Discover Benelux | Special Theme | Innovation and Knowledge in the Netherlands
A smooth ride for the fashion industry TEXT: MYRIAM GWYNNED DIJCK | PHOTO: SOOPL, FRANK FOTOGRAFIE
For Arjan Kaan, being made redundant in 2005 was a blessing in disguise. He had worked for seven years as a representative in the fashion industry, and during that time there was one thing that had frustrated him to no measure: the cumbersome, unwieldy fashion trolleys. He knew exactly what would have made his job easier: stable, foldable trolleys with big wheels. He figured scores of people would have experienced the same frustrations, and now that he was without a job, he had the perfect opportunity to turn his vision into reality. “I thought, either I can try to look for other work, or I can turn my idea into a real
16 | Issue 29 | May 2016
product. So the latter is what I did. I’ve always had a passion for product design and although I didn’t know if it would work out, now I had the opportunity to try,” Kaan says.
contacted the biggest fashion fair in the Netherlands, but they denied him entry as only clothing brands were allowed to take part. So he took a different approach.
Together with a design agency he made the first sketches, and these quickly developed into the Soopl fashion trolley. It was strong, easy to fold and did what it was meant to do: roll smoothly. “The design is sturdy and beautiful and it has double bearings on all four wheels, so it rolls really well.”
“We set up a free Soopl delivery service,” Kaan recounts. “Together with a few students, we offered to take the clothes from the vans into the exposition hall. Of course, while doing that, we handed out loads of flyers about the trolley. Then on the last day, when we took the clothes back out again, we received an overwhelming amount of orders. We were out of stock in no time.”
Reaching the customers Once the product was ready, Kaan had to overcome the next hurdle: how to market it to his prospective customers. He
After this early success, Kaan and his team replicated the stunt at seven oth-