To be or not to be? Will Williamsburg Garment overtake Levis as the best-known American Denim Brand?
Here’s brand owner/designer and 1-Man show Maurice Malone answer:
“In my lifetime, I don’t know,”. “I think it’s very possible when looking at the speed in which things change today.”
“I’ve had people say to me, WGC is like a newer, cooler Levis. What I do believe is, in the coming years, people will think of Williamsburg Garment Company when they think of American Made Jeans. That is my goal. To be the biggest and best Made in USA Denim Brand.”
“I love to hear people chuckle when I say, one day this brand is going to be a Billion Dollar Company with retail stores all over the world. When it comes to this brand, I have Kanye sized confidence. I know I make a great product that consumers really, really love. As a 1-man company, I’ve read every customer email – thousands of them and a common expression is an enthusiastic “My new favorite Jeans,” so I know I’m doing something right.”
“First time buyers are not finding me because I have this great marketing thing going on. I rarely have time to do the social media thing and rarely do email marketing. I spend most of my time responding to email inquiries, shipping orders, accounting, updating my website and arranging production. Besides a small Google ads budget, there is no marketing. I’m growing from word of mouth, great product and customer service.”
“Since WGC’s launch about 2 1/2 years ago,like most other companies, the brands had its share of growing pains. We have not always put out a perfect product. We have not always delivered on-time, sometimes several months later then anticipated.
“In short, we swung and missed a few times but more often we’ve knocked it out of the park. Continuing to grow by improving on past mistakes and gaining old fashioned word-of-month, inspired by consumer passionate satisfaction.”
Perfecting small is WGC’s key to becoming a truly big brand. Over the past year the company has taken steps in new directions, some too challenging for most brands to consider.
The first Made in USA product called the “HOPE STREET” hit the market in May 2013. Retail priced at only $124, the HOPE STREET jeans sold-out quickly and helped to drive the move of all products Made in USA in 2014.
However, remaking all of the top selling products within one season proved to be an unanticipated challenging task. Delays trying to match the top FITS that helped to make the brand famous caused some styles like the women’s best selling UNION AVE high-waisted jeans originally scheduled for February delivery, moved back to August delivery for Fall.
Despite the delay in production, the style remains oversold with zero order cancellations from retailers or prepaid consumer orders.
Complicating and delaying Men’s Spring deliveries were the new prepaid Made-To-Order offerings introduced in February 2014 and delivered in May / June to consumers.
“I received lots of angry emails from guys because some Made-To-Order jeans were months late. The same guys later emailed to say how happy they were with the jeans and the fit after delivery. Many of those same angry emailers placed new orders for new styles. I mean guys were truly happy, you’d think I made their dreams come true,” says Malone.
“New styles are constantly overselling not because of retailer booking, but because consumers are pre-ordering to guarantee they get their size.”
“I know the brands on track for big things in the future. The key for me is not growing too fast. It’s to get the product and service right. To be efficient and low cost, investing in the quality of the product. For me, I’ll deliver late if the production being developed is not to my liking. In a time when lots of brands are delivering less, I want to give people more then they expect, with the hope they’ll become repeat customers.”
Using better quality fabrics from the USA and Japan, WGC offers Men’s and Women’s better denim products Made In USA at smart entry level designer boutique prices.
WGC also offers an expanded size range at very reasonable prices for Big & Tall men exclusively on its website www.WilliamsburgGarment.com.
WGC may be a spec in an industry of Giants now, but it has enormous ambitions and drive.
