Notes: An Interview With Menswear Designer Todd Snyder

These are notes I took while watching a great interview with Todd Snyder, by Douglas Hand.

I’m a fan of Todd Snyder, and a fashion geek, so I’ve not limited these notes to any one topic. The subheadings will narrow the scope of content if you’re scanning for something in particular.

Note: any of my own commentary will be contained within brackets [ ]

Snyder’s Early Style Inspirations

Todd Snyder was born in Iowa. He loved clothes as a kid and enjoyed trying to outdo his peers with the way he dressed. His love of clothes made him aspire to having more clothes and being able to dress with more pieces.
In what Snyder describes as the “bubble” he grew up in, he wore Redwing boots, Levi’s; he discovered Calvin Klein via their iconic-yet-controversial ad campaign with Brooke Shields.
Ralph Lauren came to epitomize “the best” for him, and he began to collect the polos through college.
After college, Snyder’s style would evolve, becoming “a little more bohemian, a little less preppy.” He began to consider brand as less important, began to shop vintage, and began to carve out his own style.
In the 80s and 90s, fashion information wasn’t as readily available like it is today, given the lack of internet. Snyder read magazines like GQ, and in college discovered magazines like M The Civilized Man.
Snyder would find fashion inspiration in movies, too. Wall Street was a major inspiration and gave him a fantastical, romantic impression of what it would be like to live in New York City.
Armani and Ralph Lauren were the pinnacle brands for Snyder. Armani was the “it brand” in the 80s, ubiquitous in movies and on the red carpet. His obsession with both brands made him think about where his own style fell on the spectrum between the vastly different styling of each.

Beginning In Fashion

In college, Snyder studied engineering, architecture, and business before settling on a textile design program. He was in school for about six years, and ultimately graduated with a fashion design degree from Iowa State.
He moved to NYC in 1992, and started to cold call designers he admired. He quickly realized he needed to figure out who the design director was at a given label and try to get them on the phone.
Eventually Snyder got a job at Ralph Lauren, but it took him working for free.
Ralph Lauren is where Snyder says he “made his mark.” In a meeting, the design director noticed the shirt he was wearing, asked where it was from, and was amazed to find Snyder had made it himself. This helped set Snyder apart, and led to the design director calling upon him for his perspective more and more. From thereon, Snyder would try to do things to get noticed, including cleaning and organizing a storage closet at the Ralph Lauren offices.
After Ralph Lauren, Snyder worked at J.Crew for about two years under the then chairman, Emily Cinader Woods. This is where he met Jenna Lyons, too.

What Happened At J.Crew

[J.Crew is known to have – to put it in Snyder’s own words – “fell apart” around 2012]
Snyder describes the then CEO and chairmen of J.Crew, Mickey Drexler, as “a god” and “relentless…which is what makes him so great.” But this is what led to some people at J.Crew, like the president Tracy Gardner and merchandiser Jennifer Foyle, getting burnt out.
Snyder says you need balance of “creative and commerce”, that these things need to be harmonious. In Snyder’s estimation, when Gardner and Foyle left, the scale tipped. He says that Jenna Lyons, who was the creative director of J.Crew from 2008 until 2017 (as well as president beginning in 2010) president, was a genius, but didn’t have anyone on the business/merchandising side to act as her counterweight.
Snyder says that Jenna Lyons was poised (“and still is”) to be a fashion icon, but needed someone on the business side to help propel the operation. He says there was an enormous amount of untapped potential at J.Crew.

Launching The Todd Snyder Label

Todd Snyder left J.Crew in 2009. J.Crew then “took off like a rocket ship.” J.Crew hit critical mass around the time Michelle Obama was wearing it. Menswear doubled in 5-6 years after that. Nonetheless, Snyder took the risk and went forward with his own label.
While at Ralph Lauren, Snyder worked under John Varvatos, and from him learned importance of being a nice guy. Encountering and adopting this management style enabled him to bring people with him from J.Crew, and hire some of the best talent in the industry.
Snyder started his label at 40. He “got lucky” in that a Japanese company discovered him and wanted to back him in Japan. He opened four stores in Japan. In addition to this, Snyder was receiving accolades including GQ best designer of the year, and multiple CFDA awards, which helped build momentum for the brand.
Snyder had a pop up in Nolita, City Gems, built around his Champion collaboration. Jay Schottenstein and Roger Markfeld discovered Snyder at this time and wanted to acquire him. Chad Kessler made it happen.

How Todd Snyder Thinks About Brand

Snyder struggled with naming his label – he wondered if naming it so was too egotistical.
A friend from Ralph Lauren and J.Crew, Tim Hamilton, told him he needed to name the brand after himself, because people want to invest in a name.
Snyder is a Dutch name, and in Dutch the word “snyder” means “cutter,” as in a cutter in tailoring.
Brand collaborations became Snyder’s secret weapon. He first came across collaborations in Japan when he saw brands like Junya Watanabe and Comme des Garçons doing them.
When employed by different brands, Snyder would effectively get paid to shop, and this helped him develop a sense for trends and fashion cycles. Honing in on trends and what people are wearing in various cities is something Snyder has always enjoyed.
Snyder says that his secret for menswear is looking at London and Tokyo, and studying the way people are dressing.
The first collaboration Todd Snyder did was with Jack Purcell. The next collaboration was with Red Wing, which is a collaboration that helped to build a lot of momentum. When starting out, no one knew who Snyder was, but he figured people did know brands like Champion, Jack Purcell, and Timex.
Having a direct to consumer route (a website), aside from being carried by Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus, helped Snyder articulate the identity of the brand.
Snyder approaches his business with an analytical and pragmatic mind. He’s sure to surround himself with people who can help him balance the company.
When launching a brand, some companies will spend 30% of revenue on marketing. Billion dollar businesses can spend less than 5%, but for a company starting out, this would never be enough. These days there are also more channels than ever by which a brand must talk to the customer.
Snyder watched D2C companies like Bonobos, Untuckit, Warby Parker, and this made him change his marketing lens, and focus on performance marketing.
Snyder considers his stores as an ad and discover point for the consumer. The store is the ultimate expression of what the brand is. It’s casual, approachable, and demystifies fashion for men.

Design Ethos & Accessibility

Snyder uses a lot of pragmatism in his design process. He tries to reimagine what he or his customer would wear in a given setting, e.g. in New York, in Palm Beach, etc., and aims to create what someone can be comfortable in while maintaining their sense of style.
Snyder considers Hollywood as his north star as far as “the cool guys,” and the people who epitomize style. He’ll reference style of past (Paul Newman, James Dean), as well as what’s current.
Snyder wants customers to feel their best, explore who are, but also recognizes that “they also need a guide.””
“A great chef doesn’t reinvent a meat, they take all the ingredients and mix them up to make something new…it’s the same way [in fashion]…you may have a suit that you want to wear a sneaker with, or you may have a trouser that you break up from a suit that you wear with a denim jacket. There are so many variations that guys don’t know, and it’s hard – we don’t come pre-wired to wear things a certain way…we have to act [as an] interpreter.”

Style Around The World

Snyder considers Nashville and Austin as interesting settings/cities to see style in.
Snyder is always studying what people wear, even just on planes.
He considers Vancouver a top pick for North American fashion.
In traveling to Maine, Snyder discovered the style was unpretentious, but interesting and functional.
He’s always looking for great style with a little bit of a twist that makes it new.

Planning For An Increasingly Remote Future

Snyder says the suit is not dead. “As long as there is competition to get a job, or a high paying job, or get a raise, people are always going to try to dress their best….You should. The better you dress, the better you will do in any business. The way you dress and the way you present yourself is the biggest reflection.”
“In [presumably 2021, or 2020, based on the date of the interview] the last year, we sold more sweatpants than we have in the last ten years.”
“Fast forward to today, we’re selling suits like they’re going out of style.”
“The elasticated waist suit, and the jogger, have been accepted by the man. They’re actually really cool right now.”

The Difference Between Fashion And Style

“Fashion…is more of a way to describe an industry…it’s a little more general. Style is more personal, about your own sense of style. It’s about taking what’s going on out there, editing it down into the things that you want to create your own style out of.”