Ostrich down under

 

Some good news from one of my favourite local brands, Engelbert Strauss. 

They're going to try their luck down under. And the interesting thing, as always, with Strauss, is not what they're doing - entering the Australian market - but why, and how.

The "why?" is simple - Strauss has the ambition to be the first global workwear brand, recognised across more countries and continents than any other. And why not? Given that the German car industry is not in the best of health these days, it's good to see the local heroes carrying the flag. And what better place than Australia, where the "Tradie is King", a rough, tough land known for good honest hard work.

The "how" is interesting, too. In retail terms, Strauss is departing from the usual formula of their own outlets plus online, and will be selling through a partnership with DIY retailer Bunnings. This decision was taken to create initial speed and momentum.

In terms of promotion, Strauss are sticking to their successful formula of sports sponsorship. But here again, there's a twist. The deal isn't with rugby or cricket, but with the Australian Football League. Australian Rules Football has a more working class fanbase than the other "national sports."

But it's not going to be an easy game. Australia has its own home-grown workwear brands. There's Hard Yakka "Aussie Rules Workwear" established back in 1930. "Yakka" comes from the Aboriginal word for "work", and this lot aren't sitting around on their tea break, either - they launched in the UK in 2022.

Even older established - in 1926 - is KingGee - named for the monarch at the time, King George V. The expression means "the tops", hence the slogan "You wear the crown". 

Which brings us back to our feathered friends above. Which of the two giant flightless birds would win in a scrap over territory? The ostrich is bigger and faster, but the emu has tenacity and resilience - as well as being a good swimmer. 

On the other hand, Australia is a damned big place, so maybe there's enough room for them to work together.

G'day!

Down in the dumps

 

Re-using, thrift, second hand, vintage, hand-me-downs - these ideas have been with me for as long as I've been wearing clothes (!). As a child, I wore my brother's hand-me-downs as long as they hadn't been too destroyed from tree climbing and falling off bikes. In my teenage years, I rummaged around at jumble sales and leapt on anything quirky older relatives were chucking out. I still have my mum's early 60s pastel green cat-eye RayBans. Then were the High Street charity shops I frequented in my lunch breaks to while away the time. And working in London, Flip was one of my favourite destinations. 

From the perspective of my desk, a lot of what I read about circularity in the fashion industry sounds positive. This post by Laura Vicaria, a strategy consultant who specialises in circularity (her website is here) is typical. Drawing on reports from McKinsey et al, Laura cites positive-sounding developments. New clothing volumes in Europe are shrinking. In France, Vinted outsells every clothing retailer by volume. 

The post naturally talks about the intention:action gap, which is one of the biggest challenges for anyone who works in sustainability. From my own point of view, I've begun to see this a little differently. 

Desk View and Street View.

As I move away from paid work, I am out and about a lot more. And what I see doesn't always correspond to what I've read sitting at my desk. I'd love to think that people are cutting down on new unnecessary stuff, and are busy selling on Vinted or re-purposing old curtains into jaunty shoulder bags.

But, generally, they are not. I've helped with a couple of apartment clear-outs/moves lately. Good intentions aside, there was simply no time or energy to sort stuff out into what could be resold/repurposed and stick it all on ebay. No time, even to sort out the rubbish properly. Towards the end, it all went into the same black sacks to be dumped, to meet the deadline for the handover.

Whatever people's good intentions in theory/Desk View, Street View doesn't have the luxury of time, energy, unlimited resources. There are deadlines. There are health problems and physical constraints. There are inadequacies in the infrastructure when it comes to getting rid of stuff.

The photo above was taken outside a supermarket in my town. Until recently, clothing and textile containers stood on street corners and carparks, collected by commercial organisations for re-use and recycling. There were even regular collections. But in the last few months these have stopped. The main reason is people misusing the containers to dump rubbish of all sorts. 

The only places to get rid of usable clothing now are the Red Cross (I'm praying people don't start dumping rubbish in those containers) and the local tip, which is only open two days a week.

I'd love to see some clever solutions to the growing problem of Getting Rid of Stuff that come from a Street View perspective. 

But in the meantime, it's all making me rather down in the dumps.

  

The Discounter of Cool

 

I wrote here about the first stage of ALDI's metamorphosis back in the early 2000s - as the dreary "pile it high and sell it cheap" discounter found first social acceptance, then positive social approval. There were several factors behind this, not least of all a well-timed in-your-face ad campaign that hit the spirit of the age bullseye. And, most interesting of all, the campaign wasn't from ALDI, but electronics discounter Saturn. 

ALDI's new ad campaign #ALDIstory takes up this theme, and does it pretty well in my view. It reflects how kids carrying their school stuff in ALDI carrier bags, or wearing ALDI jackets were mocked back in the 1990s by their classmates. But today, everyone shops at ALDI. 

The film touches on a further stage of metamorphosis - positive social approval to cult status amongst some groups. The people at the end of the film are wearing or carrying items from the ALDImania collection - ironic/streetwear branded items, from Christmas sweaters to sliders to retro-sneakers to hoodies. And a carrier bag or two.

ALDI has earned the right to do this as far as I'm concerned. Their communications approach has been pretty coherent since I've lived here. But other discounters haven't quite got it. You can be cool, but you can't buy cool.

Penny is one of the worst offenders for inconsistent, incoherent communication. One minute it's sanctimonious, depressing finger-pointing stuff about societal problems. 

Then we get this: 

Influencers giving a run-down Penny supermarket a makeover in their own style.

OK, OK, I know I'm not the target audience, and it's not quite as objectionable as the saving the world guff. But, come on - "Pimp my Penny"? Isn't that ghastly expression past its sell-by date?

And while we're on glamorous influencers, I'm not quite sure about ALDImania Barbie. Possibly a bit too much up its own cult? I do suspect these will be bought by kidults rather than parents, though.