Cover Story: Primal Lifestyle


Education the key to success for footwear innovators


Q& A with Primal Lifestyle’s Managing Director Matt Wallden 1. Who are Primal Lifestyle?


Primal Lifestyle is the company who introduced Vibram's Fivefingers to the UK in 2007, and from January 2012 has sole distribution rights to the UK. During 2010 and 2011 Vibram Fivefingers were distributed to the Outdoor sector by Anatom, who were friends of the former European distributor, called AICAD. However, at the end of 2011, Vibram made the executive decision to work directly with their national distributors and selected Primal Lifestyle as their sole UK partner.


2. Why should retailers and


consumers consider your products? Aside from Vibram’s reputation, the Vibram Fivefingers product is not just revolutionary - that would be too small a claim – it is evolutionary. Revolution is all about change, whether for better or for worse. Evolution is all about progression, about new adaptations that trump old designs. Vibram Fivefingers do that because they allow the human foot - a masterpiece of engineering – to work in the way that millions of years of evolution have honed it to work.


From a sales perspective, it has come as little surprise that the growth of Vibram Fivefingers has been sustained throughout a tough financial climate; again, a winning design allows you not only to survive, but also to thrive in the harshest of environments.


3. What were your biggest selling products in 2011?


Our biggest selling products in 2011 were all of the black models!! Yes, black is the new black and there is no revolution, other than the cycling of predictability! Of course, this doesn't mean that the design teams in Milan haven't come up with some pretty radical colourways too.


4. What value-added services do you offer the retailer?


We offer on-site training for staff and presentations to their customer base, should this be a brand and concept they embrace. We are also developing an ambassador scheme for larger stores so that there is at least one expert on our product per outlet.


In addition, we are using increasing levels of technology and social media 18 www.sgboutdoor.co.uk


to support our retailers. We are currently working with Brand Nation to raise the profile of Vibram Fivefingers to the end-consumer, and have an exciting upcoming TV campaign to support sell through for our retailers.


5. Have there been any challenges the brand has had to overcome recently? If


so how have these been achieved? The primary challenge is to educate people. Anything that is as radically different as Vibram Fivefingers will inevitably spark a sense of hesitation to those more entrained to society's norms. But for those who have a greater capacity for free thinking, there is instant recognition that the more a shoe looks like a foot, the more it allows the foot to function as a foot. Many critics point out that the foot didn't evolve to walk on concrete, but if they were to do their geological research they would realise that the foot evolved in a very rocky environment and was designed to run, climb, scramble, grip and function exceptionally well in such environments - enough for us to survive in a harsh world without any weaponry to protect us for the first 3-4 million years of our development. Simple repetition of these facts and use of multimedia are the primary tools for bringing around a shift in this awareness.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28