Grass + Air: How innovation and individuality are driving the rapid growth of the kids label

Children’s rainwear brand Grass + Air made its market debut 16 months ago and within three months secured high-profile department store Liberty of London as a key stockist – no mean feat for a small start-up from Manchester. Other prestigious accounts followed, including some of the best UK independents, quickly catapulting the label into one of the most desirable and hyped kids brands in the market. Grass + Air’s quirky, urban design and emphasis on technology and innovative features were a key contributing factor for the rapid expansion of the brand; however, a clever social media strategy, working with and utilising key influencers, Mummy bloggers and Instagram personalities, also played an important part. FashionUnited spoke to Business Development Manager Melissa McLaverty and Marketing Manager Bryony Pestell about what it takes to successfully build a brand in the social media age, how Grass + Air managed to capture the imagination of urban parents and kids alike, and what’s next for the British label.

What is the company background and how did Grass + Air come about?

Melissa McLaverty: We launched Grass + Air 16 months ago. It’s owned by David Luke, which has been a leading supplier of schoolwear for over 36 years. As schoolwear isn’t a year-round product, we felt that there was an opportunity for us to launch a consumer brand that would tap into all of our key qualities and attributes that we have as manufacturer and put them to good use. We already have amazing factories, we already have fabulous ways of bringing stock into the UK and distributing it, we have an amazing in-house design team, customer services and so forth, so it was a natural progression. Most of the team are from Manchester or surrounding areas, we all have young children and like to go outside with them, but we also want them to look good, and that’s where the inspiration for the brand and the idea came from. Grass + Air is positioned as a contemporary, urban, slightly edgy kids brand and the name is a play on the word Gass + Air as a parental plea to get the kids outside and outdoors.

How did you develop the brand identity of Grass + Air?

Bryony Pestell: We do a lot of brand development at David Luke anyway, so when we decided we wanted to create something new and utilise all these departments that are available to us, between marketing, sales, design etc., we were all in agreement that we wanted to make the brand really stand out. We’re lucky that in Manchester we are exposed to a wealth of design excellence, so we worked with a local agency and went through an extensive brand workshopping phase. Obviously, with the type of products that we sell - the wellies, umbrellas, the rainwear etc. - we’re not new to the market. However, we couldn’t find another brand, especially not a UK owned brand, that positioned itself within a more urban style of rainwear. There are a lot of brands that sell wellies, but they promote themselves around the idea of going into the woods and forests, the kind of National Trust Family, whereas we wanted to create a brand that would appeal to those parents who maybe feel a bit guilty that the only time they get to go outside is walking around the city centre, or going to an urban park, or skate park, or something like that.

MML: That’s why we decided to brand it in the way we have, which is a bit sleeker, more urban, a bit Scandi, a bit edgy. You will notice from our photography that we tried to keep away from that kind of rural, natural image, just because there’s already plenty of that in the market – not that there is anything wrong with it, but it’s not us, is doesn’t reflect us. Our product is quite understated - we haven’t gone down the route of bright patterns, but instead we decided to stick with quite contemporary cloud designs and unisex, gender-neutral prints and colours, rather than the unicorn and dinosaur patterns that are everywhere.

Would you say this has defined your USP?

BP: Yes, absolutely. Our USP is both the contemporary look and design, but also the fact that we incorporate a lot of technology into our products, which make them really stand out. So far we’ve integrated colour-changing technologies, UV technology and reflective technology, and we are forever experimenting, developing and pushing the boat out with technical advances that make us unique.

MML: For instance, a couple of our garments as well as umbrellas incorporate colour-changing technology, and our Junior PU jackets feature tonal reflections, meaning, if it’s a navy jacket, it has a navy reflect on it, not a silver one as is standard. So when a street light or the phone camera / flash falls on it, the garment comes to life and becomes so vibrant. Kids love it when you take a picture of them in their coat and then a cloud appears, but at the same time, it has a nice, sleek look to it that parents prefer. I think the vibrancy and adventurous spirit that we are putting into our designs shine through, teamed with that generally urban feel that we mentioned.

Is Grass + Air a niche brand, or do you feel it has broad appeal?

MML: From my point of view - the sales point of view – it has broad appeal. We’ve gone with a rainwear specific product to market, but the collection is actually quite extensive: we’ve got trousers, stomper suits, umbrellas, socks, wellies, bags… so we have quite a lot of product within that. But by far the wellies are the most successful category and the key product that everyone wants. We regularly release new colour stories to keep things fresh and exciting, and a lot of thought goes into the design and colours – I think we’ve taken the colours to the next level. We didn’t just want to have bog standard colour palettes, but we wanted to really own them, so our pink isn’t just pink, it’s ‘Prawn to be Wild’, we have ‘Banana Split’, ‘Neon Mint’ – each of these colours evoke a mood and our families associate different days out with them. I think the key is that it’s not just a wellie, it’s a talking point, and that’s how we have created a really desirable product.

Is there an appetite for good quality, branded clothing in the childrenswear arena, or are market conditions and competition from cheaper brands quite fierce?

MML: The competition is certainly fierce, but I think we are quite lucky in that aspect that we have actually been able to offer something slightly different in quite a saturated market, and brought it in at an affordable price point, which also plays a big role. And of course, parents and kids buy into the fun aspect and adventurous spirit of our brand. Our customers like Grass + Air because it’s that bit cooler, less countryfied, which, depending on where our stockists are based, goes down extremely well. I think it’s not surprising that we are particularly successful in Manchester, London and in the South of England and more coastal areas, who love that kind of look.

BP: Some of our outerwear products have been a big hit, especially the smaller, entry level sizes where people are investing most heavily in branded, good quality products to kit their kids out. The products aimed at an older age group have stiffer competition, also because those children have their own opinions. But the younger end of the market seems a little more protected from economic ups and downs and consumer behaviour because people will always buy the best they can for their little ones. Kids always come first, and the younger they are, the more precious they are. Our best-selling size on wellies is a size 5, which is around about a one year old, and our stomper suits’ bestselling size is 12 to 18 months, it’s sold out actually, so this is where everyone’s spending the most and this will be an area we will be looking to develop further.

How important has social media and generally being linked to the right store and right influencers been in the rapid growth of the label? Is it possible in today’s market to launch and grow a label without the right social media strategy?

BP: I don’t think we can deny that a huge part of the success has come from social media and working with influencers, it’s been pivotal. Having an Instagram following, or at least a buzz, is really important. Especially if there is a make or break moment where people have to decide between two brands, and one has a buzz, one doesn’t, they will almost always decide to go for the one with the hype. This time last year, when we started out, we were targeting influencers, bloggers and key figures such as the likes of Gemma Metcalfe-Beckers from Mutha.hood, Carrie Anne Roberts, founder of Mère Soeur - some big hitters, who were happy to receive the wellies and wanted to support a small brand. We leveraged existing connections, it was very proactive from our side, and we implemented a couple of significant outreach campaigns. I think the next phase for us is to elevate content even further, being a bit more discerning with who gets what and having more formal arrangements. This is really important and I think that’s one of the reasons why retailers like us, because we produce that content. Also, they all have Instagram pages themselves, and if they just have one shop or are one person, they are going to struggle to generate that content, but we deliver great Instagramable pictures and a concept behind the brand that they can utilise. Content is king, and there has to be a story and personality behind everything. Instagram has been amazing for us, and that’s where we put our energy, for our target audience and target retailers.

How many accounts do you have and what is your growth target?

MML: We have around 100 accounts now. We’ve got some really great bricks and mortar independents as our stockists, stores that we are really proud to be part of, so the more of them we can get, the better. We have been very lucky with the stores that we have managed to get into, and we have focused more on finding destination customers as well, like museums. For instance, Greenwich Maritime museum is one of our customers, and we’re now also dealing with the Manchester Museum, too.

Are you planning to expand internationally?

Melissa: At the moment we’re mainly focusing on the UK; we have a couple of European customers and one in Canada, but certainly, there is a lot of scope still for us within the UK. Our biggest customer base is in London and the Manchester area, but there’s loads more in the UK that we can expand into.

Bryony: We still have big growth potential in coastal towns, especially because our products just sit so well in destination tourist areas, some of them have such beautiful shops and you can just see straight away that this will sell. Plus, other urban towns and cities are also a perfect fit.

Do you have any key developments planned that will drive the further growth of the label?

MML: We’re looking at some winter accessories and potentially doing some collaborations for a/w 19, and then possibly launching some additional items on the accessory side. And we’re planning new colours each year and to expand the colour range.

Bryony: We’re mainly planning to develop our accessories and the infant end of our range. We’re only 16 months old but we can already see the scope of our collection can take, and we can see the trends and the sell-throughs we’re getting. That’s where our background with David Luke really helps in buying decisions, which again, helps our retailers, so we have the right stock at the right time of the year. We’re predominantly looking at products that can support the sale of our wellies, so the stomper suits and the welly suits at that lower age end. And technology will continue to be a big focus for us. Our product team are always coming to us with new ideas, and if we can bring them to market, that’s what we’re quite keen to do. We want to be innovators, not just nice in design.

Photos courtesy of the brand