My guest on this episode is Rob Smith, veteran retailer and now the CEO and Founder of The Phluid Project, GET Phluid, and The Phluid Phoundation; he has created a brand, combining his profession with his passion and a commitment to social justice.
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
My guest on this episode is Rob Smith, veteran retailer and now the CEO and Founder of The Phluid Project, GET Phluid, and The Phluid Phoundation; he has created a brand, combining his profession with his passion and a commitment to social justice. Rob and I first met when he was a guest on the Remarkable Retail podcast during the pandemic; we recently almost literally ran into each other at the Collision tech conference in Toronto on the show floor, so an excellent opportunity to catch up on The Phluid Project and the retail environment in general from his vantage point.
About Rob
Rob Smith, the CEO and Founder of The Phluid Project, GET Phluid and The Phluid Phoundation, has created a brand, combining his profession, which is retail, along with his passion, a commitment to social justice. After graduating from Michigan State University, Rob began a long retail career, spanning over 30 years, orchestrating multi-billion dollar businesses through merchandising, e-commerce, marketing, product development and supply chain management.
He worked his way through Macys for over two decades, working within four divisions and finishing with his final position as GMM/EVP Macys Corporate in product merchandising. Gaining new experiences, Rob became GMM/EVP at Victoria’s Secret and the Children’s Global Chief Product Officer for Nike, Levi’s Jordan, Hurley, and Converse with Haddad Brands.
Rob leads the CSR committee as a Board of Director for Steve Madden and is an Executive in Residence with Wunderkind and The Fashioneering Lab. He’s the former Board Chair for The Hetrick-Martin Institute and also served on the board of directors for Athlete Ally. Rob lives in NYC with his husband, Rod Grozier, and his dog, Jackson.
About Michael
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.
Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Global Retail Influencers list for 2023 for the third year in a row.
Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world.
Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers.
Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
My guest on this episode is Rob Smith, veteran retailer and now the CEO and founder of The Phluid Project, GET Phluid, and The Phluid Phoundation. He has created a brand combining his profession with his passion and a commitment to social justice. Rob and I first met when he was guest on the Remarkable Retail podcast during the pandemic. We recently almost literally ran into each other at the Collision Tech Conference in Toronto on the show floor, so an excellent opportunity to catch up on The Phluid Project and the retail environment in general, from his vantage point.
Let's listen in now. Rob, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast, my friend, how are you?
Rob Smith 00:47
I'm fantastic. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Michael LeBlanc 00:50
Well, thanks for joining me on this pod. You and I met on Remarkable Retail, Steve Dennis, and we had a great conversation, well um, jeez, that was, I guess that was a couple years ago, I think.
Rob Smith 01:00
Almost three years ago, I think.
Michael LeBlanc 01:02
Yeah. So, it's funny, right? When you think of COVID time, you can add three years and you get to the right formula. So whatever amount of time it's been, and however it is that we initially connect. It's great to have you on the podcast. Thanks for joining me, why don't we jump right in and talk a little bit about your extensive background in retail, a little bit about yourself and what you do for a living today?
Rob Smith 01:24
Yeah, I've spent about 30 years in traditional corporate retail spaces, almost 22 years at Macy's than I was at Victoria's Secret for a couple of years and then it was with Levi's and Nike and then, yeah, I decided to make a shift out of Corporate America and start my own business and that's been about five and a half years now.
Michael LeBlanc 01:47
And where are you based, where do you spend-, where do you hang your hat, so to speak.
Rob Smith 01:51
You know, I'm a bit of a gypsy right now, but most of my time is spent right here in Manhattan is one of my offices, in our in our apartment, we've downsized significantly, and all of our employees are all over the world and it's really nice to have a very virtual team. They move around, they just have a lot of freedom and autonomy and that's really nice and the same, same here. I encourage that.
Michael LeBlanc 02:16
It's a, it's a pretty big contrast. A couple of questions on your background, what, you know, sometimes retail has been described as an accidental career. Was it an accident for you, or did you always want to be-
Rob Smith 02:28
Totally accidental. It's, it's so funny. I was at Michigan State University and I really wanted to work for Procter and Gamble and I remember getting a phone call from Burdines, the Florida store and they said, “Hey, we heard you're interested in you know, Burdines, and there's an opening tomorrow, can you make it?” I was like heck yea, like, it was another interview and then turns out it was a department store in Florida, and I was in Michigan, it was March and I thought, yeah, I'll take a second interview and a free trip to Florida, and went down there and just absolutely loved it.
Rob Smith 03:00
And I was like, that’s it, I've taken this job and can move to Florida and start a career in retail and I gotta tell you, it was not very popular in the household that I grew up in, but my parents especially my dad didn't see it as a real career. It was more of a I don't know what it was. But it definitely was not the business that he thought that I could go into to make money to be successful and well, that certainly didn't end up that way, but yeah, it was, it was not a very popular decision in my family when I decided to do that.
Michael LeBlanc 03:32
And as you move through your career, what is it that you, did you spend more time in the marketing side and merchandising little bit of everything and obviously in the leadership side, but you, you moved around some pretty impressive brands, what, what was your, your driving impetus behind your career and where did you win, so to speak when you moved to those places?
Rob Smith 03:52
Yeah, great question. So, my first job as a buyer was, Junior Dresses and it was like a fast business. And I really picked it up like test, reorder, test, reorder those days where you could, like, buy, you know, 90 pieces test it even less and get a read and reorder and boy, I was really, I was really good at it. It was fired the month for almost two, three straight years and back then Federated was in Chapter 11 and so the way to get out of Chapter 11, Allen Questrom made GM ROI, which is gross margin return on investment, right. So, the, the idea that if you had a high margin business that turned fast, you're basically like printing money.
Rob Smith 04:32
So, I was turning about three times a season and about a 58% gross margin. So, it was a very, very lucrative business. Yeah, it was great. And then I was accelerated to a vice president around 26 years old, moved very fast and then bounced around from Miami to LA to San Francisco to New York and, you know, as, left as the Executive Vice President and moved from there, which was really tough because that was my family. That was where I grew up and really had a lot of support. But it was, you know, I learned about merchandising, and I was in the, you know, the merchandising part of it the whole time and then decided to jump over to Victoria's Secret to learn a bit about direct-to-consumer and vertical business. Yeah, that was really a great experience. Tough, was a tough lead, but I learned a lot in that process.
Michael LeBlanc 05:22
Now I want to talk about the team, it's a very popular conversation amongst leaders and here on the podcast about managing remote teams, you're fully remote. So, you've got some great experience plus, you've had, you know, decades of let's call it traditional management, in person experience. So, you'd like, you, like, what's the secret sauce? I've talked to people who, you know, they say, listen, I feel though there's absolutely no evidence academically or otherwise, that I'm losing traction on things like innovation. I'm like, I'm not sure that was happening to begin with, just because people were, you know, together, but there is a bit of a thing about getting people together for, you know, whether it's culture or whether it's strategy, how do you how do you manage those two things and make sure everybody's going in the right direction around the world question?
Rob Smith 06:12
Yeah, I think it's important to have some structure in the week, you know, the structure with a team meeting structure with updates, some structure that's, you know, every Tuesday at two o'clock you're with this team, and I find that the structure really helps people stay on track helps me stay up to date in the business, but yeah, but you know, we're working on it, we just start talking about this, doing every season to do, get everyone together in New York, or wherever it is, just to like, actually see people you know, sometimes it's funny, like, there's some people who I've worked with for, gosh, almost three years, and sometimes I meet them and like, oh my God, we've never seen each other before in real life, and you feel so familiar with them, you know, about their family, you know, their pets, you know, their, you know so much about them, but you never actually seen them and, and that's a lot of fun.
Rob Smith 06:22
So, working, I'm working on traveling to see my team, going to conferences together, doing special trips, but I'm working on trying to get us together and our first like, all team get together isn't going to be October. Yeah, it's important to have those team building experiences, I've always done that my whole career, I've always had this like, ability to pull people together, to pull their spouses or significant others in and get to know you know, their children's, I think it's really important to get to know not just your team, but also their families as well. So it really, you know, people appreciate you knowing about their personal life and I think that's something I've always been really comfortable with working in, in this new world of virtual, you know, work to try to really get to know my team at a whole nother level, but sometimes that really takes you know, getting people together in person and having some, you know, whiteboarding and drinks or not drinks or whatever, and get to know people.
Michael LeBlanc 08:07
I think that people are winning at that, so to speak, culturally and professionally and it's very intentional like it sounds like it's very intentional for you like we have very as you said structure and then we're gonna get together and it's very intentional it's not a kind of a random intersection point at conferences, so, I did, it's a it's a funny question this week of course, because in the in the headlines, Zoom is called you know, the irony is dead as Steve posted. Steve Dennis posted on LinkedIn irony is dead. The Zoom wants all their people back to their corporate headquarters. I think that-
Rob Smith 08:39
That's very funny. It is full of irony for sure.
Michael LeBlanc 08:46
It's kind of like when, when Meta set up a Metaverse store to sell the metaverse irony, irony was starting to be dead by that point as well. I don't know, I think it's more about a bunch of executives staring at a very big expensive office building that's completely empty and going like let's just get some people in here.
Rob Smith 09:04
Sure.
Michael LeBlanc 09:06
Anyway, anyway, enough about that. Let's talk about the Phluid Project. It's a multi, multi, it's a, it's a multifaceted strategy and, and company and it's got a retail consulting, training, speaking so take us through it. What's the origin story and tell us all about it.
Rob Smith 09:24
Yeah, the origin is it started off with like, me deciding to break away from my, my really cushy, corporate job and I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to do something more, I guess altruistic, if that makes sense and I decided to throw myself into the world and travel around the world and really immerse myself into, you know, cultures, religions, like just ancient, like existences and so I went through Central America, South America, and to Indian, Nepal and Tibet and learn a lot about, you know, Eastern philosophy, indigenous, like, experiences and yeah, on that journey in a ceremony in the Amazon I wrote down, like, when I was deciding what to do with my life and I wrote down consider opening a gender free non-binary shopping environment, and I wrote ‘Phluid’ in quotation marks and I, you know, what this will do and I opened the store 10 months later, it was, it was almost it was like a whisper into my ear what to do.
Rob Smith 10:30
And it's really an opportunity to merge my, my career, which is retail and my passion, which is social justice, and put them together and create this, you know, what, at the time seemed like, you know, I thought was a brilliant idea. Somebody, everybody else would think it was brilliant too, and investors would flock in, but that didn't quite happen, but it was such a great way to launch the brand it was, it was an opportunity to do, you know, gender free fashion. Something that people like, what does that mean? You know, do it and that's not online, but actually somebody could walk in and touch and see and really help people understand that a dress can be gender free, or you know, makeup can be gender free and then, but there's also a lot about community and activism and education.
Rob Smith 11:12
So, two thirds of the store was retail and 1/3 was community space and for about two years, I had almost 250 events, really highlighting artists and designers and creators and fashion shows and comedy night, it was just a great place to, for people to come together. I love that the experience was wonderful and that's how the brand launched and really just a great experience and, but you know, it was definitely not a moneymaker. A good way to launch the brand and, and it basically almost entirely self-funded it myself.
Rob Smith 11:45
Yeah. So, it was at a certain point I had to close the door, but as the one door closed, lots of other doors opened, I started to shift into a wholesale model. I started to buy first wholesale I think Nordstrom and target were my first two retailers that I that I started to put product in and then yeah started to expand from apparel and accessories and scent collection and getting into new categories next year, some new launches and yeah, so the five pillars of the brand are you know, the direct-to-consumer business, our website, which is also a, a place with resources and you know, place you can go to end find some answers and places for you to, you know, on your journey of, of learning and understanding.
Michael LeBlanc 11:45
Yeah.
Rob Smith 12:30
Then there's our wholesale business and Phluid and PH, we have a Phluid project, the Diffusion brand has shown up and it will be about 10,000 doors this year, that Phluid has shown up from you know, big box retailers, department stores, airports, college bookstores, all over the place has been, it's been a huge year really wrote a lot of growth and expansion there and then there's our GET Phluid gender expansive training, so we do training strategy, education for corporations, and that's going terrific. Then there's also the Phluid foundation, our nonprofit. We created a nonprofit basically taking corporate money and redistributing it to grassroots organizations across the country and just yeah, I've already gifted almost $700,000 in two years to, to gross. Yeah, between $2500 to $30,000 gifts, which is incredible, and it feels really, really, that's probably the thing I'm most, most excited about, most proud of.
Michael LeBlanc 12:30
Well, congratulations.
Rob Smith 13:01
Yeah, yeah, so It's grown in lots of different ways. So many great ways
Michael LeBlanc 13:35
A business question for you. So, what's it like being on the other side of the table? I mean, as a merchant, you would, you would know well negotiations with vendors. Now you're a wholesaler yourself, has that been a transition for you to sit on the other side of the table, have you learned a few things or, you know, conversely, you're like, I know your tricks, because I'm on I was on your table?
Rob Smith 13:56
Yeah, I definitely know the tricks. I did spend almost seven years at a company that does GUIDs licensing. That's where I did Levi's and Nike I was the Chief Product Officer for, so I learned, I learned about wholesale learned about design production, I was able to like in my career, learn about almost everything in the process between you know, retail and design and product creation and supply chain management and so yeah, by the time I got to this job and shifting into this role to a wholesaler, I know what it's like, I will tell you, it's, it feels great when you get a positive response from a buyer or from a, from a merchant. The same time, you know, sometimes silence is deadly. You just don't understand why people, you know, ghost you.
Michael LeBlanc 14:46
It was going so well, I mean, I mean, it's gonna be different when you're, when you're repping, or representing a brand like Levi's versus a startup new Phluid, no matter what kind of the brand was right, those are different conversations.
Rob Smith 14:58
Yeah, but I will tell you that people have been super responsive, very, very nice. Even, you know, especially most of the business we do right now, though, I'm trying to move past that has been, you know, pride assortment and the people have been really receptive and supportive and I think that in some ways, some of the what I experienced with merchants at these retailers is that they want to do something, they want to participate in some type of, you know, what's happened since George Floyd and people are thinking, okay, I've got this job at this retailer, what can I do to participate in, in social change in a positive way. So, by buying Phluid, they are participating in that. So that's been really nice and, and I'll say lots of other brands, maybe don't understand how to do business with the big corporations. So, I come to understand every part of the business, I'm able, I'm able to work with them in a way that many small companies can't.
Michael LeBlanc 15:54
So, you and I, as I said, at the beginning, off the top we met through Remarkable Retail, Steve Dennis, but then we actually met in person talking about you and I've known each other for a bunch of years, but we met in person here in Toronto, the Collision conference. In a very busy show floor, I looked up and I saw you striding in my direction. Like I know that guy. What brought you to Toronto to the collision conference?
Rob Smith 16:19
First of all, you were the first person I saw at the conference here, the various, it was so nice, I like this is going to be a great conference, you were the first person I ran into it was great. What brought me there, they invited me to speak in, where is it, Portugal, I think, which is their big conference. And I couldn't do it, but I had a colleague, actually who was living in Portugal. So he went and spoke and then they asked me to come and speak at this one and I thought it would be interesting, because it's really not a place that you'd expect Phluid to be at a, at a tech conference, you know, and yeah, we, we thought it'd be, we might be nice to go into a space where we're different, as opposed to LGBTQ conference or DNI conference, we thought it'd be interesting to try something where we're kind of the oddball out, I guess, and see how that worked. And it was, I gotta tell you, how much business I got out of it. But I had a really great time, tons of good people. I really, really enjoyed it. It was a positive experience. And you never know, sometimes you plant seeds, and they could sprout two years from now.
Michael LeBlanc 17:20
Yeah, there's a lot of people in that conference. So, you never know and apparently, it's now become one of the top fundraising or a raise conferences in the world to go along with all the other initiatives. So, like you said,
Rob Smith 17:34
They donated to our foundation, which is really nice as well.
Michael LeBlanc 17:36
Oh, that's fantastic.
Rob Smith 17:36
I was really happy about that. Yeah, for sure.
Michael LeBlanc 17:39
Let's change gears for a little bit. Let's talk about, you know, you live at the intersection of culture and retail and brands. So, I, you know, I can't have you on a podcast like this without talking about the current environment. I mean, we've seen both positive, tremendously positive momentum that helps drive change, but we've seen a few steps backwards, particularly this year, where do you, you know, where do you see things, I mean, you're, you're right in the middle of it, the media kind of tends to, I think over play, or are they I mean, what's your perspective on, on where we are today versus where we should be and where we can be?
Rob Smith 18:16
Yeah, it's a great question. I think it's been an interesting year, especially around the pride, timing. I think it was, you know, I'm sure, you know, most people saw what happened between some beverage companies and some retail companies. This like backlash and I think it's, it's really unfortunate, I gotta tell you, first of all, it's very, very sad that people are, extremists are like coming in and disrupting things and causing problems for both the retail or the employees, especially, the guests in this, in the space and it's just, it's just not it's not a, it's not a healthy way to direct your anger or frustration.
Rob Smith 19:00
I just think it's very, it's very unproductive, but they have, you know, people have made some noise and, and some companies have responded, Well, they've done some, you know, they just kind of ignored it and let it fly by other companies that bended I call it wavering, they've wavered and I don't think that anyone who's going into this space should waver, you know, you're in it or you're not and I think that what's happened this year is that a lot of companies are reevaluating their position around these cultural moments, heritage months and it's really just taking a pause and being reflective and saying how do we do this and not end up being attacked or if we're gonna be attacked.
Rob Smith 19:41
Are we prepared for that, are we prepared for, you know, I like to think of it like a tsunami like are your, are your roots grounded and planted so you can weather the storm. So, I think, for me, it's a few things. First of all, it's about showing up first of all, with a strong culture. You know, what is your cultural like, like inside your company, how are you engaging with the community and then what does it look like from a product and a marketing stance that complements the culture and community and then, then you go into like product and marketing, but sometimes product and marketing gets ahead of culture and community. So, I think that's an opportunity for I think every company to kind of look at things a little differently and approach things a little differently.
Rob Smith 20:29
I don't think that companies should walk away unless you don't do the work that I think you're in a vulnerable position and I think it's a good time for everyone to kind of pause, go into 2024 and say, how do we show up and how do we how do we like lock arms as a leadership team and say, let's go do this, you know, let's do this together and let's like, be prepared for what might happen, because things will happen and I think it's gonna escalate next year, further than what it was this year.
Michael LeBlanc 20:54
And you think, I guess you would assume that's going to be more escalation, just because we come closer to a presidential election, is that what you think is key.
Rob Smith 21:03
Yeah, it might, yeah, and a lot of, well, some candidates anyways, in the United States, specifically, but some people are really focused on these issues of,
Michael LeBlanc 21:13
Yeah.
Rob Smith 21:14
You know, diversity and inclusion and I don't know, I just, I think we can live in a space where it's not this or that, but you know, this and that and you can coexist with Christmas shop, as well as a Pride assortment and you know, that all these things coexist. So, there's lots of different customers, and I think, I think that a good company should look at who the customer base is, and, and serve them, you know, and customers. It's a very dynamic and rich, diverse customer base for almost every single retailer.
Michael LeBlanc 21:50
It's good point, what the well-
Rob Smith 21:51
A company besides, this, you know, transcends beyond retailers, but also any type of brand.
Michael LeBlanc 21:57
Yeah, including hopefully,
Rob Smith 21:58
Financial services.
Michael LeBlanc 22:00
Including, hopefully, at some point, the social media platforms who, you know, might get on board and not, you know, amplify the odd wackos. Anyway, that's-
Rob Smith 22:09
Well, that's algorithms, so not much you can do about that and it's also about free speech too I suppose but,
Michael LeBlanc 22:14
Yeah, I suppose.
Rob Smith 22:15
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, I believe in, you know, having a conversation with reasonable people listening to both sides, and trying to, to appeal to all customers. But you know, somebody is going to come into your space and be disruptive and that I wouldn't tolerate that if I was a retailer.
Michael LeBlanc 22:35
Let's talk about the shifting gears, again, given that you have an extensive background, both in retail, and Gen Z. I mean, the other thing I'm noticing, we're all noticing is these pureplay startups that are super uber fast fashion, you know, you think of a Shien, for example, that is very, very cheap, very, very fast and, and in some ways, it feels at odds to the ethos, I suppose of what we think about with a Gen Zed population, or Gen Z population that is more thoughtful and more caring about the companies behind it, how do you how do you square that circle, you know, at a broad level, where you, you have people lining up to go to the stores that basically, you know, you might as well ship it straight to a landfill, it's, it's that cheap, and you know, the ethics or whatever they are, sourcing ethics whatever they are, but they don't seem to be front of mind, for a lot of people that you think by reading the research papers by the big consultants that they are, how do you think about that because you're right in the middle of it?
Rob Smith 23:36
It's a little confusing because there's words and there's actions and so you know, some people are like, I believe in the environment or whatever the environment, I'm gonna make decisions for the environment and going to make decisions with companies that are inclusive and treat their people well and yeah, then they would buy a $10, a $10 item and knowing you know, darn well, I think something like 90% of fast fashion items end up in a landfill within a year, some outrageous number and that's not exactly the number, but somewhere around there, you get the idea and yeah, so I, it's, I think that's what's confusing is we're all working hard to speak to the issues that are important to young people.
Rob Smith 24:17
But sometimes, as we do it, they're actually not supporting, they're not willing to pay more money for something that is the policies around, you know, employees around the world and are willing to spend more money for, you know, better fabrics, and all of those things, and sometimes they just say, yes, I want to support the environment is an important issue for me, but the same time we're going to go buy a $10 item and end up in a landfill and, you know, six months, so it's confusing, and I think we're all trying to figure out what to do about that every time I try to charge a little more for an item for item at wholesale at a price sensitive retailer, there's always a push back. No, my customer won't pay $1 more for that item and, so it's, so yeah, so I think as leaders, and in this space, we're thinking, okay, so you're saying this, but you're doing this and it's, it's frustrating, but I do think that we will, we will shift just the same way gas cars are shifting to electric cars. That it is, it happens not as fast as we want it to happen, is what I think.
Michael LeBlanc 25:20
All right, what do you see for the rest of the year 2024, in terms of apparel retailer, again, you're, you're in the midst of it having the great conversations, do you, we've had, we came out of COVID and we had a bit of a bump up in demand and now things are smoothing out a bit. What do you, what do you see for the bounce of the year and into next year?
Rob Smith 25:38
Yeah, I think, I think that in general, folks are a little more relieved that the economy at least in the United States, I'll speak specifically that the economy doesn't look as dire as we thought it would be. There's very, most retailers were very cautious going and both continue to be cautious, but less cautious, I think, than they were six months ago, there's a problem with a lot of retailers that things are just boring and safe and what I love to see is more adventurous, like product creation, product placement, making things more exciting, making the shopping experience more exciting and hopefully customers are going to continue to move like beyond, yes, basics, but move into more. I guess expressive, stylish clothing. That's, that's just like my dream.
Rob Smith 26:29
Maybe that will happen. But that's what I, that's what I would like to see, I like to see, you know, especially as I look ahead to next year, I look at what's happening in the runways, especially I think men's fashion is super interesting. Men's Fashion is becoming a bit more and I hate the word feminine, but it's been feminine silhouettes and I think that men's fashion will be more exciting and interesting than women's fashion because if it does trickle down, you know, we're starting to see it in small pockets, like, you know, pearl necklaces, and painted nails and, you know, if you look at the runways, and I'm creating a collection, which is certainly gender, gender fluid, and this more fashion space, but playing around with skirts, but mostly like my skirts are kilts and easy, easy skirts to wear and to try those they, kilt's are always the gateway to, to skirt that makes people a little more comfortable, but I'm excited. I'm really excited about at least what we're creating in fashion, and I think hopefully other people will be doing the same thing as well.
Michael LeBlanc 26:31
Well, last couple of questions for you. First of all, who do you gather inspiration from? who inspires you or what inspires you? You're, you're an inspiring individual yourself doing amazing work, but what inspires you?
Rob Smith 27:41
Yeah, that's such a good question. I'm always inspired by runways, and I, you know, go through all the shows, and look and see how it's edited and curated by some of the best companies like WGSN, and Women's Wear Daily, but I think also the streets, like I love to walk around the streets in New York, I love to travel and see what's in like small stores around the world and, and, to me, the most interesting is the people that I see. I'm always taking pictures and getting inspired by, you know, creative people who have really a unique expression of their, their fashion. So, I, most of it is from the streets.
Michael LeBlanc 28:21
All right, last question. What's, what's next for you and the Phluid project?
Rob Smith 28:25
Oh, goodness. Yeah, so I kind of alluded to it earlier. So, we'll continue to work in the pride space and create pride clothing and continue to elevate that. I'm looking into new categories, like from pets to better fashion, like higher fashion, to hopefully beauty, trying, I'm launching a, like, wellness, sex and wellness collection, which is pretty cool. I just want to be in as many spaces as I can, where we make sense and can come with, you know, a point of view of, of love and acceptance and inclusion and really just move into different spaces with that attitude. You know, we have a very, we're very grounded in purpose and values and I want to continue to show up in spaces that have never really embraced that before. So, it's going to be a really interesting year with all these new category extensions.
Michael LeBlanc 29:24
Well, fantastic. We'll be, we'll all be watching, and listen, you're a busy fella, thanks so much for taking the time to join me on The Voice of Retail podcast. It was great to-
Rob Smith 29:33
Oh my gosh, I'm so grateful. Thank you for the opportunity to share and thanks for the great questions.
Michael LeBlanc 29:37
Yeah, well, my pleasure. Great to meet you in person and thanks again for joining me on the podcast. Wish you much continued success and a great rest of the month.
Michael LeBlanc 29:49
Thanks for tuning into this episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, be sure to follow on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week and be sure to check out my other retail industry media properties Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis, and the Global E-commerce Leaders podcast. Last but not least, if you're into barbecue, check out my YouTube barbecue show Last Request Barbecue with new episodes each and every week.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, consumer growth consultant, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc., Maven Media, and keynote speaker. If you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website at meleblanc.co.
Safe travels everyone.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
retail, retailer, years, companies, great, fashion, podcast, brand, work, space, business, learned, experience, runways, question, move, team, career, shown, wholesale