Enjoy what you are doing.
That’s the sage advice from Daniel Rubin, founder of British shoe brand Dune London and chairman of Dune Group.
In tandem with the release of his book “Sole Survivor: How I Built a Global Shoe Brand,” published by Canbury Press last week, Rubin talked to Footwear News about lessons learned and what drives him.
“I wasn’t a very good accountant. Math was my weakest subject. I was persuaded by my father to qualify as an accountant, and it was a struggle,” Rubin told Footwear News. Rubin’s father was a women’s fashion footwear manufacturer, but had told him to avoid footwear and take a different route. Nevertheless, he pivoted to joining the family business and worked as a shoe manufacturer and importer making private label shoes for large retailers for 17 years.
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“I was doing all the work, designing, manufacturing and selling the shoes but had no identity. That changed in 1992 when I founded Dune,” he said, adding that he should have started his own brand “earlier than I did.”
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His shift in mindset came when he went to Taiwan in 1987 and saw them making shoes. “I realized that we couldn’t compete. The quality was acceptable and the price less than half it was costing us in our factory in London,” he said, adding that since then, footwear manufacturing — a low technology, high labor content business — has moved production to cheaper countries. He said that’s not a “bad thing,” but that what’s disappointing is the number of “cheap, nasty shoes” made for fast fashion, where “22 billion pairs of shoes go into landfill each year.”
But Rubin was almost shut out even before he started despite his shoe industry pedigree. His first Dune order was a disaster. “It was for 10,000 pairs of a fabric ballerina [shoe] made in Spain. Despite having it tested extensively, the fabric was tearing down the middle of the vamp. I had opened a letter of credit and given my house as a guarantee,” he said, adding that fortunately the letter of credit had a lot of discrepancies so he “managed to avoid paying the supplier. It was a close call and a salutary lesson in the dangers of footwear failing in wear.”
With a heap of global challenges over the years from Brexit to the COVID pandemic and more, Rubin said one big lesson learned is the need for resilience, as well as the importance of strong relationships with suppliers and partners and regular communication. “Because we had built strong connections with our suppliers and there was mutual trust, we had tremendous support from [them], which proved invaluable during the pandemic,” the Dune founder said.
Dune’s international business accounts for 35 percent of retail sales and is in growth mode, with the U.S. its key market for expansion. “We are starting to see our ranges perform exceptionally well in department stores Nordstrom and Dillards. We now have a clear niche in the U.S. market for contemporary fashion shoes. We are also having success with our handbags and men’s footwear,” he said, adding that working with “A” list celebrities has helped raise the profile of the brand.
He said tariffs hasn’t impacted the company’s commitment to expand in the U.S., and its flexible supply chain means it can choose to move production if it needs to. The one area where it has seen impact is the de minimis charge on shipping web purchases to the U.S. “From next year, we will be fulfilling orders from the U.S. to overcome this obstacle,” Rubin noted.
The executive also has some advice for anyone who wants to enter the footwear industry. The first is find a niche in the market where one can have a point of difference. “Recently, On Running and Hoka have found that niche in sports footwear with innovative design and comfort. I would also choose a sector of the makret that is seeing growth, such as comfort,” he elaborated. Second is building a strong brand profile through social channels and celebrity endorsement. And the final tip is to be prepared to work and sell hard.
“You learn so much seeing customers and partners. Their feedback is invaluable,” he said.
