Menswear Style Podcast
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.
Menswear Style Podcast
Rafic Daud, Co-Founder of Undandy / Custom Shoes
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This week we're talking to the Co-Founder of Undandy, Rafic Daud, about how he began an online e-commerce platform that enables you to design and create your own shoes. Host Peter Brooker also talks to Bec Loades, Editor-at-Large for MenswearStyle about her trip to a recent Adidas x TFL event in an abandoned underground station at Charring Cross. There's all the latest from the Environmental Audit Committee and what effect losing the trust of the Asian market have on Dolce & Gabanna.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Men's Wear Style Podcast, episode 37. I'm your host, Pete Brooker. How are we doing? This week I'm going to be talking to the CEO and founder of Undandy, Rafique. He's going to be telling me about how he started his company, which is an online e-commerce platform that basically enables you to design and create your own shoes. It's pretty awesome. They are currently looking to raise about a million pounds, in fact, they've already raised a million on Crowd Cube, and what they plan to do with that money is take their business to the next level and buy out the Portuguese third generation shoe shop of whom are currently producing these quite wonderful masterpieces. I've seen them firsthand, so I can attest to the quality of their craftsmanship. Anyway, Rafik is a lovely gentleman. He spared me some time and we went into the nitty-gritty, all of that to come. I'll also be speaking to Beck Lodes, editor at large for Minswell and Style. She went to a secret event for Adidas down in Charing Cross, the same bit of underground where they film Skyfall, don't you know? Trains leaving. Do I get on the train? Don't get on the train, I'm not sure he's on it. Give us a minute.
SPEAKER_05Do I get on the train?
SPEAKER_00Bon, what? Get on the train.
SPEAKER_05He's keen to get home.
SPEAKER_02We also take a look at what came out of the Audit Select Committee for Sustainable Fashion, which took place in Parliament earlier this week. And lastly, we look at some of the repercussions from the Dolce and Cambana after their fallout with China last week. Whoa! And well, if you're gonna hack into an Instagram account of one of the biggest fashion houses of our generation, wouldn't you, with absolute impunity, fire out a load of poo emojis to anyone and everyone? I know I would. Not the racist stuff though, I only send those from my private email server. So all that to come, but first make sure you're checking out the site www.menswearstyle.co.uk for all the latest news, reviews, interviews and whatnot. You can follow us on the social at menswear style, find us on iTunes if you're not there already, and leave us an honest review. But if that honest review happens to be one of an excoriating nature, why don't you send it to the rake where all the good reviews and emails go to die? I don't know what that means. But anyway, you can write to us if you like at infow at menswearstyle.co.uk and here is that interview with Rafik, CEO of Undandy. It's my great pleasure to introduce to the podcast now Rafik Dowd, co-founder of Undandy. How are you doing today, Rafik?
SPEAKER_00Hi, Pete. All good. Thanks for having us here. Brilliant. Uh absolute pleasure.
SPEAKER_02Fantastic. Rafik, please, uh, before we get into the CrowdCube fundraiser that you're you've actually already had a successful crowdfunder, I believe. It's already reached its million capacity. And before we we get into that, uh, could we just have a little thumbnail sketch of who you are and how you started the brand, please?
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Uh so long story short, my background has always been working with fragrance and cosmetics. That's pretty much what I did all my life. I've been involved uh both working on a corporate level in five different cities in the world and countries, uh, to actually founding a couple of companies. Uh the main one uh in Angola, in Africa, which grew to be the largest sub-Saharan sub-Saharan retailer uh for fragrance and cosmetics. Uh that was back in the days. I mean, eventually then I moved back to Portugal, which was hometown for me, by the way. I was born and raised in Lisbon. Uh moved back to Portugal in 2011, approximately 2012. At the time I was doing a bit of novel writing and writing uh going into other ventures. Uh from there, I was mostly involved in property. And 2014-15, I started dabbling with some startups. And I thought, you know what, property is not as challenging. Well, it's a great business, but um, it's not the most challenging business. You're buying yields and it's an Excel spreadsheet. I thought, you know what, I wanna get back into the game again. So I started investing in a few startups, one of them being Gandandi. So I was actually the first investor in the company. So co-founded it from day one.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and how was this opportunity presented to you? Did you happen to stumble upon it or was uh were you approached?
SPEAKER_00Yes, uh so uh uh a friend of mine approached me, uh who I've known for for many years, uh wanting to gather my insight on a potential business of doing custom shoes. What do you think about it? And I'm like, man, that actually could work. I mean, I'm a guy and I can hardly ever find a shoe exactly as I want it. Um customization was a growing trend uh in many sectors, not just shoes, not just footwear. Um I'm a big fan of bespoke and sartorial products, so you know what? Why not do it for shoes? I didn't see a reason as to why it would it shouldn't work. Uh especially being based in Portugal, which is uh probably one of the best countries in the world uh to to craft uh this type of footwear. We I mean we have the best artisans, we have we're mainly exporters. We don't have many brands, but we manufacture for all the big high-end brands that you you'll name it, there'll be the odds of them being crafted in Portugal is pretty high. So the skills were here. It was just kind of creating the business model that could make sense.
SPEAKER_02The website is fantastic. I was just going to ask about that because it's seems like the hardest thing to do. I come from an e-commerce trade and I've set up an e-commerce website before. But the bespoke element, having so many customizations, I think you've got like over 150 billion customization options.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 156, 156 billion last time we counted.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. So, how do you manage to condense all of that optionality into a very usable platform that doesn't kind of convolute the whole process for people and put people off?
SPEAKER_00No, it's I mean, it's actually one of the challenging processes. Uh, in all fairness, it's not as complex as it seems. Uh, because what we do is work from three base lasts that each last then derives into approximately 25 models, and then the rest is um the rest is just cosmetic in the sense that you choose the leather, you choose the color, you choose the sole, you still choose the stitching. But the let's call it the the base product is the same. So it was kind of simpler, we just had to create a 2D designer that would be user-friendly, uh, and it's still work in progress, by the way. We we we want to improve that substantially, that experience. I've already seen uh the version 7.0 and it will be much better. Um so the challenge was just pretty much replicate what the car industry did. I mean, you pretty much every nowadays everyone selects every single detail in their car, from the stitching of the of the seats to the leather to the color of the but the base product is the same. You're still buying the same car. Uh it was just creating that online designer in a way that could be user-friendly and applying it to footwear, obviously.
SPEAKER_02Um I mean, you have a lot of other bespoke, obviously, you've got bespoke suits, you know, you can make your own t-shirts these days. You don't often hear about it in shoes if at all. Were there anyone was there anyone else around about the time when you were putting this together that was doing something similar?
SPEAKER_00Yes. So when we first started looking at the idea, uh we kind of looked around the market to see if there was anyone doing it. You obviously have the traditional bespoke shoemakers, like I mean, the likes of John Loeb and so on and so forth. But here we're talking about shoes that go for a couple thousand pounds. They're not affordable to the common person like myself at the time. So we looked online. There were a couple of companies offering similar, not to the extent that we do, but kind of some some somewhat some customization, some personalization. The only thing is they were offering it in six weeks. I mean, that we actually have a story. So when we were started looking at the business, we we started ordering online from these companies to see the product, the quality, how it would work, the experience. And we ordered from one of them. We decided to then go on, go ahead with the business and go forwards. We were already halfway through the product, through the process when the product came. Like, I mean, two two months later. It was like, shoot, we had forgot we had ordered this. Uh so they were offering it, but usually at very lengthy time, I mean the time frame was not ideal, let's say. So one of our challenges was not so much on the on the on the user interface um element, it was on the production element. Can we deliver this in a timely manner? Uh that it's consistent with nowadays needs. People want things now as soon as possible. So the biggest challenge was can we do this in two weeks? And that much we've managed to do, and we're actually working. Uh, we're gonna go into the crowdfunding in a second, but we're now working in our first capital raise. Uh, we haven't raised any capital, we haven't worked with any VC firms and none of these companies. We're not one of those companies yet. Uh, not necessarily going to be, but um the biggest challenge now is we want to bring that down from 14 days to seven days, and we think it can be done. Uh, we we know it can be done. Uh it's just a matter of executing it now.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um, yeah, so let's talk a little bit about the CrowdCube fundraiser campaign that, by the way, is still live and people can still invest in. Um, I believe the the ambition will be to acquire the third generation shoe manufacturer, the factory there that you're currently producing there. Can you just elaborate a little bit more on that, please, for us?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So, I mean, we start off by being a brand, uh creating a brand online and then selling our products online. We obviously had a workshop to craft our shoes. We had to select the workshop. That was probably the biggest challenge of them all, because although we are sitting in a country that exports two billion of footwear a year, uh I mean, shoe manufacturers like to do 10,000 brown shoes and 10,000 blue shoes. That's not what we wanted to do. We wanted to do unique shoes, one at a time. Uh, and that was a bit of a challenge. So we found a workshop, a small workshop, third generation business with the craftsmanship, with with the know-how that started working with us. Now, first we were doing 100 pairs a month, then we were doing 200 pairs a month, then we're doing 500 pairs a month, then we're doing a thousand pairs a month, now we're doing close to 3,000 pairs a month. And this type in in just two years and this type of growth, we kind of started pretty much being like controlling the whole production. I mean, and and if we want to keep on scaling, which we know we have a product that's scalable and can keep on growing, we really had to control and be fully vertical. One, obviously, there are economies coming from it, uh, from the vertical integration, but that's not even the main rationale. The main rationale is by tweaking the production specifically and exclusively for Andy, we'll be able to bring that lead time from 14 days to seven days, which is a big plus. We'll be able to launch new models, new colors, more frequently, more often. Uh, we will be able to integrate consumers' feedback into our production process very, very, I mean, very swiftly. Uh, we're a digital native brand, completely in contact with our customers and be able to have this feedback integrated in production. So we need to be fully vertical, and we thought, you know what? The best way to do so is to acquire our current manufacturer, which is already crafting our shoes, and we'll build on top of that.
SPEAKER_02So it's already successful. There's already been an over a million raised with you know still an extensive 20 odd days left on the campaign. What can someone get now if they choose to invest in you guys? Say if say I've got my tenor here, Rafiq. I'd love to put it down with you. What could I get in return for my investment?
SPEAKER_00So you will get um we will we will accept uh so our minimum raise was a million pounds. We will accept uh we will continue accepting additional cash. Uh and the main at the exact same terms, so everybody will get the exact same terms as professional investors will get. There's no the the rationale going going with crowdfunding was you know what? We have a product that works, that customers love it. Uh, and this is not me saying this is a repurchase rate of north of 45% in two years, saying it. So people love it. We just need to get more customers on board. So we thought, you know what? Let's get this crowdfunding going on first, instead of working with professional investors, let's work with the ones who are really building this brand, with consumers, with customers. Let's get them integrated, and not only will we be able to have more brand advocates, which is at the end of the day what we're going for, we will have people, you know, talking about their our our brand. So you'll obviously get the exact same matching terms that all the professional all the investors are getting in and dandy, myself included. Um the only the only difference is you become a part of it, and you know what, let's build this brand to a massive success.
SPEAKER_02I'm wondering, would you consider coming and having bricks and mortar? I don't think you have bricks and mortar already in London, do you? I mean, you got Jim Main Street, you got St. James, you know, home to all of like John Lobb and all these wonderful craft shoemakers we have here in the UK. Would you not just be able to kind of somehow sit in between these giants here in the UK?
SPEAKER_00It's something we can definitely look into the future, so I won't say no. Uh right now, to be honest, I mean, we've been growing pretty fast. I mean, we went from revenue of 2 million last year to north of 4 million this year, growing more than 100% year on year. Um, and this is with a very short period of existence, and doing it solely and exclusively online. Now, bricks and mortar is a different challenge whereby we have to split our margins. So the way we can be competitive in our pricing is by cutting out all those middlemen. We don't have retailers, we don't have distributors. We direct straight to customer and talk with them. If we go there, either we do it directly to be able to guarantee the same price levels, um, or there might there might be some consistency. It's not something we're saying no to, but it's not something that I foresee in the near future, near future being the next 12 months, 12 to 18 months.
SPEAKER_02Uh Rafik, it's been a pleasure talking to you today. If people want to check you out, then it's obviously undandy.com. Um there's still time to invest, like like I say, get it get involved and become part of the journey here. I had to go on the website, and I should say from a personal point of view, it's uh it's a lot of fun to start with. When you're on there, you almost feel like now you're in complete control of your own destiny. Um and one of the biggest problems I have, not with the site, but with shoes, is I really like shoes, loafers, trainers, etc. But the midsole I often find with these shoes are white, and because I'm quite pigeon-toed, I am constantly cleaning the white on the midsole. And to the point where I say to my girlfriend, is it worth me just getting some black paint and just painting over the white so I don't have to spend every morning with a toothbrush and the shoe in the sink trying to get the scuff marks out? So finding your site is actually a revelation, so it's definitely on the wish list. Rafik, thanks again for your time.
SPEAKER_00No, thank you. Thank you for having us. Absolute pleasure.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Rafiq. Before I introduce Beckloads, why don't I tell you about the other podcast I have going on called From Tailors with Love? That's right, a podcast that completely disseminates the style of James Bond with all the latest news and all the brands in the James Bond universe. With my co-host, the editor of the Suits of James Bond, Matt Spacer. Here's a clip. I don't think that this underwear collection is uh aimed towards the the Bond fans. What I will say about these pants, Matt, if you have a tendency to maybe leave the odd indiscretional skid mark in uh in your underpants, then these pants have a colour palette that starts from a very forgiving place, doesn't it? Yes, it it certainly does. It does. Hold on, I had to sneeze. Oh shoot. Oh, once again, that's from Tailors with Love. That can be found on Stitcher, Spotify, and iTunes. Now let's catch up with the one and only Beck Lodes. Well, I'd like to welcome back to the podcast Beck Lodes, editor at large for men's wear style. How are we doing today, Bex?
SPEAKER_04I'm good, thanks, Pete. How are you?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I'm fine and dandy. Or fine and undandy. Good one. Good one. That's why I get the big bucks. Uh Bex, what has been going on this week? What have you been up to?
SPEAKER_04Actually, this week I went to um a very creative, very cool event from Adidas. Um they're very good with their events, actually. They're always they always do something a bit different. Um, and this time it was uh, I guess to sort of launch and well, it was to launch the second part of their collaboration with TFL. Um, but I think it was the first big sort of press event that they'd done, and I think they'd invited fans of Adidas and things like that. Um, but it was brilliantly done, and uh they've launched I think six new shoes as part of this collaboration. They'd already released three, which um is up on menswear style. I'd I'd written a little piece about that last week, I think. Um so that was the first one, and this one's another six shoes, I believe, uh, which I think are going to be released I think beginning of in a week's time, I think maybe the 8th of December, something like that. Um, and basically they took over um an unused platform at Charing Cross Station, and they turned it part of it into like a news agency. So you'd go in and you'd get your ticket, and you get a brown paper bag you could fill with sweets and crisps and cans of coke. Um, really well done, like visually, really well done. And then you'd go through the turnstile, you'd go down the escalator, and there was an empty tube uh train waiting there, and there was just music playing. There was a great brass band, sort of rap band playing, which were awesome. I think they're called dat brass or something, they're really cool. Um, and then there were shoes there to have a look at, um, and were gifted, which was very nice.
SPEAKER_02Oh, backloads, what have you got?
SPEAKER_04We've got a new pair of shoes, Pete.
SPEAKER_02Oh, never mind.
SPEAKER_04And um, yeah, they they sort of each shoe has got a different tube line on. So I've got uh the Victoria and Waterloo and City line. So um yeah, so there's like different colours on the back of the shoe and down the side of the shoe. Um, and I think there were three different styles, um, style of shoe. Um, yeah, so it was it was very cool, very cool event, very well done.
SPEAKER_02Really cool. Uh so TFL for our American listeners is the Transport for London, right? So what is Adidas doing? How come they're associated with the Transport for London? Um uh I I'm not joining the dots.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's quite um a random collaboration. I don't actually know the exact relationship, like how they came together, but the idea is to um I guess to keep obviously, you know, Transport for London, one of their taglines is to keep London moving and everyone's moving, walking in their shoes, and uh they are celebrating the 15th anniversary of the oyster card. Um, so it's kind of a whole celebration of that. So they're looking at each tube line, the colours, and yeah, that's I obviously I knew about all these sort of secret platform like underground, you know, unused stations and things, but it's pretty amazing to go down there. There's no or there was no one down there, sort of you know, going through the massive crowds, and then you go through a door and there's another escalator, and um yeah, it's really cool.
SPEAKER_02No, it is good fun. So, Bex, before I introduced you, we spoke a little bit about the Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee where they hauled out Primark, Boohoo and Misguided, brought them in front of the gallows, threw a load of custard pies in their face and said, What are you doing? Selling five-pound dresses, what are you doing? You barbarians. So here is a clip that will hopefully put it into some context. Here is Carol Kane from Boohoo talking to Mary Craze, chair for the Environmental Audit Committee.
SPEAKER_01They're called luck leaders in a business, and actually it's your overall basket that becomes more profitable as a result. So we do not make profit on a five pound dress.
SPEAKER_03What would you be buying a five pound dress for then?
SPEAKER_01Somewhere between uh £2.50 and £3.
SPEAKER_03How can you buy a dress for £3 when the minimum wage in this country is £7.83?
SPEAKER_01I think we have to go back to the type of product it actually is. The dresses which are the OV80, which are £5, are very simple. There's no bits, there's no buttons. Uh they generally are shorter length dresses. Um they're made largely from a polyester um elastic fabric. Um, so it's the entry price point for us. And really, I would consider them the the making, the the actual manufacturing skill required that you make these dresses are very, very simple. So it's not a complicated um dress, which I understand if you related the the times, uh the minutes spent to actually produce one of these dresses.
SPEAKER_02What are your what are your thoughts?
SPEAKER_04Well, I'm glad they've been called out. That's a very good thing. Um, I just wonder like how far it's going to go. Like, what are they going to do about it? You know, there's great talking about it, but we need action. Um I'm glad they're definitely calling out. I mean, you know, Primark Boohoo Misguided, they obviously, you know, not a lot. Of people can afford, you know, high-end fashion and things like that. So, you know, it's great that we have fashionable retailers there for people who can't afford, you know, a hundred pound jumper or whatever. Um, the only problem is that it's mass produced and there's just too much of it. And because it's cheap, you know, the MPs are saying, you know, you're producing something at such a low cost, people don't care about it, they don't respect it, so it's just being thrown away. Um, you know, why do we need to have a dress that's five pounds? Um, and they've come back and said, I think was it Primark or Boo who have come back and said, you know, we don't actually make any profit off these five pound dresses, they're just a mob lost lost leaders, as they're calling them. Yeah, just to get people to come to the website, but why do we need that? We don't need it, get rid of it. You're a big company, like don't I don't think we need that.
SPEAKER_02They're not really apologising for how shit their clothes are. No. In any way. They say, look, fucking this these clothes are are dirt cheap, it's all polyester, takes two minutes to make, five pounds, done and done. What's the what's the problem? Come on, let's go get lunch. Talk about wildly out of control, Bex.
SPEAKER_04Yes. The other end of the spectrum.
SPEAKER_02What the hell is going on? I mean, it's I I guess it's last week's news, but it's probably the big talking point. Dulce and cabana, Dulce and Cabana have uh just dropped the ball in China, big time, right?
SPEAKER_04Oh, big time. I mean, this isn't the first time for them either, to be honest, but yeah, this time not good. And you know, I think they're in a real pickle here. But they have a huge uh market out in China. They've got uh I think I have they've got 44 boutiques out there. Um and people are standing up, which is good. And basically, this whole issue started. If you don't know, um it started out uh they were having a fashion show due to have a the bit the best show or the big show in Shanghai, and it ended up being cancelled because they released uh I think three videos uh which were people are saying, you know, it's cultural appropriation. Um they had a Chinese girl dressed in an adult shaken banner dress um who was struggling to eat pasta with chopsticks um and making a joke out about it, and um not pleasant, really not very pleasant. And yeah, people stood up and uh uh they they also then found um a conversation, a racist conversation, over Instagram, I believe, um or Twitter, um, with some really nasty words that were said from Dolce and Gabana. I think it was a private conversation, but it got pulled up, and they claimed that their account was hacked and that it wasn't them, and they shut their uh social media down um and came out and apologised for it. Um, but people stood up and the show got cancelled, models pulled out anyway and said they want nothing to do with them. From this now, retailers have pulled um a lot of their clothing and wares off the shelves in China, and people are really boycotting it, boycotting the brand, um, and it's a big problem.
SPEAKER_02Okay, a couple of thoughts. First off, the advert, I think it's an attempt at humour that is just not funny, but when people say they're outraged, they're never outraged. Everyone's just waiting to be pissed off, everyone's just waiting to be righteous. Uh a Chinese lady with a pair of chopsticks struggling to eat a pizza, I just think it's somebody's attempt, shit attempt, to have humour. Now, the difference is between people coming out and trying to do humour these days is you have a backlash of people that are just waiting to be pissed off. And you have a very sensitive culture, which is Chinese, that is a you know deeply sensitive, way more emotional than probably any other culture. You know, you you can't put your feet on the table in anywhere in China, you know, your feet are offensive. My point is you'd have, you know, say like Bob Hope back in the 40s and 50s would walk into a ward with amputees, he would have to do a stand-up routine in front of everybody in this hospital, and he would say as he walks in, Alright lads, don't get up. Now if that was now if that was nowadays, Bob Hope would be ran out of town, you know, for that sort of rhetoric. But you do you get what I mean? So the kind of goalposts on where the comedy is has moved. So what Dolce and Companners should really do, and I'm assuming they do all their PR in-house, but they should just have a PR team that is indigenous to that country where that marketing is going on. So if they've got a Chinese PR team that are overlooking and scrutinising every advert, which they should be doing because they've already fucked up in China like a few years ago, something came out of it. So they should have noticed then, right, okay, let's not fuck up that time this time again. Um I want every advert and every post to be absolutely forensically scrutinized. Um I don't want anyone to take a risk on any kind of humour. By the way, we have plausible deniability because you, as our Chinese marketing agents, will be doing a joke about your culture, so we get to own the joke. So anyway, that those are my kind of scatter brain thoughts.
SPEAKER_04No, I agree, I I know, I know what you're saying, and I think that's true. People, I think, especially nowadays, um want to jump at something, like any opportunity to kind of maybe cause a bit of a drama and things like that. Um I think I think because you know they're such a huge company and they have had problems before, and I think obviously, you know, within the fashion industry there's been other sort of key moments of racism like John Galliano and things like that. I think people you know will want to pull it up, and it should be pulled up, you know. If there is stuff like that going on, absolutely pull it out. I don't know whether there needed to be such a fur over the videos. I think you know you touched on it there that maybe it was a a joke that went a bit wrong. Um, but the comments that were said, I think, in their messages, I think were perhaps the darker side and to blame it on hackers, I'm not sure about that.
SPEAKER_02Um and poop emojis. Yeah. Oh, no one no one dare send anyone a poop emoji.
SPEAKER_05No.
SPEAKER_02Well, the the whole thing with the private messaging is like, well, if you guys have been hacked, why are you doing it why are you doing private messaging? Surely if you hack into something as big as Dulce and Cabana, you put the biggest and most outlandish hero post on their page and just post a picture. Um you wouldn't just go to the the the hassle of hacking into an account like that just to send a private message to someone that is s semi-inflammatory, yeah. You know, you'd just fucking go whole hog, wouldn't you?
SPEAKER_04Whole hog, yeah. Yeah, you would a bit of a mess.
SPEAKER_02Well poor old Dolce and Caberna.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, but it's just so much money in China. That's I mean the reason why this is all this is gonna hit them massively is because the luxury and goods market is hugely funded by the Asian the Asian communities. And you know, if you if e-commerce sites like Alibaba that look after all these sites over in Asia, and if you go on these websites now, they're not selling any Dol Sakana on their platforms.
SPEAKER_04There was a good article I think. Well, that's true, there's been a few saying how it has pointed out like the importance of the Chinese market and how if they do lose, you know, if people do genuinely boycott them over there, how much money they'll lose. I think they were saying it's over 20% of their value, um, which will be pretty massive. Um, and I guess it's a warning to other brands to be honest, but yeah, you do not want to mess with them, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02I digress massively. Beck, it's been an absolute joy. Where can people find you?
SPEAKER_04Uh Beck Loads, Instagram.
SPEAKER_02Great. Well, uh, and I will see you tonight.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_02At the Vulio Bloggers Award.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_02I can't wait to shake everyone's hand and say how wonderful their blogs are. Okay, I better go before uh before we peel the scab off that. Take care, Bex. Until next time. Alright, bye-bye. Thank you to Bex for coming on. Thanks to Rafik from Undandy and to you, the listener, for sitting idly by and doing nothing. Don't forget all the show notes will be uploaded to www.menswearstyle.co.uk. That's the place to go. Until next time. Remember, it's only fashion, people, and you're never fully dressed without a smile.