British clothing company Belstaff recently hit its 100-year milestone. The next challenge? Preparing for another 100 years in business—while also staying true to the brand’s heritage.
“We’re not a fashion brand. We’re a functional menswear brand, and that’s a really clear and very important distinction,” says chief brand officer Jodie Harrison. She explains that fashion brands create new pieces to follow trends, while Belstaff’s new products maintain a connection to the brand’s iconic designs.
As part of the Belstaff’s centennial, Jodie led an initiative to collect vintage Belstaff products for the company’s archive, which designers use as inspiration for new products. “We have thousands of pieces now at our headquarters, some of them dating back to the early 1930s,” she says.
Here’s how the company is modernizing for the next century.
A return to its roots
Belstaff’s ownership changed hands several times throughout its first 100 years. Though the company was started in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, it also had German and Italian owners at different points in its history. Jodie made it her mission to return the brand to its UK roots. “I was quite keen to bring back that lens of Britishness that I think had been dissolved over the years,” she says.
Part of that initiative meant integrating Stoke-on-Trent into the renovation of Belstaff’s flagship store. The floors have tiles made in the region, with some featuring the brand’s iconic phoenix logo. “We’ve made sure that we use materials that hark back to where we’re from, but at the same time make it very contemporary,” Jodie says.
Consistent brand experience
Along with redesigning the store, the company also embarked on a massive IT transformation, including replatforming to Shopify. “It was a really key project to ensure that when customers come to belstaff.com, that they’re getting the same feeling across all different touchpoints,” Jodie says.
Navid Jilow, Belstaff’s director of technology, says the IT project helped the brand move toward an omnichannel approach. “We really found the proposition where you can combine your point-of-sale and your ecommerce platform under a single platform very appealing,” he says.
With Shopify, Belstaff can gather more robust customer data based on both their online and in-store purchases. “That helps us build that customer profile up rather than having some of these bits missing in our data,” Navid says.
The company also worked with an agency to create an engaging customer experience on the front end that was as seamless and easy to navigate as the in-store experience. Navid explains Shopify’s headless setup allowed Belstaff’s developers to create a unique look for the website.
Old is new again
Lastly, Belstaff is embracing its longevity with the mantra “old is good.” In the current era of fast fashion, Jodie’s prediction is that people will buy less in the next 100 years, and will turn to brands that deliver quality craftsmanship. That’s why the brand is also focusing on sustainability and exploring ways to help customers repair their used Belstaff products. “Being able to buy a coat, wear it for 50 years, and then pass it on to your son is actually a really lovely part of what makes Belstaff special,” Jodie says.
To learn more about what Belstaff is doing to celebrate its 100 years in business, listen to the full interview with Jodie and Navid on Shopify Masters.