Walking on Sunshine

An occasion that coincides with the quasi-reboot of the entire industry. They are all celebrating the 25th anniversary of their respective businesses this year: Marco Götz of Drykorn, Michi Klemera of Luis Trenker, and Stephan Huber of style in progress. Is there a better reason to come together and talk about the big issues ahead and what the shared future holds? Join us on a stroll over Salzburg’s city mountains.

Interview: Stephan Huber. Text: Isabel Faiss. Photos: Bernhard Musil

We have reached an exciting juncture. 25 years lie behind us, yet, due to current circumstances, we find ourselves on the verge of a new beginning. What issues will preoccupy us in the next 25 years?

Marco Götz, founder of Drykorn: Extreme market change! I have, in fact, started mentally segmenting time into the 25 years leading up to Corona and the 25 years following Corona. I expect the future to usher in a shake-up of the market involving a complete change in buying behaviour, a change in the values we have to deal with, and a much clearer focus on the topics of sustainability, longevity, topicality, and joie de vivre. Sexiness is making a comeback, in particular in the womenswear segment. And with it returns the desire for self-expression. Fashion is once again becoming a more conscious experience on a personal, physical level. The two-dimensional digital experience is no longer paramount, but a certain passion to perceive something sensually again. This is something we observe among younger people in particular. Michi Klemera, founder of Luis Trenker: For us, our “Life is wonderful” principle is reinforced by the yearning for the idyll of the mountains. In South Tyrol, we live in a paradise that enables us to tell our story, the story of a mountaineer. We tell of clothing that has its origins in the 1930s and 1940s, of sporty comfort coupled with special materials and qualities. Luis Trenker’s attitude to life embraces the enjoyment and appreciation of special pleasures such as good clothing, being steadfast, expressing personality, and showing character. All these topics are more relevant than ever right now. Marco: The urgency to take radical steps has grown through the last year. We have all had to rethink what we do. Where is the journey heading? How is consumer behaviour changing, not least among younger customers? What values are emerging? We expect fundamental changes in purchasing behaviour. It culminates in the question what role fashion needs to fulfil in the future. What impact does fashion have on urban mobility? How will workwear evolve when our everyday life in urban environments changes completely?

Michi, the situation has accelerated many aspects for you as well. Especially the online business, which you have expanded significantly.

Michi: We saw it as a huge opportunity. There are many beneficiaries of the current situation, and we can all learn a great deal from it. We now generate 25 percent of our turnover online and 65 percent via our own retail operations comprising 14 stores. This is a topic we started exploring in 2010 when we launched the Kitzbühel store and realised how we could strengthen and visualise our brand in its authentic environment. Showcasing this naively beautiful and healthy world of Luis Trenker represented a great opportunity for us. This is a new beginning for me personally. I am getting older and need to start thinking about reorganising my business. My daughter Johanna is 26 years old and already very involved and motivated. We aspire to be even more modern. Mobility is an equally important topic for us, because people who used to fly 10,000 kilometres to go on holiday before Corona are now seeking refuge in the mountains, which is where we wish to reach them. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and northern Italy are our territories, and we strive to be THE brand in the tourist resorts.

Overall, the year 2020 was marked by a rather peculiar debate on consumption, or the tendency to believe that fun is not compatible with the world of the future, because fun destroys the environment. So, how can consuming be fun without having to feel bad about yourself? This is a crucial question for our industry, because we primarily produce products that people want, not need. What shape will consumption take in the future?

Marco: The typical Drykorn customer has always discovered the brand by encountering the product and experiencing its haptics. Customers we wish to address in the future must be addressed with completely different attributes, because they often no longer have a direct point of reference to the product. How elaborate does a digital set-up have to be if this touchpoint no longer exists? How do we attract attention? How do we inspire desire and what is the current desire? We believe the answer lies in the product, flanked by a genuinely effective digital presence. That is the level we have to aspire to. Simultaneously, I still firmly believe in the personal shopping experience. Individual, guided, and curated advice will experience an absolute renaissance. Michi: We interpret this as a huge challenge, because we have always been – and still are – highly focused on our brand and brand awareness. It is likely to increase the dilemma that our range is very narrow with too few basics. Yet I refuse to compromise in favour of commerciality. We are still experiencing growth, after all. Our goal is to double our current turnover by 2025. We positioned ourselves very well in the crisis year 2020, have worked hard, and are sticking to our internal goal of growing our online business to 50 percent as well.

Both answers suggest to me that it is always the consumer who ultimately decides in our market. What does that imply for the relationship between the individual market participants?

Marco: As a manufacturer, you are increasingly forced to act as a retailer yourself. The demands are exorbitant. You need to control your own channels, because the share of brick-and-mortar retail is dwindling. I believe brands that function exclusively via specialised retailers will cease to exist at some point. Michi: We decided to avoid large online platforms a long time ago. We are not a Zalando partner, which, in turn, results in huge amounts of hands-on effort. Yes, it is very time-consuming, but ultimately much more rewarding. The margin is higher, the commercial rate fairly low. Of course, this means we are targeting very specific customers who know their sizes and the product. Yet our returns rate is a mere 24 percent. Our online presence goes far beyond fashion – our role resembles that of a service provider in this context. My wish is that customers will someday automatically associate South Tyrol with Luis Trenker.

In the city, too, the attitude to life is changing dramatically. “Drykorn for beautiful people” is your tongue-in-cheek slogan. Marco, what exactly is so beautiful about the future?

Acquainted for many years: Marco Götz of Drykorn (left) and Michi Klemera of Luis Trenker.

Future issues in historical scenery: the three industry experts discussed the challenges of the time ahead against the backdrop ofHohensalzburg Fortress.

Stephan Huber (right) invited his guests to discuss the future: “Let’s look ahead to the next 25 years.”

Marco: Sustainability, light-heartedness, effortlessness, fun. The more pertinent question is what consumers perceive as fun. Which message do they understand? I think the definition of fun has changed completely in recent generations. Do future generations even want to experience fun in a real, physical form?

Has fun not generally been somewhat neglected in this industry over the last 10 years?

Michi: You are referring to the great times at Bread & Butter. We all had fun in that particular segment of fashion and that platform encouraged it. It was a glorious time, but that time has passed now. Marco: That was an extraordinarily special era, a very fun-oriented time that was shaped by this kind of event. A big thank you to Karl Heinz Müller at this point, who captured the zeitgeist and showed plenty of courage in doing so.

Should fashion not reclaim this hedonism, this desire for fun and self-expression?

Marco: Absolutely. Making yourself look beautiful, liking yourself, and finding yourself attractive are great virtues. Considering yourself beautiful has nothing to do with narcissism. It is still fashion’s primary objective. If we, under the pressure of sustainability, no longer attach importance to how we look, then we forego all passion and emotion. That is what fashion ultimately thrives on: taking pleasure in a piece of clothing, taking a stand, feeling sexy, and showing oneself as an expression of personal attractiveness. Why should I have to dress so compliantly that I no longer stand out anywhere? Michi: There is a huge difference between wearing a consumer product that calls itself fashion and wearing fashion in the actual sense of the term. What the large retailers are currently doing no longer represents value to me. The fun factor is nothing but overproduction. Luis Trenker consciously manufactures in a manner that prevents fashion becoming a disposable item. That means: no plastic, no polyester, no material admixtures. I appreciate that I have 30 to 35 production partners, all of whom I know personally. I never have to drive more than 1,500 kilometres to visit them. That is a very different definition of fun factor.

Here we stand at the verge of this new beginning. Are there things that will no longer be possible in the future? Or to put it differently: Which habits should our industry abandon?

Marco: The crux of the matter is the 30 percent overproduction rate. The situation looks very different when you take that stock out of the market. Such massive levels of overproduction cannot be offset by sustainability – that renders all efforts futile.

Michi: I feel it is a question of attitude. We manufacture what we sell and are delighted when we sell out a bestseller. That is what creates and augments desirability. Price is the all-important issue, and this is what mass production entails. We need to have the entrepreneurial courage to manufacture only as much as we honestly think we can sell, and to accept higher costs in return. Marco: Epic NOS warehouses block all attempts at innovation. Nevertheless, it is also a fact that being sold out also equals being underrepresented on the sales floor. It requires enormous courage to accept that. Limiting oneself contradicts the nature of entrepreneurship.

I hardly dare to look 25 years ahead. Let’s start with five years. Michi, where does Luis Trenker stand in five years – apart from having doubled its turnover?

Michi: I would like to broaden the brand, because I sense that our perseverance is being increasingly rewarded, especially in times like these. Customers who were not aware of us years ago now show an incredible amount of respect for our product philosophy and the values of the brand. We would like to freshen up a little, enhance our digital footprint. Our current product range is, after all, geared towards a more mature customer base. I see huge future potential in appealing to younger customers. I believe in self-confidence and perseverance, in the fact that certain things that are genuinely excellent and express respect will still be very well received in five years’ time, even by a younger target group. In short: I have a healthy and optimistic outlook! Marco: To be honest, I have always tried to avoid such outlooks. If I must, however, I would say that the next five years will lead to an even sharper digital focus. We have already largely adapted our processes, including the entire supply chain. Nevertheless, Drykorn will still thrive on its strong product commitment in five years’ time. This means that our focus remains on developing fashion that meets consumers’ needs in life and makes them feel good about themselves. For me, the main challenge is to manage the balancing act between the desire for emotion, fun, lifestyle, and attractiveness and the issues of sustainability, conscious consumption, and functionality. Of this I am certain: fashion will succeed in mastering it.

He believes the local spirit of South Tyrol represents the greatest opportunity for his Luis Trenker collection, which has been committed tosustainability for 25 years.

His strength is asking the right questions at the right time. Marco Götz is already preparing Drykorn for innovation and strong product focus inthe years to come.