Marrying function and fashion

COMPARED to other similar companies in the same market, Faire Leather Co prides itself on going the extra mile for its customers.

With its tagline of "Functional Luxury at a Fair Price", the leather goods company does not want to be seen as a brand that is too snobbish to attend to their customers and believes in selling quality leather goods with a personal touch.

Indeed, even though the company now has the means to outsource people to manage their chatbot messengers, co-founders Ryan Choy, 31, and Joseph Lor, 34, still personally respond to all queries on their social media accounts and Website chatbot.

Mr Lor said they made sure they were available around the clock as they were getting queries from all over the world and did not want their customers to wait too long for a reply.

"For us, every customer is a possible idea to the next product so I think we want to engage with them on any given level," added Mr Choy.

Faire Leather Co came about during a friend's gathering where they started talking about how they saw a gap in the market for men's bags.

Said Mr Lor: "We started talking about the future of bags. Ryan told me, he has this idea that a briefcase should be quite functional and organised and it just so happened I also had the same idea as well and that's how it all started."

Stitching together the company did not come easy for the duo. They claimed that the idea of a briefcase with compartments is new and as it had not been done successfully before, Mr Choy and Mr Lor were both concerned how the idea would be received.

Furthermore, Faire Leather Co adopted an e-commerce platform to market its products, a setup that both founders were unfamiliar with.

They thus decided to put Faire Leather Co on Kickstarter, a global crowdfunding platform for creative projects, to better gauge the necessity of their product and receive feedback. Launching Faire Leather Co on the platform also gave the duo an opportunity to find out how to market their brand and products online.

Faire Leather Co's Kickstarter campaign was a success, with the firm hitting their two-year target of S$1 million in sales in under 10 months. They were also one of the most funded brands on the platform, topping over 600 others in Singapore.

Other major milestones for Faire Leather Co include entering a partnership with carmaker Rolls-Royce.

Faire Leather Co was selected to be featured in the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club: Exploring the Extraordinary 2019 publication. Additionally, the company has been invited by Rolls-Royce to be part of an event in June in London where they will showcase their products there.

Faire Leather Co also has its products available for physical distribution in European countries such as Scandinavia and the United Kingdom.

However, both Mr Choy and Mr Lor felt it was more than just simply selling a bag to a person.

"We wanted people to know that we were more than just a product," said Mr Choy. "But it was also stepping into this collective zone where we knew that anyone that was buying our briefcase was probably pairing it with a watch or shoe and so that gave rise to Faire Collective."

Held in February this year in Singapore, Faire Collective was a men's fashion and lifestyle showcase organised by Faire, in collaboration with six other local brands. The event showcased two concepts of retail and bespoke. It also saw the official launch of Faire Leather Co's new bespoke leather goods brand - sondermade.

Through the event, Faire Leather Co wanted to provide a new shopping experience for men, as well as a new sense of awareness of local brands and the quality of their products, (which is not necessarily inferior to more well-known international brands). With a footfall of more than 250 over the course of the three-day event, Faire Leather Co is open to the idea of doing a similar event in the future and even hopes to replicate something similar for women.

As for Faire Leather Co's future plans, Mr Lor said he wants to grow the product line and distribution as well as the team at the company. He also hopes to introduce a technological aspect to the bag, for instance, adding a biometric lock for added security.

"I think the end game is to be internationally renowned as the guys of the brand that marries function and fashion," he added.