Custom Consortium is building the first omni-channel retailer for the exploding bespoke sector, enabling affluent consumers to completely personalize and purchase luxury goods such as bags, shoes, and watches, both in-store and online. Current retailers are unable to offer fully bespoke products to the demands of craving customers. Filling this void as an omni-channel specialty retailer for customization, Custom Consortium will become the premier e-commerce marketplace, retailer, distributor, and incubator for bespoke fashion and lifestyle brands.
We currently have five brands on board with close to 40 more in discussion. With our mid-summer launch date of August 1 fast approaching, we’re developing our e-commerce marketplace, building our pop-up DesignShop and finalizing venue partners, exclusively onboarding unique brands, and marketing the launch.
At Custom Consortium, we’re changing retail forever. Read on to find out how.
Catering to the masses, e-commerce platforms only serve ‘ready-to-wear’ brands and do not integrate configurators, leaving bespoke brands solely to their own website. Custom Consortium’s specialty e-commerce platform will focus on these exact brands to become their primary digital offering beyond their own websites. Additionally, the CC digital marketplace will integrate directly into our DesignShops for an immersive customer experience.
At the core of our website is the development of our configurator technology. Through our own experience with Saintly Bags, we’ve researched and are developing a universal configurator to manage every brand’s product offerings. This is where every other e-commerce platform has failed in offering customizable brands.
Traditional retail cannot offer bespoke products for a variety of issues including the inability to digitally configure products, fragmented brand arrangements, staff training, and the logistics of shipping, tracking, and customer support. As customized products are made-to-order, the Bonobos GuideShop model (no inventory, smaller footprint, a physical extension of the digital e-commerce site) presents the perfect starting-point for Custom Consortium to create its own “DesignShops”.
Expanding on the Bonobos GuideShop by 1) creating a multi-brand environmentthat is 2) specialized for in-store customization, CC DesignShops are a tremendous evolution forward in retail, requiring no inventory, inventory risk, stockroom, or forced discounting.
The result?
How are we so drastically expanding on the Bonobos idea?
1) Offer multiple brands
2) Offer millions of variations of each product
3) In an even further reduced footprint
The Custom Consortium website will be integrated into the DesignShop on brilliant 19” tablets for a truly omni-channel experience. Customers can hold a tangible product and its swatches and other options to see, touch, and feel them for a much better understanding. A seasoned DesignGuide will also walk them through the finer points of each product and the ordering process for a truly immersive and bespoke experience
We recently piloted our first Custom Consortium DesignShop in San Francisco and intend to have 11 flagship DesignShops across the primary luxury shopping and travel cities in the US: NYC, SF, LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Honolulu, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, and WDC/VA.
With our e-commerce platform developed and11 DesignShops opened across the country, our attention will turn to our highly scalable B2B business. Custom Consortium will offer to major retailers our full stack technology and logistics solution that has been developed through our own DesignShops, thus allowing them to enter the bespoke product sector.
With a variety of brands on the platform, CC will allow for Saks, Barney’s, Neiman, Bergdorf’s, and smaller boutiques everywhere to select which brands to offer their customers. CC will manage all samples, shipping, tracking, and customer support on the back-end. Retailers and their salespeople need only learn and interface with a single platform rather than an individual fragmented arrangement and process for each brand. Our 11 DesignShops will effectively grow to over 100 retail outlets at approximately the same margin as CC’s DesignShops.
Modern techniques have brought old-world customization to a variety of fashion and lifestyle products across apparel, luggage, footwear, watches, headphones and more, thus exploding the trend.
With a comprehensive retail solution deployed, CC will continuously identify bespoke brands as well as work with well-known brands to build and offer customizable lines. Some of these brands will opt-in to exclusively offer their bespoke products through CC for a reduced margin. Ultimately, CC will offer a curated array of custom goods from both established and boutique names.
As the comprehensive leader in the field, the CC Incubator will offer its technical expertise, marketing and retail capabilities to select brands and ideas. In exchange for a small equity stake, we will work to develop anything from idea stage into a robust bespoke brand. With our unique ability to successfully bring custom products to market, we can ensure a tremendous return on our incubation equity. We have already identified our first incubation project: an idea stage specialty footwear brand.
The Perfect Incubation Vehicle
As the leader in bespoke retail, CC becomes the ultimate incubator:
We successfully piloted our first DesignShop in San Francisco in February with 5 brands: Saintly Bags, Awl & Sundry, Martenero, Fitzgerald Morrell, and Laura Lee Designs. We will launch with all of these brands and likely 2-4 more.
We are now:
This July and August, we will launch our mobile pop-up shop each weekend throughout the Hamptons. After that, we are working with South Street Seaport for the month of September. Finally, we’ve been invited to not only be one of the first pop-ups at the WTC Oculus, but we’ve also been given first pick of our location within it.
As we move through these pop-ups, we’ll identify our first permanent location in NYC and build that out. With Miami in mind as the next city, we will send the mobile pop-up container there to test, market, acquire customer data, and introduce the concept to press 1-2 months in advance of the permanent DesignShop’s opening.
As we begin to pursue the B2B channel, we will also expand our DesignShops internationally starting with Tokyo, London, and Dubai.
Sam Payrovi, Founder & CEO
Sam is the owner and founder of Custom Consortium and Saintly Bags. After graduating from UCLA in 2001 with a B.S. in Physiological Sciences and a Business Specialization, he moved to New York for a career in finance. Over 14 years, Sam built a successful career in Mortgage and Asset Backed Securities at notable investment banks such as Bear Stearns and Royal Bank of Scotland.
An avid traveler, Sam constantly sought out the perfect travel bag for his frequent weekend trips. It was a 2012 trip to SE Asia that gave him the idea to design his own bag, and then bring that customization to the masses through Saintly Bags.
While building Saintly, he discovered an even deeper disconnect in the marketplace: customizable fashion and lifestyle products could not be sold through retailers and digital marketplaces. Custom Consortium was born.
Alex Griffin, Creative Director
Alex provides design, creative direction, and e-commerce expertise on a consultancy basis. He began his career at agencies Wolff Olins and AKQA, and subsequently founded the curated marketplace BOUF.com in 2007, where he was CEO and Creative Director until it was acquired in 2015.
Recent achievements include winning the $75K Metro Venture Candy Award, the Shell LiveWire Entrepreneur of the Year Award for London and the South, the Courvoisier Future 500 One to Watch Award, shortlisted for the British Council Young Design Entrepreneur, and successfully raising investment from 14 top UK and European angel investors and VCs.
Fiat Company – A complete executive team of retail specialists to execute the development and deployment of advanced retail concepts. Prior projects include Lolli & Pops, FAO Schwarz/Sweetz, London Fog, Kennedy Space Center, It’s Sugar, Pez, Dollywood, Dylan’s Candy Bar, Macy’s, and many more.
Frank Dinunzi (Concept, Merchandising, Real Estate)
A pioneer in the specialty retail space with over 20 years’ experience in creating and rolling out concepts for start-ups to Fortune 500 brands. With recognized expertise in concept creation & execution, business “turn around”, in-store merchandise concepts, store creation, and product sourcing, design and development.
Tom Crossman (Concept & Digital Designer)
A master of designing commercial interiors and graphics, including the big idea conceptual design, identity graphics, ground-up interior design and the necessary drawings andspecs needed to execute the vision. An emphasis on master planning, tra ffic flow, theming, architecture, and the language of fun.
Bear Silber (Marketing, PR, Social Media)
With a background in marketing and business development and proven track record in creating successful businesses, M&A, exit strategies, traditional marketing, graphic and web design, PR, social media and viral marketing, brand development, partnerships, ecommerce, wholesale and retail.
Undisclosed Name (Expert Operator, Team Development)
Building teams with great leaders, attention to detail, and a focus on success for over 15 years. In-depth knowledge of retail operations from the corporate level to the store level. Encompassing expertise in all facets of operations from customer service, to learning & development.
Ryan David William, Legal and Strategic Advisory
Ryan’s background in advising startups through his legal practices at Morrison Foerster and Orrick guide our initiatives while protecting us from potential pitfalls.
Will Hutchings, Luxury Retail Advisor
Former Executive Director, Head of Luxury Retail at Goldman Sachs, Europe. Will is playing an active and instrumental role in introductions to brands, retailers, partners, and investors with in luxury fashion and retail. In particular, he is identifying these partners in Europe where our reach had been limited until now.