Brand Profile
December 18, 2006
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=315

Appaman — hip kids

You may not realize it, but you probably have seen Appaman before. Flip open the pages of In Style or US Weekly and you'll spot countless photos of celebrity offspring like Maddox Jolie-Pitt sporting one of the brand's mini-hipster t-shirts splashed with images of Che Guevara or a vintage El Camino. Or check out a stylish parenting magazine, like Child or Cookie, and you'll likely be confronted with any number of their funky, adult-style designs featured in countless editorial spreads.

Aptly coined "street-cred kids' wear," Appaman is a three-years-young children's clothing brand that appeals to parents and their kids—or kids and their parents, depending on your age and point of view. The brainchild of Norwegian graphic designer Harald Husum, Appaman began in his living room, back in 2003, shortly before his daughter was born.

"I made a few t-shirts at home by dyeing them in my washing machine, which was a big mess," says Husum. "We made a few silk screens and hand-printed them in our living room."

A former art director, Husum understood that building a successful brand would require blood, sweat, and legwork.

"We took building our brand very seriously because we really wanted to make it our livelihood," Husum explains. "From working in advertising, I understood the basics of brand building and the impact of a cohesive graphic presentation. My wife Lynn took a class about how to launch a brand in the baby industry, and from there she got a lot of contacts and good ideas. We carefully evaluated our target audience, and learned which trade shows would be best for us to attend. We also started collecting a list of stores that we wanted to carry our brand and basically went door to door. Fortunately, people really liked our designs."

By October of their first year, Appaman made a big splash at its first trade show, selling over US$ 10,000 worth of t-shirts. "Turns out our little corner booth was a big success," Husum says, smiling at the memory. "We got a few important accounts with trendsetters in the industry, and the snowball just started rolling."

During each season since, Appaman has doubled its sales, and expects revenues of more than $1 million. Although the company is based in the US, it has a strong global presence, with Europe being the source of over 30 percent of its sales.

Husum feels he had an advantage by hitting a now-competitive market early on. "Three years ago, the market for hip kids' clothes was wide open, but now it's quite saturated," he says. "The important thing is to appear authentic to your consumers. We had a six-month head start to make an impact, and I believe it's made all the difference."

It also helps that parents—and their kids—caught on to Appaman's cool quotient early on. "The whole idea with Appaman was to design small versions of what you see on adults on the street," explains Husum. "Back in the day, mom picked out kids' clothes and just bought what was available. Now, every purchase is more of a group decision. If a kid likes something, oftentimes their parents feel it's not worth the tantrum [if the items are refused] and then let kids pick out their own clothing. It's great that parents really seem to like our stuff, and the fact that kids do, too, is an extra bonus for us!"

And those magazine-editorial spreads haven't hurt Appaman's profit margin. "Early on, we decided to work with a PR agency in Los Angeles that is 100 percent focused on raising awareness in Hollywood [like getting shirts into the hands of celebrities like Angelina Jolie]," says Husum. "This strategy has really worked well for us. We thought carefully about who we wanted to be as a brand long-term, and how we wanted to grow our brand. Getting the right press was a big part of it."

With immediate plans to expand into outerwear, Husum recognizes the importance of pleasing his core customer while expanding Appaman's reach. "We started out as a t-shirt brand and recognize that in order to continue to stand out in a now-saturated market, we have to do what we do better and better, but we have to grow as well...or risk being replaced."

Vivian Manning-Schaffel is a freelance writer who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

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