Hello England, hello London, hello Lee ! How are you my friend ? Are you writing me back from home ?
I’m all good thanks, albeit bored of being at home so much. I’m writing you from my home in Surrey, where I’ve lived the past 3 years since leaving central London. I’ve been working at home a month already, so not going into the city for this long feels really weird.
You were one of the first to support our world series program and collectable tees by bringing them in-store at BROWNS in Shoreditch, maybe we can just give a bit of context to our readers and you can explain what's BROWNS east and what's your job ?
Browns is a fashion boutique in central London that opened 50 years ago this year. We sell all of the major fashion brands such as Gucci, Prada, Burberry, Saint Laurent and Dior, as well as support a lot of up-and-coming designers.
In October 2017 we opened Browns East in Shoreditch, which is a rotating concept space, where we showcase a lot of insulations, pop-ups and host events, plus offer a refined edit from a selection of our brands/designers.
In addition to fashion we also offer a selection of sports, lifestyle and sneakers. As far as sport goes, we predominately focus on Running, Cycling and Skiing. I am the Ready to Wear (aka clothing) Buyer for both stores and our online.
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So besides the usual Fashion Week crazy schedules - we'll get back to that later - what do your day to day activities look like ?
I travel for around 10-12 weeks of the year buying and attending fashion, which as your question suggests, involves a pretty crazy schedule.
When I am back in London and at the office my days are super varied and involve a lot of meetings, planning, trading, and strategy. I also do some buying back in London and attend external meetings, plus visit both stores every week.
When do you find some room in your agenda to go for a run?
When I’m not traveling I usually get the first train into London at 6am and arrive at the office around 7:15. I drop my stuff and head out for a run of generally 10-15K. On Wednesday evenings I also run with a club called Run The Boroughs mostly in the Shoreditch and East London area.
I also run in the countryside where I live at the weekends when I get a chance.
The last two fashion weeks, we saw the buyer's community from England, Italy and elsewhere getting more and more into running. Does that started after an overdose of shows, showrooms snacks, late night dinners and parties? The need to get back to a healthier rhythm?
For the past couple of years Satisfy have hosted a Paris Fashion Week run which seems to grow in numbers every season. They attendees are generally buyers, sales agents, brands and members of the fashion press and this has given a lot of us the opportunity to meet people from our industry that we may not know that are also into running.
From this, many of us have stared meeting at other times and in other cities to run together. A handful of us also had a run with your crew from the Paris store last January which was really great.
These group runs are a great motivator to get out during fashion week, when schedules are otherwise insanely busy and it’s easy to skip running in favor of sleep. It’s also a nice counterbalance from all the late nights.
You were supposed to run the London Marathon in April 2020, how was the preparation part? Are you still up for it next Fall ?
I had my long runs up to 30K last month and ran a PB [personal best] in the Vitality Half Marathon on the 1st March, so was feeling pretty prepared. Definitely more so than for my fist marathon last October in Amsterdam.
I’m currently keeping my mileage fairly consistent and running around 50-60K a week, so I should have a good base to train for the rescheduled event in October.
Are you sticking to one pair of running shoe or changing a lot and having a true fashionable sneaker rotation !
As far as running goes I tend to just rotate a few pairs that best suit what running I’m doing. My current go to is the New Balance 1080V10 which is a great all round shoe and a currently serving me well. I also just got the London Edition of the New Balance Fresh Foam Tempo which I’m loving for faster runs as they’re super light and reactive. For trails I’ve got some Arc’Teryx Norvan’s.
As far as sneakers for everyday use go, I have loads and rotate these a lot!
You're carrying cycling brands and more cutting-edge running products at BROWNS, next to very high-end and luxury brands, how did your customers reacts to theses twos sitting next to each-other?
We have a vast array of customers at Browns that range from the kid getting into fashion for the first time, right through to 65 year old guy that’s been shopping with us since he was young. People come to Browns looking for something different and very much trust our curated edit and the brands and products we choose to buy.
When we first introduced the Sport category we were definitely coming at it from a fashion angle, introducing brands like Hoka One One and Salmon S/Slab, which customers were buying as much to run in as they were to wear with their daily fashion. Or brands like Arc’Teryx which customers were buying to wear to the office, as much as they were to go up a mountain.
Although this category has grown for us and we have introduced more brands and categories, we have still kept it very tight and only selected brands that we feel are the very best in their field, which has allowed us to be super selective. Brands must be not only perform to a high level, but look good at the same time. People want to have a sense of style when they’re running, cycling, skiing or just hitting the gym.
Guys love tech and performance products whether they’re going to use them for sport or not, so the way we buy and style them allows them to mix them into their everyday wardrobe.
Would you share with us your favourite running routes in: Paris, London and Milan.
London – We’re spoilt with some amazing parks, but I love to run around Victoria Park the most. I lived near there for 7 years so have a really affiliation with it.
Paris – I absolutely love running along the quays on the river Seine up to the Eiffel Tower.
Milan – I frequently run around ‘Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli’ in central Milan, but my favourite place to run when I can is along the canal in Navigli.
Also one from New York on my 40th birthday which was one of my favourite ever runs.
Any other running friends you would love to see in this series of interview ?
Two old friends of mine:
Ben Rayner. Ben is talented photographer based in New York who shoots mostly portraits and fashion. He’s also a great runner.
Iain Mahanty. Iain is a musician, writer, composer and producer. We’ve been friends around 15 years and run together in Run The Boroughs and we ran the Amsterdam marathon together.