Blvck Paris Update: In 2021, We Opened 10 Stores Worldwide And Hit $1.2M/Year In Revenue
This is a follow up story for Blvck Paris. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 4 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hello! My name is Julian O’hayon, I am the designer and founder behind the global lifestyle brand, Blvck Paris.
Blvck Paris is a global lifestyle brand selling ‘all black’ apparel, digital goods and accessories. The brand was founded in 2017, from visual content to merchandise, we strive to pioneer a new type of lifestyle focused on design and quality,
In 2021, we opened 10+ Blvck stores worldwide in Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Miami, etc. The brand has been growing rapidly and we are very excited about our future plans for the brand.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?
Since we last spoke, the brand continued with its international expansion, particularly in Asia, where we didn’t have a presence before. In 2021, we opened 10 Blvck stores in Hong Kong, Taipei, Taichung, a pop up store in Miami, Tokyo amongst other locations. We have also scaled our distributional channels and work force to keep up with the operations.
We have also increased our product range and launched our home collection. Our vision is to ultimately Blvck out your lifestyle, so a home range has always been in our plans. We were very excited to finally launch our first collection including a bathrobe, welcome mats, a jigsaw puzzle and more.
As an aesthetic lifestyle brand, we have always been very active on Instagram but recently increased our presence in multiple social media channels such as Twitter and TikTok to expand our online reach .
Be ready to adapt, the world is changing fast and you have to be ready and flexible to take on new challenges and opportunities.
We are also working on our loyalty program as we always try to think of new and innovative ways to establish a long term relationship with our customers and give them benefits from shopping with us.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
In light of the pandemic, like most businesses, it was important to stay humble and react positively to the challenges that we faced. Whether it be the restrictions we face in our retail shops or fulfilling shipments, it is important to stay proactive and understand your customer base through lines, putting communication first and foremost. After months of global restrictions, we were grateful to our customers for staying with us and helping us grow.
We also used the opportunity to focus on our digital offerings which were a great hit. As a predominately online brand, we focused more on our digital offerings with the release of our iOS icons to customize your homescreen, the Blvck presets to edit your photos using Lightroom, as well as 3 successful NFT drops on MakersPlace, leading on to our next phase in this space.
As a small team, we are able to make decisions fast and to always make sure we innovate and offer our community a true ‘All Blvck Everything’ experience.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
We are currently working on our WEB3 expansion, it is a space that we find very exciting and innovative at Blvck.
We have been working on a NFT collection of 9,999 Blvck Avatars which will be closely linked to our brand and WEB2 business. You can check out our trailer here:
The holders will get continued benefits by connecting their wallet to blvck.com and we see it as just the beginning of what we call, the ‘Blvckverse’. We are doing our first Blvckverse event for the opening of our third store in Taiwan, where the community can connect in real life and have the full Blvck experience. We have also some great partnerships to reveal with WEB2 brands to connect the physical and digital. We are very excited about this space and the opportunities it offers.
We are looking this year to expand our retail business further in Asia with some exciting plans in China and in the Middle East. We have received a lot of interest in the region and a demand for cash on delivery and retail experience there, so it is something we are currently working on and hope to open our first pop up in Shanghai and in several countries in the Middle East.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
I would definitely advise other entrepreneurs to take the time to network, meet new people and be open minded. There’s a lot you might learn to grow your business and expand by hearing and understanding experiences from other people in your field or even different fields.
Be ready to adapt, the world is changing fast and you have to be ready and flexible to take on new challenges and opportunities. At Blvck, the WEB3 space is something we have been watching for a while and we are so excited to bridge the gap between our physical and digital offerings
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
- We are always interested to hear from different people and they can reach out to us via hi@blvck.com
- As we expand our product range, we are looking to hire more designers to help scale the operations and social media experts to help us create new content for different social media platforms (TikTok, YouTube, Reels)
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.