Welcome to issue one of ‘Behind the themes’. Each edition we’ll chat with the people and teams behind well crafted e-commerce sites. For our inaugural interview we visited much loved premium accessories brand hard graft.
In the summer of 2012 James and Monika, co-founders of hard graft, decided to change their backdrop and upped sticks from Vienna to East London. Having started their business out of the need to have a practical and well designed laptop sleeve, the business has grown into an internationally recognised brand. The trademark hard graft designs are handmade in leather and felt and the range has evolved from cases to bags and most recently footwear.
James and Monika were gracious enough to invite me along to their beautiful atelier not long after they had moved in. Over the course of a coffee we chatted about their beginnings, design processes, the trials and tribulations of finding the perfect suppliers and manufacturers as well as how their 100% online business has progressed from simple PayPal buttons to a fully featured online store.
Why did you start creating these products?
[ j ] Initially it was due to personal need. We’d spent some time in Australia and I had bought a new 17′′ Macbook for the trip. We hadn’t got a decent case for it and as a result it ended up broken – the case we had snapped and it fell. So we decided to make our own.
Before we started hard graft we had already identified that there wasn’t a great deal of choice out there for your laptop. There wasn’t really an design or craft concious industry like there is now for tech accessories. We think we were kind of one of the pioneers of this industry. We’ve slowly built our brand and increased our product range.
[ m ] We were the first people to make an iPhone case out of felt and leather, for sure.
Actually I remember the day the first iPhone came out. James said, “It’s going to be a big thing, the iPhone, we’ve got to make a case.” So we made this cardboard model of the iPhone because in Austria you couldn’t get one. So we made the cardboard model and started making an iPhone case on the same day.
Is it true you first started selling online via Etsy?
[ m ] Yes, that was in 2006.
[ j ] We thought about doing greeting cards and we did some drawings. We wanted to do something together but we didn’t know what. When we got back from Australia to Vienna we made one sleeve and put it online, just one sleeve. Someone bought it and we put another one on and someone bought that. We just kind of did it one-by-one.
[ m ] On the first of October 2007 our products appeared on a blog – that was the breaking point. On that day — James was out of the house and I called him, “Something happened.” I was really stressed. “What am I going to do?”
[ j ] We had the products online but we’d only made maybe one of each or something so we were doing it to order.
Were you using felt and leather right from the outset?
[ m ] We wanted to use leather but we needed a material that our sewing machine could handle and it had to be high quality too, that’s how we came up with felt and leather. This combination of materials defined our brand. Now you see a lot of people trying to use the same materials and colour scheme.
You worked in advertising before starting Hard Graft. Do you think the skills you learnt in that industry helped in the way you approached the products and the marketing?
[ j ] From the start we had a clear idea of it being a brand with a good name and a clear concept of product.
[ m ] We knew photos would be important. Even if you look back to 2007, 2006, the photos were really good, which is a bit surprising to us, that we managed to actually keep the quality.
How did you decide on the name Hard Graft?
[ j ] We started out as Working Class Heroes, but didn’t for a number of reasons. We wanted to stay on the industrial theme and of looking back to the old heritage times. I’m from Yorkshire so it had that Yorkshire kind of phrase as well, very confident.
In the beginning you were making the products yourselves. Did you need to acquire new skills or do you have backgrounds in design and manufacturing?
[ m ] No, I’ve got a fashion background.
[ j ] We had a really tiny flat in the beginning. We bought a piece of felt just big enough to make a laptop sleeve, then eventually realised we needed to start buying rolls of felt. We had these rolls of felt which filled the whole flat. I was on hands and knees cutting out.
Were you able to satisfy demand?
[ m ] We made all the products ourselves for a long time. The problem was the orders came in and we had to get them out as quick as we could. We didn’t have time to find a producer, we just worked solid every single day.
The hardest thing for us was finding a producer that could and was willing to make our products.
And to exacting standards.
[ m ] Exactly, we got some very funny samples back from various places.
[ j ] We would get really hopeful and then we’d get the sample back and it was terrible so we thought forget about it; it’s not going to work, and put our heads down again. Work through the night.
Given that you were busy making and satisfying the orders how did you find the time or headspace to dream up new products?
[ m ] Sewing is quite meditative.
[ j ] As we were doing it we were thinking of new stuff.
Did you have any happy accidents in terms of the designs?
[ j ] I think that’s how it happens. You have an idea for something. You make it and it doesn’t look exactly how you expected. Then you keep developing it.
[ m ] We never call it a happy accident though. It’s just a problem and finding a solution. There was a problem and you find the right solution to figure it out.
Did you always target a certain demographic?
[ m ] Not really, however we found out over time that it’s mainly guys liking our stuff.
[ j ] It’s quite a masculine style, the brown leather and dark greys.
[ m ] But it’s not like we set out to do stuff for guys, it just happened.
Let’s talk a little about the design process. Do you use technology or just sketch?
[ m ] Usually just sketch and then we make a life-sized model in paper or something. We then take this paper model to Italy and work it up there.
Tell me a little about your relationship with the workshop in Italy
[ m ] We started with them just making the 2Unfold laptop bags, we produced the first ones with them in 2008 but they are leather artisans, so we didn’t do the felt products with them to start with.
[ j ] We knew the Italians are the experts in leather goods, and we wanted our products to be of a good and honest quality – and close to us geographically as well. So that’s why we focused there.
[ m ] It’s a family business, two brothers and their mum and a few other workers.
How do you stay involved in the process? Is there a language barrier?
[ j ] There’s always a language barrier. But that’s funny too.
[ m ] Only one of the brothers speaks English and that’s kind of broken English. But we kind of work it out. It’s funny.
[ j ] It definitely wouldn’t work if we didn’t go there because it’s hard to kind of get things across sometimes when you need to just show it and be there and physically explain something about the product.
[ m ] We talk on Skype as well. We also visit, we were there last week.
[ j ] We made loads of samples there, of new ideas, and we leave them to do the next final sample. And that’s what they show us on Skype. Today we got a shipment of some of the samples they finished off after we left.
Are your ranges seasonal?
[ m ] No, we really just go and get to market because we’re just so excited about a new product. We take the photos ourselves so there’s no barrier of waiting for a photographer to do it, and try to get it out as quick as we can.
[ j ] We have the collections which we’ve stuck with from the beginning. We always have the brown leather with the dark grey felt and light grey with the grey leather. It doesn’t change per season, we just keep bringing stuff out.
Are you a worldwide business these days?
[ m ] It’s pretty global, but our customer base is mainly American. Obviously because of the press we get there, and in the U.K. and Germany as well.
[ j ] Most of the blogs and sites are in the States so that feeds into the audience there. I don’t know if there’s a region that surprised us. Japan is also a big market for us.
You go the extra mile with the haptic side of things, for example your packaging is rather special
[ j ] Yeah.
[ m ] We always did it. We put ribbons around the package and wrapped it up nice. We’d send little sweets or personal notes.
[ j ] I think packaging has always been really important. It’s always been a challenge to find the right quality. Now all our cards are printed in America because we couldn’t find that quality in Europe.
[ m ] The right paper, the right video of how it’s made and how you touch it and everything. Our fabric bags are made in Italy. It takes us forever to research things.
You don’t make things easy!
[ j ] Only recently we found the right dust bags because we tried so many different companies and could never find the right material or print or quality. So we’ve always been fighting to get the right thing.
Let’s talk about your experiences of selling online. After Etsy did you suddenly think we need our own website?
[ m ] We definitely wanted to get off Etsy so we could be independent. Etsy was good to start our community – they were very supportive. We got promoted all the time, and they really liked our stuff so that was really good to start a customer base.
[ j ] We wanted to establish our brand so it was quite a leap of faith thinking we should do our own thing.
[ m ] The first site was just PayPal integrated. We designed it really nice.
What was the progression from there to what you use now?
[ j ] We slowly developed as we went on.
[ m ] After our own site we moved on to Big Cartel and then we went to Magento.
You’ve done the rounds.
[ j ] We started with no shop admin obviously, just PayPal with the orders coming in. Eventually we ended up using Magento for the order admin.
But then after a while we realised Magento was really a bit too much for us.
[ m ] The main problem was every time we sent out the newsletter the whole website crashed. Every single time and we didn’t know how to get it back up so we kept restarting it and it kind of did work out but that’s the most vulnerable time, when you send out the newsletters.
Next stop Shopify – mainly due to it being a hosted platform?
[ j ] Magento felt too vulnerable because it wasn’t hosted so if anything happened it was down to us to sort it out. It was a bit too much because we couldn’t afford to pay an agency to work with us constantly. We needed a bit more support.
Shopify is really nice and simple to work with, and a chance for us to refine the website and tweak things which weren’t working so well.
How do you handle payments?
[ j ] We take payments through PayPal or credit card.
Are there any things you’d pass on to people trading online initially, any big lessons?
[ m ] Get your own ideas!
Don’t steal?
[ j ] I think that is a problem now, not only for us as a brand.
[ m ] I think you have to really stay true to yourself and try and get your own ideas.
There are so many people thinking yeah, they’re successful, I can copy exactly what they do and make it my own. I think that doesn’t work. You can get inspired but make sure you have your own product.
[ j ] When we started there weren’t really many individuals trying something themselves and selling online. We were right at the beginning of that and now it’s huge.
It’s like Shopify and Etsy kind of started it too I think, people just making stuff and selling it. But so many are just not original – you do need to create something original.
Thanks again to James and Monika for taking time out of their day to chat with us.
NB: Featured photos were kindly supplied by hard graft and are used with permission.