A house, 2020-04-16
AMA with Felix “Deadwood” von Bahder (swe)
Hello Felix and WELCOME to A house AMA!
What is the situation?
So thank you! Things are great. The home office is boiling!
Q – What got you into leather fashion?
A – I’ve always been crazy about clothes, started a vintage shop on Mosebacke with a friend many years ago. Started experimenting with making new garments from old ones. One thing led to another and suddenly you were sitting with a clothing brand, payrolls and bills haha
Q – Hi Felix! I have a leather jacket from you guys that I love had it for 4 years now and still rocks
But my question to you is, do you guys work anything with vegan leather?
A – Hi Annika! Glad you are rocking a Deadwood! Yes the idea is that we will launch a vegan mini collection this fall, made of cactus
If Mexican beer sickness can cool down a bit.
Q – Tell us more about the cactus idea! How does it work?
A – Got in touch with two brothers in Guadalajara, real cowboys. They grow cactus, harvest, grind and boil the cactus into a paste that becomes strikingly similar to leather when it dries
The thing with “regular” vegan leather is that it is 100% plastic, which sucks a bit.
Q – As for all of us, today’s flu times have affected us in one way or another, how do you see 2020 and beyond?
A – So we are also starting to feel the earthquakes in the industry. Small and large retailers are on their knees. Fortunately, we have an OK e-commerce, but the cockiness we had 3 months ago has been replaced by a certain humility. But what the heck, we will get through this too and have a good story to tell our grandchildren.
Q – When did you start? Did you have sustainability in mind from the start? Or did you realize it later?
A – Deadwood as a brand was born in 2012. By then we had been playing second-hand shop for 2 years. I think the love of vintage clothing was the original motivation. But pretty soon we realized that the only reasonable way to make a leather jacket was to use existing raw materials
Q – So it feels like you’ve got something to hold on to, what would your top tips be for maintaining an OK e-commerce?
A – Yes it is important. Sitting with expensive retail space and being dependent on foot traffic would be devastating.
For e-commerce, I think a sharp customer service is the whole thing. It feels great to jump in as founder and design manager, many probably never expected it. Advantage of being a small company. The only marketing we do is instagram basically. And word of mouth then, speaking of having a sharp customer service
THANK YOU Felix for your time in front of the screen instead of in a park with an ice cream in your hand!
I thought I’d ask 3 quick questions before we finish!
READY?
-Your best quarantine tip?
– Hmmm… Maybe order mixed cases of natural wine online! Saturday treats for adults delivered straight to your door!
@WineNature or British @CavePurJus!
Shout out to our white trash wine club @loswineoceros
– Dream cooperation would be involved?
– So getting Jeff Goldblum or Patti Smith a jacket is high on the list. Making a Docksta slipper would be cool too!
– Who would your #SupportYourLocal be?
– So I have supported Grandma’s Dumplings on Bondegatan type every day for weeks but unfortunately my efforts were not enough, they have taken corona closed a few weeks now.
What is AMA?
AMA is our way of connecting creative changemakers in A house Community to get a diversity of perspectives on whatever questions you might have (ASK ME ANYTHING!) The idea arose out of the need for inspiration facing our joint challenges and the drive to create a better tomorrow in the current situation.
How does it work?
AMA is a chat conversation made live in writing on our slack channel called a-house-ama. We encourage you to join the conversation and ask questions! You can also find the answers afterwards on our social channels and in the Journal of A house website. The conversation will be in the language of choice of the changemaker.