Streetwear
The German fashion brand Live Fast Die Young represents streetwear like no other company on the domestic market. Simply because they do not just produce for the streets, they embrace the whole lifestyle with all of its edges. With their authentic and unconventional launch campaigns, LFDY knows how to create a hype around new pieces. Online drops are sold out in no time and long queues are expected when new collections hit the stores.
Not surprisingly, LFDY grew rapidly in recent years, being evident in high sales numbers, new stores, an ever-growing young and urban customer base and an extended workforce. As a digitally-minded brand, LFDY quickly understood the need for a smooth road when you want to stay on that fast lane. This is why Delogue came into the picture to pave that way by digitalizing their product development – but let us start from the beginning.
Going Big from the Backyard
The story of LFDY started in a 40 square meters backyard in Düsseldorf – relying solely on passion, ambition and a self-bought printing machine. In the space of 9 years, the brand managed to move from selling a few pieces on Ebay to becoming one of the hottest fashion brands on the German market. Within the space of last year, LFDY even tripled its revenue to more than 30 million euro. A journey that is far from over, as Riccardo Ballarino, Executive Creative Director at LDFY, explains:
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Now it’s time for the next steps: opening a new store in Amsterdam, moving our internationalization forward, extending our online shop services. There is much on the agenda in the next years.
LFDY quickly acknowledged that to stay ahead of competition and match their high ambitions, they also needed to bring their digital infrastructure to the next level. To manage their dynamic and fast-moving daily work life, they wanted to move away from outdated Excel lists and communicating on multiple channels.
It’s not spelled ‘excelerate’ for a reason
“Before Delogue we only used Excel lists. I believe that is what most other companies also still do. And our shop system also took over a few tasks, such as setting up styles, style numbers and orders”, says Riccardo.
Excel is without a doubt a handy supplement tool for many product development tasks. But to become more structured and digitalized as a brand, LFDY needed a centralized system to track and accelerate their development processes.
“We had a pretty rapid growth in the last two years with many new team members joining. This is why maintaining a full overview over everything got more and more difficult when only relying on Excel lists. Delogue gave us the needed structure and we use it a lot now to reach a better communication and improve the work connectedness between the Design and Development teams”, explains Riccardo the transition.
Another Farewell to WhatsApp and Email
Next to bidding farewell to outdated Excel lists, the integration of Delogue also helped to ease the communication within the teams – and especially with the suppliers – by providing a centralized place to coordinate all product development activities:
“Another great relief that lead to more structure was the improved communication with suppliers. What priorly happened over WhatsApp and email, is now channeled on Delogue. The best thing about it is that everyone can view the communication, so that mistakes can easily be tracked and solved”, explains Riccardo.
But not only that: Implementing Delogue as their new ‘single-source-of-truth’ for all their product development data also had a visible positive impact on LFDY’s overall sampling process:
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The sample process is way faster and clearer now. Especially in comparison to before, where we did everything in Excel lists and quickly lost track on the status. All of this is very easy now, which helps us immensely.
This is not the Time to Slow Down
Having the full control and overview over their product data helped LFDY to clear the road from all bumps and holes. Reason enough now to further speed up on that fast lane and stay true to a disruptive and progressive spirit. Next to accelerating their transparency and sustainability efforts, LFDY is also striving to be an ‘authentic voice of a generation’ and create an even closer customer bond.
“We want to put an even higher focus on sustainability, be more transparent and want to show our work in a relatable way. The customer wants to see who is actually sewing the clothes and where exactly they are being produced. That is especially important to younger people to build a deeper connection to the brand. We are already working quite a lot with making-of videos to welcome the customers to look behind the curtains and take them on an emotional journey”, explains Riccardo the brand’s plans.
Check out the making-of video of LFDY's latest collection
We are excited to see what the future holds for LFDY and are proud to be an active passenger on that ride – one that has just started.