Sydney’s urge footwear is making its international debut at the project streetwear fair in las vegas, as Kate McDonald reports.
Urge Footwear is going global, gearing up to launch its youth-oriented brand at streetwear trade fair Project in Las Vegas this month.
And the good news is that the brand didn’t have to go looking for international exposure, with the company receiving an invitation to present at the fair, Urge Footwear’s sales manager, James Tesoriero, says.
“We are in talks with Japan and the US at the moment,” he says. “It’s nice that people are approaching us – we haven’t put out any feelers but people are coming to us, so the brand is getting some good credibility here and overseas as well.”
The brand, set up by Mark Mitchell on the northern beaches of Sydney in 2001, is described as very much “on-trend as far as disposable fashion goes”.
“We tie back very well with denim,” Tesoriero says. “We are a youth-oriented brand and sit well with the retailers like Glue Store, Platypus Shoes and David Jones. We are a very youth and street-oriented brand.”
Tesoriero, who joined the company three years ago after working with Converse for several years, says the brand has changed somewhat over time. Originally launched as a range of casual, street-oriented flats and canvas shoes for women, the company now makes a range of men’s street-oriented shoes as well.
“Back then we did a fair bit of private label – about 80 per cent private label and 20 per cent branded. Knowing the vertical requirements of the retailers we re-developed the brand and got it into good, key retailers, so we are sitting on about 70 per cent branded now and 30 per cent private label.”
As well as capturing key youth and streetwear stockists, Urge is one of a number of brands now being sold through surfstitch.com, an online retailer specialising in street, swim and surfwear. The experience has given the company, which is in the late stages of setting up its own e-commerce site, an early grounding in how to sell online, which can be difficult when it comes to footwear.
“I think it’s about giving the customer all the correct information as far as sizing charts,” he says. “It takes a lot of time to collate all of that information, but I think if the information is correct to the customers then we won’t have a lot of returns.”
Urge constantly releases new products to keep its range fresh, all of which are named after individuals who inspired the company’s designers with their style.
“We travel overseas a lot and draw our design inspiration from the streetwear styles of people we meet. That spurs on new pieces and the name of the character that influences a new design is passed on to the shoe.”