Meet Gil Kahana, co-founder of Chattyfeet
Gil Kahana is the co-founder of novelty sock brand ChattyFeet. From a simple idea he had at a party to an online shop with more than fifty characters, including Kate Middle-Toe and Sole-Adore Dali, Gil has built his business on a shoestring budget and a whole lot of fun.
As he prepares to introduce his quirky brand of humour to the US market, Gil shares the ChattyFeet success story and some of the lessons he’s learned along the way.
There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?
It all started one night, during a cosy gathering with friends. I lifted my feet into the air and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if our socks could talk?”. This silly idea became a serious business plan and, a few sketches later, our first sock character was born.
What does your business offer its target audience?
When you’re a kid, life is all about fun; but when you grow up, life can quickly become about Excel spreadsheets and early mornings (don’t grow up – it’s a trap!). I like to think that our funny socks are the antidote to adulting. They’re about creating moments in which we can all have fun and do silly things.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned as an entrepreneur?
That’s a tricky question! I would say that it’s about starting with small steps. There are so many entrepreneurs who want to create something big and then try to do too much at once. It’s actually really difficult to start small – to work with the resources you have.
We started ChattyFeet with just four designs. If we’d started with lots of characters, mugs and enamel pins, we would have failed. Even producing one pair of socks was tough! At first, the samples we were receiving simply weren’t good enough – we had to put a lot of effort in to get things right.
How did you conquer those moments of doubt?
When you’re doing something that you really love, you find the energy for it. Even when it’s hard, you don’t run out of juice.
I remember our first big Christmas was tough. We had to pack hundreds of orders ourselves at a storage unit in Camden. We’d just finished, and it was raining, and the postal bag touched the floor, which meant some of the orders got wet. It was so disheartening, but we found the energy to repack, keep going, and get the orders posted on time.
When did you decide that the DIY approach wasn’t enough?
Actually, it was right from the beginning. We’ve always collaborated with artists, marketers, salespeople, designers, writers and developers.
There is a limit to how much you can do by yourself. I enjoy the product development side of things, so to give myself time to do that, I need to delegate. It’s tricky though – after you’ve spent so many years building something, it can be challenging to hand over the reins to your Twitter account!
How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?
The biggest innovation is with our product. It’s unusual, it’s supposed to make you smile. I received a note from a customer once who told me that she and her boyfriend did puppet shows for each other using our socks. When you hear stories like this, it makes it all worthwhile – we see a lot of people enjoying our characters on social media.
What social media channel has worked best for your business and why?
Instagram. It’s an incredibly visual platform. The photographs of our products are very playful, and you get to see the different sides of our characters in their day-to-day lives. We are on Twitter and Facebook too, but Instagram is where our brand really comes to life.
However, we’ve found that great content isn’t enough – you also need to pay for promoted posts. You need to decide how much you’re going to invest, and it requires a lot of work to get the targeting right.
Do you have a top marketing tip?
I always ask myself, “Who cares?”. You can’t reach everyone. There’s no point in contacting people who won’t enjoy your product – and I don’t believe in spamming people. So, before you ask someone to take a bite of what you do, ask yourself, “Are they the right person? Will they care?”.
You also need to think about how you can help them. A lot of the time, businesses are just trying to help themselves, but if you can offer something that makes a difference to your customers’ lives, then you can build a relationship with them.
How did you fund the launch of your business and what creative strategies did you use to execute a minimal cash flow?
We’ve been a very lean business from the start, but after we’d launched our first four designs, we needed to secure a modest investment to create new characters. We ended up using Kickstarter and created an entertaining video pitch featuring our sock characters. This enabled us to raise the funds we needed to move forward.
Other than that, I’m proud to say we’ve grown organically. After all, the moment you have an investor you effectively have another boss – organic growth has enabled us to retain creative control over our product.
What does it take for a brand to have longevity?
Customer retention is so important. It costs money to invite someone into your brand world, so you need to give them a great experience and encourage them to order again.
For us, quality is key – we set out to create a product that we would be proud to wear ourselves. We refused to create something that was cheap and falling apart, and our customers really respond to that.
What plans do you have for ChattyFeet over the next two years?
We’re looking forward to 2022. With Brexit and then the pandemic, it’s been a tough couple of years – there have been supply chain issues and we’ve had to invest heavily to survive.
But now feels like the right time to grow, and we’re excited about bringing our brand of humour to new audiences. We’ve just launched the US version of our online shop, which will enable us to curate our characters to suit that market. We’re already stocked at MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago, and the website sales look promising so far.
What’s more, we will be adding new fun characters to the sock drawer very soon – watch this space!
