The Kuyichi jeans brand, built on a platform of sustainability, is about to face its biggest transportability test as it takes its first steps across the Atlantic.
Based in Haarlem in The Netherlands, the brand has inked a distribution agreement covering Canadian wholesaling and retailing activity with Double J Fashion Group of Montreal, giving it the first North American presence in its 11-year history. The arrangement, which should pave the way for Kuyichi’s entry to better Canadian department and specialty stores as well as the opening of its own monobrand stores, takes effect with the fall 2012 collection.
Leo Cantagalli, chief executive officer of Kuyichi and a co-founder of Mexx, said Canada offers several attributes that make it an attractive expansion target for what has until now been an almost exclusively European label.
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“Canada was a profitable market for Mexx during my time there and it’s had fairly strong growth in the last two years,” he said, “and that’s been pretty hard to come by in some parts of Europe recently. Besides, Canada is quite far along in its approach to sustainability, and that’s extremely important to us.”
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Double J is an apparel distributor of global brands for the Canadian market that does more than half of its business in denim, according to Kemel Hadad, partner and manager of the firm, which also distributes denim brands Miss Me, MEK, Edwin and Cult of Individuality in Canada.
“Denim is always there and will never die, but what Kuyichi is doing is the future,” Hadad told WWD. “The new generation, particularly young people in Canada, are looking for eco-friendly products. They’re still not an easy sell, but it gets easier when you have a brand that’s being sure to address both fashion and the environment, not one to the exclusion of the other.”
He expects the appeal to be strong enough so that Kuyichi’s price points, which will top out at above $300, shouldn’t work against its acceptance. Major accounts which have previewed the line have reacted positively, he said, and he expects the environment appeal of the brand only to grow.
“I get the sense that there’s really momentum building about eco-friendly products as we get closer to 2013,” Hadad said.
While introducing the line to retail accounts will be Hadad’s first priority this year, Double J does plan to open its first Kuyichi store, most likely in Montreal, either later this year or for spring 2013. “As a distributor, we have to move to vertical operations in the future or there just won’t be a future. We get squeezed harder every day,” Hadad said.
Cantagalli considers the addition of dedicated stores “the most crucial market entry a brand can make, really helping to establish your concept and image.” He and Hadad foresee between five and seven Kuyichi stores in Canada within the next five years. The firm currently operates three stores each in France and the U.K. and single units in Germany and its home market. Four to six stores, including the Canadian unit, are slated for this year. China, Indonesia and the Middle East are being explored as possible 2013 additions.
The ceo is confident that sales, which tallied 14 million euros, or $18.5 million at current exchange, in 2010, can hit 18 million euros, or $23.8 million, this year. Jeans account for two-thirds of volume and women’s for about 60 percent of that.
Sustainability isn’t just Kuyichi’s aim but a part of its genesis. It was started in 2001 when Solidaridad, the Dutch nongovernmental organization that has worked to build sustainable supply chains in industries such as fruit and coffee, was unable to garner interest among existing denim and apparel players in pursuing greater use of organic cotton. Soldaridad started Kuyichi and today nearly all of the brand’s cotton is organic, with recycled polyester, recycled cotton, Tencel and hemp, all of which reduce the need for water in the supply chain, also playing a role. The NGO also founded the Made-By program, which monitors sustainability and worker fairness practices among European apparel producers and of which Kuyichi is a member.
Helga Johannsdottir, Kuyichi’s product manager, noted, “If Nike, with its big volumes, were suddenly to try to move to 100 percent sustainable, there’d be a resource problem. For us, it’s more manageable, it’s in our blood, what we want to do even if it’s at some cost to profits. But I think even as a smaller, young brand, we have an influence. We want to see organic cotton replace cotton in the future and help reduce the pesticides and other toxins that are being put into the world’s ground water. We’re trying to limit the use of water in processing itself with the plants we work with, to make sure sound waste water systems are in place. We’re also moving from leather labels to recycled paper and working with nickel-free trims.”
Cantagalli noted, “All fashion product can be made in an ethical way.”