In the business world, branding is everything. And in the fashion side of things? Even more so.
Branded color palettes and logos are almost omnipresent on our shirts, shoes, and even underwear. Pepe Martín García wanted to change that. Stemming from a personal desire to embrace conscious, sustainable and simple fashion, he and his partners founded Minimalism to provide people with a well welcomed break from commercial fashion and developed a style brand specifically designed to break the norms of branding.
Most would say that would never work, but by sticking to his values and product standards, Pepe has made Minimalism a distinguished name by providing products that are indistinguishable, stylish, and well made.
Allow me to introduce Pepe Martín García…
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Hello. I’m Pepe Martin, Founder and CEO of Minimalism. I am also a content creator for Youtube (I talk about my ideas, business, travel and conscious ways of living) and for our podcast “Open” where we interview other entrepreneurs.
Minimalism is a minimal clothing, accessories, and home brand that is consciously and sustainably manufactured in Europe. We focus on transparency, on no logos (we do not have logos on our garments) and on manufacturing in the most conscious way possible.
I studied business administration between Segovia (city where I was born in Spain) and Ireland. I have been a worker in all kinds of businesses – from very small companies to multinationals. 6 years ago, I decided to go freelance and started creating web pages and managing the content that creators and brands used in their companies. Step by step I created my own projects, launched the youtube channel, and then together with my partners launched Minimalism as a brand in which we express a conscious way of life.
The manufacturing process of any of the Minimalism product stems from a personal need; let me explain. For example, with the Minimalism t-shirts, we wanted a quality product that would last over time, that was made with organic cotton, manufactured in Europe and that did not have logos on the garments. We do not like to be marked by wearing large logos on the chest or anywhere visible. That’s why we created Minimalism without logos. We wanted people to be able to dress comfortably, elegantly, consciously and minimally without being branded with logos.
We replicate this on all products. We are looking to provide a basic product that we can use in our day to day and we try to do it in the most conscious way possible. At the moment we have a complete clothing line, backpacks, home… and more to come. 😉
We launched the company with a small product: wallets. We launched it by contributing some capital from the partners. Step by step, we incorporated new products. After handbags came backpacks, then men’s clothing, then underwear, women’s, home…
Each launch is a process, and our goal is to launch all kinds of products that you have in your home, and to manufacture them in the most conscious way possible.
To attract traffic and make the brand known, we began to publish content on my YouTube channel and launched the Open podcast, which is based on transparency and information for our clients. We always believe that an informed customer will know how to differentiate a quality product from one that does not have it. If we share and educate them with that information and customers buy more consciously, we will have met our goal.
There are several things that are working very well for us to retain our customers.
The first is to bring new products to our community that make sense with the brand. For example, very recently we launched household towels. Customers welcomed them very well because it is a basic that we all use in our homes.
The second thing that has worked for us is the organic content that we share through my YouTube channel where people can understand what the life of a CEO is like. And for the brand’s podcast, every day thousands of people listen to us and this keeps the name Minimalism in their mind if they need any of the products we offer.
I am a big consumer of content, both written and in audio or video.
If I had to recommend any podcast (besides ours) and content, I would recommend:
There are many more.
If I had to recommend a brand book I would recommend: Let my people go surfing by the founder of Patagonia and the Nike book and film.
The brand is good. We suffered a bit from the drop in sales online after COVID, but, little by little, we are incorporating new products and improving the ones we already have.
The idea is to cover any product that is used on a daily basis, from the moment you get up until you go to bed. If it is a basic, it may be within the brand. Financially we continue to be profitable and the goal is to stay that way year after year.
Both for the creation of a brand and for the creation of content, I would tell them to do something that may be interesting for them. When we launched Minimalism, we launched it out of the need to find a quality product that respects the environment and does not have logos on the garments. We saw that there was a need and we tried to cover and communicate it. People liked it and from there a community was created. The same applies to content. It is important to know who you are directing and what you are creating. If you want to create content for conscious people to get them to buy your product, it’s very different from if you want to entertain them. But above all, I would tell them to give it a try, to give themselves a chance and to try.
Minimalism site: https://minimalismbrand.com/
Minimalism Channel and Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@minimalism_brand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/minimalism_brand/
My personal Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB5C9zffwo-zOjvyx23lWwQ
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