ELSEWARES

nooka is a fashion brand, and what I like to call a mindstyle™ company. We’re based in NYC and create work to communicate in a universal language – love, mathematics, and style.

I’m Matthew Waldman and I got to the desk I am sitting and typing at this moment under my own power on a bicycle through lighter than normal manhattan traffic.

I’m a native New Yorker and had formative creative experiences thanks to the city since I can remember. I lived in Tokyo for over 3 years in my early 20s which set the stage for the series of happy accidents combined with my obsessive nature that has resulted in nooka. I am where I am today because I have always seen myself as a time traveler filled with utopian optimism for the future.

Well, technically we would still be considered a small company, but yes, our success has been a wonderful motivation to redouble my passion and effort into making nooka even better.

There have been numerous challenges, the biggest challenge for most small brands is finding factories that will take on small artisanal runs for what is industrial mass production from their point a view. Sales are not a problem per se, but learning how to sell to different types of stores, different demographics and cultures is very time consuming – there is no way to rush being educated about new markets! The only real issue this year is adjusting to cash-flow issues the down economy has thrown at all of us, and this is something nooka is not immune to.

I started out as a designer / creative director with a focus on creating corporate identity systems. I came to the world of manufacturing, marketing, and retail with very little knowledge, so there are many lessons I wish I had before hand. Moreover, there are lessons I’d still love to learn before launching new line extensions/products but I feel that the best way for a design entrepreneur to learn is by trial and error. If I was to single out one lesson, it would be some practical ones like: no consignment, ever. Unless the store is factored. And no online orders from countries with known credit card scam issues.

I love kids and spend a lot of time with my nephew and god kids, so in actuality, my weekends may seem a bit boring to people who imagine me at the latest opening drinking cheap wine. I ride my mountain bike around the city a lot. I also spend a good amount of time finding/buying new music to listen to – it’s one of my remaining obsessions!

That said, I see every waking minute as designing/marketing – my experience informs the brand and I think the vitality of what we do is apparent from the energy of myself and my staff – even when not ‘designing’, I am busy ‘being a designer’.

Yes. i’m sleeping less (not by choice), have a shorter fuse, and work more to ensure we have new products ready to go when the optimism returns!

Yes. less talking, more doing. Unless you come from a well connected family or school, most people will not support a project you just talk about. Show people what you are doing. and when you talk, choose your words carefully, again, same advise. Only talk about what you are doing. It’s subtle, but most people don’t get it.

An extension for designers is also to note that just showing drawings, fake advertisements and statistics is the same as just talking – just with a visual language. Yes you made a pretty presentation, but if your project isn’t selling pretty presentations, you’re not ‘doing’.

I understood who my customer would be in Japan, Italy, the UK and NYC, but was proven way off-mark for what I thought I knew about so many other markets. The love we get from the hip hop and urban street wear community has been both a surprise and more than welcome.

Also, being from NYC, I am honest when I say that I know very little about the US and thought it would not be a good market for my designs. Well – I was so wrong – and in the process I am learning more and more about our biggest market right here at home, the USA.

In July we will have a pop-up shop at DEN on east 11th street in manhattan to launch the new stuff. Just to give cryptic hints, hold on to your pants and keep your nose on alert for what’s coming-up this summer. Only a few new products will be time pieces!

Also, a gallery show for the nookanookas in Tokyo in May and NYC in the summer! more info on that soon.