THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

For a good few years, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Ian O’Connor was a rock ‘n’ roll star as his career took him to some of the coolest places on the planet.

From London to Milan and from Paris to New York, the businessman who grew up in Bulkington, Warwickshire, was building a life and a career that would have been the envy of many.

His eye for style and his entrepreneurial blood made him the perfect fit for the world of fashion – specifically shoes – which led to him to working with international icons and saw him make memories for a lifetime.

“I left school at 16 and went to work with my old man,” he said. “He was doing kitchens, bedrooms and office furniture. He’d been in that industry for as long as I could remember.

“I’d actually been working with him from the age of 12 on Saturdays because I just wanted to hang out with him because he was supercool.

“I was brought up in quite an entrepreneurial family. My mum had a hairdressing salon and she was a good businesswoman and I took over my father’s business for a period before it was sold. I went to work for someone else but, naturally, I started my own business.

“I got into the commercial interior market – when office furniture leans into interiors – and I built quite a nice business with a partner.

“We had a parting of the ways and I thought, what do people want? What do they buy whether or not they want or need it? I basically thought that women like to buy a lot of shoes and that was the whole premise for my fashion business!”

He taught himself to draw and had soon developed a shoe brand that was attracting the attention of supermodels and international musicians.

“I built a footwear brand called Strutt,” said Ian. “We were in some of the best department stores in the world – Harrods, Selfridges, Rinascente in Milan, across the USA – and we had lots of celebrities wearing the brand.

“I was in the industry for about 10 years and it was great from a lifestyle perspective. It opened me up to lots of opportunities and the world of celebrity. The likes of P!nk, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Rachel Hunter were all wearing my shoes.

“I had a partnership with Rio Ferdinand and did a range with him. It was called Five by Rio Ferdinand, that was more lifestyle leisure and accessories for men.

“He was a lovely guy and we got on really well. In fairness to him, he was still playing for Manchester United so it wasn’t as successful as it could have been. He was at the top of his game when it came to football and it was just a great experience.

“I also did Terry De Havilland’s and Zandra Rhodes’ ready-to-wear collections.

“It was all self-taught. I could draw and had some help to begin with from a guy who designed for Prada and I went from there.

“It was all very rock n roll. I did Paris, New York, Milan, Vegas twice a year but if I’d have carried on the way I was going, I wouldn’t be here anymore!

“It was going pretty well until the recession of 2008 and the bank pulled all of our letters of credit with my factories and that put paid to that business. It was sad.”

Ian had to, in his own words, get a proper job.

He joined Stuart Marsh Group in Exeter and reshaped the sales and marketing for its Rainbow Club brand, which is one of the largest bridal footwear businesses in Europe.

But the bug for business was never too far away and something very different was about to float his entrepreneurial boat.

“A friend of mine was living in China and working for AGCO. He called me one day and asked me what I was doing and if I knew anything about e-bikes. He started to tell me about them and I did my own research,” he said.

“There was a big show in Shanghai and e-bikes were just coming to the market. I had an idea of what I wanted to see. I wanted to see something like a small motorcycle as I thought it was a niche that wasn’t being satisfied.

“I’d got nothing else to do – that was the long and short of it – and this excited me.”