Paul & Shark, a fourth-generation family-run enterprise based mostly in north Italy’s Varese, started as a mill, manufacturing for luxurious homes comparable to Christian Dior and Balenciaga earlier than Gian Ludovico Dini, the present CEO Andrea Dini’s grandfather, remodeled it right into a trend model. The primary sweater designed by the model used water-repellent virgin wool, pertaining to Paul & Shark drawing inspiration from the ocean. Its classes have since expanded into ready-to-wear and equipment.
At the moment, Paul & Shark is present process worldwide enlargement, opening their first UK flagship on London’s Regent Avenue in September, with additional brick-and-mortar shops deliberate for 2024 in markets comparable to China and India. Regardless of their rising world presence, the model will proceed to leverage its heritage as an Italian family-run organisation.
Certainly, their latest marketing campaign shot within the Tuscan countryside, that includes father-and-son duo Pierce and Paris Brosnan, displays these core attributes. However with the model’s impending progress, CEO Andrea Dini is working to construct on the heritage and custom related to such epithets to discover a newfound relevance.
The corporate has a give attention to sustainable manufacturing, making commitments to circularity by means of “re-cotton” and “re-wool” plans, and to minimise water consumption all through the manufacturing chain. The model has partnered with the likes of sustainable tech corporations, Biofilter and Re-H20, to assist scale back the corporate’s water waste and air pollution from dyeing respectively. A spread of males’s trousers — named Accountable Blue — make use of expertise to scale back water consumption throughout each step of the availability chain.
In the meantime, their sustainable innovation efforts prolong to the model’s alternative and creation of materials. Their patented material, Storm 20,000, is designed to fight excessive climate situations with its inbuilt water and windproofing, alongside breathability and moveability. Every sq. centimetre of the material can face up to a 20-minute column of water and is used throughout Paul & Shark collections.
Because the model appears to be like to construct upon its world illustration following the opening of its Regent Avenue retailer, BoF sits down with CEO Andrea Dini to be taught extra about how the model is engaged on a renewed technique for modern progress.
How would you describe the DNA of the Paul & Shark model?
We will hint the origins of our enterprise again to 1921 — the 12 months my great-grandfather began the corporate as a material mill. We progressed as a mill for the following 50 years till, in 1970, dramatic shifts available in the market noticed us lose clients — manufacturers have been shifting manufacturing to cheaper areas.
My father and grandfather had spent many lengthy nights brainstorming the way forward for the household enterprise. Fortuitously, my grandfather was enamoured with the golden period of the Royal Navy and a collector of antiquities. Throughout a visit to a sailmaker’s workshop, he noticed a sail from an outdated clipper with the inscription “Paul & Shark”. On the similar time, the notion of sportswear was changing into more and more well-received, due to the casualisation of menswear and trend extra broadly. Moderately than overt market analysis, it felt extra like destiny and a number of alternatives coming collectively.
My grandfather was additionally a health care provider of chemistry and knew, if we wished to seek out our place available in the market, we must be forward-thinking. So, we developed our first water repellent sweater. At the moment, we’ve spent greater than 40 years honing our expertise in material innovation, sportswear and crusing to develop into an outdoor-driven luxurious model. We let crusing crews take a look at our clothes and provides us suggestions on their effectiveness — however the merchandise are additionally designed for on a regular basis use. Our buyer base is more and more broad.
What have been the motivations behind opening a London flagship retailer?
Having a bodily presence in London felt like an apparent step for us. Whereas Milan is maybe the capital of menswear, London is the capital of Europe, capturing an viewers far past town itself and offering entry to a world buyer.
It has been an ongoing mission with property administration firm Crown Property, the physique which owns and manages the constructing, since earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic, which precipitated quite a few delays.
Throughout two flooring, the shop is a bodily manifestation of our model. The shop’s outfitting, as an illustration, is 80 p.c recycled. What seems to be picket panelling is, in truth, material derived from manufacturing waste. As we develop into these new markets, constructing on our dedication to extra round strategies is important to our model technique.
How is the model facilitating progress whereas nonetheless making efforts to provide sustainably?
Greater than 15 years in the past, we started to make sustainable selections a precedence — notably in relation to supplies. We took a tough strategy, as an illustration, on material sources — they needed to be natural, whereas the likelihood to include recycled supplies needed to be explored. At the moment, 95 p.c of our down is recycled. Subsequent season, we’ll introduce a brand new Icelandic down, which is of course shed by birds throughout nesting. This down doesn’t depend on any birds being killed and is painstakingly and delicately collected by hand.
At the moment, our efforts centre largely round growing water effectivity and minimising our influence on the planet’s water sources. It’s a focus that connects deeply with the model’s inspiration and ethos. We collaborate with Biofilter, a filtration system, to which we join our fulling machines. It utilises micro organism to maintain water in fixed reuse in our manufacturing processes — even when dyeing our clothes.
There may be ongoing analysis into how we are able to do higher. You will need to be candid — a big quantity of our carbon footprint as a enterprise is linked to the transportation of product, over which, at current, we’ve restricted management. We can’t be wholly sustainable with out extra sustainable logistics choices — hydrogen vans and cargo boats have to be obtainable at scale. It’s important to be trustworthy with customers and to contemplate the truth of what’s inside my management and give attention to lessening influence inside our manufacturing processes.
What position does expertise play in Paul & Shark’s innovation?
Whereas we prioritise expertise inside our merchandise, I’ve set a priority — constructing on our heritage — that expertise is a hidden high quality in our clothes, slightly than one thing that’s entrance and centre of our communications. Usually, with extraordinarily technological clothes, the end-product might be ugly since you are accepting a particular, technical material and dealing with what you have got. We prioritise consolation and sturdiness. It might probably take time for our customers to understand, as an illustration, they’re sporting a supersoft microfibre jacket.
We don’t must shout about expertise, it has simply develop into a core a part of our enterprise.
Our patented Storm expertise — which makes merchandise water repellent, due to an ultra-soft membrane lining the floor — is continually being innovated. We’re experimenting with each recycled membrane whereas additionally seeing how skinny we are able to make the membrane itself. Not too long ago, there’s a new technology of Storm referred to as Storm Platinum, the place the membrane is barely noticeable.
We don’t must shout about expertise, it has simply develop into a core a part of our enterprise. We give attention to high quality management and the effectiveness of the expertise itself, slightly than making it a communications or advertising and marketing tactic. Clients will rapidly uncover this expertise for themselves by means of a number of wears.
What position do purpose-driven causes play in your general enterprise technique?
A part of working as an outdoor-driven model is considering the outside, about nature, in a significant approach. The shark, as an illustration, is a core side of our model identification and so we really feel a specific sense of accountability to guard it. Annually, hundreds of thousands of sharks are killed by people and it has impressed our collaboration with non-governmental organisations to guard sharks by means of schooling and initiatives aimed toward safeguarding their surroundings.
How is Paul & Shark growing its communication technique with world enlargement in thoughts?
The corporate historical past — it being a fourth-generation family-run entity — has fashioned a core a part of the message we wish to share as we develop into new markets. My son and daughter have now joined the enterprise, so that idea of legacy and of father-and-son dynamics was one thing we have been eager to discover.
Greater than 15 years in the past, we started to make sustainable selections a precedence — notably in relation to supplies. At the moment, 95 p.c of our down is recycled.
We seemed for the same narrative — the prospect to inform a narrative of a father and son collectively, drawing parallels with our personal — and collaborated with Pierce and Paris Brosnan. The shoot and collaboration had broad attraction — it was implausible to speak to and interact a distinct technology.
Talking to our communication technique extra broadly, we don’t wish to be a model that shouts on daily basis from the rooftops. We wish to be measured, utilizing the fitting channels on the proper moments, drip-feeding content material slowly. As we do that, we’re centered on our key markets — Italy, the UK, Germany and China. We are actually within the strategy of deciding how you can evolve our father-son narrative. There are numerous stunning tales to be instructed and I really feel more and more energised by what’s forward.
This can be a sponsored characteristic paid for by Paul & Shark as a part of a BoF partnership.
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