What does a career look like in an industry that constantly has to reinvent itself? Industry expert Daniel Samy El Menshawi looks back on 15 years of experience between tradition and transformation.
After completing his apprenticeship in textile business administration and studying international fashion management, El Menshawi worked in sales for various clothing suppliers – from Strenesse to Esprit. Then he ventured into independence with his label Spsr.Studio. In addition to running the specialist for streetwear-oriented menswear tailoring he founded, he teaches, among other things, ‘Future Retail’ and creates the off-pitch collections for the sportswear retailer Jako with professional football teams such as VfB Stuttgart and Mainz 05.
In the interview, he looks back on the various stages of his career ladder since his studies and shows what expectations he has for the retail sector of the future.
You started your own business around four years ago after being active in sales for a long time. How do you look back on these years?
I would do it again in a heartbeat. Going out boldly with your own concept, especially in a crisis or recession, feels right.
Sure, you need endurance. Day, night, up, down – that’s part of it. You’re constantly adjusting. But if you stay sensitive and feel what’s changing outside and keep adapting your concept, then it’s really fun.
Before that, you were responsible for a new denim concept at Esprit. Then came the pandemic and the company’s bankruptcy. Was that the turning point for you?
I was only at Esprit for a very short time, and before that I was at G-Star and Strenesse for a long time. A few months after I started, bankruptcy came – pretty bitter. What irritated me most was the way I treated people during this time.
In general, I noticed that the way industry and wholesale work together no longer works. These huge pre-order quantities, the old rhythms – I believed in them less and less. Retail needs new solutions.
That’s why I founded Spsr. I totally believe in on-demand, in co-creation, in real interaction with the customer. We develop products together with the end user, one on one. And for business-to-business, we deliver in five to six weeks instead of six months. React quickly, stay close – that was the idea.
It also seems to be the contemporary answer to the traditional men’s tailor.
Personal tailors are as important to every man as good hairdressers. In addition, retail has lost a lot of customers and city centers are often interchangeable: too much goods, too little service and permanent sales – a huge oversupply. And the magic is missing.
Nobody wants to drive into the city on Saturday with two children, pay 150 euros for parking and lunch and in the end not find any good advisors in the store. That’s exactly where we come in: We come to the customer’s office, home, wherever.
How much does this cost your customers?
We produce in Europe. A full suit starts at around 750 euros, with a top price of around 1,400 euros. Of course, this also depends on the material. There are no extra service costs. Because we have no inventory and do everything on demand, costs only arise when the order is placed. That makes the whole thing efficient.
In addition, we work with trunk shows in other cities, where we always pop up quite unexpectedly in cafes, museums, clubs or in partnership with a local retailer, or even remotely with digital measurements. Two photos, some data – done. Pretty straightforward.
You also deal with the topic of “Future Retail” as a lecturer at the Texoversum in Nagold.
I teach future retail, but also menswear and visual merchandising. Future Retail is like a laboratory: What else works? What not? Which concepts have a future?
And where is trade going?
I always ask my students what they would choose if they had to choose between a Rolex or a festival pass. Almost everyone enjoys the experience. That actually says it all.
For me, retail will be more showroom, more experience with digital components, a reduced display of goods and more feeling. And above all, the human factor is becoming more important in times of digitalization. Good advice beats everything, and people are looking for it more specifically.
To what extent will the search become more precise?
New profiles are being developed, which can already be seen in job advertisements today. People are no longer looking for the classic salesperson, but rather for a style advisor, for fashion consultants. There are new roles that we need to create for people on the retail floor, new compensation models and job responsibilities that are becoming more and more prominent when it comes to staffing on the retail floor.
Retailers themselves are also playing more and more with new names and are moving away from the term. Aimé Leon Dore, for example, now calls his stores Clubhouse. It will be more in the direction of a community hub, where the company brings the community into the store through a café or an activation. This is now firmly anchored in the expectations of customers.
Almost every sporting goods retailer now talks about a community…
Community is not a buzzword or a weekly run club for marketing. It needs real added value. Encounters that don’t feel staged. For example, we are planning chess mornings in a bar. Just play chess. No sales show, no pitch. Just bringing people together. If someone comes in a suit – cool. If it’s one of us – even better. But that’s not the point.
You studied first in Nagold and then in Amsterdam. How do you look back on this time?
In Nagold [Anm.d.Red.: Standort der Berufsbildungseinrichtung Texoversum] I learned textile business administration and then a bachelor’s degree in international fashion management at AMFI [Anm.d.Red.: Mode-Universität Amsterdam Fashion Institute] made in Amsterdam. I was a bit of a problem student before and dropped out of school shortly before graduating. When I started my training, I found my passion again and a turnaround took place for me. That was a very important time for me.
To this day, I value the contacts and close friendships that emerged from it. Nargold was a really cool base for me, where I got basic knowledge about the textile industry. Amsterdam was then the creative add-on to this.
Where do you see the biggest differences from your students?
Everything is more digital, faster and more supported by artificial intelligence (AI). Presentations look crazier and they do everything with the iPad. We had a pad and pen. These digital tools would probably have distracted me too much.
However, the feel remains crucial – then as now. You have to touch fashion and no AI can replace this understanding. The parties have also stayed the same, they are still awesome [lacht]as well as passion for the industry.
Are students concerned with how the industry is doing?
We also actively discuss it in class. At Future Retail in particular, we take stock directly and look at the global status quo, both on the industrial sourcing side and in retail.
Nevertheless, the students bring a healthy naivety with them. It’s also really important to me that we produce people who question concepts and rethink them.
If you were starting your career again today, would you take the same path again?
I’m a big believer in gut feeling. That’s actually always guided me. For me, decisions were rarely made purely rationally, but mostly based on feeling – and I did well with that.
Looking back, my time at G-Star was a huge eye-opener. That’s when I understood that in our industry everything ultimately boils down to a single moment: the moment when the goods meet the customer – at the point of sale.
It became clear to me back then that it was precisely this moment in the collaboration between industry and trade that was often neglected. That’s why even back then, no matter how big my area of responsibility was, I was out and about on some sales floor every Saturday. Some of my colleagues called me ‘crazy’.
Why is it so important to be there so regularly?
Only there will you get a real feel for what works and what doesn’t. You can see immediately how customers react. No report can replace this direct feedback. For me, the point of sale is still the center of events today – a real competitive advantage if you take it seriously.
Finally: What do you want from the industry?
More magic at the point of sale and awareness. Above all, what we produce, in what quantities, with what materials and under what conditions. For me, it’s about looking more consciously at the entire value chain – from design to production to sales.
That sounds like a buzzword, I know. But anyone who works in fashion understands what is meant. It’s about responsibility and less waste. And about really asking yourself why you are bringing a product onto the market in the first place.
