From independent label to company, how Public Culture does it
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Image: Public Culture 2020 mini collection
A lot of people can design and produce clothes, but only a handful of them knows how to turn product into a brand. Public Culture founder Michael Kurniawan is one of those people.
“They have unique and original designs,” said Aaron, an 18-year-old student, when asked about his opinion on Public Culture (PC).
Image: KMI Creative Director Vincentius Aditya (left) and KMI Managing Director Michael Kurniawan (right)
Justin, an 18-year-old student, attended an event only to get PC merchandise. He said, “I haven’t seen anything like PC before. They are loud and vibrant. Many brands I’ve encountered produced only neutral colours like black, white or navy.”
In 2015, streetwear was a growing segment and the growth is further accelerated by the launch of Yeezy. 2015 is also the year PC was founded. Interestingly, PC started as a side project after Michael’s previous attempt at launching clothing line went bust.
The brand quickly gained traction among streetwear aficionados. Its 2016 collection was featured on Hypebeast. The exposure catapulted the start-up brand into a prominent brand.
PC isn’t the first streetwear brand in the country. However, according to people we interviewed, many believe that it is the first local streetwear brand that uses vibrant colour and loud designs.
Even if it isn’t the first in the country, the DNA of PC has been ingrained in consumers’ mind. “Many people told me ‘this looks like PC’ when they saw loud and colourful designs. I’m pretty sure we are not the first one.”
How does PC pull it off?
Having a good design is not enough for sure. “Consistency in all aspects,” said Michael. “Don’t half-arse when you do something. A lot of people I asked said that starting a brand is just about designing, producing and selling. It’s not wrong. Everyone has their own way of doing things, but how long do you want to last in the plethora of brands?”
Most importantly, it requires corporate structure, business projection, vision, creativity and marketing strategy to build a long lasting brand.
A year after PC launched, Michael took risk and seized the opportunity. He injected another round of capital to expand the operation despite already recording profitability. In 2018, he built his own manufacturing facility outside Jakarta to boost production.
Later that year, he acquired another streetwear brand Paradise Youth Club (PYC). PYC’s target audience is more mature than PC’s. It has wider global reach compared to PC, stretching to the Japan, UK and US along with other countries.
Image: Paradise Youth Club collection
Both Michael and PYC founder Vincentius Aditya (Adit) established Kultur Muda Indonesia (KMI) as the brand’s holding company. Adit was appointed creative director who is in charge of the creative division, including the marketing team, while Michael switched to the managing director position to lead the operational team in charge of various tasks from merchandising to production, sales, administration and accounting.
Creative business is just like any other business. Founders have to create annual business projection. Collection launch and events have to be planned beforehand. In case things go wrong, founders can refer back to the initial projection they have created.
For instance, when COVID-19 spread, overseas wholesale channels cancelled orders for PYC. Meanwhile, PC has to temporarily shut its stores in Jakarta and Bandung. “We were stressed out at first, but having a projection helps me decide what to do,” said Michael.
The brand pivoted its strategy to online channel. The silver lining of temporarily closing physical location is that it makes Michael realise there is more to online channel he hasn’t explored yet. E-commerce marketplace like Tokopedia, for instance, is a substantial source of revenue.
“Being stuck at home made me rethink the way I run my business. Online has the potential to reach worldwide audience. Offline stores, on the other hand, have fixed costs like rent, manpower and electricity bill. Brick-and-mortar store is not bad, but online has wider reach.”
Despite the pandemic, the team made a brave decision to go ahead with their initial plan. In April, when most fashion brands withheld collection launch or postponed production, KMI launched a new clothing line Prime Apparel. Turns out, Prime Apparel is their strategic move to utilise their assets.
“We are building an ecosystem. If you look at what we create, everything is interlinked but in different markets. Prime [Apparel] is basics clothing and it can be applied to PC and PYC. At the same time, Prime has its own business model and it can run on its own.”
In short, clothing from Prime Apparel can be sold as it is or turned into PC and PYC products. That’s not all. Prime has a wholesale section for those who want to buy in bulk. The company also produces and designs merchandise. Head in The Clouds and Boy Pablo concerts are some of their clients.
The ecosystem includes innovation on internal operations, campaign and event concepts. Workers’ union is one of them. It was initiated by Ramiz Alamsyah, KMI head of marketing.
“There are currently 20 people in our team. I understand that some of them are not comfortable speaking to me directly. I think workers’ union can be beneficial,” said Michael.
The union, as Ramiz mentioned, aims to collectively solve problem among employees. “It is an alternative to HR department since we haven’t had that yet.”
Collaborative approach certainly works well for KMI. Although each person has own job desk, everyone in the team is involved in brainstorming session for event and campaign concept.
Image: One of Public Culture’s event
As a result, KMI’s brands always bring new idea to the table. “There are people who visit events only to stop by our booth because they know we always have different presentation. We never repeat the design of our booth,” said Michael.
At the 2019 Brightspot, PC hosted an exclusive event at its booth. There was an event within an event. A month after Brightspot, the brand hosted live paintings at an Urban Sneakers Society event that were later auctioned off online.
“How to stand out from the crowd. It is not only an effort in creativity, but also financially. A lot of brands that participate at an event use the same decoration. When people visit the event, they know how the brand will display. We want to build market curiosity.”
Since there is no offline event during the pandemic, the brands took online activation up a notch. Prime Apparel, for instance, launched the ‘True Color’ campaign to celebrate Pride Month. The campaign showcased six people with multifaceted identities. The concept aligns with the essence of basics clothing. Regardless of gender or age, everyone needs basics.
Needless to say, the campaign boosted the brand’s engagement rate on social media. Clothing brand with a story is hard to come by these days. Story is how KMI sets itself apart from others instead of worrying about competitors.
“If you are constantly worried about your competitors, you already lost the race,” said Michael.
