Interview With Trikki - A Menswear Shop With A Twist

trikki is a London menswear shop with a twist.
The perfect destination for those seeking something a little different.
Brother and sister duo Rikki and Nikki are on a mission to create the greatest clothing company of all time.

Curious to hear how they started? Read on...

First up, where did your company come from and what kind of background story does it have in terms of getting off the ground?

Rikki wanted to be a designer since the age of 12. He went through school with one eye on art and the other on basketball. He had no intention of doing anything else but starting his own fashion label. Nikki was a little less decisive. She finished university during the worst of the recession, leaving few options. During a family discussion around the dinner table, Nikki decided to join Rikki on his adventure. At this point Rikki had been running trikki for a few months and the first collection had been ordered. And so it begun…

Getting off the ground was probably the hardest part. It all started with a useful contact given to us for manufacturers in Portugal, and Rikki and our Dad flying over there to discuss ideas with them. In the UK we had real issues with people not taking us seriously enough or thinking we were too big a risk to do business with. We are forever grateful to those who showed faith in us from those early stages. We learnt very quickly that we had to get out there and make things happen for ourselves.

Being a business must have it’s ups and downs, what are some of your biggest learning curves and successes?

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Unfortunately, not everyone is to be trusted so always assume conversations have some salt, pepper and chilli added. We’ve learnt to work with companies and people that do one thing well. in our experience, those that claim to do everything, don’t do anything well.

Influences… who and what are they, and which one would you say has been the biggest player in your career to date?

Our parents have always encouraged us to follow our passions and to work for ourselves. Without their guidance and constant help we would not be where we are today.

Do you have an office, studio, garage you work from?

We have a study at home, an office space, a warehouse and a shop. Luckily cloud sharing has developed enough for us to be able to easily work from any of these places!

How did you get your first online sale? Was sort of a moment was that?

It’s pretty terrible but we can’t actually remember! It was on a website we created with the help of a friend.

How have you found setting up your online store with SupaDupa?

Setting up with SupaDupa was the best thing we ever did. We had wasted a tonne of money working with useless developers who created an e-commerce website which had errors every day. Our customers couldn’t buy from us and we were constantly losing sales. One day we got so fed up that we decided to give up on the developers and set up a SupaDupa site which our friends at 'Any Forty' had recommended to us. We worked for 48 hours straight to get the whole thing up and running immediately; Nikki doing the day shift and Rikki the night shift. It was incredible! We saw an immediate increase in sales, we have never lost a sale because of an error and our customer’s love the site. It really is the best thing since sliced bread!

The trikki store is online and was offline in the cool neighbourhood just off Brick Lane, in the heart of London's fashion district. The store is now closed but stay tuned as it will be opening in a new trendy location later this year.
In the meantime, shipping to the UK is free and you won't have to brave the weather!