Jennifer Sharee (JS): Describe your demographic market and how you’ve successfully marketed to this group.
CEO Rob Langstaff (RL): Our demographic is a sophisticated 25-35 year old. A guy who doesn’t like to buy what everyone else has. He is thoughtful and has a little edge to him. He doesn’t buy into the whole corporate uniform look, but is not into dressing in jeans and t-shirts at work either. He wants to look professional on his own terms.
JS: Explain how RYZ engages consumers to be a part of the design process.
RL: We have had several design competitions, allowing the web community to submit, critique and vote on designs. We started off as an open call for all submissions. We have received thousands of designs and we are now being more selective in running our competitions.
JS: Define crowdsourcing and explain crowdsourcing competitions.
RL: Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to an undefined, large group of people or community (a “crowd”), through an open call. American Idol is probably the most famous successful crowdsourcing in action today.
Our competitions are an open call, we allowed anyone to participate and let the web community vote on their favorite design. We started out giving all control to the community, but later played a more active role in managing the process.
JS: RYZ currently does business in USA and Japan. What are the similarities and differences of these two consumers? How are they marketed differently?
RL: USA is a bit more conservative and some of the crazy designs that we got through the design contest did not do well here, but were quite successful in Japan.
JS: What are all the types of marketing implemented to raise brand awareness to consumers?
RL: We are primarily reaching out on-line through the artist community, fashion blogs and Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Brand:
JS: Where is RYZ manufactured?
RL: In Southern China.
JS: Describe your product line grouping. Is there a basics or classics that will always be available and a fashion offering?
RL: Our core line came out Spring Summer 2011 and is called the G3 series. It stands for Generation 3. We felt that it took us that long to come up with a silhouette that we could rightfully claim as our own. The G series is a fusion of fashion and athletic. We took a British Chelsea boot and married it to a Chuck Taylor basketball shoe and the off-spring was the HG-3. (High Top version of the G series). It was what we would consider the very first sneaker that you could wear with a suit and not look like a dork.
We see so many people try to pull off the sneaker and suit look and we were tired of looking at it so we created this series.
We followed the G-series with 3 new silhouettes all staying true to having one foot in fashion and one in athletic (pun intended).
Our Prescott is a wing tip upper with a running shoe out and mid sole. The name Prescott is a street in Portland Oregon (home of RYZ) and the Urban dictionary definition “A well-groomed man who takes pride in his dashing good looks.”
The Savier is an 80′s running shoe upper with a classic T-toe coupled with a contemporary crepe out sole. Savier is a street in Portland Oregon and the Urban dictionary definition “A generally sex appealing man with a hot body…”
We also have the Kingston that takes elements from the Soccer world with its off-set tongue as well as the nautical world with the boat shoe rubber sole. Kingston is (Yes, a street in Portland) and Kingston reminds us of King, which reminds us of Royalty and the UK where soccer (football) began.
JS: What is the price point range for the RYZ brand?
RL: We are focusing in on $80-$130.
Trends:
JS: What trends are RYZ catering to in the upcoming fashion seasons?
We believe that casual wear is not a seasonal trend but rather a shift in dressing habits. Although we like being comfortable, we don’t believe one should dress sloppily. So rather than cater to a specific fashion trend, we are contributing to a better dressed society, that well…don’t look like Dorks.
JS: And/Or innovating?
RL: We have got some things in the pipeline on cushioning technology that will blow your socks off (pun intended)
JS: What were your take-aways from MAGIC this past February?
RL: There are a lot of brands out there with really cool product. Stick to a look and focus. We believe that it is important to have a point of view with a design aesthetic and not just chase, for example, distressed leather boots because they sell. As a small start up, it is important to come out with something fresh. Chasing silhouettes that are already in the market place means always waiting in line and being late.
Retail:
JS: What are the retailers that carry the RYZ brand?
RL: In US we have:
Johnny Sole www.johnnysoleshoes.com
Moxsie: http://shop.moxsie.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=ryz&x=0&y=0
Bigshoes.com: http://www.bigshoes.com/brand_detail.html?brand_id=88
And Kitson.
JS: In what area of the men’s shoe department are the RYZ shoes merchandised i.e. dress, casual, etc.?
RL: Right in the middle of athletic and dress.
Charity:
JS: RYZ has significant ties to Japan as a business and with the natural disaster that has happened to Japan, how has the company supported Japan?
RL: We are doing a number of things now and are always looking for more ideas on how to help. The devastation there is horrific. I lived in the country for 8 years and am really heart broken every time I see the news about Japan. What ever we do, it is never enough. however, we are helping in following ways:
On our website there is a request for donations to Mercy Corps, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Save the Children, International Medical Corps, and Global Giving.
We are selling product in Japan now and have partnered with Mercy Corps to give $1 for every pair of shoes and our customer Xebio are giving $1 for every piece of apparel sold.
Also on a personal level, I am spending a lot of time trying to buy Geiger counters and Dosimeters for my friends in Japan. Since the Fukushima Dai Ichi accident, there has been a run on radiation measuring devices in Japan and many of the US manufacturers are also sold out.
Our friends at RYZ is extending a discount offer of 20% to our viewers from April 20th to May 20th 2011. Go to www.ryz.com to take advantage of this savings for some stylish footwear. The discount code is RYZ-Dietch-20Drinkblackwater.
