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Fashion"With every start-up, there are moments when you want to give up"

Fashion"With every start-up, there are moments when you want to give up"

Fashion"With every start-up, there are moments when you want to give up"


Marc Alexander Ullrich is what is known as a serial founder: from the games company Rainbow Arts (1984) to the Internet service provider Strato (1997) to the gallery Lumas (2004) and the photo laboratory provider WhiteWall (2007). Together with co-managing director Maximilian Plank, he started the company Seven Sands in December 2020, which specializes in timeless menswear made to order.


What is the elevator pitch for Seven Sands?

MARC ALEXANDER ULLRICH: We want to be the address for premium basics in the office, home office and leisure time. Every product ends up in the shopping cart with just a few clicks, repeat orders will soon be possible via barcode - and everything is available quickly despite being made to order. In more variants, sizes, lengths and colors than anywhere else.

What does the name mean?

Seven Sands is derived from a very colorful sandstone mountain range located in Peru. Our collection also moves in this spectrum of natural tones.

How did the financing work – out of your own pocket or with venture capital?

We are currently still on the way to a Series A and have actually financed the development so far completely ourselves.

The fashion industry is undergoing an extremely dynamic transformation: from the crisis in brick-and-mortar retail to fickle young target groups and the supply chain law. Does it take a lot of courage to venture in there?

Fortunately, at the beginning you have little idea of ​​the complexity of the industry, otherwise nobody would even get started. Problems then have to be overcome later, such as the different shrinkage behavior of fabrics when washing, depending on the batch. Then we needed CNC cutters that could cut a layer of fabric to individual orders - and a lot of code had to be written to automate it.

With our disruptive approach of on-demand production, on the other hand, we were very well equipped for hot topics such as direct sales, fair wages, sustainability and avoiding surpluses despite the wide range.

Women buy fashion more often and are easier to get enthusiastic about new brands than the male "needs buyer", it is said. Isn't concentrating on menswear risky?

We two founders are men and I think it helps if you know your own product from personal wearing experience. Women may be more enthusiastic, but they are also a bit more emotional and picky. You should have a lot of respect for that, especially as a newcomer. Nevertheless, women's fashion could be a logical next step, after all, our technology allows countless cut variants of a design.

You started in the middle of the pandemic, do you ever think about quitting right away?

With every start-up there are moments when you want to give up everything. Most of the time, team dynamics save you from such dark thoughts. What helped us through this phase was the new openness of customers for casual home office wardrobes and the boom in online shopping.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Seven Sands model compared to the classic competition?

A disadvantage is definitely the delivery time of five to ten days. But we communicate that very transparently, and anyway we target customers who don't feel like fast fashion (anymore). In return for their patience, they get all the advantages of a product that is largely only made for them.

And, yes, the supply chain has been hit at times over the past 12 months, but it's impacted the entire industry. Even without a warehouse full of finished goods - which was and is both a blessing and a curse for our competitors - we got through it quite easily.

What should I know about my build before shopping to be able to cope with the choice between "slim" or "standard" and different collar types?

The collars, for which we can offer significantly more variants than other suppliers, are purely a matter of taste. Otherwise, our sizes follow the classic industry standards. Those who mostly buy L should do the same with us. And if L was a little too big for you, choose L in "slim" and finally it fits perfectly.

Which colors are bestsellers?

Of course the classics like navy blue, black, white and grey. But the other 16 colors also account for between 3 and 6 percent of sales. So our idea that it's time for a little more life in the closet is being accepted quite well.

Would product areas such as trousers or shoes be conceivable in the future, or is there a risk of arbitrariness and sales pressure lurking in the broadening of the range?

Shoes in the casual segment would have to be pre-produced, which would contradict our “zero waste” principle. Other pieces like sweaters or trousers will gradually follow, because we want to become an all-round clothing brand. We're still thinking about jeans because the "right" brand might play too big a role here.

Do women also order for their husbands or is that just a cliché?

About a third of our customers are female. We haven't researched whether these customers are ordering for their partners or for themselves. Basically, a lot of what we offer is unisex.

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