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Todd Snyder (Menswear Designer)

Published on Mon, 13 Aug 2018 10:00:00 +0000

This week, your host Stephen Pulvirent and HODINKEE editor Cara Barrett sit down with American menswear designer and entrepreneur Todd Snyder. Todd has been around and learned from the best at every stage of his career (think Ralph Lauren, the Gap, and J. Crew). He now runs his own eponymous label, which from the beginning put a distinctly American spin on wardrobe basics ranging from sweats to custom-tailored suits. Lucky for us, Todd is also a real watch guy, favoring exactly the kinds of watches you'd expect. He's a super fun, humble guy, and someone we could listen to for hours. In this episode, we talk heritage, learning your craft, and how to make watches an integral part of your wardrobe. Enjoy.

Synopsis

In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, hosts Stephen Pulvirent and editor Cara Barrett sit down with renowned menswear designer Todd Snyder to discuss his journey from Iowa to becoming one of the most influential voices in American fashion. The conversation covers Snyder's early career working at iconic American brands like Ralph Lauren, J.Crew, and Gap, where he learned the fundamentals of American menswear and developed his philosophy of reinventing classics. Snyder shares his three rules for success: work hard, innovate, and be nice—emphasizing that the last rule is where most people fail.

The discussion delves into Snyder's pioneering work with brand collaborations, particularly his partnerships with heritage brands like Champion, Timex, Red Wing, and others. He explains how these collaborations, inspired by Japanese retail culture, allow him to create exclusive, premium versions of classic products that honor the original brand's heritage while adding his own design sensibility. Snyder also talks about his flagship store on Madison Square Park, which functions as a complete lifestyle destination featuring everything from clothing and vintage watches (sourced through Hodinkee) to a restaurant, hair salon, and carefully curated books and furniture—all of which are available for purchase.

The watch conversation reveals Snyder's personal collecting journey, from his first Rolex GMT to his current pursuit of a vintage Rolex Explorer II 'Steve McQueen' with an orange hand—his 'white whale' watch that he's passed on twice and deeply regrets. He discusses his collaboration with Timex on various Marlin watches and reveals an upcoming model. Throughout the episode, Snyder emphasizes how watches, like clothing, should be timeless investments that last decades, and how both fashion and watchmaking share similar creative processes of taking familiar ingredients and recombining them in new, meaningful ways.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown There are few people who have made a bigger splash in the menswear world over the last decade than Todd Snyder. Even if you're not wearing clothes that he designed, you're almost certainly wearing clothes influenced by clothes he designed. I mean, listening to the guy talk about all the places he worked and all the people he worked for before founding his own label is like doing an all-star tour of American menswear. The fact that he's a watch guy and a watch guy with pretty great taste certainly doesn't hurt anything either. Hodinky editor Kara Barrett and I sat I'm your host, Stephen Pulverant, and this is Hodinky Radio. This week's episode is brought to you by Tutor. Stay tuned later in the show for a look at the Heritage Black Bay Chrono, a new take on one of Tutor's most iconic watches. You can also learn more at TutorWatch.com. And if you want to check out more on Todd's watches that he brought today, they'll be both on hodinky.com and in the show notes. Alright, thanks so much for joining us, Todd. Really appreciate it. Well, thanks for having me. And uh we are also are joined by uh Cara Barrett, our uh esteemed editor. Hey. Um You are very esteemed. So I thought it'd be helpful for people to know how we know you, which is that we've we've worked together actually. So do you want to maybe talk a little bit about
Unknown that, Kara? Yeah. So for for about the past year and a half, ever since the opening of Todd's flagship store uh on Madison Square Park, we have been sourcing watches for vintage watches and accessories and providing things for them to sell um to their clients um as well as kind of hosting events with them and working on them on promoting products and things like that. Um it's been a really great partnership for us. Hopefully Todd feels the same way.
Unknown No, I I get like free um previews on amazing watches that I can never afford. So I really appreciate that.
Unknown Yeah, and it's it's funny how it fits into your whole retail concept, right? Like your shop has a pretty pretty unique concept behind it. Do you do you want to tell us a little bit about that
Unknown ? Yeah, um our store, I I opened it uh actually about a year and a half ago, and um it's really meant to be the one-stop shop for the guy. And when I was opening, you know, the first store that we actually ever did was actually in Japan, I always wanted a destination that a guy could come feel confident in and know that he's gonna look his best and it's sometimes easier said than done. And when you come into our store, it's a great experience to where you kinda can get everything, everything from um a sweatshirt to a tuxedo, um, sneakers to dress shoes. Um you can get a haircut. We have a hair salon in there. We also have an amazing restaurant called El Rey, which you can get a coffee or a beer. Um and then we actually have a tailor on staff. So I really wanted it to be accessible to a lot of guys but also make guys feel confident about what they're getting from us because a lot of times you go to stores and they say that they're curated, they say that they're whatever and they're not. They're just kind of a bunch of stuff stuck in a store and it's not really very well edited and a lot of what we do is we try to find unique things. And that was the reason why Hodinki made such great, you know, partner for us was because I mean all of us can go and find vintage watches, but there's nobody better than Hodinky to do that. And I met Ben uh a while back and and we were at the pop-up flea and um it was amazing ' hecause was sitting right next to us. It was our first year out in two thousand. Probably it was old school hodinky days. Yes. I mean he was there with like the case of old watches and I loved how he typed all the little cards up of the history and it just was really well done. Was
Unknown this the one in the garage in Chelsea? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Were you there for that one? I was I was there. That was my first pop-up lea. That was just a couple months after I star
Unknown ted. Yeah. And that was awesome. So that's where we first met. And so um I always kept in contact with him. So I just I just loved his watches and then of course I would always if I was looking at a new watch I'd be texting him and emailing him like, What do you think of this? I think he's used to that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously he turned it into a business and it's it it it makes sense 'cause he's you know, he is an expert in that and and he's able to help novices like me buy expensive watches. Yeah. You know, it's needed 'Cause I really I don't wanna buy s I don't wanna overpay and um you never know. It's it's really hard to tell uh good ones from bad ones. Yeah, one
Unknown of the things I love about the store is in addition obviously to our watches, is that like you can buy everything. So like the books that are on the shelves that look like they're just for merchandising, like all the cool design books and things, everything's available, which is is kind of a fun way to go into a store that the whole the whole lifestyle is really shoppable, which is nice. Yeah, I think
Unknown that' thats's one thing really amazing about the store and and everything's for sale. Everything from the rugs. Um we did the rugs with A B C uh furniture and those we've actually sold two of 'em so far. Really literally people come in and I'll tell people, like, hey, we get it from ABC. Do you want to they just don't want to deal with the hassle of going up there and looking at you know a hundred and fifty rugs. That's what I do. I go there and I you know get a beer and basically just look through stacks and stacks of rugs and it's it's it's a lot of patience because those lug rugs are generally big and I kinda have an eye for how it's gonna look in the space. So a lot of people just come in and like oh love the way it looks and and they buy it and same thing with the furniture the furniture I worked with first dibs on the furniture and it's all um you know done through them and they helped curate it and I picked you know all the furniture either from LA dealers, all mid century modern, um, really rare finds and that as well is all for sale
Unknown . Yeah, I've uh I've definitely found myself going into the store looking for clothes and coming out being like, Oh, I should have bought that chair. You know? Um there's some chairs are deals
Unknown . There's some really good deals in there. The books are amazing. We probably have over two thousand books in there and they're all a lot of first editions. You know, everything from architecture to photography to watches to just amazing stuff. It's really kind of a showcase of all the stuff that inspires me. I I'm always inspired by um books and um furniture and interiors and I I think all of it goes together. I think that for me is what the experience is that's special um to a customer is they don't really know why they love it so much, but it if you So we try to always have a new thing in the store, whether it's um every quarter we do a new theme in the front shop and it it's attached to the window. Obviously, and the window is um shoppable and you can buy like right now we've got a kind of cool shop and shop of our catalog that we did shot in Palm Springs. So we did this whole thing that was kind of homage to Palm Springs. So we have everything from like books that feel mid-century modern and we've got um you know the peril obviously, but then we also have some like one of a kind finds that you can't really get anywhere else other than in that shop
Unknown . That's awesome. I mean to to have this kind of like three sixty degree vision obviously didn't happen I would I would guess overnight. Can you can you go kind of like all the way back to the beginning? Like when do you remember first wanting to like be a designer or to like kind of conceive of a of a vision like this um I was
Unknown I was young. I mean I I was um I read Ralph Lauren's book in the eighties. Um and I didn't know you could do that for a living. You can be a designer. I want to be Ralph Lauren. I mean I still want to be Ralph Lawrence when I grew up, yeah. Me too. I mean I he's he's amazing. And um I remember I was like I want to work for him. I I um worked in a men's store and um And you're from Iowa, right? Iowa. Yeah. And um originally I started off in in I switched majors probably six times. Um I started off in freshman engineering and then I went to architecture and then I went to business and architecture was really fun for me, but it was too boring and uh engineering was even more boring. Um my dad was an engineer, so I can say that. I was an engineering major when I started. Really? Yeah. My dad is an engineer. Really? Yeah. Sorry. I mean it's No, no, I dropped it too. I ended up doing art history, so it was very different. Yeah. No, it's I mean I was good at math, but it was so my dad was a civil engineer, so it was like m lot a lot of bridges and like sewer systems and all roads and stuff. It's like really I want to build sewer systems and make bridges. It just it wasn't too exciting. I mean very Ralph. Wasn't very Ralph. No, it wasn't Ralph at all. And um but it was fun. I mean it kind of gave me the building blocks of you know I used to do a lot of I was a draftsman there at at times as well so I was always good at drawing and kind of um everything used to be by hand back then. And um I just kind of that I never realized it but it got me prepared for architecture and then when I switched from um architecture business and then I switched to design and um I didn't even know that existed and you know, Iowa State isn't really the place that people go for to be a fashion designer. And believe it or not, they actually have a really good program that uh kind of teaches you the basics of pattern and uh draping and and really kind of all the mechanics that go along with making clothes. For me, that was brilliant because having been an architecture, I kind of knew how to put things together and and I was very, very much a logical thinker on how all that works, but um once I got into fashion design it was amazing because I could make a shirt on the weekends. And in fact I actually used to uh when I was younger I on the weekends and didn't have kids, I would actually make shirts on the weekends. And it was very kind of strange 'cause my wife at the time would be like making fun of me 'cause she'd come in and I'd be sitting at a sewing machine on a Saturday or Sunday watching a football game with a beer. Nice. And she's like, who are you? I've never and then you know I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed working with my hands and um it's really kind of what got me discovered in the industry. I I because I worked um in retail when I was in college, I was working at this amazing store called Bedowers in Des Moines, Iowa. And I worked in sales and on the floor, and then I kind of was very interested with the tailors and I wanted to understand how things were put together and how they do what they do. And I was allowed to start helping them out. I was m mainly at the beginning just sweeping and cleaning up after them and then they allowed me to start doing things. And I just was always interested in the construction of garments and how, you know how you make them fit better and all that. So I taught myself how to sew, I was able to um do my own pattern, so I'd actually make my own shirts um on the weekends, and when I was working at Ralph, my first job, I remembered uh a design director that didn't know who I was but had seen my shirt and was like, Hey, you know, you what you know, who made your shirt? Where's that from? And I'm like, uh I did. And from that point on all of a sudden I was included in meetings more and my I was being considered a lot more than I ever had. And then I just kind of used that as kind of like my building blocks to um get my point of view out and learn a lot. It wasn't so much they didn't do that shirt per se. They they but they just liked that I I just assumed everybody knew how to sew and make pat you know do patterns because my dad always told me if you want to be the best, work for the best. And I just wanted to um learn as much as I could. And so that's how I really got started. And for me it was really important to know the basics and to learn as much as I can because I do feel like this industry is uh the people that are really good at it um are studied and and very um into what they do the craft of of making garments and I wanted to be the best at that and it was important for me to understand all the mechanics that go behind uh making apparel. So that's kinda how I got started. And then from there I worked at J. Crew. I was there in the very beginning in ninety two, I'd say ninety three, ninety ninety three, to ninety-five and then I went to Gap and I was there for um three or four years and then I went back to Ralph. Um this was more of a full-time paying job the first job I had was much more of like an intern. I didn't really get paid. Back when you could do that. Yeah. Back when you did that. Back when you could get away with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Oh, I used to have to do everything. I mean, I cleaned out closets. I mean it was just like I did all the grunt work and then yeah, we actually hire a lot of interns. Um clean the closets. We make them clean the closets. It's good for you. You have to. It's honestly my entire summer inter
Unknown nship I just organized closets. Like that's it. Exactly
Unknown . And it does build character. And my my dad used to say to me, build character. And I'm like, I got enough character, but it does. It makes you realize you don't want
Unknown to organize closets. Exactly. Right. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, what was it like coming from Des Moines and then working for Ralph? Moving to New York City and working for Ralph, who who kind of had inspired you to do this in the
Unknown first place? That must have been must it didn't
Unknown make. it. Yeah, it was amazing It was a dream come true
Unknown . It really I had an amazing opportunity. And I've I've been very fortunate in my career. But it was always very calculated. I didn't you know, I wanted to work at Ralph Lauren so that was I knew that I needed to work there for free. I need to get my foot in the door. Yeah. And I knew that if I worked for Ralph that anybody would hire me. And sure enough, that's what became kind of the reason. I mean, a lot of it is your resume that you have and and um having those quality um experiences is everything especially in fashion it's yeah everybody's always like oh where'd you work I mean the first thing everyone always asks in an interview is like well where'd you work? And if you said, you know, I worked at Walmart, they'd be like, see ya, you know, they're not gonna hire you. Yeah, it's not quite Ralph. And it's not quite, you know, being an engineer either. But um you know, then I knew that I needed to start off the right way, but I think when I offered um I when I offered when I asked them, you know, to hire me and I'd work for free, they were kind of blown away. They just I just remember the person who hired me as like kind of like, what? You would do this for free? And I didn't realize how expensive New York was until I got here. I was like, holy moly. That that was probably the biggest shock is just the cost of everything. I remember in the summer I was doing an internship at r at Ralph and I I remember like in Iowa you could take out like twenty bucks a week and it would last you all week because you know beers were like fifty cents to a dollar because in college town. Um in New York it was like 10 bucks, you know, it's just like it was a and but that was kind of the ratio of everything. It was just is about ten times more expensive. So I was literally going my calling my dad, I was going through probably two hundred bucks a week, just just simple like going to work and I w ate a lot of pizza because that was the most affordable thing. And um I just worked really hard and and it it got me far. It really and uh people always ask me like what are the what do you what's your advice to kids or, you know, people coming up in the industry and I've always said and the first thing is to work hard. Um, the second uh thing is to innovate and the third most important thing, and this is where everybody fucks it up, is be nice. And they you wouldn't believe how many people screw that up. It's it is a thing that, you know, people think they have to have attitude to get ahead. And it's the exact opposite, because the last thing I want to do is work with a bunch of, you know, assholes. Right. And I think most people feel that way. Ye
Unknown ah. Yeah. Life motto, don't be an asshole. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It applies to the table. I only have two two rules in life. Don't be an idiot and don't be an asshole. Yeah. If you follow those two rules, you're fine. It's not that hard. So after Ralph, right, you you did Ralph, you ended up going back. But then you go to J. Crew and to the gap. Um so basically between Ralph Gap and G. Crew, those are kind of like three pillars of American fashion and specifically American menswear. Yeah. Um what what do you kind of take out of that experience as kind of like bigger, lessons you learn there sort of relatively early on in your in your career about what makes American menswear kind of different or or special or kind of rules that you live by in that in that wor
Unknown ld Well I think Ralph kind of epitomized American menswear and I think what he did so well and it was kind of like boot camp in a way. I I only worked there two years and well three years in total between the internship and the full time. It is like boot camp. I mean it feels like dog ears we always say like being there two years is like seven years anywhere else because it is so intense and Ralph and Jerry's brother really have a specific look that they're going for. But that it always has to have ch you know, if evolution and and change, but it still has that look that they and so Ralph was always able to and he still does is is kind of reinvent the classics and make them new again, whether it was pair of cargo shorts or whether it was a rugby or um even the PK Polo, you know, which was they called the mesh polo. They really kind of took that iconic piece um of American fashion and kind of made it their own. They almost you almost think that they invented it. You know, like the mesh polo, you you kind of think that they invented that. Um I don't think they were, but um they certainly kind of made it their own. And they did that with everything, you know, uh the Chinos to um you know Oxford shirts and things like that really kind of became their signatures. And they for me, kind of taking those classic American icons, whether it's a button-down Oxford shirt, uh a PK Polo, a pair of Chinos, that kind of gave me the foundation. And that also kind of was echoed throughout um J. Crew and certainly Gap was, you know, famous for doing the pocket and and making that in millions of colors. And that for me has always been American and and um I feel really fortunate to have been at all those places because I was able to learn from the best and and build product that was great quality that uh also had just a little bit of a twist on it that made it new and interesting. And a lot of those things I've kind of put into my own collection now and really were what I try to do is is make a luxury version of all those things. Whether it's a we have a chino uh that's made out of Japanese selvage fabric. It's made in it's made in LA. It's 198 bucks. Amazing fit. Because I know how to fit a garment and I know how to pick the right fabric, I know how to put the right wash, the right button. All those things together make a great uh garment. And I'm able to kind of survey all the different fabric from Japan to Italy to from wherever and build something unique and and at a great price. I mean our chinos at 198 might sound expensive, but to be made in the USA. Um, and then if you compare them to you know Tom Brown or Tom Ford or any other designer, they're probably $100 less than them. But we're probably $100 more or $150 And those are generally the pieces that sell incredibly well for us. And those are always the first things to go every season
Unknown . I think people know the end results of but may not know that you're behind. Uh we're bringing the idea of these collaborations uh into kind of the I won't say the mass market, but kind of the broader, broader market. Um I mean you were doing these pretty early on at J. Crew, you know, the collaborations with people like Red Wing. I think we all take for granted now that like everybody everybody collabs. Everybody, you know, this person and that person get together and they bring in some celebrity designer and they do this three-way thing and something crazy happens. But um back then it was it was kind of a crazy idea to have these special products that were, you know, made by one brand for another brand, they were co-designed, that whole thing. What where did that come from originally
Unknown ? Well um I really have always been inspired by travel and I used to get to travel a lot and I still do travel way too much actually. But I'm always able to you know Japan is probably my favorite place to go. And I think the collaborations really came from my visits there. Um because I think um come to your son was probably the first to start doing that in in a big way. And for me, it never really came over to the States, which I always found very strange. And I think, yeah, you're probably right. We we were probably the first ones to do big collaborations. Now everybody's doing it, you know, off whites like every week there's a new collaboration. KISS has a new collaboration. Um we're occasionally guilty of it. Yeah. Once in a while. But but it it's interesting 'cause I think it it's it's it's totally accepted now, which is great. I mean it it just means you're getting a different spin on on things and you're there's some really cool, interesting collaborations that come out that you know, blow me away, that that um you know, whether it's you know some of the home stuff I've been seeing by people, um, the things that I think design within reach are now starting to do more of, they're starting to work with other creatives. You just seen differences in what people are playing with. And I think I think one of the coolest things I've ever seen is, you know, I don't know if you ever saw Jonathan Ives when he did the uh like a camera. Yeah. I mean, I think it was sec. It was just like It was insane. He was like, I gotta have that. I don't know if I've ever wanted something as badly as I wanted that. And that was like the coolest thing I've ever seen. And that's where I get excited by it. That to me is like a true like new collaboration. Like to and and we're we continue doing them. I think it's really important. I feel like I was one of the first to do 'em so we're gonna continue to do 'em. Um and you're still doing 'em? We're still doing 'em. I th I think our our most uh famous one is the one we've we've done with Champion. Um and the second's probably Timex. Um but we continue to do 'em probably once a quarter. We we have a bird birdwall, shouldn't we have Birdwall one coming out soon. Um oops. Uh they're they're a friend of the show, so I think we'll uh they'll let it slide. But um but yeah, I mean I just like working with great brands that I admire and have um there's a heritage that they have and a story that they have that I can't duplicate and I'd rather work with them and doing and do something exclusive that you can only get in our store and you can only get online. And it's really important to have that. Um we do sell some of that stuff wholesale, but not a lot of it. Um the the champion is all premium product. We make it ourselves. We actually make it. Um we design it. We make it in Canada. It's all premium product. It's not made in, you know, some sweatshop. It's made in a in a quality place up in Toronto, Canada. And that to me is what you know, I believe the the consumer wants. They want something a little better. You know, they want something that's familiar, but they want the best version of it. And they want to feel like they're getting value as opposed to just buying into a brand because it's cool. They want to know that it's gonna be around for a while. Yeah. So it's been those are the kinds of things that I like working with brands I like working with. And I'm always looking for new ways to kind of express and work in a different way and and I think you see it in all I think the music industry's done a great job of collaborations and whenever musicians get together and they do something and it and when it's good it's phenomenal, you know, and and that's an inter
Unknown esting way to think about it. I think that's yeah. Not a connection I immediately made, but that's that's an interesting way to think about it. Yeah, and I think the same thing with like food now
Unknown too. I think you're starting to see a lot of people cross pollinate. Um you know, I I think that for me is kind of uh I've always used food as an analogy as well in kind of how I m design. It it's it's not, you know, the ingredients are relatively known. Um, it's how you put them together that makes them new. And any great chef or any great architect knows all of those pieces and it's how they, you know, change them and and change kind of the formula and how things go together that make them new again. And I think that's the same way in design. I mean menswear for the most part for the last century have has been relatively the same. Guys are still wearing suits, they're still wearing ties, they're still wearing shirts, you know, denim probably came into play in the fifties. Um, you know, and they subtle changes here and there, and then you had active come along. But all of these things you kind of just have to be aware of and knowing which, you know, part to mix in when and and how big to make it. That that's really kind of what design is for me is looking what's out there, especially in menswear, there's not a lot. We don't have dresses um exactly sometimes we do. Um incidents. Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing. Um Mark Jacobs always looks good in one. So um that's true. But yeah, so it's that that's how I design and that's how I put things together is is really kind of taking things from the a classical sense and trying to make them a little bit more modern is really where where I try to play
Unknown . And now a word from our sponsor. Tutors made a name for themselves over the last few years with their heritage line of watches, which combine old school styling with modern watchmaking. One of those watches is the Black Bay Chrono.
Unknown Aaron Powell Yeah, I remember when I saw the Black Bay Chrono at Basel World for the very first time a couple years ago and was really impressed with the clean design, wearability, and just the overall feel of the
Unknown watch. Yeah, I mean you get things like the snowflake hands and an in-house movement that has a column wheel chronograph with a vertical clutch, but it doesn't feel fussy or over engineered. No, it's a true tool watch, and I was really glad that they came out with that. Yeah, and if you want to see one in person, you can go to your local authorized dealer or, you can go to Tutor Watch.com to learn more. Let's get back to the show
Unknown . I have a question. What's your dream collaboration? I don't know if I can tell you that. Okay. If you name like
Unknown three, but don't actually name one that you spend. I would really like to work with um I would I I I do think an architecture firm would be great. I do think some sort of interiors are um just because I really do love doing that. When when I was concepting the store and building the store it would kind of remind me my mom's a interior designer and and artist. So it kind of brought me back to that and then I used to help her out on when she would work and stuff and I was always kind of her guinea pig to like paint the room and for her and stuff. So for me it was always the yeah, I took it for granted to a degree, but I do feel like I come full circle in in that. So interiors is something that I really like. Um I could see myself doing. I don't know. I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of brands that I have on my list that I'd like to work with. You know, some are easier than others to contact, and some we have some really cool ones though coming up in the next year that are I think gonna blow people away. They're not gonna be like the we're gonna continue doing Timex, we're gonna continue doing champion. But we have some really special ones that are going to be like, oh that's cool. You know, and not everybody's gonna be able to get the item, but it'll be something that'll be like, Oh shit, that's cool. And that's that's kind of why I I do it. It is a I want I want to feel that, um and I wanna you know surprise with Timex and I get I'm like the only one they allow in their archives, which is huge. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it's really cool and it's it's um they don't let anyone else in there. So and they have thousands and th I mean it literally took me half a day to go through and only I think I only got through half. Okay. It was exhausting. Um but it's so much fun because I love I've always loved thrift shopping. I've always um liked shopping in general, but I really like thrift shopping because you can get things that are one of a kind that you may never see again. Right. And um so for me it's it's kinda like I get to play a little bit and shop and then reimagine what it should be or and the and the Marlin really kinda came from them actually and they were um gonna launch it and I'm like w I want that, like that, you know. It was kinda like toys. You're like, I want that one. Give it to me. Yeah. Yeah. And and they did. They g we got our own exclusive color and and um it's really great working with them 'cause the you get to work with their creative team and that's where it just the magic happens. You really just you know, you start putting creative people in a room together and you you know give them some toys to play with and good things tend to happen. Yeah and you've been working with them a while, right? Yeah, I think I mean I started with them at J. Crew um when I was there. Our our first collaboration at J. Crew was actually Jack Purcell actually. And then we did Red Wing. And then we did Timex. And then Mickey was like, What else you got? And then that's when the list came out and we just started, you know, um coming up with kind of the ultimate collaboration list. And they're not easy because you can't just call brands say, hey, we want to do clock because everybody's doing that right now. Right. But also even when when I was at J. Crew, it took years to get, you know, Red Wing to do it. And then Red Wing today is is still one of their best selling shoes for them or boots. And um it it just it happened organically but it took a lot of time to get it. So it's always really important to make sure you I work with a brand that understands kind of what I do and I'm not gonna damage what they're about. But it definitely has kind of set the tone for our brand because you know I'm not gonna try to do an athletic brand that that is like a fake athletic brand. I'd I'd rather partner with something someone like Champion who's got this rich heritage, been around since nineteen nineteen, um and invented the sweatshirt. Like what what's better way to work with somebody than the originator, you know? Being able to say you invented the sweatshirt is a pretty good thing. They had a patent on it. They have a patent on it. But they actually patented way back in like the I want to say the fifties or something. What does that patent even look like? I would love to see that patent look. What is it a patent? What is it for? Like for the ID. It's for the reverse weave. The reason and it was like the their V insert basically way back then just hit the microphone um uh way back then uh uh the kind of the athletic wear of choice was always wool because wool was the best performing um fabric because it was warm. Usually guys are outside running, they're they're freezing their butt off and wool was the and wool would wick a little bit of moisture and also um keep you warm. Um and then the sweatshirt came along and so they um invented the reverse weave sweatshirt and they patented it and they created the V insert that was in the front that allowed for it to stretch over your head. They had these expansion gussets in the side that that you see on most traditional sweatshirts. That was because it wanted to expand because the fabric wasn't that didn't stretch that much back then. Okay. Um so they wanted it to come over the someone's head. Um they wanted it to fit there, but all fit on the side, and then if things shrank, it could have the expansion gussets so that it would and the reason why they turned the jersey or the reverse weave fleece was so that the shrinkage wouldn't affect um the length as much. So it shrank a little bit more in the the length of the the fabric as opposed to the width of the fabric. Oh, that's super interesting. Yeah. So it's all those little things you find out, you're like, holy shit, this is cool. I mean I remember the first time I w I took a tour of the Red Wing factory in Red Wing, Minnesota, and you just I was blown away that y you think things just pop out of a machine and then when you see you know people working on these things and you see how much how proud they are of what they do and they do this every single day and there's guys and girls or guys and girls, guys and women that have been in doing this for thirty some years and this is their pride and joy. And then you see it come out and you're like, you know, I'd pay double that, you know, when you when you kind of see the love that goes into it and the pride that goes into it. So for me, I try to tell that story and and I try to educate our consumer on you know, you might like this sweatshirt, but it did you know it's made in Toronto, Canada and it's, you know, second generation factory and and um they treat their employees amazing, they've you know, have a great quality of life and fair wages. There's no um you know, people there probably make about as much as we do. I mean minimum wage is about the same. I think it could getting higher. Um but you know we want to do a quality garment. We just don't want to make it in the cheapest place ever because I look at fashion and especially menswear what I do, it's an investment. It's something you're probably gonna have for ten years if not twenty. Like a sweatshirt to me never goes out of style. A trench coat should never go out of style. And sure we have fashion pieces that you can layer in between that, but making sure that those essentials and those classic items are like really well done and s thinking that you're gonna own them for your your lot your whole life. And that's kind of how I think about clothes. I still have sweatshirts in my closet that I've had for you know since I was a J. Crew. Um I've now changed because obviously I'm doing my own, but um but there are things in my closet that I've had for for decades. So and it's important to me to make sure that that we do beautiful things but also quality things that are gonna last a long time and and are gonna be a little bit more elegant and luxurious than Aaron Powell Well, uh I have
Unknown to circle back to Timex 'cause are we are we allowed to talk about this? You brought with you a couple of watches, but you brought a new Marlin
Unknown . Correct, yeah. I have um I have one here. I you got the scoop right now. Um can't really see it. Yeah. It's really cool. Um but no, it's it's a beautiful watch. It's the w the thing I like about Timex, um the Marlins uh specifically, Timex for me was really near and dear to my heart just because it was the first watch my dad and my grandfather ever wore. And it's you know, for the most part I think was m the only thing my dad wore. Um my dad wasn't really into watches. It was, you know, a time keeping piece that he always wore, but Timex is for me it was always the watch that has always been there. And so it was really neat to be able to work with them. And then I feel like I'm still kind of like searching for what was the and I don't remember exactly what the watch was, but I know it was a Timex. Um he had an expansion bracelet on it and the and the whole thing. Those are so cool. Yeah, it was really cool. I he had really hairy arms. I don't know how he wore it without anyway. He um so I'm always kind of feel like I'm searching for what is that watch and I, I kinda have it in my head. And the Marlin is, I think, closest to what it is. Um, so it's really kind of special to be able to do it and to be able to um have we have an exclusive color uh last time we did one I think it was about four or five months ago and it sold out immediately I think in like two days.
Unknown Yeah I remember we all wanted them. Cara and I saw them at your store actually Uh and all wanted them and even called Timex and like couldn't we couldn't.
Unknown Yeah. Try again next time. Watches for me, I think I've always been a huge fan of them, but I think in the last I'd probably say the last decade, last 10 years, I've really I think I can now actually afford to buy watches. Before I would always dream about it, and I always had one watch up until about fifteen years ago. Um And what was that watch? It's the Rolex GMT. I had one before that, um, which was a um a sub from Tudor, actually. And like an idiot, I traded it in and uh been there. And you know, I th I I was pumped because I was I think I paid like at the time maybe a thousand bucks for it. It was the most expensive thing I ever bought. Um and I sold it for twenty two hundred dollars. And I'm like, this is amazing. I was like, this is amazing. And I'm thinking, yep, that was the best thing I ever did. And I bought the GMT with it. And I think I paid I think I paid like four grand for the GMT. And you know, now I look back and I'm like, I look at those same dates and I'm like, son of a bitch. I mean, the GMT, I mean, thank God I kept that. Um that's probably worth like I don't know, you guys probably know more than I would. How much is it? Okay, I'll take that. Um it's not for sale. But yeah, that one um is pretty special because that was like my first real watch. Actually I think it bought that when I was at Ralph. Um I just I got like a huge pay raise. I I um uh went from being like a designer at Gap to like a director at Ralph and then and you know I was at Ralph so I had to really like Yeah you gotta commemorate that somehow too and show up. Yeah just show up. And so I bought that watch and and that so that's when I did the trade and I I still but I I did okay. I I still net net. I probably made you know, if I ever sell that I'd probably make six, seven grand off of it. So um so that's um but yeah I have quite a few watches here. I I probably now have a what else uh what else did you bring along? Well I have a couple um I have a few Timex watches. The first one I ever did with um Timex, which was the mod. It's the one with the red um kind of concentric circles, uh red and black. Yeah, and I think we actually called it the bullseye in the beginning, but obviously, you know, with target out there we really don't want to call the bullseye. That makes sense. Um and but that one was our very first one that we did with them on our own. Um and that thing blew out. I mean all of 'em as soon as we launched them like a week later they were gone. But the Bullseye um mod watch did incredible. And then the other one I have, which is my another one of my I mean it's hard to say they're all my favorites, but they all are. Um is the um maritime sport and that's the one that's um has the um I changed the strap on it actually. It's we have it we did it in a black and also a white case or a silver case with a white face. Um and I I love that watch because it it's chunky, it kind of just gives you a different look, it's a little bit more sporty. Um and I paired it with this really cool olive kind of military strap. Um, and then the other one I have is actually giving you guys a first look, a first preview. More breaking news on the Dinky Radio. Dun dun dun is another Timex that uh I'm working on with um it probably won't come out for another two years but this I it was a great watch and and I actually took it off one of the execs from Timex. Um I mean he took it off for me, but I asked him. So he's he's a lot bigger than me, trust me. He's he's he's a big guy. And um he was wearing it and I'm like, that's an amazing watch. So whenever I see him, I I try to jump on him and and try to get ahead of it. It is like finding gold. Like you see them and you're like, oh my gosh, we have to do this. And so it it's gotten me into a new um it's almost like a different sandbox that I get to play in. You know, I get to play with other people's toys. So it's really fun to be able to work on this. But this watch is gonna be, I think, really successful for us and is and for them. Um it's it's super sophisticated, it's it's got a date and um uh day of the week as well on it. Which is really I always thought why do I need that? But it's actually kinda cool when you're you know, you're in a hurry and I I don't I'm not the type of person that necessarily looks at my um phone to get the date and stuff. It's a lot easier when you look at your watch and some days I can't remember what it is, if it's a Friday or Monday or whatever. So it's nice to be able to have that and it's it's cool. It's very retro looking, but it's still kind of chic and sleek looking too at the same time. So I'm excited for that one. Um and then the other ones are just uh a couple vintage ones. Um there's a Hamilton military, I think it's in the nineteen sixties, I guess. You guys would probably know more than me. And then this really cool uh Speedmaster from Omega. Um and that one's amazing. That's uh it's hard to find time to actually wear them all. Um the other one that I'm wearing, I'm actually wearing a Tudor Ranger, which is I've had this for about three years. I love it. It's it reminds me of and Tutor is a a brand is a brand. I mean, I love all these brands, but you know, Tutor as far as like buying a uh luxury watch, th they're the best. Um they're obviously owned by um Rolex. But they're really kind of making these you know, and we could probably debate about Rolex today. I I I love Rolex, I I like vintage better. Um because I don't really like where they're going on the contemporary line. There are people who share that opinion for sure. Yeah. Um but I love and it if anything it's made I'm sure you guys know the the vintage one's a lot more expensive. Sure. sure has Yeah. And uh but I feel like Tudor is coming right behind them with some really cool watches. And one of my favorites, um, and I'm not gonna remember the darn name. I think it's uh do you remember what this one is? I can't remember. I um oh the chronograph. The chronograph yeah the black bait chronograph yeah yeah chronograph thank you yeah I love I love this watch and and it's it's beautiful. It it reminds me like of all the watches I love, but it's it but it's its own thing. Yeah, whereas the Ranger to me I love and I wear this probably the most um besides the Timex um the um military one. But this one I love and it reminds me of the Explorer. Explorer from but it's like a bigger version. And I can't David has a who's here has a really cool explorer. I love it. It's one of my favorite watches. I'm wearing one too. Yeah, easy. Full full disclosure. I'm wearing one also. Ooh. But it's I'm a little bigger than you guys, so it's hard for me to pull that off. Whereas the Ranger kind of does that for me. So that's what I love about this. But then the chrono from Tutor it reminds me of all the watches that I loved, all the chronograph watches I love, but and but it's its own style. It has its own design. It it doesn't it looks like a lot of different watches I love and they kind of just m all made a baby. Which is kind of cool. So how do you
Unknown like so do you think about w your outfit first and then the watch or do you think about the watch and then the outfit? Um and I say outfit because that's what I you know it sounds like maybe a little feminine. No, no nothing's feminine. Boys have feminine. Boys have outfits too. There's nothing wrong
Unknown with me saying I look feminine. Um Yeah. They uh no it's it's really kind of more I mean I will I've been known to like change my um NATO strap to kind of like compliment an outfit um and I will change watches depending on where I'm going. You know, obviously if I'm going to a formal event, I don't wear like a big sports watch. I try to get a little cleaner and a little bit more sophisticated without you know being too clean. I and that's kind of where I go into like the Speedmaster or the GMT 'cause like just like the the steel. It's a little cleaner. And then I usually wear the um the NATO straps whether and these are actually a hodinky by the way. Oh little product placement. There we go. Amazing. I mean what you guys have done with these straps have really kind of reinvented my collection. They really kind of um it is it's almost like having a new watch and it's a new look. Um you know this one on the um chrono is a leather band, the NATO strap that you guys did that I love because it looks like it's been around forever. The strap has, and then you got this really cool chunky steel watch attached to it. It's really neat. But I do typically put the watch on after. Um occasionally because there's certain watches that I want to wear this and I think we all at least g us guys suffer from this is like I wanna look like Stephen Queen today, so I'm gonna wear my whatever. Um it and I I do do that sometimes. You kinda think that oh I'd I'd love to kind of pull off like a cool um retro feel or a military kind of vibe that I just remember all those old photos and I still you know all the books and stuff that I've been collecting. You know, seeing James Dean and sh you know, seeing Steve McQueen and Paul Newman and just how they dressed and the watch was always kind of like the centerpiece in a way to me anyway.
Unknown It's one of the cool things about the fact that menswear hasn't changed all that much is those old photos still can be really inspiring and not in a sort of abstract way, but you can you can literally dress just like that. Yeah. With a couple little modern twists and it looks it looks totally fine and normal and great today. Whereas I think women's fashion because it cycles so much faster and sort of more drastically, uh you know, if you if you do that it can end up looking a little little costumey. Um but with men's
Unknown area you can you can do that. You can get away with it. Yeah, I think that's what's really cool about menswear. I mean and in today it's it's you you've got to be aware of the whole street fashion thing. And I think it's really important. It's very cool. Um, you know, certainly with all the champion that we do, um we we were selling more of it now than we ever did. It's unbelievable. Like it is the hottest brand out there. And it's the sweatshirt is is king. The hoodie is kind of like the the jacket of choice now. And and I've I've always kind of like rooted myself in kind of those classics and and it's important because I think for anyone's style you kind of want to define your yourself and and have a base and have kind of like I always look at it like in architecture you have to have a great foundation. And I think in dressing it's really important to have great basics. And then with those basics you can buy whatever is kind of like trend right today. And right now it's you know, the cool sneaker, like what what is the sneaker or or what is the the cool hoodie or the baseball jacket or whatever, not just because I'm wearing a baseball jacket and sneakers. But anyway. Um but it's like layering that on to you know uh a a great pair of dress trousers or you know, I had some guys at the store today which was you know, I have a really amazing staff that they dress incredibly well. And I've always heard from customers just saying like we love going in there just because you have you know great ideas and I get a lot of ideas from your your staff just how they're dressed. So we have a lot of guys that will wear sneakers with a suit and they do it the right way. And and a lot of people are like, what do you mean? Like if you look on ESPN and you see how these guys, all these sportscasters have like discovered that sneakers are in, so they're trying to rock sneakers, but then they're wearing 'em with the a really bad suit and the suit's like super wide leg and it's like bunching up and it's not tailored very well and and it there's a balance. And you kinda have to know what age range you're in to like pull that kind of look off and sometimes you probably shouldn't be wearing sneakers. Um or get a better suit. Or get a better suit and get a good tailor. And in that there's you know all these nuances and how to dress better and tailoring is probably the at the forefront and having a good tailor um which we have at the store is critical uh because you can really screw up an outfit if you don't have it tailored right
Unknown Yeah. Yeah. So if there was one watch that w is not here with us today that you would want, what would that watch be? Do you have do you have something out there, your your white whale, the thing you're still searching for? Yeah, and I almost caught the white wh
Unknown ale. Um Yeah, um actually David and I, David Bruno uh works with me, has been with me for seven years. And we went to Hawaii for a fashion show. We were actually showing at Honolulu Fashion Week about three years ago. And um we went to this amazing watch store that actually Michael Williams told us about. And um we get there and and they had they buzz you into the special room to like look at all the great watches and I saw the explorer to Steve McQueen that's got the orange uh hand and and there it was. And I was dating a a new girl and it was probably like when I first started dating her and I was like, oh, and I was like, I gotta get this watch. And she's like, no, no, you don't need it, you don't need it. And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, get the watch. And I passed on it. And the watch had papers, had the box. I even texted Ben. Ben, what do you think? It was like, I think it was 16,000 at the time. And I was trying to be like, oh, can I get to fourteen thousand? And the guy was like, No, I get you know, again, hard no. Hard no. And and rightfully so. I mean the papers were everything. And that to me is probably my my favorite watch ever. And in fact I've got your team hunting for one for me. I'm sure we'll find you soon. There was an and then a year ago it came. Lewis, God bless him, had one and and he kind of showed it to us. And you know, for us selling watches at the store is great, but sixteen thousand dollars is on the high end, we sell a lot of like eight thousand dollar watches, four thousand dollar watches. And sixteen was like, oof, you know, that's a lot. So at the you know, at the time we kind of paused on it and I was considering just buying it. And then four days later it was gone. And um so yeah, that that is my white whale that just keeps coming and going. I think that's when we can find you. I think that's that might happen. I'm hoping I can hear it in your voice that like every time I see you guys we have events, that's I probably talk half hour about it. I say I tell that to you? Yeah. Yeah, I say that same story, in fact. I think when we were at the auction, I think I was telling about that. But anyway. It's um it's out there. It's out there. I know. You'll have something to look forward to. Yeah. The right one is waiting for you. I'm still dating the same girl so we'll see if I can actually get it. That's g
Unknown onna be the hard part. You have to convince someone else that you need it. Yeah. Yeah So to to wrap things up, we thought it'd be good to to ask for kind of a recommendation, something p people can go do after listening to the show. So whether it's you know a movie to go see or a piece of culture they should check out um what what do you recommend I think cara maybe we'll start with you this we
Unknown ek okay so something that I thought about before and it actually has nothing to do with anything that we talked about in this show, but except for maybe your three rules of success. It's something that I read every week and I really recommend that everybody reads it. Uh it's in the New York Times style, obviously. And it's the social cues. And I don't know if you guys read it weekly, but they always have they've three questions about like what to do, whether it's like, you know, my child is getting divorced or like my sister's mean to me and won't talk to me anymore, like how do I deal with this? Or like you know, my kid got in trouble at school and I mad at the teacher and like all of a sudden the person writes kind of a response on like how to handle it. And it was really quick. But anyways I always find it like so insightful and like really applicable to like day to day. 'Cause like you know what? That's great. Social graces are still important. All right. Great. That's amazing. I I have to check that out. I haven't. Yeah, it's it's every Thursday. Really?
Unknown All right. Uh Todd, what about you? Um it's hard to pick one. Um my my biggest thing, I mean I love food and um I've been fortunate to to be able to work with some amazing chefs. Um Chef Dan Kluger um from Loring Place and uh Chef Daniel Hum from Levin Madison. You guys are neighbors. We're neighbors and and actually quite close. We actually designed the uniforms for the staff there. Which was amazing. Yeah, they look very good. Um and the food's amazing. I think uh somebody said the uh they say the food is almost as good as the as the clothing. I think somebody joked about that. But it's definitely not. The food's better than the clothing, I have to say. I mean his his food's amazing. Um and then I've been able to work with Jason Atherton, who's uh clocktower uh restaurant. So I love going to those restaurants. Those are probably my go-tos. Um number one because I I love those guys and probably two because I can get in. That's a good thing at those places. But the food's amazing. the And and and that's for me, I I there's a lot of uh uh things uh inspirationally that I get from them. Even just talk I had uh lunch with Chef uh Dan last week, um Dan Kluger. And it was great just to see what he ordered and just to see what the w I mean I just kinda wanted to just follow him and just be like, I'll do what he's doing. And that's pretty much what we we did. Actually David and I were there and we're just like, whatever he has, we'll it's great when you find people like that. And um, but then you kind of talk to him about his kind of philosophy and and and he doesn't think much about it. He's he's kinda like, I don't know, I just make great food. And I'm like, Yeah, you do. But but the way he does it, and the way he thinks about it, and the way his he and and he's really focused on what he's doing, um, where he's getting the you know all his ingredients from and how he thinks about a new dish. And there's so many similarities to what I do that I kind of, you know, it's nice to know that creatively, you know, I torture myself and and sometimes I think well maybe I'm odd because I to always and I I torture myself constantly that I you know my collection's not good enough or especially before fashion week. It's just it's nerve wracking 'cause you're putting yourself out there. But he goes through the same thing, you know, and and um, you know, he he's very very likable guy, but he's also a little bit shy and and for him it''ss um and that where I kind of feel the comfort, but also makes me feel like okay, it's not that bad. I'm not that much different than most people. So great
Unknown . So I actually I'm gonna recommend that if you're in New York City, whether you're based here or just visiting, go spend more time than you think you should at the Met. Okay Um I live on the Upper East Side not too far from there and there's always a giant line of tourists out out the door and it's a giant pain. But uh last weekend I went and just walked around for like two and a half, three hours, found a whole bunch of places in that museum that I did not know existed. Uh places I've been going to that museum since I was a little kid uh and saw things I've never seen before. Whole sections of the museum. Um it is an amazing place. It is just a great place to go. Even if you don't read a single plaque, you're just walking around looking at things, uh, you're gonna come out of there feeling better than when you walk Oh that's good. So well thank you so much Todd for joining us and thank you Kara for being here as well. This was great. Yeah, this is amazing.
Unknown So is there the you guys you guys didn't bring any watches? What's going on? Uh today I am wearing my thirty seven millimeter Royal Oak, stainless steel with ruthenium dial. Ooh. Last movement. Wow, I'm glad I didn't have to recite that. Apparently only two. Watch one, watch two. Really? Yeah
Unknown . Supposedly. That's what I've been told. Very rare, very fancy. Would we expect anything less
Unknown ? I don't know, you tell me. What what what is w the pressure must be tough, right? I me
Unknown an I I wore a quartz watch
Unknown my first week of hooding and it didn't go over very well. Somebody legitimately once made a fart noise. Thumbs down at me. At an event. It wasn't member, it was like s a guest and I was like, I gotta step up my game when you don't have my te
Unknown am. I can imagine. I remember the going to that that thing at what is it at Phillips uh auction house? I've never felt so poor and unknowledgeable in my entire In the watch world, that is a familiar feeling. Familiar set of feelings, actually. Okay, like time to bust the piggy bank and get it
Unknown . But it's the same, you must feel the same thing. You know, you've you show up somewhere, people expect you to look good. I can occasionally roll into work in like, you know, an old pair of jeans and a like not great sweatshirt and it's fine, you know? That's not true. You always bring your in-game and
Unknown war. I didn't have to be a But that's actually really cool. I mean that that's the great thing about watches. And I I still th think that's why I like what Paul Newman and and Steve McQueen look like. Because you know, Steve McQueen always looked cool as hell wearing a white t-shirt, uh, you know, his Rolex and a pair of jeans or a chino. It was the coolest look. And you know, of course he'd roll it up just perfectly. But I'm sure it wasn't intentional. The trick is just to wear the same thing every day. There you
Unknown go. But in a different color or variation. Yeah. I think I uh I think I've got that one down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm wearing a uh a Rolex Explorer, a 1016, a really early one on a stretchy rivet bracelet, which I'm very, very into. With a guilt dial. Alright, yeah. So it has a guilt dial. Don't be a little bit a really nice guilt dial. But uh yeah, I looked for this watch for a long time. It was a case of you know, I wanted it and the moment I decided I was like ready to go for it, the supply completely dried up. And like there were none to be found. They were everywhere for a year. And then I was like, you know what? I'm ready. I'm ready to do this. And the moment I was ready to do it, there were none to be found. But luckily, a friend who's a dealer um found one from the original owner. Uh it was in really rough shape. Uh it was just like really gross and like somebody had actually worn it for like probably 40 years. Um and he he gave it a little TLC and uh yeah, now I'm enjoying it. It's a beautiful watch. Thank you very much
Unknown . I may have to mug you on the way out. Please don't do that. But uh yeah. This is awesome. I I always love talking and shop with you guys and it it it's truly an honor to not only have you in the store um with your watches but also just to be a part of your your whole everything that you guys do. It's it's really awesome. Oh my thank you. L
Unknown ikewise. It's always a pleasure. Great. Thanks, Todd. Have a good one. Thanks. Thank you again to Todd and Kara for joining us. This week's episode was produced by Grayson Korhonen and was recorded at Dubway Studios in New York City. Please remember to subscribe and to rate the show. Thank you for listening and we,'ll see you next week.