7 Things I’ve Learnt: Hamish Tame

In the early days, starting as a marketing intern, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed – and I don’t think I’ve ever lost that enthusiasm. I was always hanging around the design team, showing interest in products and suggesting, “Wouldn't that be cool in white?” When an opportunity to work more closely with the design team came up, I jumped at it and began helping to design one of the first Le Specs collections after our rebrand. Prior to this collection, we’d sell around 300 units of a style, but a style I designed for that collection sold around 17,000 units. You’d see it at every music festival at the time. After that, our CEO came to me and said, “You work in design now – what’s next?” From there, my progression happened naturally, but with some serious hustle.

Regardless of what you know – or think you know – things constantly change, evolve and grow. Over the years I’ve watched several brands stick with a stance of, “This is what we do and we aren't changing that.” It doesn’t work. A big part of my learning experience has been moving away from thoughts like, “How do we make stuff sell?” I’ve moved on to a more fluid and creative space of thinking, so we can grow with our consumers and their changing needs and habits. 

It’s one of the things I pride myself on. I was always asking questions, always wanting to understand how various aspects of the business worked, whether it was merch planning or production. That’s how I was able to plug gaps in my knowledge, moving from a marketing role to something more creative and strategic. Just this past week, I’ve learnt a lot by simply sitting with buyers to understand what their KPIs are, so I’m not just pushing a range for no reason or creating a bunch of stock that won’t sell.