7th October 2008 Robert Hamilton from Puma talk

Today we had a visit from Robert Hamilton, he works as an apparel designer for the vertical retail team at Puma AG Germany. Robert studied Fashion Marketing at Northumbria University. He did a placement year at Griffin in Wilkshire as a design assistant (01/01/04 - 01/04/04)Griffin designs military style clothes for a high end market, a jacket costs around £300. Here Robert worked in a small team checking production, picked up collections from the factory and attended fashion shows.
"It's all about contacts."
Robert then went on to work for Fenchurch clothing as an assistant menswear designer (01/06/04 - 01/10/04)but again he wanted a change and so went on to work at Arcadia Head office for Topman as a print designer, this was a fast paced business, Robert had to design 12-14 prints a day. Good points about working for Topman were: they had good connections, he got to help out with the fashion show called Man, the company is very successful selling 1000 tshirts a day.
Robert visited to trade show 'Bread and Butter' this is where companies sell to different retailers, Robert went here to do an apparel report on trends.
After he finished his course Robert got a job at Abercrombie and Fitch after they came to graduate fashion week and offered him an interview, he recommended taking a sketch book with hand drawings in to interviews.
"Be proactive"
Puma also came to graduate fashion week they flew Robert to Germany for an interview, he took a jacket he had made to the interview that he had made from scratch and also used the same sort of glue on it as Puma often use, this was a talking point. Robert was offered a design position. I think Robert was successful in gaining this job role as he took some of his own work to show at the interview, found something of interest to the company to talk about and also had quite a bit of experience working at different companies in different areas.
Puma is a sports company started in 1948 although now they are trying to make themselves into a lifestyle brand, most of Puma's success comes from their motorsport wear. Robert has to design a collection containing 20 pieces in two days, he then has to fly to Hong Kong to hand over these designs and while there he has to start looking at new designs for the next collection.
I think Puma are successful because they now do clothes and equipment for lifestyle and not just sport this appeals to more people, although they will always have stronger competition such as Nike and Addidas which are much bigger companies.
Robert has now quit Puma as he wants a change and also does not believe in the company, he has already had a job offer from Nike.
"You are young fesh meat - this is your strength and weakness."