Sammy Robinson on building One Mile and rebranding herself

23:31Sammy Robinson:It's such a nice feeling. It is the nicest feeling in the world. It's better compliment. Like it's probably my favorite compliment to receive out of all compliments because I just didn't even realize that there was. I knew there would be other girls out there feeling the same way I did, but it's not necessarily like it was a bad thing. It was just more that it was always just underwhelming every time you would try anything on in other stores. And so for me to know that I've made someone's day or made them feel more beautiful or made them feel more confident, it's just that's fulfilling, very fulfilling.

23:59Sammy Robinson:At what point in your creator career? I also am using the word creator because I am very aware that sometimes people don't like influencer. That and also I myself don't love the word influencer. I feel like it does have a negative connotation. So I'm actively choosing to try and use the word creator if you're like. At what point of your creator journey did you decide that you wanted to launch One Mile? That's a really good question. I can't remember. I just. Is it always in the back of your mind? It was probably wasn't from the beginning. I think it would have just been, you know, I did YouTube for years and years and years.

24:30And I think I just probably got to a stage where I was like, I'm ready for a little more. I'm ready for a challenge. And I think it might have just been, you know, those lingering thoughts at the back of your mind that start to creep forward and they become louder and louder and louder. I think there was no real exact moment where I went, that's what I'm going to do. I think it was just something that was a thought that transpired into just I couldn't stop thinking about it and made a brand. Yeah, started it.

24:52Sammy Robinson:When you pulled the trigger, was it quick succession? You're like, I'm doing this. Ball's in my court. Let's go. Yes. And it was I can't even tell you how naive I was. And the amount of orders I placed of the units I placed, the amount I locked myself into in the beginning, which I'm eternally grateful to myself for now because it really catapulted the brand. gave us amazing cash flow from the beginning and I was able to just build from there. My God, naivety is sometimes a beautiful thing when you start a brand because had I known after the fact, before I started, what I was going to be putting myself into, I may not have done it.

25:28Sammy Robinson:Do you get demons looking back at that? You're like, what were you thinking? Oh my God. Yes. But still, as you said, I'm so glad you did because if you didn't, we wouldn't be where we are today. Totally. And you just, like, I always say you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I always think that as soon as you feel uncomfortable and you're in a moment of life where things are starting to feel really consistent, there's just little challenges here and there. It's just good for the soul. I would say that obviously the landscape is quite crowded. It's common for creators to launch their own brands.

25:58Sammy Robinson:You've touched on creating a point of difference being there was a gap in the market from a product perspective. Can you talk to me about what strategy you've had on building a community in this saturated market? What has been your priority to build that community? Yeah, that's a good question. I think for me, transparency is very important because your customers, I would say transparency and inclusion. I'd say including your customers in and on the journey is the most pivotal thing you can do as a brand because it's free. So social media and anything to do with sort of, anything to do with social media is free.

26:37It's the number one thing that is going to engage a customer beyond anything else. You can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on gorgeous campaigns with beautiful models. It's extremely important for branding, but it's not going to convert. It's not going to be what drives the sale with your community and your customers. So I think cultivating a community, it is so important to just bring them along on the journey and include them in any decision that you make. and you don't need to share you know your classified information and share every unit that you place and all the designs that are coming up it's fun to give them little easter eggs and things here and there and I just think if you want to have a really long-standing community one that trusts you quality is the most important thing that's always going to come first because if someone buys something once and they are disappointed chances are they're not going to come back or they're not going to come back for at least a while until they forget it's in the abyss of their mind.

27:33Quality first. And secondly, they just want to feel like they are a part of the story, the journey, and that they trust you as a brand and your story in general.

27:43Sammy Robinson:So you think letting them in on that story and that journey is what helps build that trust? I think it's so important because I would look at the brands that I have consistently repurchased from. And I think it's that warmth and that inclusion that I like about them, those brands that are really clinical and separate from their audience and don't actually care about their customer I feel like you can feel that but first and foremost I come back for quality and I come back for design so you know if the design is beautiful and unique and the quality is there I'll always come back so that is always number one but for consistency and including your audience and your customers would be the next biggest thing I would say especially if you're a new brand and you're an up and coming brand.

28:26If you haven't already cemented yourself in the market, you need to be using social media and bringing people along on the journey.

28:34Sammy Robinson:You know, when you're invited to something, a barbecue, a friend's housewarming, and they say, just bring drinks. Like, do you go for a classic bottle of something you know and love? Or do you try and impress everyone with something new? Next time you get this brief, I'd recommend heading straight to Dan Murphy's. They are the self-confessed flavor forecasters, literally. Dan Murphy's are always keeping their fingers on the pulse, tracking cultural currents, social media hype and emerging brands to bring us the next big thing in beer and pre-mixed drinks. So we never have to stress about what to buy ever again.

29:06Sammy Robinson:If you're looking to take something along that screams spring, they've got two recommendations for us. First, for the beer drinkers, the Stone and Wood Citrus Radler. It's beer brewed with additions of lemon, orange and grapefruit, so it's incredibly zesty. And for the Margie lovers, that's me. They tell me the Jose Corvo Limonada, a tequila and lemon soda premix is the perfect grab and go alternative. Very refreshing and no cocktail making required. Dan Murphy's has a great selection of new and trending drinks. Drop in store or download the app to get inspired and remember to choose to drink wise.

29:40Sammy Robinson:A huge thank you to Dan Murphy's for making this episode of Stylish possible. I want to talk about the trend cycle and how you navigate it because it must be so overwhelming feeling the pressure of how quickly the trend cycle is moving at the moment. What I love about One Mile is it feels like to me like you're running your own race. You're not really buying into trends. How have you stayed true to that? First and foremost, it's a time thing. So for me, I'm always designing about 12 to 8 months in advance. So even if I wanted to jump on a trend that's happening today, it's very unlikely that I would because my mind's just not I'm not designing now for what's on trend now I'm designing now for winter next year so it's just irrelevant to me but in saying that there's always there is always a place for trends to exist past the current so I think that there is really fast paced trends at the moment which is really interesting to watch from a social media landscape like a lot of the girls that we see on social media are jumping on like these micro trends which again that's fine everyone's entitled to sort of wear and do what they want but I think as a brand I you kind of want to be the antidote to that you want to provide an alternative to the consumer also you've touched on quality a lot which says to me your intention is to create a product that is going to exist in a customer's wardrobe for a really long time our main priority is cost per wear so I think for us we love we love we love something that's going to last and is more timeless.

31:15So for me, I will say that there is a trend going around at the moment, but I think that has existed for a couple of years now that is polka dots. And I do love polka dots. That is just a pattern. And that is a pattern that has existed for way before I started my brand. So I don't think leaning into patterns or fabrics that may be on trend as such a bad thing, because I think that shows that there's a lot of people that love it and it's flattering and it makes people feel beautiful and maybe a fabric that you see a little consistently that cotton it just flows and it's comfortable and you know xyz i think it's more the micro trends that is

31:49Sammy Robinson:the interesting conversation and that as a brand we don't yeah we don't we don't lean into you can tell it's a really really good distinction the other point i want to make about the polka dots fashion is so cyclical there are certain patterns that yes might go out of style in a seasonal sense but long term you keep those in your wardrobe I've got this beautiful peony swimwear polka dot silk dress I've had it for years and now it's I've won it like five times on my recent euro trip I just got married so I went on my honeymoon I wore this dress everywhere and everyone's like oh my god I love it I love it like where did you buy it I'm like you can still buy it now because peony swimwear is a slow fashion brand but I've had this dress for years and again it's just a nice reminder and we say this on stylish all the time wear your wardrobe Shop your wardrobe.

32:37Sammy Robinson:Go back in. Keep the stuff and wear it. Yeah, I think I completely agree with that. I think that there's so many stuff. It's like when people go denim's out of trend or denim's on trend right now. I'm like, what? Denim is never going to go out. And it's like someone saying stripes. Like for me, polka dots in my mind, I go in and out. Like you said, it's not always, I'm not always craving a polka dot. But polka dots to me are like stripes. Stripes are never going to go out. And that's when you can play with color as well. It's like maybe you do the stripes in a different color way. and that's where you can lean into a trend without it feeling like you're leaning into that micro trend okay this might be a hard question to be honest I think it will be what is your favorite one mile product oh that's a nice question I was actually really scared um if I had to choose just one I would have to say the Harley jeans why do you love them I just love them because I have a I go up a size for a really baggy look and I go down a size and it just cinters in it the way since it's perfectly they're long they touch the floor they've got a nice fray they're a perfect shape where they hug the booty nicely but then they flare out just ever so slightly they don't look like flares I just the shape is just my it's my best friend I could wear them with anything and they've been around for years now and we just keep restocking them and what is the best-selling product of all time or currently both of all time I actually looked at this the other day it's so random it's called the Cora dress and it was the Cora dress in custard which was a strapless tape yarn dress that we had and we just must have restocked that oh quite a few times because everyone kept coming back for it because it's 100 cotton it was beautiful and it just was a nice silhouette just plain simple strapless dress and currently our best seller would be oh I don't even know why this I'm even thinking about this it's the Elliot jumper we came out with a zip Yeah, that jumper is so good.

34:25Sammy Robinson:I saw it in the window in the Paddington store. We stayed in Paddington and I saw a row of them in the beautiful colorways. I was like, oof, it looks so good. Yeah, those are definitely the year winners. And knitwear, especially winter knitwear for us, is generally our best sellers. I think people come back time and time again because they know our jumpers are good. But the fun colors this year, I think just... Colors are great. Yeah, they're fun because they're pastel. They feel neutral, but they're not. I liked the orange one. What is the exact colorway? What do you call that one? It would be, I always call it fire engine red.

34:54Fire engine red, okay. It's like a burnt fire engine red.

34:57Sammy Robinson:It reminds me of that OPI nail color. It's kind of like a reddish orange. It's gorgeous. I love it. You can't tell if it's orange or red. Yeah. I love that kind of red because I think there's room for the burgundies and the really rich reds, but it can be quite a mature color. When you do like a fire engine red, it just makes everyone's hair, like brunettes, blondes, everyone's skin tone. It just makes you pop. Yeah, you're so right. But in the early days of One Mile, I went back deep in the archives on socials to prep for the episode. It felt like you featured a lot in the content, but you've moved away from that.

35:29Sammy Robinson:Has that been a conscious strategy of yours? It's not necessarily a conscious strategy. I just don't think I like being in it as much anymore. It's like pulling teeth, getting me to be in it. The poor girls, they have to blindfold me and trick me. They're like, let's go get a sandwich for lunch. And then they just get their phones out and start snapping me eating it when they know I'm in a one-mile outfit. so I think it's more just again I'm time poor I'm more I'm tired I'm getting older I'm running a company like I don't feel as excited about creating content as I used to and it can be really disheartening when you take a really bad photo oh feels it's just it's not good for your self-esteem so I think I pick my time and place I definitely don't model as much anymore but I'm happy jumping in like more of the organic content across the socials whereas back in the day it was probably more of a budget thing i was just saving saving on budget and just jumping in because that makes sense expensive and also the reality of it is when you are launching a brand from the baseline being a content creator is people seeing you and the product would add value as well it's telling them i'm wearing this product i'm living and breathing this brand yes that also builds a trust piece it also builds the familiarity piece they're familiar with you therefore they're familiar with the product totally and the the girls still even use like my organic content for ads because it's like you said there's a face to the to the brand and people find a familiarity with it so they they generally are more inclined to click on it if they notice or recognize me versus you know a model they may never have seen before or UGC or a flat lay image it just doesn't resonate necessarily as much so yeah there's definitely room for me in UGC I just think I'm starting to hang my hang my boots up with the I think that's fair you're busy you've got a lot going on.

37:10Sammy Robinson:I listened to a recent podcast you did. I think it was with Mark Boris. It was interesting in that podcast, you said that you stopped someone on the street and you said, nice jumper. And they said, thanks. As if they didn't actually realize it was your brand. That must be an exciting moment though, because the brand's almost evolved. Yeah. I love it. It's way bigger than me now. It's not just an influencer's brand anymore, which was my goal. But it is funny when it happens because I kind of go up with like a smirk and they probably think I'm so creepy. I'm like, I love your jumper. And they're like, thanks.

37:38Sammy Robinson:I'm like, oh, sorry, where's it from? Like I have to like awkwardly then go along with the conversation. Do you pretend like you don't know? Yeah. Cause I'm not going to be like, it's my brand. I own it. Like that's just even weirder if I go up to someone. So I have to be like, where's it from? I just have to pretend like I have no idea. Like obviously I have to pretend like I have no idea where the brand is and just go along with the conversation. But it does start with a weird smirk on my face and they always, you can tell they're just a bit creeped out by me. I'm like, sorry. Retract, retract.

38:02Retract, yeah. Just walk away awkwardly.

38:04Sammy Robinson:A great feeling and similar. You know, it's funny that you have a great feeling in response to seeing someone come up to you and say, oh my God, I love your brand. Thank you for creating a product for me. That makes me feel good. And then on the other side of the spectrum, it feels so good to have someone sit there and not actually register that that's your brand. I feel like that's such a perfect middle point that you found. I want to talk about bricks and mortar because as I said this morning, walked past the Paddington store. You also have a store in Bondi Beach. Talk to me about the strategy to create bricks and mortar.

38:35Sammy Robinson:Why did you want to do that? I think it's just a really important arm of the business because it creates, again, it legitimizes the brand past first and foremost influencer brand, secondly, just an e-commerce online brand. And it's just access a bit of a showroom and meeting space for your customers in your community. For us, we found that we were creating events and things and there was nowhere that felt right. And for us, it was always a goal to have a store the timing was just really the question and I think it just adds that extra element of professionalism to a brand when you have a place that you can go touch feel the product it's just really important for some shoppers as well to try things on they're really tactile yeah I'm not much of an online shopper anymore because again I recognize I am an abnormal height and I do find that often more often than not I need to return it and I am time poor.

39:32OzPost is open between nine to five so I would prefer.

39:35Sammy Robinson:Which is ridiculous by the way. It doesn't make any sense I know but I prefer to go in store try it on if it doesn't work then I don't buy it or if it works I buy it and I'm also very last minute shopper so if I have an event on Saturday night I go in on Saturday morning. It's just convenience so I think it's really important to have a place where an online brand their customers and their online community where they need that kind of form of that tactile shopping experience they have a place to go you know then there's the question you know how many when you're scaling how many are necessary and I always just stick to the the opinion that just stay as lean as possible at the beginning um I like to have at least six months data under my belt before I then make another really large move within my brand because you know there's more often than not brands may open five at the same time three are flops two are carrying it and your cash flow is really relying rely on the two and shutting those three down may be tricky because you've signed four-year leases on them or you've done a massive fit out so i think that they're really important but i think that they're a very fragile space to enter and you have to do it carefully with caution you have to be thoughtful about it it's interesting recently we had an episode where we covered dion lee was revived by revolve in the us and the founder dion lee did a really wonderful piece in the afr where he talked about the journey of why they actually had to close and went into voluntary admission.

40:55Sammy Robinson:And a lot of it had to do with opening stores and those stores becoming very costly exercises because there were a lot of issues with store fit outs, buildings not being ready, you know, lease terms, all of those things. That's such an expensive exercise. And a lot of the time, it's really out of your control. So as you said, it is quite a risky trajectory. If you do do it too fast, it feels like you've definitely gone down the more thoughtful route. in saying that do you have intentions to open more stores yes we do definitely want to I think the my strategy for the next couple of years is to do hopefully and again don't hold me to it one per major city yeah I love the idea of staying in a more boutique environment not really joining necessarily Westfields I don't think that there's a problem with Westfields I just don't think that's on our cards right now.

41:46I just want to, again, build that really strong brand message that people know exactly what they're going to experience when they come to a one-mile boutique.

41:55Sammy Robinson:So you're focusing on high street areas like Oxford Street and Paddington, Bondi in Melbourne. Like the equivalent would be like an Armadale High Street, James Street in Brisbane. Byron Bay, anywhere around there. There's a lot of the new sort of developments in Byron Bay, which we were looking into as well. they're just yeah like you said they're just really expensive investments and you have to be sure and for me I was so sure in Sydney because I live here and I know my audience and our data says that all the other cities are almost as strong it's just I'm not there and I think I the the idea of not being there you need to have a really good team on ground and I want to have a really good store manager that can kind of come on board before the the fit out even begins that can kind of run run that project I think yeah it's definitely a goal I'm actually if you are curious I am looking at Melbourne James Street Brisbane and Byron Bay so it'll be in one of those I love a hot take and I love an exclusive yeah and I've got quotes and I've got so we definitely are it will it will be a 2026 awesome project it won't happen this year because I just want to make sure I find the right space unless the perfect one pops up and it's really not there's not much to do in the fit out but I'm also looking into like Sorrento in yeah like a bit more of the coastal areas as well so no I want to talk about your team you've hired a lot of your friends and I would say that a lot of the advice you hear on business podcasts on you know just general verbatim of people who are business owners is that you shouldn't do that it seems to have worked really well from you I've had the pleasure of meeting some of your team myself love the dynamic why is it working well for you?

43:29I think you just have to be I like to say and I mean I don't I'm really arrogant about things about myself but I think I'm a really good judgment of character I'm a really good I read people really well so there's certain friends I would never work with you know you can pick it early yeah I can pick it early but there's certain friends that you know that you can just they have a professionalism about them that it's not going to impact your relationship when it's in business every friend that goes into business would never assume they're going to come out on the other side not friends anymore but I think that I I guess I find in my situation it's lucky because I own the brand and I am the CEO and I am the one that's sort of controlling my piece I'm hiring them for a specific reason and they excel in that area I'm not it's not like we're pulling teeth and fighting over we don't share the brand we're not investors together we're not you know one's doing more than the other or we don't have clear set roles everything is very clear everything is very before we enter into a business relationship together we go so in depth into every single aspect of like what their roles are what our roles are going to be together and that way it just can't impact our relationship if I hire them and then they perform terribly then that's on me as a boss and I just it's just a it's an awkward conversation to have but I don't think any of my friends because they're my best friends would ever get offended if I sat them down and went it's not working we're friends first let's just find you another job and I would never just kick someone to the curb you know it would be I would always protect them it's their friendship comes first to me and it is a risky thing to do but I don't think anyone loves you and will work harder for you than the people that you're that you're then your best friends yeah and it sounds

45:15Sammy Robinson:like you've got really clear boundaries in place and as you said you've set up top clear roles and responsibilities and because you are a sole founder it does make that a little bit easier because you can set the expectation be really clear and people will either rise to the occasion or they won't and it sounds like your team absolutely have totally and also I guess I will say I've only actually hired two best friends my sister works for me in the stores but otherwise the rest of my team didn't start my best friends I didn't know any of them before the brand so So actually majority of my team is just, it's just been a professional relationship from the start, but we've all become really close.

45:53And I think work culture is so important. So I think if you don't like your team, then you spend the most time with the people in the office. I spend more time with the girls in the office than I do my boyfriend and my family. So what are you doing if you're hiring people that you don't get along with, first and foremost? But yeah, it may appear that we're all best friends online and we've got this really close relationship. but a majority of them, it just started with a single interview and then, you know, it sort of led to friendship.

46:18Sammy Robinson:It's interesting you say that because a lot of people always ask me, Michelle and Zara, co-founders of Shameless Media and co-hosts of Shameless Podcast are two of my best friends. It's really interesting how often people ask me, what's it like working with your friends? But the point that you made, we weren't friends before I started at Shameless Media. I had met them once at an industry event. They were introduced to me by a client. Then I started working for them at Shameless Media then the friendship grew from there and as you said you spend so much time with these people it's very natural for that to happen that's not to say that every person I work with is my best mate but everyone is so lovely and like brings so much energy to our office and is genuinely a good person and I think that comes down from the top we have a very good judgment of character I would say similar to what you've said and naturally everyone who we've brought into the Shameless Media team is the same and we're working towards a shared goal and I feel that is also really important when you have a team I think so and I think I always say if there's one employee that is underperforming it really does impact everyone else so it's it's my main priority to have a really good work culture and ensure that like you said not everyone is going to get along and agree on everything not everyone is going to want to hang out on the weekend but we just we all feel like we have respect for one another and for the most part, everyone steps up to the plate every single day.

47:42With the exception, everyone has a bad day here and there. And that's just completely normal. And we also are all very accommodating and aware of each other. So I think that's really nice. And I've noticed that with Shameless as well. I think it's just so important. The most important part about running a brand would be your team.

47:59Sammy Robinson:Absolutely. Now, everyone does have a bad day. You've spoken a bit about in the past around feeling burnt out and wearing yourself thin. What have you done to manage that in your everyday life and in your career? The first four to five years of developing One Mile, you have to be, when you start a brand, you have to be aware that you are going to enter into an extremely high pressure cooker situation. And that's just the reality. And you're not going to be able to get out of that. If it is your brand and it's your vision, then you're going have to be very involved. I'm now sort of lucky that I'm at the stage where I have such an amazing team.

48:38I'm not hands off, but I have delegated enough that I am far less stretched thin and I am able to sort of lean into just doing a little bit more of the event attendance and photo shoots and, you know, whatever else, whatever else I have going on in my schedule. In saying that, I think as a personality type I'm the kind of person that takes on every single thing so I need to learn to practice self-control and say no where you know I where I know I want to say no I need to be able to learn to say no but I think I got quite sick in 2023 my cortisol my adrenal fatigue I actually developed Hashimoto's and so my thyroid was out of whack my gut was out of whack I got sick every I was probably sick every day I probably felt like I had the flu every single day just because my immune system, thyroid and gut was completely out of balance, which is very prevalent and common in a lot of founders, a lot of women that work.

49:36So it's something to be conscious of. Don't let yourself get to where I got, where I let my body go to complete another shit. I'm sorry if I'm not allowed to swear. No, you're allowed to swear.

49:45Sammy Robinson:I swear all the time. Yeah, great. But it was a really hard thing for me to reverse because I, you know, had to take all these supplements. I had to do a whole gut cleanse I had to I'm now on medication every day for my thyroid because I can't show up and be the best version of myself for my brand for social media for my audience for any my family for my boyfriend for anyone if I'm neglecting not healthy yeah so it was almost not like a forced boundary but the body keeps score and was telling you yeah okay yeah you had to reset yeah and it's something that a lot of people go through and it's so important not to get to the bottom to the depths of your health before you start fixing it because it actually took like a year for me to get better and I ended up taking more time off work than I would have if I had just taken a couple of doctor's appointments here and there and taking a couple of days off here and there yeah your health is so important especially in women because we deal with so many hormone fluctuations and you You know, your hormone impacts your thyroid and your thyroid is what I actually don't know that much about it.

50:48So that's why I'm actually reluctant to speak about the thyroid diagnosis online.

50:52Sammy Robinson:I think it's good context though for people to understand that that's also going on in the background. Yeah. So you have spoken about it a little bit. Yeah, I've spoken about it here and there and it's not something that I hide. It's more just that I haven't looked into it that much. And it's just something that showed up in my blood tests and my doctors. I'm not a professional. I'm not a healthcare professional. So I very much trust her and she's amazing. she's completely transformed my health so I don't look into it probably as much as I should but it's also maybe something that you don't really want to be defined by it's good to share your story and be vulnerable but at the end of the day there are also things in your life that you're allowed to keep private and you're allowed to you know hold close to yourself and if I can imagine and I don't want to put words in your mouth but also going through that journey it's wanting to keep it work through it as opposed to sharing it in real time it also puts a lot of pressure on you to constantly keep sharing totally and that's one thing that i'm more than happy to do when people are in the similar boat and going through the same thing but at the end of the day everyone's journey is so different too exactly you know what i may be going through could be completely different to what you're going through so i think i'm i'm more than happy to share anything i'm such an open book i'm more than happy to share everything and anything but it's not something that i just have the time or energy to put into talking about all the time and nor do i really i don't let it like you said i don't let it define me more more so from the perspective of i actually just don't really let think about it I don't yeah I don't let it affect my day I want to ask you a few final questions the first is do you love what you're doing and where you are in your life right now yes yeah yeah no I'm very very happy very grateful I honestly pinch myself I practice gratitude even on the days where I am down and feeling overwhelmed and I think everyone goes through it practice and gratitude is the key to success in every single aspect but I on top of that am just genuinely so grateful for the life that I live I feel obviously no one else is in the room except for our producer Kate but what's been really lovely is feeling that energy and feeling that pride it's it feels like to me that you are really proud and you feel really content in everything that you've achieved but also the point you are at in your life and it seems like you're very excited for the future and you seem very driven and very motivated to get to that next phase but doing it in a way that is really thoughtful and again the context around how community focused you are is something that I feel our listeners will really appreciate being community members themselves that you're constantly keeping them top of mind now to finish we want to end with a controversial take we do this in our face-to-face series we love to you know push our guests to think about what their controversial take is.

53:33Sammy Robinson:So I'm going to ask you, what's your controversial fashion take? It's not my controversial take, but it is a controversial take. So I can open up as a discussion between you and I. It's around dupes. So as an independent small fashion label, we have had various products that have gone viral and have been duped by the fast fashion labels. my opinion is I don't think look I looked into it quite a lot at the beginning because it happened to us quite a lot at the beginning without trademarking every individual style I have no right to say I own that style or that design I do think that there is room for small independent brands to be disappointed because they aren't your blood sweat and tears into creating your design totally and so we get incredibly annoyed when it happens but equally I think everyone's business model is different for us we don't place the large amount of units that a lot of these other fashion houses do in order to get their prices and their RRP down you know there is a conversation for it being more affordable to for people that aren't necessarily able to afford your brand and that's what I mean by when I don't really have a controversial take on it.

54:54I'm more than happy to have the conversation around it but I guess I understand both sides and I do also have the opinion that I think everything's been done before. There is always a way to make things unique and beautiful in their own way but I do think that fashion has existed for such a long time that nothing is necessarily ever going to be brand new.

55:15Sammy Robinson:Well first of all I think that's a really well-rounded considerate answer it's obvious to me that you have a lot of self-awareness as well because a lot of people could come in hot and be like i'm so angry about this and really center yeah you know their opinion and feel personally yeah personally totally i feel you've captured like both ends of the spectrum of why the conversation is also very permanent right now it does feel like the whole dupe conversation we've spoken about it a lot on stylish as well My take is really similar to yours, to be honest, in the context of it affecting small business owners and independent brands.

55:50Sammy Robinson:I definitely have more of disappointment when that happens, particularly when it's from really big conglomerates. And it's so obvious to me. I find that to be a little bit shady. But again, that's very emotionally driven. And the factual side of it, as you touched on, is there's not a lot that can be done about that, particularly when you're looking at global and local. a lot of patents have to be you can only paint in a product or trademark a product in your individual market a lot of the time unless you have yeah shit tons of money because i looked at it and they were like charlie don't even bother and i was like yeah i would have to sell millions of this product alone in order to even cover the cost of trademarking that individual product and imagine if i had to do that for every product yeah it's just never gonna happen no so i i think you've nailed it and at the end of the day it's a conversation i enjoy having it is a controversial take it's not yours it's just opened up like a really interesting discussion thank you so much sammy for joining us thank you this episode has been incredible and i know our community will absolutely love it i hope you've enjoyed it i have it's been fun it's been great yeah just like having a chat with a friend at a bar that's exactly what we were going for and thank you so much to dan murphys for making this episode of stylish possible we will be in your ears on our regular roster which is our Wednesday episode and our face-to-face series we'll be dropping every second Friday the alternative day to our Friday episodes with myself and Mads and we can't wait for you to be tuning in next see you guys bye