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fashion: feature
 Fly Guys: fly me to the moon
The Fly Guys’ range plays on the growing
New Zealand sense of its recent history of consumerism and media,
as Mava Moayyed learns
Shane Hansen and Johnson McKay of Fly Guys.
THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS has been avidly
debated for decades. I am holding out for the day when all it takes
is a shiny white pill. I doubt technology will deliver during my
lifetime but if reincarnation is anything to go by, I’ll be back
and the first in line to pop the success tablet. It seems, however,
not everyone is in need of a wonder drug. Some people just work
hard.
Auckland-based fashion design and marketing duo, Shane
Hansen and Johnson McKay, have solved the success equation, no supplements
needed. They have created Fly—a business founded on intelligent
and innovative thinking—managing to maintain one of the most down-to-earth
and amicable demeanours in the fashion industry.
At the time of Fly’s birth, both Shane and Johnson
were craving for greater creative freedom than the workaday world
could offer and so shone forth the rays of ambition. ‘We both saw
the limitations of our own ideas when working for somebody else.
We really liked the idea of putting together really cool fashion
ideas for corporate companies where we could take a brand and make
it really cool.
We talked about it over summer and just hit it,’ says Johnson.
The boys’ multi-faceted business produces T-shirt prints
for retailers and brand promotion for corporations. Fly has mixed
the two elements and created a synergy of design and marketing that
companies are eagerly taking on board. They have also been able
to appease the public with the “flyest” fashion around.
Lest we forget their design label, Soqsnsushi as well as their interactive
website, Productville.co.nz,
it’s more than you’ll get in a mixed bag from the dairy; with Fly,
you won’t be left with the liquorice jellybeans. The business is
thriving, their popularity is growing and I am left avid to uncover
the recipe to their success.
It starts with strong foundations and the Fly Guys
have roots which travel deep down, all the way to third form. These
were the days when it was still OK
to date your best friend’s sister, which is exactly what Johnson
did. One marriage later and you’re left with a brother-in-law duo
enduringly linked by kin and by vision.
‘The sales, marketing and business management side
of things I’d been doing for quite a few years before we’d started.
The fashion design and production stuff Shane had been doing since
high school so the core needs of the business were met,’ says Johnson,
who was impressively completing a full-time law degree amidst the
rise of Fly. Shane’s skill in fashion design is evident owing to
his previous work with Canterbury and his own label of urban club
wear, Vampire.
The Fly label started as a solution to a hitch in the
marketing world. Shane and Johnson found that most people shared
their view
on modern advertising and its lack of appeal. Johnson explains,
‘We have this whole theory that a lot of times the consumer is treated
like a bit of a dummy and these over-the-top promises are made about
products. What we create is not advertising where you’re punching
the consumer in the face with something unbelievable. Instead, it’s
fashion that people want to have.’ Fly has built a bridge between
fashion and marketing.
Establishing Fly was no easy task as their business
concept was relatively new and there were no examples to follow.
Despite the copious amount of time and effort they have put in,
Johnson and Shane have worked out ways to balance work and home
life—especially critical when both have beautiful wives waiting
at home for them. ‘One of the fortunate things is that for two guys
running their own business, we don’t really work longer than a 40-hour
week. We’ve just got really, really good at systems of doing things,’
says Johnson.
Being able to balance the business is paramount for
Johnson who is the proud father of five children, all under the
age of 10. ‘At the time we started this business, everyone was saying,
“Well, there goes your life,” but, in reality, my life
has improved a billion times. Just being able to work and be energized
and excited then go home and just be more alive, it’s been so much
better for my family.’ Johnson’s example allows us to cross ‘no
life’ out of the success equation and replace it with a much more
appealing ‘thriving family’.
The toiling began again when the Vote Fly range was
created during the 2005 General Election. The political affairs
of the country proved to be the inspiration for the range which
included Johnson’s all time favourite print. ‘We redesigned the
New Zealand coat of arms after its original design 50 years ago.
When you look at all the elements, it’s what we call intelligent
fashion because there’s actually heaps of political, social undertones
to the design. But if you just like Kiwiana design, then it fits
the bill, too. I think we hit the mark with that design.’
The fashion produced by Fly is incredibly popular.
NZ Icons was the second range released
and just as you’d expect a Fly product to do, it flew off the shelves
in a matter of days. ‘Retailers ordered really conservatively and
in like 10 days it sold out which was really thrilling,’ says Johnson
of NZ Icons’ first release. Four thousand
T-shirts were sold over 12 weeks.
The NZ Icons range stemmed
from design projects the boys had done for New Zealand companies
and upon realizing the extent to which people loved them, they launched
the range in fashion stores all over the country. In 2006 the nostalgic
prints included Edmond’s, Vogel’s and Weet-Bix, and now added to
the mix is everything from Wattie’s to Chelsea Sugar, Bluebird
and even Kiwi Bacon. ‘As far as a roller-coaster ride, we ended
up being on TV, on radio stations
and heaps of magazines picked up on it. It was quite exciting for
us since we’d been toiling away making T-shirts and suddenly people
loved it! ’
Shane and Johnson are driven by humour. It is a crucial
part of the business and is at the essence of their creations. ‘What
we do is stuff that makes us laugh which you can see more of on
the Productville website. And maybe only a small group of people
find it funny but still it’s fun and enjoyable,’ says Johnson. Therein
lays the charm of Fly: its freedom from any pretentiousness that
is known to hang thick in the fashion world.
It is this light-hearted approach that motivates the
duo to continually generate fresh and exciting print ideas. Somewhat
of a challenge for Shane who, apart from a few pieces in the current
range, has designed all the prints in the Fly collections.
‘We’ve always talked about resurrecting Shane’s previous
label and getting it into more boutique stores but it’s a loose
discussion because at the moment. It sounds dumb, but it’s so easy
to take our designs and chuck them on a T-shirt, but it’s really,
really hard to pull together a proper collection. It’s not a project
for this year since we’ve only actually been in retail for two-and-a-half
years. We’re really quite a baby in the fashion market.’
The flight into adulthood promises continual successes
for Fly, and both Shane and Johnson are adamant that ‘young talent
straight out of university‘ will be a high-flying part of the businesses’
future. Last year, they hired Xavier Mercedes Black, who has just
completed a Bachelor of Business at AUT,
‘because she is darn switched on to marketing in a way we aren’t,’
says Johnson.
‘In five years, we’re going to be too old to be cool.
We’d really like to become the kind of company that could hire raw
talent and help them to get exposure and the opportunities rather
than having to battle it hard yards working 10 years for someone
else before you can start your own thing. We’re going to be coming
up with all these ideas from the ’70s and ’80s and the young generation
are going to be like “What?!” We’d really like to tap
into new ideas.’
Shane and Johnson describe themselves as the ‘ultimate
duo’ with the ability to work through any test or difficulty the
business throws at them. ‘There could’ve been a lot of challenges
in that we are both strong-willed people. The good thing is that
we complement each other, it works really well.’ Maybe the most
impressive part of their success is the loyalty and companionship
the Fly Guys have shown to each other and it is these virtues that
have bred success without compromise.
It seems the recipe for success requires more than
tablets could ever offer. It is the perfect combination of kilos
of hard work, several cups of ambition and a sprinkling of humour.
However, there is always hope that karma delivers and I will be
born into a family of noble aristocrats. •
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Fly Guys’ range includes T-shirts in a tin emblazoned with
classical New Zealand logos from consumer products and TV programmes,
T-shirts and bags with a redesigned New Zealand crest and other
items relating back to the country’s history.
The toiling began again when the Vote Fly range
was created during the 2005 General Election. The political affairs
of the country proved to be the inspiration for the range. ‘We redesigned
the New Zealand coat of arms after its original design 50 years
ago. When you look at all the elements, it’s what we call intelligent
fashion because there’s actually heaps of political, social undertones
to the design. But if you just like Kiwiana design, then it fits
the bill, too. I think we hit the mark with that design.’
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