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The art of street fashion

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Julian Kubel (picture supplied)
Julian Kubel (picture supplied)

Sammy Boss-Zonke Mokone — who works in the financial sector — types the following on the Facebook wall of an urban, street smart fashion brand called Butan: “Heed the call. I mean seriously, when can we expect new spring/summer stuff?”
Butan’s come a long way since it was first commercially available in 2006.

Thanks to a smart product and clever marketing, the cool crowd clamour for Butan – even using the brand’s marketing slogan, ‘Heed The Call’, to express their desire to get their hands on this clothing label that’s all about South African street culture.

But like many business successes in the fashion sector that started small, Butan’s growth hasn’t always been smooth sailing.

“I’ve made mistakes,” Julian Kubel, the founder of Butan confesses in an interview with finweek,  just before jetting off to New York for a fashion shoot that features his line. Kubel will also be promoting the brand at a top trade event in the US city.

“In 2008 I nearly went bust when the financial crisis took hold,” Kubel says. “In 2007 the brand was doing well and I didn’t anticipate a slump in the economy. I took all the money that I had made from selling Butan Wear, and invested it in fabric. But when the downturn came, things changed.” He was cash-strapped and the market was sluggish.

Kubel explains that the stores selling his urban lifestyle gear weren’t performing. Another challenge was cash flow. The brand’s growth meant that his business had changed from being cash-based to an account-based concern.

“This meant that the stores were paying me a lot slower and I just wasn’t geared up for this. I’ve never been formally trained in business or fashion so I’ve made seriously silly mistakes, but I’m glad I made these mistakes when I was younger and could bounce back. These mistakes have taught me to really understand my business,” the entrepreneur says.

Fashion wasn’t Kubel’s first choice; he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT) because he was good at physics and science, and was passionate about technology. But after he exited UCT, degree in hand, he decided to start his own clothing company. He was convinced he wasn’t cut out for a corporate career.

While still at school, Kubel had started a small business printing branded T-shirts and selling them to his friends. 

“I started the business with R2 000 which I borrowed from my parents when I was 19. I bought T-shirts, created my own brand name and had them screen printed. But this small business didn’t have any clear direction,” he says.

However, the endeavour exposed Kubel to the basic ins and outs of the garment trade. Before he knew it, he was making T-shirts for UCT Radio, as well as various faculties and residences at the university.

Down the line he also won a contract with UCT to produce the university’s official T-shirts that are sold in the campus store.

This article originally appeared in the 22 October 2015 edition of finweek. Buy and download the magazine here.

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