Footasylum is about to step into one of its most high-profile stores to date this week when its Oxford Street flagship opens.
The 20,000 sq ft flagship will not only offer visitors an “incredible shopping experience”, but will be a brand-building store, according to chief executive and chair Barry Bown.
“The new flagship store will take the Footasylum brand, which is all about ‘defying ordinary’, to the next level.”
Bown is promising big things from the store, which opens to the public tomorrow (21 September).
“I can assure you the store will be a fantastic shopping experience. Throughout my career I’ve overseen the launch of hundreds of stores, and this really will be the most impressive retail space I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on,” he says.
Bown is not exaggerating. In his previous role as long-time chief executive of JD Sports, he oversaw the retailer’s growth to 850 stores by the time he left in 2014.
The Oxford Street store is the latest in a line of Footasylum openings.
Bown revealed earlier this year that it plans to open “bigger and better stores” to cater for the growing demand in the footwear and streetwear sector.
“Our aim is for our unique and extensive branded streetwear offering to be widely available across the UK, and having bigger and better stores is a key part of that ambition,” he says.
It will open a new 6,000 sq ft store in the Watford Atria shopping centre soon, and has expanded its shops at Westfield Stratford City and Lakeside in Essex, which opened last week, with further extensions planned at Birmingham Bullring and White Rose shopping centre in Leeds.
“Oxford Street is only the beginning, so watch this space,” says Bown.
Support footwear
The expansion comes under Footasylum’s new owner, private equity firm Aurelius, which snapped up the footwear retailer in August 2022.
Former owner JD Sports was forced to sell the chain by competition watchdog the CMA and ended up offloading it at half the price it originally paid for it.
Aurelius got it at steal, particularly when one considers the fast-growing market in which Footasylum trades in.
As the stores push shows, it has been investing to unlock the growth potential in the footwear and apparel chain.
Bown describes the firm as “very supportive owners”.
“We have an excellent working relationship – they are entirely on-board with our growth plans and strategy, and are always on hand to provide expert, value accretive advice,” he says.
“I truly believe we have the right owners in place to help us achieve our ambitions.”
“Aurelius share my huge optimism about where the business could go and I’m sure that together we are going to continue taking the business to new heights.”
The store expansion is paying off, according to Bown. The Footasylum boss says it has been “forensic” in its approach to targeting new locations and so far all newly opened and expanded stores have performed better than expected.
“All newly opened and expanded stores are performing better than expected.”
He describes its stores as “distinctive, visually arresting and contemporary”.
“We’ve always looked to provide a rich and unique shopping experience in our stores. And of course, the physical presentation of the brands that we stock is something that we spend an awful lot of time thinking about.
“We are firmly of the view that quality, sought-after product, offered in a buzzy and engaging environment, will consistently attract our target audience, who are themselves very fashion conscious and discerning.”
It is also investing in omnichannel to ensure that the shopping experience, be it in-store or online, is as convenient as possible.
Footasylum has partnered with mobile-first cloud platform New Store to power its omnichannel experience and customers can now order online and pick-up in store, from a store assistant or a click-and-collect locker.
It is also working with promotion and loyalty specialist Talon One to help drive brand engagement and customer retention.
Word on the street
Trainers and streetwear have been fashion staples for decades, but in recent years have seen a major surge in popularity.
Bown explains: “The people in our target 16-24 age bracket allocate a decent chunk of their disposable income to clothing and footwear; they are also real influencers to the age groups above and below them.”
It’s a market few know better than Bown, who started his career as a teenager in a menswear retailer. “I was saving up for a moped, and things went from there,” he says.
After than followed a 30 year career at streetwear pioneer JD Sports.
Now, he is making sure that Footasylum plays “a key role in helping to shape the latest youth-oriented fashion trends”.
“It’s what we’re known for; people come to Footasylum to be inspired and to be exposed to the cutting-edge of fashion streetwear.”
Bown says that the business spends a lot of time seeking out new trends and talent, which it cultivates and uses to access a wider audience.
“We think of ourselves as an incubator – in that we have a long track record of identifying and developing the trendsetting brands and influencers of tomorrow.”
“We love securing the latest trainer drops and trending streetwear, and generally introducing our customer to new brands and styles. If we get that right, we know we’ll continue to do well.”
The retailer’s sales jumped 6% in the year to 28 January driven by an improvement in store sales.
Despite gross profit rising 5%, pre-tax profits dropped 75% to £2.8m, which it partially attributed the plunge to the termination of Covid government reliefs.
However, it is forecasting “continued growth in profitability” in its current year.
Influencing the influencer generation
Footasylum is targeting the social media generation, and the brand has become a leader in this space.
Bown says that its 16 to 24 year old shopper has grown up with social media. “They are totally comfortable on there and use it for inspiration and ideas, for all sorts of things including fashion.”
He describes the worlds of fashion and social media as “intricately connected”, stressing that it’s important for youth-oriented brands such as Footasylum to be visible on these kinds of channels.
Its social channels have a vast following, with its YouTube channel boasting nearly 2.4m subscribers.
“We’re not, in the grand scheme of things, a massive business, and yet we have millions of followers on social media – something that very few businesses of our size can claim,” says Bown.
“This helps to further validate us in the eyes of our customers and cements our reputation for always being alive to what’s on-trend.”
Footasylum makes an effort to “actively engage in, and instigate, the conversations our target audience is having online”.
“This brings us even closer to our customer and supercharges our understanding of what they want,” he says.
This understanding has seen the brand’s marketers become “accomplished content creators” that work with influencers such as Yung Filly.
“We not only kit them out with the latest streetwear, but also entertain them,” he says.
Thanks to this approach, Bown admits that “many know us as content creators first and as a streetwear retailer second”.
“This is fine by us because our social media content has been hugely effective in building our brand equity amongst our target customers,” he says.
Bown says the fact that its customers are turning to it for entertainment is a real step change.
“We are competing with Netflix and Disney+ for eyeballs, and are often coming out on top, all through knowing our customer – and what they want.
“It’s a cliché, but one thing that money can’t buy is authenticity, and I think that’s what sets us apart.
“We’ve been doing this for a long while, and have a real appreciation for, and deep understanding of, the culture that surrounds streetwear in the UK. That is something that multinationals – with lots of cash but only an arm’s length understanding of the customer – can’t replicate.”
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