Today’s interview is with Jawad Malik, the founder of Chicago-based Idrese, a direct to consumer (D2C) brand that provides affordable and luxury custom-made shoes made in Spain to customers worldwide. Jawad joins me today to talk about how the brand came about, the future of customer experience, the inspiration behind the brand name and what great service and experience means for an emerging and fast-growing small brand.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – Why you shouldn’t always build for the ‘happy path’ – Interview with Sam Richardson of Twilio – and is number 428 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at Pega for sponsoring my podcast this month.

Pega is a low-code platform for AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation. It’s scalable architecture helps the world’s leading organizations work smarter, unify experiences, and adapt instantly – so they’re always ready for what’s next.

Pega’s annual conference, PegaWorld iNspire, just took place virtually on May 24th and 25th. The event focused on how to address constantly shifting perspectives in an ever-evolving world, and included guidance, strategies, and powerful tools to achieve resiliency in the face of rapid change. You can still catch the sessions on-demand so check out the agenda and register at pegaworld.com.

Here’s the highlights of my chat with Jawad:

• This is Jawad’s first ever podcast appearance.
• Personalization and customization is the future of apparel. People don’t want mass produced footwear because of the environmental impact it has and the lack of uniqueness.
• Moreover, bespoke footwear is generally way too expensive.
• Idrese aims to provide affordable luxury by taking premium traditional Goodyear construction and traditional skills and combining it with modern day technology.
• We don’t have any shoes that end up in landfills.
• Jawad funded his business by working from sun-up till sun-down one year as an Uber driver.
• They have developed their own custom design platform.
• As you build, invest in more and more R&D.
• The name Idrese is one of the first few prophets in the Abrahamic religions. Idrese is better known in some religions as Enoch.
• Idrese also means prince in Welsh and Jawad’s surname ‘Malik’ means prince in Arabic.
• Idrese is a brand that is honest, true, and that gives you and delivers a product that is necessary.
• The lessons and stories from Idrese inspired Jawad to set up a brand that is driven by high and ethical standards.
• Good customer experience is basic. Imagine you are the owner of a shop, you want to smile and you want to make somebody feel heard.
• A good user experience means having an easy flow to your website.
• Keep it simple, treat them with respect and then give them what they’re asking for.
• O’Hare airport in Chicago story: People were getting really mad about waiting in line for their bags after they had disembarked from a plane. Logically they couldn’t get the bags out any faster. So, they placed the baggage claim for that plane at a distance so by the time the passengers walked to the belt it didn’t feel like they’re waiting for too long and complaints plummeted.
• Part of a good customer experience for us is sending our customers trigger emails that say something like: “Hey, your shoes are asking about you and this is what your shoes went through in the phase one of production…..”
• This will be part of a series of emails that keeps them informed, engaged and manages their expectations at every point.
• Give people the product that they want and then keep them up to date constantly.
• Over communicate so they’re not the ones reaching out to you. It shouldn’t be a burden to them to hear from you.
• Check out the service recovery paradox.
• The retention of customers that comes by just making customers feel heard is large and it’s the difference between success and failure for many brands.
• Little personal touches can make all the difference.
• Fast fashion has really begin to destroy our environment.
• Check out the book: Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes
• I want to be a good guy with money to counteract the bad guys with money.
• We started this business right out of college and then boom the pandemic happened and we’re selling dress shoes and no one’s going to work.
• So, our biggest thing is to extend our sneaker and casual line because although people are going back to the work there’s still a huge working from home culture and a casual kind of fashion thing going on.
• When the doors are closed and no one’s watching, ask yourself: are you holding yourself accountable?
• If you’re not open to new information, you’re always gonna have this false sense of truth in your head.
• Jawad’s Punk CX word: Guerilla tactics
• Jawad’s Punk XL brand(s): Good -> CostCo and Ikea. Bad -> Amazon and Walmart
• To create good customer experiences you have to be constantly exploring, you have to be open to seeing how other people are doing it, you have to be unique in your approach and you have to keep learning as it’s a never ending journey.

About Jawad

In 2019, 25-year-old Jawad Malik founded the Chicago-based brand, Idrese, a direct to consumer (D2C) brand that provides men’s (and now women’s) affordable and luxury custom-made shoes made in Spain to customers all around the world.

Their business has sustainability at its heart. Their small batch and custom-made approach prevents unsold stock from entering landfill, which often happens with other shoe manufacturers and retailers.

To date, Idrese has sold tens of thousands of pairs of shoes via partnerships and its online store.

Check out Idrese.com and have a go at designing your own unique shoes. Say Hi to them and Jawad on Instagram @Idreselabel and @JawadMi, and do feel free to connect with Jawad on LinkedIn here.

Image by Eduard Hajek from Pixabay