Fashion Style You

This is the first of what we hope will be a series of interviews from some of our favourite online fashion retailers, If you want to leave any feedback about this interview or suggest a candidate for a future interview please add a comment or contact us using the feedback form.

To kick us off we spoke to Adam Davies from the Men’s designer underwear retailer Dead Good Undies.

An interview with Adam Davies of Dead Good Undies

How did Dead Good Undies start off?

Dead good undies was really just a natural progression from our first site justhom.com,

With justhom we based ourselves around one particular brand of underwear (HOM) which was fine to a certain extent but it reached a point where we had saturated the market for that brand and couldn’t really push any further with it . In fact we were so popular many customers mistook us for the actual brand owners much to our amusement.

Also because we were solely selling HOM we were basically putting all our eggs into one basket so if the brand owners took a different direction in terms of styles and ranges which we didn’t like then we would have no fallback so after much research and consultation with some of our key customers to find out what they were looking for in their underwear purchases, their favourite brands and colours etc. deadgoodundies.com was born.

What has been the greatest challenge so far?

Having so many ideas to improve the site but trying to find the time to code them in whilst running the site and providing the customer service we have become famous for.

What tips can you offer to someone who is buying underwear for their partner?

Take a look at what style they are already wearing as there is no point trying to convert a avid boxer short wearer into a thong wearer (even if I have to say that everyone should at least try to wear one once in their lifetime).

From what I’ve gathered from talking to some of our customers is that most men don’t like change but sometimes as long as the change isn’t too drastic they will moan about it for a little while but then absolutely love it after a short while.

For example one of our staff members (who has now sadly left us to work down south) has a boyfriend who is a very manly gamekeeper and very much a plain boxer shorts kind of guy, his girlfriend came home one day with a beautiful pair of Turquoise boxer briefs (not shorts), he tried them on and they have become his favourite pair of pants.

As a retailer, what do you think of the whole internet phenomena?

Well for me if it wasn’t for the internet I’d still be slaving away in the restaurant business.
I’m not going to give my age away but in terms of the internet I’ve been there from the start (actually even before when we were just relying on BBS’s and fidonet) and it’s been great to see how it grows not only year by year but week by week with new technology and new ways of doing things to achieve your goal.

Also for the underwear market it has definitely been a factor in the growth of the industry as believe it or not there are still people who are embarrassed about underwear so like the non face 2 face experience of purchasing off the internet.

What are your aims for the future of Dead Good Undies?

We’ve got a few things in the pipeline already but mainly it will be expanding the brands we stock but not only with already firm favourites but also being a launch platform for new designers who are just breaking into the industry.

Which designers are your favourites in the industry?

HOM will always have a place in my heart because not only did we first start off with them but I used to work as a freelance web designer for their parent group Triumph but recently because we’ve exposed ourselves to a wider range of brands I’d have to say my current favourite is Impetus which is very well known on the Continent but has yet to really take the UK by storm yet but I guess that’s my job to make sure it happens

What would you advise anyone who is wanting to set up a retail fashion store?

I’ve got a few pointers which I’d like to share

• Do a lot of research into the products you are thinking of stocking
• Don’t expect to just jump in and make money it takes a long time to gain customer confidence and purchasing loyalty
• Do have a plan on what you will do to get rid of any dead stock, there is always some left even after a sale
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
• Do get to know your customers.

Thank you very much for your time Adam.

Click here to view the full range of Men’s designer underwear from Dead Good Undies.

Current offers at Dead Good Undies.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Mens Clothing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.