anymore, so they're just getting shunted down the river almost. Yeah, well where we are now. Yeah, exactly. So they'll end up down.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Ridiculously price shortage is at the moment, so people are getting out priced and it's not that far. You know, I drove from Shoreditch and it took me only to like 20 minutes through the rather high tunnel. Um, but what who they're targeting as well, what they've done a great bit is the the people that live in Canary Wharf, um, especially like the Asian market, a lot of students, uh the overseas students who are big spenders of of of design of goods, and they're trying to sort of target that sort of market around Canary Wharf because it literally is across the water. Um, so I as you say, there's so much plans. I think that it's got you've got to look at it as a long-term plan rather than a quick, short, sort of in and out that we sometimes do in the West End and such. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Brilliant. Well Robert, I could I could talk to you for hours. I appreciate you've got a life and a business to run. Um, designer popupstore.com is the place that people can have a look and check out all the brands online. And if you're in London, I strongly recommend going down to the shop, the flagship store in the old Truman Brewery. The the closest tube stop, I believe, is Liverpool Street still.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Yeah, Liverpool Street. Well, short it's high street over the overline.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

So yeah, yeah, and you can have a great day out down there. There's loads of places to eat. Um, you know, it's still a great cultural hub to go down there and and spend some time, spend some money. And uh, congratulations, mate. You've got a great got a great shopping product.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Thank you very much for speaking to us today. It's been a pleasure. To be honest, I'm the same. I can talk about this for hours, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

We probably will. We'll we'll do this as like a three or four part. Yeah, excellent. Release it in trust. Stretch into a series, yeah. Alright, brilliant. Thanks a lot, Robert.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Cheers, thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Many thanks to Robert Freezer, many thanks to you for listening. Hey, we get around four to five thousand listens per episode now, which is quite incredible, especially as there's so many other podcasts out there, but you choose to spend time with us, we really appreciate it. And if you like what you hear, make sure you give us a review on iTunes, and that will encourage us to do more episodes. The website once again is designerpopupstore.com. Check out the site for some great discounts, and don't forget to also check in with us at menswestyle.co.uk. So until next time, remember it's only fashion, people, and you're never fully dressed without a smile.