John Bright, Founder of The Good Neighbour / Sustainably Sourced Menswear

John Bright started the good neighbour believing there was a gap in the market between mass produced fast-fashion and premium menswear brands. He questioned where the middle ground was, offering clothes that were made to last, but didn’t cost the Earth. The menswear business provides updated wardrobe staples with great fabrics, that are ethically and sustainably sourced, and conscious of trends and quality, their products are designed to be worn across all seasons. Starting life in 2018 as ‘centre front menswear’ the brand appeared online and in pop-up shops around London.  This is  where John discovered that many neighbourhoods had more of a buzz than traditional high streets, which is where he got the idea for ‘the good neighbour’ where he often collaborates with local artists and helps small landlords fill empty spaces, even if it’s just for a few weeks.

In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview John Bright, Founder of the good neighbour about his fashion industry background and how he started his own menswear brand which began online before focussing on pop-up retail. Our host Peter Brooker and John talk about why being direct-to-consumer brings the customer a fairer price, manufacturing home and abroad, the benefits of short-term retail space on both branding and eCommerce sales, neighbourhoods vs high street shopping, and making clothes from deadstock material.

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:10

Hello, welcome to another episode of the menswear style podcast. I'm your host Pete Brooker. Today I'm talking to John bright, the founder of the Good Neighbour shop and just a little bit of information before bring John in. The Good Neighbour provides updated wardrobe staples with great fabrics are ethically and sustainably sourced, conscious of trends and quality. Their products are designed to be worn across seasons, starting in 2018, as centre front menswear, they appeared online and in pop up shops around London, they discovered that many neighbourhoods had more of a buzz than traditional high streets so they had become a good neighbour. And here is John to talk about the brand in his own words. John Bryan and I started the brand in 2018, we actually started with a name centre front menswear and started online but we found that sort of from 2019 We started doing pop up shops, and we started doing them in different neighbourhoods. So it felt like the name needed to evolve with something that had a bit more kind of warmth and story to it. So that's where the name good neighbour came from. My experience is working in menswear buying. So, I spent about 20 years working in different different places from Debenhams to a sauce guy thing. So, that's, that's sort of my background has always been within Menswear. Okay, great. And so what inspired you to start this particular project. So I think, sort of coming from from a brand like like a sauce, which is very kind of young, very fast fashion. I was realising there was a bit of a gap in the menswear market, because you've got a lot of this mass produced, not particularly well made clothes. And then you've got a lot of really nice brands like universal works and folk and equity. But there's a really big jump between the price points within those between that that sort of fast fashion to to those brands. And I was kind of thinking, okay, Where's where's the brands that are really well made made to last, sort of targeting a 30 plus demographic, but not charging a fortune for the for the product. So that's sort of where the idea of the brand came, is sort of something that putting a lot into the product, but charging a fair price. And as we don't, we sort of, we don't do wholesale at the moment, so we direct to the public, which means we cut out sort of a margin that needs to be in so I can offer, I can do the product at a fair price for what you're getting. Okay. And so when you start out with an idea like this, do you then get other designers on board? Or do you have a background in designing and putting the garments together yourself, where's the first stepping stone it's, well, I pretty much do everything so so I mean, I guess from from a buying background, it's it's a lot of product development. So the buying I did was own label, so wherever it was, so for instance, it was a sauce own label brand. So it's very much about putting the product together and working with the design team to to create the range as opposed to sort of going out and buying an existing brand. And so which is kind of more of a selecting kind of role. So I guess I've got quite a bit of experience in putting product together. Not so much in in physical design, but what I found is is by putting together the range, I do quite a bit of design within there. And I think with with menswear, you're not necessarily redesigning the will kind of a shirt is always going to be a shirt it's more about the how it's going to fit the fabric you use the small the sort of the small details so that I feel really confident in doing so. I kind of it's it's I would say it's a buying slash designing kind of role but yeah, I do it myself. And do you then seek out factories in the UK so every is every garment on the on the website and in the pop up stores? Are they all made in the UK? Not everything is made. So we we make quite a bit in Portugal. And then we do probably more in winter we are able to do more stuff made in England because they're still quite decent sort of outerwear, manufacturer and definitely lots of network manufacturer in the UK. There is a limit to what you can do in the UK at the moment. I think there is a return to getting stuff made it In England, but but not everything that I not everything in the range could be produced here. So generally we use Portugal, which we sort of get really good quality great factories, they can do smaller quantities for for more independent brands. Right. So, question for you, John, why is it cheaper for some brands to go to Portugal outside? I know like, obviously, you do have stuff made in here in the UK as well. But I know that a lot of brands do have stuff made in Portugal, whether it's outerwear, knitwear, shoe companies, do they have a cheaper labour force? Or is it like you said that they can do minimum runs for, you know, a really good price company about that? So, so, I mean, Portugal is used by a lot of me, I would probably say a lot of midsize brands and Jerry brands that are sort of mid to upper level in terms of pricing. And I think you get really good quality from Portugal. And one of the reasons that they've still got a really big manufacturing base is that for a long time, Portugal was sort of one of the poorer countries in Europe. So they ended up keeping a lot of the manufacturing. And it's not just clothing, it's know that lots of ceramics, lots of that sort of product, you're buying plates and bowls, and things of that are still made in Portugal. And towels. And there's they kept quite big manufacturing base, so they never lost that. So you've still got a lot of good factories with with people that that know what they're doing. And where and then where a lot of companies moved over to China and India, so that your bigger, bigger companies to get the better prices. Portugal kept sort of a bit more of a premium kind of manufacturing base. So I think that's why a lot of brands you still use Portugal, and it's the same with with footwear, I mean that they still manufacture a lot of really good footwear in Portugal. Yeah. Well, I guess now if you're the boss of anyone over in Portugal, you can't be sending them out of hours texts, right? No, definitely not. You know, Kevin, not allowed. As soon as it hits five o'clock. They're like Homer Simpson at the beginning of the thing. They just chucked up with Tony behind their shoulder enough. Yeah. You're on Talk to me a little bit about the pop up. So we have is the winning crowd gender first that you've done? No, we've been doing pop ups since 2019. So it's sort of, we started doing the pop ups just because the website was was quite slow. And it was really hard to get people onto the website. And I had done I did a market in I think March or April of 2019. And it was really good. And it was just sort of a day market. And I thought okay, well if the markets Good, let's try a pop up shop. And I like the fact that you know, we're not with a pop up shop, you're not committed to a long term lease. It's easy to sort of trial and error. If it's good, maybe extend if not, you know, I Okay, maybe it wasn't great, but I can just walk away from that area and think, Okay, I won't do that again. So it gives me a lot of flexibility that pop ups and it's the way of people finding the brand that wouldn't necessarily find it so why if say I have a pop up in Stoke Newington, I find that you get a lot of people coming in people interested. And then subsequently from that online orders from those two areas and the postcodes near there. They increase as well because people have found the brand maybe try it on something and decide they want another colour or or they tried on something they shop wasn't sure but then buy it later on. Yeah. So the online I think it's been really good for us and really from from sort of middle 2019 We've, we've kept on doing pop ups, obviously the the lockdowns weren't great, but what it did mean is that I wasn't committed to paying rent and having a shop that was having to stand empty. Yeah, during the lockdown, so I could sort of just really pull back all my costs and just focus on sort of online sales during the lockdowns but I mean I mean that's my I've run a an independent clothes shop myself and I know how much and it's been like in the middle of nowhere I've talked about it on the show before we set up a shop that was just right out in the middle of farm yet farmland, Cambridgeshire, but I know that the shop even though we didn't generate a whole amount of revenue within the shop, we knew it as like a great advertisement for our company and then people would go away and then buy stuff online. It was almost like a community, a virtual community around us being the nerve centre in the shop. And plus you don't have people that wouldn't maybe have the competence to go in and shop because You know, you, people don't always want to go in and like talk to a shop person, they don't want to try on stuff, they might just have that intimidation of walking into a shop and interacting, especially now now that we've all been conversing over zoom and virtually, you know, that kind of human stuff is now lost in the muscle memory somewhere. So, I know, I know how good that can be as a, like an advertising benefit. But how do you approach landlords and so you kind of go to landlords and say, Look, can I just have a couple of weeks here? Maybe dispensation on the right? Well, I, I use a website called appear here to book most of my pop ups, which is, I mean, it's sort of, I guess, like an Airbnb for for pop up spaces. And, and that so you go in and say, right, I'm looking for a space in London for these dates, and it'll bring up what's available. It's not just for retail, there's pop ups for food, like bars and restaurants, there's pop ups where you just want space for an event for two nights or something. But the good thing about that is they've approached the landlords, and you do the booking through the website, so they take care of all the paperwork, and all that sort of payments go through there. And so it just puts it, it puts my mind at rest that I'm doing it through them and not individual landlords. Yeah. Because I have tried a lot of times when you rim landlords, they're not particularly interested in it in a short term, few weeks or a few months, let they go straight away and say, No, we only want long term tenants. And, and a lot of them will just sort of stop you straightaway. The minute you say short term, they're like, No, we're not interested. And as well as the the landlord, sometimes the agents will just straight away go, no, not interested. And I think for the agents as well, then they're not particularly getting much out of a short term let they only get their commission for letting something for five years or or that. So I do find that using appear here. Is works very well for me. I mean, there are there are a few other companies doing the same kind of thing, but but I've used them for the last two years, and it works pretty well for me. And is there a minimum amount of time that you you have to be in there? It's like a two weeks, right? That's your minimum, but then we can extend it once we're in there, does it work like that? There's all the spaces vary, you get some that have a week minimum, some that have a month minimum? So really, kind of it really depends on what the landlord's agreed with them already. But I would say most places it a week to two weeks is normally their sort of minimum. Right? And when you look for these places, are you kind of looking for the like, like Stoke Newington, you say I know that I know the places got lots of kind of parochial little shops, you know, off br exam places. And that feels like a good place to sit up as an independent, because you're in good company there. Do you have to look for those sort of places that refer. It's sort of started as a bit of trial and error. I my first pop up was Stoke Newington, which more the fact that I know it very well. And I knew the space so I thought, Okay, well, that's a that's a good way to try it. But subsequently, I've tried pop ups in different areas of London, more central more, more kind of neighbourhood areas. And it's a bit of trial and error. So were they I did one in Melbourne, and I thought Melbourne High Street, you know, it's busy, it's a traditional shopping area, but it wasn't, it wasn't very good. So you really do have to try these areas. Because not I, I'm getting a better idea now. Like I know that so say I went to is done it. And I went there and I know that it's kind of a similar vibe to Stoke Newington just south of the river. And that worked well for me. So you know, I probably got a better understanding now but I do tend to go to places that are got more independent sort of restaurants, cafes, little shops and stuff of that because I feel like the brand fits in there. And the whole sort of philosophy of good neighbour is sort of fitting in as a good neighbour to other smaller brands, other smaller, sort of more independent a lot of I was thinking it's nice when you have when you're in an area that's got lots of sort of owner owner own shops, because there's people are really sort of passionate about what they do. So you you get that coming across. Yeah, and they're always invested in wanting other people to do well as well because yeah, you know, if you ever high street that's just got like half in half out. BUTCHER wrap tissue paper up on half of the shops in the windows they know that people are not going to be coming down and having a good time on the high street, it's half close, for example. So yeah, it's in their interest to have, even if it's competition, even if there's an independent next to you, it's good that there's this vibe and community around close, especially. So that areas, all those areas, community is quite a big thing, which you don't find more centrally, because it's just big changes generally. So you know, you're not, you're not, if you're, if you're amongst all these big chains, there's not really a community because the people working in the shop that don't really they don't have, they're not invested in the company doing well. They're just kind of paid to be there. So it makes a big difference being somewhere. Like, I'm in Crouch, and now it's like, I'm, I'm surrounded by, you know, a record shop and a really cool cafe and another little cafe. And the kids were sharp and that kind of thing. So it's all sort of, they all feed, feed off the buzz from each other. Can you delegate anyone, like hire other people to or to go into other pop up shops with your inventory? Are we at that stage yet, we can kind of have like several Good Neighbour shops on the go. So at the moment, I've got the one in Crouch End. And then I've just opened up today, a shared pop up on Regent Street, which is Lucy, it's a great initiative from Westminster Council. And they've they've taken an empty old big shop on Regent Street, and divided it into six smaller shops, six smaller brands, with more independent, more sustainable angle. So it's great. We sort of set up in there today. And there's there's some woman's where there's, there's kids, where there's some recycled kind of clothing there. There's also a sort of herbal teas and balms and oils kind of thing. So it's a really nice feeling. No idea is to make Regent Street, which has got a lot of big brands, but make it a bit more interesting so that people will pass and see something that they weren't expecting go in. And there's sort of six different brands within that space. Oh, cool. All right. So I'll have to come down and check it out. We're about some Regent Street. It's at a Regent Street. So sort of more the Piccadilly end. Okay, just interest. But yeah, it's, logistically, it's, it's harder to manage having two pop ups running. But I think it's great to have sort of something like that, which is a shared pop up and then having my own pop up in in Crouch End, as well. So I mean, the idea is gradually to have more pop ups running. But it's, it's, for me, it's logistics of sort of finding people to run the pop ups and, and that so I'm, at the moment, I've got some ex colleagues, I used to work with X buyers, and different people who are sort of between jobs are helping me with pop ups at the moment. Interesting. And you mentioned sustainability there, John, talk about some of the fabric that's used in some of the clothes, I noticed there was one jack in particular that had my eye on used out of deadstock, out of Italian deadstock. So maybe you can touch upon some of that. Yeah, so I think, obviously, sustainability is is a really big buzzword at the moment. And I think there's a lot of a lot of focus on it. I think there's there's brands sort of saying this sustainable without actually much much credentials behind them. And I, and I think the, isn't it, because it's a buzzword at the moment, lots of people are sort of latching on to it. But what we're trying to do is, is make sure that the number one factor for us is our clothes are made to last. So it's there that you've got sort of years of wear on the clothes, not just months, that but what you just mentioned about the deadstock fabric is really interesting, we're trying to to find as much product as we can, which is which is left over fabric. So a lot of the factories we work with, they might have a roll of fabric and they've got 40 metres left of it, and it's just sitting there in the factory. They're not doing anything with it. The potential is that at some point, they might have to destroy the fabric because they just can't keep all this fabric laying around. So let's hop right there with so we're we're buying the fabric from them and then making product making products with it. And generally it's normally pretty good fabric. It's premium fabric that's either be leftover from another order or you know another brand is cancelled some fabric and there's 50 metres left of it. So what what's great without using deadstock fabric is you're not actually you're making stuff from fabric that would have gone to waste. So no new fabric is being created for the product, you're actually getting stuff that's, that's laying around. So for instance, the jackets, you're talking about it, they're all using Italian deadstock fabric. So it's it's these, these really nice fabric mills that produce a lot of very premium premium fabric, have these these fabrics left over? So I go in and say, Okay, well, I like that, that there. We buy the fabric get it sent over to the UK. And actually I've got I work with a factory in East London in barking who produce the jackets that. So what's great is we're using deadstock fabric, we're making small runs of these jackets. So in some cases, we're only producing sort of 2030 pieces of a jacket. And so you're getting deadstock you're getting made in England, and love it. Great pieces that you're not going to see sort of hundreds of people wearing. Yeah, wearing walking around. John talking my language. That's fantastic. So that's, yeah, that that's I think one of the most sustainable things is using up existing fabrics. And recreating, and perhaps, you know, I'm totally on board with that. I think that's great. And also, what is interesting, when people go onto the website, they'll they'll think that they might have to pay through the nose for some of this stuff, because it's made in England, because the sustainable and the independent fries, but it's actually really accessible most of the prices. In fact, all of the prices, you know, even the jumpers mean a wall and stuff like that you'll get for under 100 sheets. So the Good Neighbour shop.com place to go. And if you're in Regent Street, and also Crouch End, take a look down there. John, what about the socials? Where can people find you on the social channels? So we're on Instagram and Facebook and both both of them with a good neighbour shop? As the tags. So yeah, we we I mean, every business has to be on Instagram now. So yeah, is there one that you like over the other? Um, I think Instagram is just a lot more visual. So for me, I tend to create a post for Instagram and then just do it on the same post. Put it on to Facebook. But yeah, Instagram is just a lot more visual. And I think it's it feels it feels more fun to work with in Facebook. And when people message you at the your Instagram, that's you behind it. Now get free to you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yes, that's that. That was that was a learning curve, actually learning how to work on I hadn't To be honest, I hadn't even I didn't have an Instagram profile before I started the brand. Okay, it's like, right. Okay, now we're gonna learn how to how to do social as well. But well, actually, do you know what though, I found that when I was running my shop, or sorry to go back to that. But I actually found that really interesting, because, you know, I knew I had this new opportunity to leverage traffic and eyeballs over to my site. So it was a lot, you know, rather than going into something that I knew, like, personally, and then for it, how do I make a business out of this channel, I kind of started on with the business head as it were going into Instagram. And then, you know, basically muscled everybody into trying to come and look at what I was doing. So it was a Yeah, it was, it was interesting, but good to know that there are these avenues out there that you can use and exploit in a way. Yeah, I mean, I mean, before social media. I mean, you really, it was how'd you get the name out to people text, it was Yeah, every time they'd come into the shop, it was a name and a number. And then it was a Saturday Text group text out every weekend. Yeah, and now you've got a very visual platform to sort of put images of everything you're doing and and get a again, sort of format a bit of an online community and and that so so yeah, I think without that it would be very difficult. So for all the all the things that might not be great about social media, there are there are some there are positives as well. Would you consider doing anything else like YouTube channels or tutorials, maybe maybe even a podcast studio promoting everything? I think, for me, because I'm doing everything on my own at the moment. It's it's sort of just finding the time to do everything. So yeah, I would probably consider lots of things. Yeah. If I had the time to do it, and sometimes once you've done something once you go, Okay, that wasn't that difficult and I I'll go into it a bit more but at the moment, with sort of two pop ups, running, planning for spring, all that kind of thing. It's During the socials, it sort of takes takes quite a bit of my day. Well, thank you for your time, John, for taking time out to come on the podcast knowing how busy you are, feel guilty all of a sudden. It's been good to get to know you and get to know the brand. And once again, the Good Neighbour shop.com I'll put all the links over on the show notes so people can find out exactly how to find you. But in the meantime, take care yourself. Thanks, John. Thanks a lot. Nice to speak to you. You've been listening to the menswear style podcast be sure to head over to menswear style dot code at uk for more menswear content and email info at menswear style dot code at UK if you'd like to be a future guest on the show. Finally, please help support the show by leaving a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening to this podcast. Until next time