Shoe Salon

Passion Play

The trio behind Culture of Brave on how the luxury brand lives up to its name in mind, body and sneakers. By Greg Dutter

CULTURE OF BRAVE is a catchy name. The luxury sneaker label’s “wings” logo is equally attentiongrabbing. Since launching in 2020, the Italian- and Portuguese-made brand has gained decent traction, despite hurdles brought on by the pandemic and being a newbie in a market of established behemoths. Just how is that possible? It starts with the divide-andconquer capabilities of the three founding partners, Jaco Buitendag, Custodian; Michelle Wray, Chief Evangelist; and Lead Designer Roberta Grillo.

“We bring together all the skills needed to grow a business, to produce great designs with impeccable and consistent production, and to manage the supply chain to meet our customer’s needs,” Wray says. “We listen to our retailers on what works and what the pain points are, and we listen to our customers about any design and comfort improvements.”

Then there’s the added key ingredient: being nice. “People like to do business with nice people, and we are super nice to work with,” Wray offers. “If something’s wrong, we want to know and fix it. We invest and nurture our relationships because we’re just nice like that, and it’s the right way to do business.”

Buitendag, an engineer by trade, hails from the mining industry, where he created a global OEM brand. He left to chase his “ultimate passions” of fashion and sneakers. “Using my skills as an engineer, I bring a unique perspective to our product design, merging function and beauty,” he says. “Being the Custodian of the brand means the buck stops with me. I’m always up for that challenge. Culture of Brave reflects the individual courage, bravery and resilience I’ve shown throughout my personal journey to get to where I am today.”

Wray, a multi-skilled entrepreneur and seasoned marketing professional, is a lover of sneakers. “And I love brands that stand for something,” she says. “Culture of Brave feels like my life story, stepping in courage at every turn, living with my whole-heart and knowing that, no matter what, everything will be ok. Success and failure are only separated by how many times you are prepared to risk.” Wray feels lucky to have a job that breathes life into a brand that she believes belongs to everyone. “We all have a story to share, and courage is our human attribute tying our collective stories together in Culture of Brave,” she says.

Grillo is a self-taught designer and shoemaker who has refined her skills over the past 25 years. She has designed performance and luxury lifestyle sneakers, working with small artisans and huge factories. “I remain fascinated by the artisan creation process and how, through hours of hard work, you can transform your idea into a shoe,” she says. “I’m in love with hybrids, which I believe are a celebration of evolution. Nature keeps combining complex concepts with clear and clean lines, which offer little resistance to change.” Grillo’s designs crossbreed ancient artisan techniques with modern lines and volumes to create a product that has “roots in traditions but looks to the future.”

In what ways is COB unique? Wray: We focus on classic silhouettes and quality leathers to create a timeless sneaker. We’re well-priced for our quality. (SRP: $285-$325; $695 for the 280 pairs only Individual Courage collection.) Whilst there’s a huge market for fast fashion at a lower-price point, we don’t want to be a part of that downside of being less durable and trending out quickly.

What are some of COB’s signature design ele-

ments? Wray: All our sneakers have Culture of Brave wings on the upper. Their shape is designed to mirror your feet on the ground. Wings are a metaphor of freedom, and when you step in courage, you create your freedom and conquer your fears. Our sneaker collections are named Courage, Resilient, Prepared to Risk, Free Soul and Individual Courage, which is silkscreened on the respective inner tongues. Literally, you’re reminded what attribute to embrace in your steps for the day.

How has the pandemic impacted the launch?

Wray: Actually, it’s been relatively good for us. We brought stock into the U.S. and were able to offer retailers open sizing and no minimums. It was a lot easier to grow relationships with stores by being able to immediately ship orders, and a lot of customers appreciated that we had stock and were willing to take small orders to allow them to explore our sneakers and see how their customers responded. Every customer that tried us, has placed repeat orders. They love our quality, brand, pricing and design. We also invested in our systems. Our B2B customers can access a digital portal, view what stock we have, track orders and pre-order for replacement shipments and new releases. We want our retail customers to have better certainty in managing stock. Another upside of the pandemic is our DTC channel took off. But we will never, ever

Jaco Buitendag, Michelle Wray and Roberta Grillo are team Culture of Brave.

discount on our site. How could we demonstrate the value in our sneakers if our online store is discounted?

What are your current goals? Wray: We’re focused on growing our retail customer base. Ideally, we want to be in the top one or two stores in every major town and city. We don’t want to be the brand that’s in every store. That said, the journey is at least 3,000 days long. It takes a decade to build a brand that’s recognized and loved. We’re in for the long-haul to build a brand that lives in the hearts and minds of our customers. So, one customer at a time, be that B2B and direct.

What’s the theme of the Spring ’23 collection? Grillo: We’re peeling back the layers of winter to shine and get fresh! For women, we’re featuring “Shine Courage” and “Shine Free Soul,” using gorgeous combinations of soft maya, glitter and suede leathers. The silhouettes are low cuts, classic and sporty. Shine complements the fresh and creamy white leathers in our Courage and Free Soul collections. For men, we’re introducing “Natural Courage” in three shades of natural vegetable tanned leathers with fire embossed features alongside the fresh and creamy white leathers in our Courage and Free Soul collections.

Where do you look for design inspiration? Grillo: Design inspiration is in everything and everywhere in the world around us. Sometimes, it’s in the curve of a chin, the colors of leaves, the way rubber wears against stone and seeing tear-filled eyes. Wray: It’s also the not-so-lucid thinking while recovering from shoulder and bunion surgery! Design is driven by our sensitivity and response of all our senses. It’s hard to say where it comes from but, as a team, we constantly marvel at the strangest things that sets off the next idea for design. We throw crazy things at Roberta, and she gives Jaco and I, who are both South African, her Italian tsk-tsks but somehow makes sense of our chaos.

What was the best piece of design advice you’ve ever received?

Buitendag: It’s from me. If it doesn’t add unbelievable value to the customer, then it serves no purpose. Grillo: Less is more and no compromises. Wray: It’s actually cooking advice: an exquisite dish only needs five ingredients. Sneakers are the same. More than what’s essential destroys perfect simplicity.

Who are designers you admire? Grillo: It goes without saying, the classic sneaker designers Peter Moore and Tinker Hatfield, who pioneered the way for all sneaker designers. And, of course, Virgil Abloh for all of his work in the luxury brands he exemplified, created and designed for. His work created legacy.

What is your first shoe memory? Wray: I was four and got black patent leather shoes for a wedding. They were probably fake leather, but they looked like shiny ballet shoes, with a little heel, round toe and a strap across the front! I wouldn’t take those shoes off for months. I felt like everyone could see me when I wore them! I discovered then how shoes can transform how you felt about yourself!

What do you love most about designing? Buitendag: The way shoes will make people feel! Grillo: Seeing an idea that you draw become something real that people will wear! Wray: Knowing that leather will go through this amazing process and when people own our sneakers, they become the set of intangibles that live in their hearts and minds.

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never going to quit. They’ll figure a way out to make that brand a reality. People who have the vision and drive to grow a new brand to $15 or $20 million and then, after an acquisition, stay on a few more years to help it get to around $50 million…I love those guys, but they’re crazy.

Might the outdoor performance and lifestyle market present the greatest growth potential?

That outdoor hiking and casual footwear segment is probably the largest and fastest growing category right now. But that category is an interesting challenge for us, because when we talk about outdoor, it’s more toward the hunting lifestyle. Rocky has got a little bit of a stigmatism with regard to blood sports. So, while we’ve been able to dabble in hiking, REI won’t even give us a look. I think if and when we do another acquisition, that would be a good one for us to find. A brand doing $20 million to $40 million, which is what Wolverine did with Merrell.

It’s refreshing hearing about a company in a strong growth mode when much of the last two years has been about the opposite. Still, how do you remain optimistic in the face of record inflation, looming recession, pandemic, wars, supply chain disruptions,

etc., etc.? You don’t have a choice. If All in the Durango family: the western brand is on fire. I wasn’t optimistic, I’d fail. Coming into the office only to sit in a corner and cry isn’t an option. You have to be optimistic in this business. I had a teacher once draw a little circle and said inside that is what you have control over. So just get it done. Then he drew another circle around it and said that’s all the stuff that you can have influence on, so you better be nice. Then he drew a big-ass circle around those two circles and said this is the stuff you have no control over, so you better get over it. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that lesson. I don’t have any control over what’s going on in Ukraine, or how our president is addressing inflation. I listen and try to understand how it might affect our business so we can try and react. But the reality is, I don’t have any control over that. I’ve got to pay attention, but I’ve also got to get over it.

What do you love most about your job?

I love this business and all of our brands. I love helping our company get better and more profitable. But what I love most is helping people with jobs. I love hearing when one of our employees tells me they took their family to Disneyland. Rocky Brands helped make that happen, because they have a great job. I don’t need fame and fortune, or to be viewed as some great CEO. I just don’t want to screw this company up. Similarly, I don’t need our brands to be the sexiest ones in the marketplace. I just need them to be successful. And in trying to do that as a public company, I have to deal with demands for continued growth. That’s ok. That’s the deal. That may involve acquisitions, which require me to make sure they are right for the company and keep our investors happy with our growth.

How much growth is enough?

If we are get this company to $1 billion, I think I’d say, “Hey, you did ok, Jason. That’s not bad.” And if we can just perform, it’ll work out. We don’t have to be brilliant. We just have to show up and do ok. The investors will be fine, they’ll make a little money on the stock and they won’t bug us too much. We just have to execute on the plan that we say we’re going to do. •