Footwear company The People’s Movement is moving to a licensing model, partnering with UMC Global.
The brand, also known as MOVMT, launched four years ago, and since that time has garnered a lot of press attention and placement at top fashion boutiques and top-of-the-pyramid doors with its eco-friendly collection, including a new collaboration with will.i.am and the Coca-Cola company.
Co-Founder and CEO Kevin Flanagan answered some questions for us about the new development.
What was your motivation to evolve the business model?
Kevin Flanagan: One lesson I learned from being an athlete is to “play to your strengths.” Where we’ve won with MOVMT is in brand building, connecting with consumers and spreading the MOVMT mission.
Our challenges have come on the supply chain side when dealing with factories that require high minimum order quantities. Also for smaller brands like ours, enforcing quality control can be difficult.
Who is your new business partner?
Kevin Flanagan: MOVMT co-founder, Chris Swortwood, and I were fortunate to meet with many of the major footwear players. We decided to partner with UMC Global due to their deep design and sourcing capabilities. The Musso family and David Corsi operate UMC Global. Chris and I feel they are trustworthy and bring valuable experience to the MOVMT.
In the 70s and 80s, the Musso family was the first to bring the Espadrille from Spain and the Huarache from Brazil to America in a big way. Today, they run a multimillion-dollar footwear business with offices in Spain, Brazil and China. They also continue to proliferate their own UNISA brand globally through retail boutiques, wholesale accounts and licensing partners.
David Corsi is a shoe veteran with 30-plus years of experience. He was an owner of Converse and part of one of the best acquisitions and turnaround stories in the footwear industry when he helped buy Converse out of bankruptcy for $98 million and sold to Nike for $305 million in 29 months.
Corsi moved on to run Gourmet Footwear as the CEO and owner for five years. From there, he ran a business that supplied shoes for companies including Skechers, Roxy and Rocket Dog. He also started his own sourcing company called Oceani Global.
We trust his playbook and the fact that he lives down the street from our MOVMT office in Solana Beach was a bonus.
What will change as far as how the company is operated?
Kevin Flanagan: MOVMT will help with sales, marketing, design, collaborations, networking with customers and web sales. Plus, we will manage IP and trademarks.
UMC will focus on design, sample execution, production, quality control and sales.
Where will the UMC Global look to grow the MOVMT?
Kevin Flanagan: We believe retailers today are looking for brand exclusivity and an authentic story to build new revenue streams. Our goal is to work with channel partners to build the footwear with big margins. We are segmenting the product line and offering each the opportunity to purchase our eco-hip footwear line at attractive prices.
How is the top of the pyramid piece of your business going?
Kevin Flanagan: We’ve been successful in selling MOVMT shoes to top-tier stores like Shaper Studios and the majors like Free People, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters and Harrods. It helps that we have some product innovation like our Hi Tops that contain 50% post-consumer recycled materials and use an average of four assorted recycled 20 oz. PET bottles.
One another note, tell us about Harrods and your collaboration with the EKOCYCLE brand and The Coca-Cola Company?
Kevin Flanagan: The EKOCYCLE™ brand is collaboration between The Coca-Cola Company and global music artist and producer, will.i.am. We were introduced through the stylish Spanish brand, ECOALF, who also participates in the program.
The EKOCYCLE™ initiative partners with lifestyle brands to promote a more sustainable lifestyle through aspirational, yet attainable products made in part from recycled materials. It is a perfect fit for MOVMT. The line launched in Harrods last week.
Can you share any lessons you learned along the way as a start up?
Kevin Flanagan: We learned that “money loves quick decisions.” We started out offering mostly male products and found that women buy more shoes, so we quickly shifted our focus to speak to the female market.
We also learned that displacing well-established brands is challenging. Even with the support of loyal core accounts who support small brands, there is no “just add water” Chia Pet strategy that will “sprout” instant sell-through. We’ve done a good job on placement and promotion and we are looking forward to working with UMC Globe to sharpen our product and pricing.
