Behind-the-scenes with serial entrepreneur Robbie Ball of Uncle Jack Watches and Athletikan sneakers | #402

Tim

But this is incredible because skins were the biggest, it was compression sportswear right that you are interested in ruling the world. Skins had the market right. What were you thinking?

Robbie

It was ambitious. You know I think I’m just the type that is going to have a crack regardless and I think you know at 16 years old you’ve got nothing to lose and I know this is a bit of fun really.

Tim

You’re 25 now right

Robbie

I’m 24.

Tim

All right 24. When I was young I used to say, you know I don’t always quite to use above what I really was. But have you lost any of that competitive spirit or is it still there. Does it grow

Robbie

Well I think it’s kind of controlled a little bit if you try to do too many things I just try and be the best that I can be so whatever that kind of entails. So be it.

Tim

Yeah right. So, it’s just part of your DNA is you just want to be, you want to try new things, you want to take risks, and whatever that is, you want to be the best at it. Putting words in your mouth there.

Robbie

Yeah, I think so. I think it’s a pretty good summary.

Tim

Cool. I feel a little bit embarrassed by that.

Robbie

Well that’s fine I think you’ve painted a good little picture there.

Tim

But that’s fantastic. I’m the father of three teenagers say you know like I’m really, even from that point of view I’m interested in. Do you think it’s just part of you? Do you think it’s something you can learn?

Robbie

Well I think I think the underlying thing is you have to be passionate about it. So, it’s very difficult to try and kind of do or be the best at something you’re passionate. So, you know I try and stay in my lane. But you know, try and push the boundaries a little bit and try new things.

Tim

Okay. Well we’re going to talk about pushing the boundaries shortly. How did you go taking skins on in VCA? Was it a quick failure?

Robbie

Yeah pretty quick.

Tim

What did you learn

Robbie

Well I learned how to source a manufacturer at 16, so that’s a huge skill to be honest. And I’ve used it with my other businesses now you know marketing, kind of setting up a website which is at the time was completely foreign to me. You know and then when I finish school I ended up doing a web site.

Tim

Well let’s talk about how do you got in to VCA, out of interest?

Robbie:

Well.

Tim

I’ll say you’re a smart rooster as well. Fifteen days after finishing school you started a website design business. Three years and 50 clients later you sold it or closed it.

Robbie

Yeah kind of got pushed aside really with Uncle Jack so much it’s really just taking off.

Tim

What made you decide to start a website design business 15 days after school finished. That you mean to be on school.

Robbie

Yeah right. Well, I kind of in that last final year, I just kind of said to myself, okay Robbie just you know take let’s take a vacs. So, kind of the whole year was spent planning what I was going to do the next year or you know in terms of a business venture. I would never not be going to do something. So, as I said when I started the compression business and kind of learned how to create websites and thought, I was getting pretty good at it. As a kind of marketing person, I saw the opportunity behind it as well. Marketing to small business owners who are focusing on their business and obviously need some help online with their web site and my marketing stuff so it just kind of it was a natural progression.

Tim

Were you ever going to study?

Robbie

I did study yeah.

Tim

So, you got your website design business going and you’re at uni?

Robbie

Yeah. So, I did my Bachelor of Business.

Tim

Course you did. Where’s that

Robbie

I did it in La Trobe.

Tim

What you specialize in marketing?

Robbie

Sports management.

Tim

At all hence you’ve got to sneak a brand which will come and go. So again what should be learning from owning a website design business?

Robbie

Online marketing. So, I think the skills I learned there are just transferable across almost any business and every business needs is marketing and so yeah that was a major skill I learned.

Tim

Yeah okay we’ll talk about that. I Imagine the hype marketing that we’re going to kind of get into big component of that is online. Alright buddy. Well that brings us to three years ago. I feel like we’ve already covered someone’s complete career and at this point you’re only like 22 in 2014 when you start Uncle Jack’s watches. Now I always get fascinated Robbie when I meet someone who’s inside what looks like a very competitive marketplace, a very tough marketplace with a product that needs a lot of promotion. Yeah, I’m looking at tag or long jeans or what do these big watch companies. You know there’s room for another watch. What were you thinking

Robbie

Well I mean how it came about was I was looking for a watch for a friend’s 21st birthday and you know watches are such a standard kind of gift. So, I was walking through the major shopping center and just kind of looking at all the watches I just thought of like wow these are you know these are quite pretentious. You know pretty overpriced, and to be frank I didn’t really think they were really good looking so I walked out of there literally that day just thinking I’ve got to do something here. Like this needs a bit of a shakeup. So yeah when I designed one style, four colors.

Tim

You can’t just do that. You have literally not been able to find your friend to watch. So, you’ve started a watch company.

Robbie

Yeah. Well I mean I think that’s how kind of ideas are triggered. you see something.

Tim

Is it that easy? I’m going to dig hard here. I’m fascinated. I mean again, plenty of people listening have lots of ideas including myself and those ideas remain ideas right until unless you action, you implement, you find the courage to move forward with it. For you that isn’t a very big step, is it

Robbie

Ah Yeah, I mean I think you’re right in terms of everyone’s got ideas and you know when I actually have an app where if I have an idea I just write it down. If anyone ever got their hands on that app, they’d be scrolling for days.

Tim

An app like Evernote or just a notes app.

Robbie

Yeah it just a notes app and write it down. But I think the other thing is timing. So, I think Uncle Jack which is really good timing in the market where it was these existing brands that have been producing the same kind of watches for decades. They need a bit of a shakeup. So, there was a room there for a boutique kind of more youthful kind of player to come into the market.

Tim

So, what did you do? You already had experience in sourcing suppliers and manufacturers. So that the first thing you’ve done is you’ve gone and done some designs

Robbie

The design aspect wasn’t the primary focus for me it was just making sure that there actually was a gap in the market there. You know as I said a more youthful kind of brand to come into the watch market.

Tim

What’s more how do you do that. Is that something that you have an innate ability to see gaps or is there some research that you do. How do you know

Robbie

I think it’s a bit of both to be honest I think university kind of textbook is, kind of SWOT analysis on that kind of thing but I think that can only get you so far. There’s a little bit of observing because the people that I’m selling watches to is you know myself and my peers my friends. So, it’s about talking to people you know saying what they do what their purchases are like are they wearing watches are they buying you know style preferences and stuff like that. Is this literally talking to people and you know it’s never going to be black and white. You know SWOT analysis sort of thing. You’ve got to have a hunch and particular insight a bit of your gut feeling. But yeah, I think there is definitely a squealing kind of observing you know what’s going on in the market for sure.

Tim

When you talk to people who’ve had this conversation with past guests how much do you listen to what they say?

Robbie

For me anyway it’s kind of just getting a gist of it because really, it’s a very small sample size that you’re talking to so you can’t take it word for word. But again, you know they could tell you one thing and be doing. So, it’s a bit of both observing and talking to people.

Tim

Yeah. Okay so you’ve done your SWOT analysis you’ve gone out and spoken to a lot of people you’ve sat back and observed people’s behaviour around watches. There’s a gap does you then go and design

Robbie

So, before I design the watch I started talking to manufacturers because I had an idea about you know kind of what the theme or the kind of style of the watch would be like. So, I had a pretty good idea but hadn’t gone into detail, fully designing the watch. So, I started talking to manufacturers just to gauge whether is feasible with the quantities we’ve been doing, could we actually make money on at this price that we wanted to do. So that was the next step for me to say or find out. Can we actually do this and make money off it and you know is it feasible.

Tim

Clearly it was. Why the name Uncle Jack’s or Uncle Jack

Robbie

Great question. So, before we actually launched we actually had another name. So, we were going to launch with another name which I can’t actually say for the listeners. No, it’s completely irrelevant with anything that you see now with Uncle Jack.

Tim

Do you wish you had gone with it?

Robbie

Not now. No. So I mean how did the name Uncle Jack actually came about. Well I don’t have an Uncle Jack, no one has an Uncle Jack. After we had to change our name I remember sitting in the backyard around the table and you know stressed out. So, what we did was we had one pile of words and we had another pile of words and we merged together. And so, we just picked one where it was Uncle Yellow’s Jack. Because that’s how we want. We want to be boutique a bit differently. We didn’t want to be like time watch or whatever. It had to be kind of modern.

Tim

It’s interesting because all of a sudden, you’re under the pump you got to find a name. You have a couple of beers and out the back pull two birds and two rabbits out of hat and go, okay it’s Uncle Jack. How important a name then? Is it what you put into the name?

Robbie

It’s important at all. I mean you look at Google I mean that is a bizarre name.

Tim

Apple. Apple is the most bizarre name of all time.

Robbie

Yeah, I think it’s how you how you brand it, how you market it. But I think in our instance as I said we didn’t want to be like a standard, we don’t want to use time or anything like that in the name because we had to be a bit different. I think that’s the only thing that we didn’t want to be but other than that, I don’t think the name itself has a lot of impact.

Tim

It’s interesting because an episode that went out recently was with a lady Renae Bunster who had created some hot chili sauces that become very popular and her flagship products is called shit the bed. To her the name is massively important. It’s the whole reason she has so much awareness. There’s two schools of thought of course. Off I do see business owners get a little bit kind of twisted and freaked out trying to name something when it’s actually what you put into that name that’s important. So, you’ll launch this watch brand you’ve got about, I was looking at the website, there’s about 10 different watches on or 10 different styles?

Robbie

At the start or now?

Tim

Now.

Robbie

Oh, now we’ve got about 30 in total.

Tim

I must be on page 1. 30 different watches. Been a good business

Robbie

Yeah, it’s been great. Lot of fun.

Tim

Do you love watches?

Robbie

I’ve never been a watch person. It’s funny though like before I actually went to go buy a watch for a friend, I started looking at you know, I was kind of at that point where I starting to look for a watch for myself. So, I had already started thinking about it. So, I think just subconsciously you know like when you’re looking to buy a new car you always see that car kind of driving along. So, I think subconsciously I was already thinking about it. Yeah. No. Never been like a real watch enthusiast and we don’t market to watch enthusiast market either. That’s a totally different market.

Tim

Fashion market. You know you market to the fashion market fashion conscious. So that’s interesting in itself. You have found an opportunity for a gap in a market and you’ve gone and filled it right. Not necessarily passionate about it. There’s two schools of thought. One says you’ve got to be passionate about something because then you’ll give it everything but you’ll probably be passionate about creating great businesses.

Robbie

Well yeah. But I’m passionate about fashion and style and creativity so you know watches and other products. But there’s a lot of other kind of processes and thoughts that go into it.

Tim

Right okay. I talked to one of my boys yesterday, Will. He’s 19 said I’ve heard this bloke Robbie Ball, he’s got this brain Uncle Jack’s I don’t know if you I’m sorry but you’ve heard of Uncle Jack’s. He goes, oh yeah, a big on social influence is that right. Is that how you market the product.

Robbie

Yeah, we’ve had quite a bit of success using influence of marketing. So yeah, I mean it is one kind of cog in the machine.

Tim

Is it a big cog? Because on your website you’ve got a button that says who is Uncle Jack.

Robbie

Yeah well, the social currency. So, you see these people that you look up you to or you know and you see them on the TV and they’re wearing the watches. I mean it gives it gives you a little bit of validation to say oh well, these people are actually wearing them, might grab one myself.

Tim

What your social influencer marketing strategy look like? You’re literally just posting watches out to people that you hope will wear them and send and they’ll send you back a photo of them wearing it or are you actively paying people to do that

Robbie

Yeah so, we don’t really pay anyone. So, I’d say ninety-nine-point nine percent. We don’t pay so at the same time we would never just send a watch to someone in hope that they’ll wear it. We will reach out to someone that we like you know whether it’s a footballer or a musician or a podcaster and just say hey you know love to send you watch are you interested. So, they’re actually there. They’re telling us yes. Like I’d love to watch you know. So, it’s not just in hope.

Tim

When you do, so you reach out to them. You want to watch? They can say yes because you want a watch. When you send that watch, you’re asking them to send back a photo of themselves with it?

Robbie

Yeah. We know we don’t make it like a hard thing like you know if they get a watch and they you know as long as they’re wearing it. That’s my thing because I have a bit of a thing about influencers. You know my big one is targeting people that have influence outside of social media. So, I think they’re really the ones who I want to target. So, people walking down the street and people can’t know who they are. So, they’re wearing the watch and people are saying they’re wearing it. To me that has a bigger impact than just you know someone posting who doesn’t necessarily have that outside influence does post on social media has as less of an impact.

Tim

Previous guest on the show was Jules Lund who owns a social media influence or agency called Tribe. The thing is Brad introducing brands to social influencers, who pay the social influencers to do, is that may be a bit smelly. Is that already something that may we see through as consumers

Robbie

Yeah, I think so. I think we’re kind of you know, we’re going through a phase in social media where there is no black or white. So, I think that kind of falls into that gray kind of category but Jules would know more about it I believe there are some regulations coming in with like tagging. So, if you’re being paid for it.

Tim

You got to put a hash tag sponsorship or something like that.

Robbie

Yeah which kind of takes away. For me it kind of takes away the point of it because it’s just another ad. You could pay for that ad elsewhere.

Tim

I want to be one of the sneaker brand Robbie but I sure a Robbie Ball who is a serial entrepreneur at the age of 24 going on 25 and he’s got Uncle Jack watches, he’s had all sorts of as you’ve already heard taken on the sporting giant skins. I love it. Wrap some numbers around where Uncle Jack is today Robbie before we move on to the sneakers.

Robbie

Uncle Jack is with our third birthday in September last year. So, going on four. So, we’ve got lucky enough to have office and warehouse in Melbourne just around the corner. We’ve got about six or seven staff now, launching in the US in February. So that’s exciting. Won a few awards.

Tim

Can you put a monetary value around the business? What size is the business from that point or turnover or something.

Robbie

Yeah. So, I mean I can give you the update from last year when we won the award because it’s public information. So, the time that was 1.4 turnover in Australia. So, the US is another kettle of fish for us. Obviously that market is enormous. That’s kind of a big growth opportunity for us.

Tim

How do you manage a boutique watch brand in the United States?

Robbie

So, I mean again it’s kind of incorporating all of your marketing, your hype marketing, and kind of replicating what we’ve done over there.

Tim

We’re going to find out about hype marketing. In May just gone, you have launched a sneaker brand. Sneakers to say Athletikan. Not a gap?

Robbie

Not a gap. It’s almost identical as well to Uncle Jack

Tim

Yeah, your Nike and your Asics or whatever, you know probably not Asics that’s me showing my age, but you know what I mean. And so, there’s another gap very similar strategy probably applying everything you’ve learned on Uncle Jack to sneakers.

Robbie

Yeah exactly. I mean make no mistake we’re competing with Nike and Adidas you know obviously a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of the market probably you know not even enough of them to worry about right now. But again, we’re kind of creating that niche in an industry as you say that’s dominated by a few big brands. And is it the same kind of point where the watch industry was at probably four years ago where it’s just kind of due for a bit of a shakeup. I think people, with social media now, people are really conscious about what they buy and who they buy from and I think people actually buy from people. So, you know I think as founders as well if we can really just get people to subscribe to our stories and I think that’s kind of a really big selling point for us. Is that you know Athletikan and for example there are a couple of guys from Melbourne taking on these giants. I think people really subscribe to that.

Tim

Yeah totally. Yeah. Well very brave you know. I’m sure you know advertising these sneakers if you’re not running ads in magazines or you know what all the other big data show. Yeah. So again social influencer.

Robbie

Yeah exactly the same model.

Tim

Wow. Well let’s talk let’s talk about hype marketing because this is the model that you’re following. You’ve coined a phrase, you’re writing the book, define hype marketing.

Robbie

You know I was on a plane and I spent about a three-hour trip. I spent about three hours trying to define what the hype marketing was. I came up with you know, I probably came up with 50 different definitions. I’ll summarize it as this. So, it is using simple viral marketing strategies to create huge launches.

Tim

Simple viral marketing strategies to create huge launches. Hype marketing is about launching, is about creating initial awareness. Simple viral marketing, those two words don’t go together for me because everyone we’re talking to the past guest. Everyone wants a viral something, right. Not so simple.

Robbie

Yeah right. Well I mean viral comes with this you know, I don’t know if you remember like Kony 2012 is big like viral marketing campaign. You know when people think of viral they think of this huge worldwide global campaign. But you know you’ve got to put it into perspective. For small business owner, going viral may mean you know the community that we’re in. That to me is viral in that context. So, it’s all about perspective.

Tim

Okay. So, give us some perspective. Is there a step by step approach you can give us to hype marketing?

Robbie

Yeah. I mean there’s a whole bunch of steps really, I guess to create a big launch. So obviously the hype marketing is all about hype. But it’s like how do you create that. So, you know I think kind of exclusivity is a really powerful psychological tool. So, people almost want what they can’t have in a sense. There’s different ways you can go about it. I mean there’s a lot of kind of psychology to it behind the processes like you’ve got to have a funnel where you’re directing traffic and everything like that. But it’s like why are you launching, like what is it that you actually, what makes it special that you want people to purchase on launch day, why can’t they purchase now. So, you know whether you launch a new business, you could be launching a new product in your business. You may just want to kind of reinvigorate things or just get people talking about the brand because it can be a real PR grab as well. If you’re doing something really cool. So, the process behind it, first of all you know traffic with its website traffic or it could be foot traffic as well, you need to direct them somewhere. I would say your website or landing page or your store front. And then once people are in there it’s how do we capture the information or you know say use Uncle Jack or Athletikan as an example. We want emails. That’s our big thing. So, if we get an e-mail from a lead, we’ll call it. We know from doing part launches that are lead to us on launch day is worth X amount. So, from there once we’ve got to lead.

Tim

How do you get the e-mail?

Robbie

Traffic.

Tim

Yeah. What do you do? How do you get the traffic?

Robbie

Well you should have traffic sources in place so you know you’re talking about social media influence and marketing. I think one of the really common questions that you would probably get all times how do I get traffic. But it doesn’t have to be complicated and it doesn’t have to be vast. You don’t have to be doing it on mass. Again, it’s all about context. So, your social media, you influence a marketing, it could be paid ads, can be paid Facebook ads, Google AdWords. There’s a whole host of traffic sources. So, once we have the leads it’s about nurturing them. And I always say that’s the most important part. So, it’s one thing to get someone’s email but is another thing to get them to the point where they’re ready to purchase on launch day. So, I have this image in my head of what the perfect hype marketing campaign looks like and it’s say you’re launching on 7 tonight, there is someone sitting there at 6:50 PM refreshing the website waiting for it to launch. That’s kind of where I want, that’s what the whole nurturing phase is about. So, there’s different ways you can do it. One really easy ways is to once you have the e-mails, set up an automated e-mail series which you can do on MailChimp or any e-mail marketing sort of service. Could be three or four emails, you know a simple one. Meet the team, get people to buy from people, meet the founders etc., and then you want to get them excited about the products, about the launch. Whether you’re only launching a hundred you can be one of 100 to get it. It depends on what your selling point is. So that’s just a few emails to get them really excited. The next stage that I like to use is remarketing, particularly on Facebook. It’s often used just for sales and it’s a really effective tool. So, remarketing is, say you visit my website, there’s a little cookie I think it’s called where we can then remarket to you on wherever you go with specific ads.

Tim

Why is that ad from Uncle Jack popping up all the time

Robbie

I get that so often.

Tim

So, what do you like to do with your remarketing?

Robbie

So, four days before the launch what I like to do is I do a four days ago, three days ago, or two days ago, and today’s the day. So, it’s only you know only spending 20-30 bucks on it each day but what gets people excited, gets a front of mind. So, when it actually comes to the launch day they’re ready to go, they’re on your website. You know you look like the big sneaker launches. They literally sell out in two seconds. So, it is genuine hype and the whole process is about creating the hype and getting people excited and as I said getting to the point where they’re refreshing the website and ready to go.

Tim

Well it’s not a bad thing. I mean there’ll be people sort of listening probably going, oh it’s quite a shallow approach because at the end of the day while those sneakers sell out in two seconds, I’m going to get them in four weeks’ time. Right? Because it’s as if they’re going to be not available. There’s going to be more product coming. But you just want that initial burst.

Robbie

Yeah. I mean there’s businesses that just have launches so they never have to have stock available. But again, it’s how you want to integrate that into your business model. It could just be a new product launch. They really want to hype and I think particularly in the early days, we were genuinely selling out really quickly. And we never went into it trying to do hype marketing launches that haven’t really organically, just through selling. And not being the best thing that happened to our business because one thing you do get out of these hype marketing campaigns is people talk about the brand. People talk about the business psychology say you know Uncle Jack, there was sold out and you know blah blah blah. We can get PR out of it. People were talking about it. It’s really powerful.

Tim

So, what you’ve got is a lead up to a launch, series of e-mails that go out to someone who gives you their e-mail, there they’re refreshing their screen ideally 10 minutes before you go live. You then make a whole bucket load of sales, is there any other part of hype marketing that we’re missing at this point

Robbie

Well I mean you know there are obviously more in-depth processes in each stage. But yeah, that’s basically the summary of it but you’ve got to have a value point for the for the customer like what are they actually getting out of it, why should they be refreshing their websites.

Tim

Well give me an example of a value point that you’ve used for the watches or sneakers.

Robbie

It’s no different to any other business like what value does the customer get. So, I spoke about social currency. Before that, that’s a big selling point for both of Uncle Jack and Athletikan. Lots of our customers want to get their hands on the product because as we’re talking about influence of marketing.

Tim

So, they got one.

Robbie

Exactly right. So, you’ve got to have a reason to launch. It’s not just, you can’t do it for the sake of it and just expect it to go gangbusters. There’s really got to be a reason, there’s going to be a value for the customer.

Tim

Okay. All right. What’s the other name for Uncle Jack’s you’re saying before? Hey Robbie, I love your enthusiasm. What have you got in terms of what’s planned. I mean you must be getting bored already. The sneaker brand is not so well, is it, it’s not quite 12 months old but it must be tiring of it. What’s next

Robbie

Well I’m actually launching another brand this year. So, men’s rings actually. So, another kind of observation in the market. More and more people are, men are wearing rings now so it’s kind of like a fashion statement. So, a bit of market research there. Paddy Kennedy, who actually

Tim

Who’s Paddy Kennedy?

Robbie

Brother of

Tim

Oh, brother of Dan Kennedy who guest in the show and my PT they have great podcast by the way.

Robbie

Yes. We actually I was chatting to him about he’s involved as well and he was really there’s really cool kind of ring out somewhere, where do you actually get them because I’m looking to buy one myself. And he’s like oh I get it. Market and just random spots I’ve seen that was like, well you know someone needs someone to do this. So that’s the next one coming out.

Tim

You’ve got a name for it?

Robbie

Hunter black. So, my kind of goal is to create this kind of network of brands.

Tim

There’s a real similarity. I see doing now. So, fashion is almost the driver finding a gap that’s under marketed, not kind of met by the bigger guys. Is most of your distribution online

Robbie

Yes. 95 percent say that way. I think the way retail is going probably. I mean with Uncle Jack, we’re starting to get into a few stores. I mean it’s a really good kind of touch point for customers. You know to go in and try it on for example which you can’t do online.

Tim

Like Bellroy wallet’s because they for years were online. I love those wallets. Do you know what I’m talking about? Old school but they got a contract with Henry Bucks which is a gentlemen’s outfitter in, I think they’re in national but they did change things. I think of two things as a fan of the Bellroy brand by trying to get the owners of those on the show by the way, they lived down the coast and I think they’re pretty relaxed there. I loved the independent nature of Bellroy when they were just online, a pure online play. When I saw them in the windows of Henry Bucks it sort of changed things a little bit for me it was like if they sold out you know. Stone and Wood was another example although Stone and Wood would be and was never an online play. But it was a very independent brewery now they’ve been kind of bought out there in Dan Murphys but it’s an interesting balance you have to get right? Because imagine you getting distribution at a department store or distribution for you or.

Robbie

At this stage we’re looking more at kind of the independent kind of scene. So, I think kind of initially when we started Uncle Jack, we were kind of rebelling against the kind of the big department store. So, I think in one way it’s almost ironic if we do end up in department stores because I think it would do really well against kind of exactly what we were fighting in those big brands who are just producing the same style watches over and over again and we’re doing some really cool stuff like we did a print from Hosier Lane and printed that onto a watch strap which is just stuff that hasn’t been done before. So, it stands out like a sore thumb in you know.

Tim

Yeah. How do you like being overseas, interstate this is a lane full of wonderful graffiti. So, you’ve taken a snapshot of that and put on a band. I like that. Personalized products. We had a lady Mon Purse. She’s doing personalized, you know Mon Purse? She’s out of Paddington in Sydney, you know you go in there. I think she had some like millions and millions of permutations and combinations of the one person. But clearly people love that personalization approach. You can think more of that.

Robbie

Yes. I mean in terms of personalization it’s just in the last probably two years is exploded. So, we actually do monograming on our leather watches whereas you can get your initials punched into the watch strap when you buy a watch. So that’s been really sort of popular because you know, as we said at the start, watches are really standard gift. So, it’s that little extra touch in getting someone’s initials as a present. So yeah, we’ll continue to kind of you know I think that’s the way retail is going anyways, personalization. So, we’ll be constantly adapting and innovating in that sense.

Tim

I can imagine all of a sudden, they’re being good enough products, you’ve got watches covered, you’ve got sneakers, you’re going to have men’s jewelry rings. It’s almost be a shop at some point where you can outfit a bloke. It’s on the cards isn’t it. What’s that brand called

Robbie

I think if we get to a point where we have a collective of brands, it’d be silly not to put them all in one spot eventually whether that’s online or experienced store that are becoming more popular.

Tim

So, where it’s going is we have we’ve had spell on the gypsy collective on this show, fashion brand out of Byron which they do twenty million bucks a year but they’ve got one shop in Byron that people fly to from overseas.

Robbie

Yeah, it’s really. I mean it’s the way it’s going.

Tim

What do their shops look like? Are they literally just, you encourage, like Apple you’re almost encouraged not to buy there right. You know they want you to buy online. But come and check the product out feel it look at it. Is that kind of where it’s going from a retail perspective

Robbie

Yeah. Well I recently attended a couple of retail events and one of the big things that people were talking about was like these experience stores we go in and try it on but instead of actually buying the product there you literally scan the code next to the product and you buy it on your phone and it just gets sent from the warehouse where the warehouse is so you go in China and go Yep do like it. I’m going to buy it and I get sent in a day or two later.

Tim

There is a shift. It’s a generational shift. I mean my generation maybe that below me, we like to go to a shop and walk out with something like that. Part of the reason we’ve gone out, a major part where is go into a shop buying it online and then waiting for it to come in a couple days’ time but I think probably distribution systems. I know in the States, I mean Amazon are promising in some parts like within an hour order online or be at your door within an hour. Australia is a bit harder from that point of view, isn’t it?

Robbie

It is yeah. I mean geographically it’s difficult. So, you know another thing they were talking about at the conference was kind of you know a lot of people where you know instead of offering that one-hour shipping. You know there’s other value ads as well. So, customers experience is the big one. So not necessarily competing on price is how can you add other values to the customer.

Tim

I love it mate, Robbie, I feel like you’re sort of in day one mate. You got the watches and the rings and the sneaker sorted but I think it’s going to be an exciting journey and look forward to watching it. Maybe get you on in a year’s time when you’ve got another ten brands under your belt. You don’t rush these things.

Robbie

No of course not. Yeah.

Tim

How can people find you?

Robbie

So, my personal melbournepreneur.com and on Instagram @melbournepreneur. Uncle Jack is @UncleJackwatches and unclejackwatches.com and athletikan and is athletikan.com and @athletikan.

Tim

Mate, there’s a lot of calls to action there. Well done, Robbie. Thanks for sharing, mate.

Robbie

Thanks very much for having me on.