Conversation with Paul Kweku Akrofie, CEO, Real Peoples Company
Paul Kweku Akrofie discusses his experience working in the fashion industry in Ghana. He shares his commitment to sustainably expanding the reach of African design and manufacturing, though business coaching and mentorship.
Conversation with Massimo Volpe, CEO, Global Retail Alliance
Massimo Volpe discusses the need for a more interconnected conversation between global retailers. He shares insight on omni-channel retailing, from a generational perspective, and discusses new technologies such as voice commerce.
Conversation with Ron Thurston, Author, “Retail Pride”
Ron Thurston, VP of Stores at Intermix, shares insights to his new and already bestselling book, "Retail Pride." He discusses the three pillars of retail leadership: empathy, curiosity and focus.
Bonus: Reflecting on the Past & Future
In this bonus episode, host Christopher Lacy, speaks with producer Joshua Williams, about the past two seasons of the Retail Revolution podcast. They reflect on the common themes of authenticity, values alignment and the role of technology in retail. They also provide a sneak peek into plans for season three.
Conversation with Jordana Guimarães, Founder, Fashinnovation
Jordana Guimarães makes a second appearance on the podcast, this time focusing on the opportunity the fashion and retail industries have to build community. She advocates for cross-discipline collaboration to to find innovative ways to solve current social issues.
Conversation with Milton Springut, Founding Partner, Springut Law PC
Milton Springut shares his vast knowledge of intellectual property law and its intrinsic relationship with fashion. He provides advice for entrepreneurs to consider as they begin their businesses, and offers perspective on the legal situation, specifically leases, most retailers are facing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Conversation with Meghan Houle, Sr. Executive Recruiter, The Bowerman Group
Meghan Houle shares her insights into the fashion industry recruiting and hiring process, especially within the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic. She provides tips on how to executive a successful job search, including advice on setting up a LinkedIn profile, creating your resume, preparing for an interview and following-up post-interview.
Conversation with Timo Rissanen, Associate Professor, UTS
Timo Rissanen challenges listeners with innovative ways to think more sustainability about the fashion system, including design and retail. He focuses on the role that consumers play in this complex system and discusses the intrinsic connection between sustainability and social justice.
Conversation with Vasumathi Soundararajan, Service & Interaction Designer, Fjord
Vasumathi Soundararajan describes her role and ethos as a service and interaction designer, focused on how customers experience brands digitally and physically. She shares insight, as an entrepreneur, on growing a customer-centric business.
Conversation with Donald Rattner, Architect & Author
Donald Rattner discusses the science behind space design with a focus on how retailers can connect more organically and successfully with customers. He coins a new term, “retidential” design, a mash-up of retail and residential, to describe a movement towards more intimate, home-like retail spaces.
Conversation with Dr. Guido Lang, Associate Professor, Quinnipiac University
Dr. Guido Lang shares his insights on developing new ideas and bringing them to the market, especially in the technology space. He reinforces the idea that staying focused on solving one particular problem first, before trying to scale, is key to a successful new business. And he discusses the need for a more inclusive education in digital skills.
Fashion & Racism, A Conversation with Sabrina Lynch, Integrated Marketing Specialist
Producer Joshua Williams joins host Christopher Lacy to share in a special conversation with Sabrina Lynch, an integrated marketing and communication specialist about the issue of race and fashion, specifically as it relates to black people. This episode includes frank discussion about the systemic racism inherent in fashion, the commoditization of black culture and the lack of black voices in the industry, and concludes with a challenge for fashion brands to listen, reflect and act for equity and inclusion.
Conversation with Sam Cotton, Creative Director, Raiment
Sam Cotton shares insight on the fashion design process within the context of the full supply chain, from sourcing materials and production to retailing and end use. He discusses the fashion industry within the wider lens of philosophic and economic models and shares his ideas for a more sustainable future.
Conversation with Jon Harari, CEO, WindowsWear
Jon Harari shares his insight about the digitization of fashion and the work WindowsWear is doing to aggregate the creativity of store designers, visual merchandisers and packaging specialists. He equates information as power in a digital economy.
Conversation with Xia Feng, E-Com Expert & CEO, The How Consulting
Xia Feng illuminates the major shifts that are happening in the fashion digital space. She discusses how the Chinese market may hold answers for American and European brands and their quest to connect more authentically, and in real time, with consumers online.
Conversation with Brandon Roe, Marketing Expert & Author
Brandon Roe provides insight on how luxury brands can better engage customers by understanding the unique cohorts that shop for luxury products and services. He also provides clear steps that fashion brands can take to ensure they manage through the Covid-19 crisis—internally and externally—and come out stronger post-pandemic.
Episode 09: Conversation with Meisha Brown, VP Dept Stores, Kering Eyewear
Meisha Brown shares her deep experience and perspective in multi-label luxury merchandising in a time of major retail disruption. She discusses everything from developing brands on the store floor through thoughtful merchandising to dealing with vendor relationships. She also offers advice to future merchandisers, including the need to understand both retail math and fashion trends.
Episode 8: Noam Levavi, CEO, ByondXR
Noam Levavi challenges our concepts of what retail might look like in 3 to 5 years, discussing how the shift into the virtual world will be accelerated post Covid-19 pandemic and how adopting new technologies will unveil new opportunities for brands, retailers and designers.
Bonus Episode: Hopes & Fears for Fashion’s Future
In this short, bonus episode, Jordana Guimaraes discusses the hopes and fears that fashion industry professionals are grappling with during the Covid-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding the real issues the pandemic has created, she posits that a time of crisis creates opportunity to design innovative solutions.
Episode 07: Conversation with Kevin Thompson, Chief Brand Strategist
Kevin Thompson shares his perspective on the changing landscape of retailing, particularly as it relates to brick & mortar operations and design. He also discusses the marketing needs of a fashion brand and how communication is a two-way street, wherein customers must have a voice.
Listen Now.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify.