CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT OUTERBANKS?
OUTERBANKS is actually a completely new exciting contemporary European fashion brand that is inspired by the spirit of the native wilderness and unspoiled natural beauty of the barrier islands in front of the coast of North Carolina, USA, produced in a fully sustainable manner. We got inspired to design a fashion collection which continues to pay tribute to the free spirit and sporty lifestyle of these islands.
And as we have always been in love with the preppy fashion and lifestyle, we have chosen to follow our hearts to found a brand which focuses on premium-quality products that fuse preppy, ivy-league styles with bohemian styling elements, characterized by sustainable premium fabrics, authentic vintage washes and unique detailing.
WHAT IS A SLOW FASHION BRAND?
Slow fashion is about conscious shopping and wearing clothing with sustainability in mind, from the environment to social impacts. It’s about designing, creating and buying clothing to last a long time. Essentially, when comparing fast fashion with slow fashion it is the exact opposite. Fast fashion is damaging in almost everything it touches, with the environment, product quality and supply chain workers.
But slow fashion is all about fair working conditions, reversing environmental damage, using long term sustainable resources, improving communities, and wearing clothes for longer.
In many ways conflicting with our current attitudes, cheap is not necessarily good and more is not better. Yes, items may be more expensive but you don’t need as much when you know they’ll last. In fact, many people joining slow fashion’s approach choose a more minimalist wardrobe.
Luckily for us, slow fashion is growing in popularity as it falls in line with changing consumer attitudes. Customers now care deeply about the effect of their choices especially when it comes to the environment, product quality and ethical impacts.
Nowadays, it is all about creating new ways to design, manufacture, and purchase clothing. Yes, at OUTERBANKS we like to do differently.
WHAT ARE OUTERBANKS MAIN VALUES?
At OUTERBANKS, we believe it is important to be up front and open about the things we care about the most – and our values have been defined with this in mind. Our values help shape the character and personality of our organization and guide us all in the way we do things around here. We strive to be ambassadors for diversity, inclusion and respect across our business and for our planet.
These values are embedded in our philanthropic initiatives that support our communities and in the partnerships with those who help make our products. We are taking ambitious measures to address our impacts on the environment and support a world that is beautiful and cared for.
Our other values at OUTERBANKS are to love what we do, working together as a big family and having respect for everyone. Naturally, as we are true professionals, we believe also that work has to be enjoyed with lots of laughing, joy and excitement.
WHAT ABOUT BEING SUSTAINABLE AS FASHION BRAND?
With OUTERBANKS, we would like to build a fully sustainable fashion brand with premium quality products to inspire and engage the contemporary style obsessed consumer. Our ambition is to become one of the most sustainable listed global fashion brands on the planet in the near future.
Our goals continue to focus on producing the most sustainable fashion products as possible, whilst protecting our planet and supporting our people and animals in all that we do. We will do anything to leave a positive environmental legacy.
In keeping within OUTERBANKS’ beliefs, we’ve adopted a philosophy of creating products that are premium, timeless and designed to last a sustainable long life. To celebrate our heritage of being a bio-based business, we will continue to source traceable and sustainable materials globally. This is how we continuously will be able to improve ourselves and act on our ethical, environmental and social responsibilities.
OUTERBANKS will be a brand known and loved for improving the planet for the people, the animals and their environment.
We believe this conscious, sustainable approach to designing beautiful products is the future of good business.
HOW DO YOU WANNA ACHIEVE THIS?
Our clear brand positioning is naturally centered on creating amazing clothes, with kind of an obsession about design and premium quality and is underpinned by relentless innovation and commitment to operational excellence in everything we do. We design, produce and sell premium branded apparel to a global marketplace adopting a flexible, capital-light, online approach to markets means we are able to evolve quickly to maximize opportunity.
We embrace digital technology in every aspect of our business model, be that in design, sourcing, marketing or selling. We take time to understand the needs of consumers and leverage the skills and capabilities of our colleagues and business partners to be efficient and responsive to market trends and demands.
OUTERBANKS IS CURRENTLY ONLY ONLINE AVAILABLE?
Yes, indeed. We choose for a totally digital approach with OUTERBANKS.
We think that being digital native is the future and have many advantages. Because such a brand manages the entire business process from design to customer experience, we as producer and brand are standing much closer to the customers and therefore we can typically provide a much better quality of service and support to our customers. Therefore, we are also able to communicate more effectively with our customers in a personalized way through their own and organic channels such as e-mail, SMS and social media.
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked a whole new audience of people who are now more comfortable buying from online brands, many of whom will continue to shop online even after the pandemic has ended after having experienced the ease of use and quality of the services and products experienced, when buying online.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
Although OUTERBANKS is born digital, it does not have to be digital only. This means that the brand can and will expand offline, in the future. Typically, the offline incarnation will be through its own experiential brick-and-mortar retail, or pop-up strategy, or highly selective partnerships. Our idea is that any offline retail business isn’t about stocking up on products, it’s about marketing the brand and delivering great one-to-one customer service. They could be pop-ups. They can be permanent locations. It can be installed at existing retailers.
Currently, all our OUTERBANKS products are only exclusively available via our own website. In the future we will open our own mono brand stores as well. But nothing is decided yet where and when.
At first, we have started with the website and store online to introduce the fashion brand to a broad audience.
We hope everyone who is into these kinds of fashion style will love it and will embrace it!