Ideas We Love: Hiut Denim 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿👖

Issue no.14 : 'The uniform for the creative human'

Hi there. How are you?

It’s issue number 14. How did that happen?

Earlier in our careers both of us had the extreme fortune of being able to undertake the IPA Excellence Diploma. At the time the course was led by the inimitable Nick Kendall.

Nick would often talk about the difference between executions and brand ideas. More specifically, he would talk about his belief in the power of a great brand idea to make (or break) the fortunes of a company. And he should know, having spent 20-plus years at BBH where he was responsible for era defining brands ideas for everyone from Johnnie Walker, to Levis and Boddington’s.

We often write about executions. Specific campaigns, activations and the media being used to bring these campaigns to life for the consumer. This week though, we write a love letter to a brand with a brilliant and powerful idea at it’s heart: Hiut Denim.

Hiut Denim: Getting a town making jeans again

As their name suggests, Hiut make jeans. Specifically - and importantly - they make these jeans in the Welsh town of Cardigan. From around 1970 to 2000, a factory in the town employed 400-500 people to make 35,000 pairs of jeans each week for high street retailers. Then, in 2001 that factory shut. The work left the town, but the skills and the expertise to make them remained.

In 2012, founders David and Claire Hieatt set about trying to get those 400 jobs back with the establishment of Hiut. They wanted to get a town making jeans again - creating the opportunity for their local community of ‘Grandmasters’ - people with over 10,000 hours experience of making Jeans - to get back to doing what they do best.

“ My joke about Cardigan is it’s a bit like Hollywood in one way. In Hollywood, it’s hard to find a waiter who isn’t going to be an actor or actress, a director, scriptwriter etc. In Cardigan, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t know how to make a jean. If you go to the coffee shop, they used make jeans. If you go the pub, they used to make jeans. If you learn how to drive, the driving instructor could also teach you how to make jeans”

David Hieatt

Why we love Hiut

#1 The power of purpose 🔌 💪

The topic of brand purpose is definitely one which conjures strong feelings amongst people in the advertising industry. It’s seen variously as a silver bullet, or utter codswallop.….

In the case of brands like WeWork, the brand’s purpose (to elevate the world’s consciousness) was so lofty and abstract that it lacked any real meaning. Especially in the context of a real estate business. When deployed in the context of publicly traded businesses it can easily be dismissed as a distraction from the real task at hand: delivering shareholder value.

However, in the case of Hiut - and other scale up and challenger brands - their purpose is intrinsically linked to profit and to growth. The only way for Hiut to get some or all of those 400 jobs back is to build a successful company. We can debate whether ‘purpose’ is a useful model for brands until the cows come home. Inevitably the answer, as always, is ‘it depends’. Here though, the purpose drives everything and can be used as a yardstick for decision making. It’s not some spurious aim or powerpoint fluff, it’s a clear goal and grounded in a real world objective.

#2 Craft & quality as the ‘red thread’ 🧵

Hiut talk about the fact that for them “quality is not just about using the finest materials, but it is the philosophy behind everything we do: how we look after our people, how we treat our customers, how we conduct ourselves as people and, ultimately, how we do business on a planet with a finite set of resources”.

The brand has committed to making the best jeans that they can, not necessarily the most jeans they can. From the fabrics they research and use in their garments, to the creative talent they work with, to the way they ask their master craftsmen to ‘sign their work’, the notion of craft and care and quality and attention to detail runs through everything the brand does. At a time of ‘shrink-flation’, a steadfast dedication to ensuring that no-corners-are-cut makes a real difference to existing or potential customers.

#3 Connected to a House of Brands 🏠

Hiut talks about their product being ‘the uniform for the creative human’ (be that writers, photographers, farmers, coders….). David and Claire Hieatt are serial entrepreneurs. They founded clothing company Howies before selling to Timberland and following their exit from that business launched the Do Lectures and the Do Book Company. As well as leading the denim company, David Hieatt also works with ex ad-creative turned behavioural expert Mike Coulter, to help coach creatives and business owners on how they can market themselves better.

There is a loose constellation of brands and businesses at play here which all point roughly in the same direction, all linked by a common philosophy and sensibility - all of the companies provide forms of ‘uniform’ (or utility) for creative people, either to wear or to use in their work. As we’ve said before, there is more than one way to think about integration and not all of them require matching luggage.

Four things by Hiut that we love

The Yearbook 📅

Since 2012, Hiut have published six ‘year books’. These are part-product catalogue, part business-book - with each other bringing together a wide range of collaborators. It’s a brand with a robust idea at it’s heart that can actually ‘behave like a publisher’ - you need to have a point of view on the world. Everything from the paperstock, to the photography, to the strength of the writing is indicative not only of the brand’s dedication to craft and ‘quality’ but an expression of the issues and challenges facing ‘creatives’ in the year of publication. We also like the pages at the back where the earliest and most dedicated customers get a brief moment of fame. And at £30-ish a go, this is marketing and advertising which people want to spend time with, not avoid.

No Wash Club 🛀

Raw, Selvedge denim - unlike pre-washed denim - takes time and patience to wear in. It is uncomfortable at first. Like cardboard. But slowly a new pair of jeans will start to give. And if you can wait 6 months (ideally longer) before washing, you’ll be rewarded. It’s hard. It definitely puts people off buying selvedge denim. Your trousers smell (Tom’s record is 18 months). Deferring and delaying the washing of your jeans until you absolutely have no other choice is better for the environment too.

The ‘No-Wash Club’ is how Hiut communicates this to people.

When you stop and think about it, it’s also a brilliant metaphor for the brand’s audience and the way small businesses, creatives and entrepreneurs operate. There are no-short cuts to achieving your goals.

Made to Order 🪡

Recently the company made a small but subtle shift. They no longer sell you a pair of jeans. They sell you a ‘production slot’, a slot when your chosen pair of jeans will be made. Slots are not infinite and they run out. It’s a smart move. It trades on the idea of loss aversion and sense of FOMO, asking customers to act quickly if they want a pair soon. Crucially, it helps turns a potentially perceived weakness of being a small, artisinal producer into a percieved strength. It’s classic challenger brand thinking.

‘Do One thing Well’ ☝️

Hiut’s origin stems from the fact that Cardigan is rammed full of people who know how to make Jeans. They don’t know how to make T-shirts, or Jumpers, or Cardigans. As a result Hiut have said they will never make anything other than jeans. They’ll do one thing well, rather than dilute their time and energy producing an ever-growing list of associated items. Rather than risk their commitment to making the best jeans they can.

They have, however, found a nifty work around. They sell the T-shirts and belts and jumpers and pencils of the brands and makers that they admire. They even produce an annual list of other makers who dedicate themselves to the pursuit of making ‘one thing well’. Again, this is classic challenger brand behaviour: thinking in terms of forging a ‘brand neighbourhood’ of likeminded products and services, rather than a competitive set of brands competing against you. Partnering and collaborating for greater attention, not starting a fight.

Until Next Time

As always, we’d love to know what you think about this idea or any of the others we’ve featured. There is so much interesting work out there at the moment, that we’re not short of ideas for future issues. But if something in particular has caught your eye, we’d love to know about it!

Until next time.

Cheerio.

Tom and Matt.