Huffer: Cool for cats

Visiting the headquarters of your average, well-established fashion label can be quite a lot like travelling to another country. The inhabitants look different from the rest of the world, they may live by a different philosophy of style and they may even have their own language, whether visual or just a bunch of slang that gets thrown around their workrooms.

For example, you'll find that many of the folks working at Zambesi don funereal colours every day and have an arty attitude to clothing that comes straight from the top, whereas at Kate Sylvester central, in Kingsland, the whole building sometimes seems to be populated by a tribe of apple-cheeked girls with shiny hair, in minimally cute dresses.

It's the same at Huffer headquarters in central Auckland. The streetwear label, founded in 1997 by designer and champion skateboarder Daniel Buckley and his buddy, snowboarder Steve Dunstan, is located in a large, sunny warehouse space just off Queen St.

The furniture is simple and graphic, consisting of retro-style couches and a giant full-stop for a table; there's a huge orange dot painted in one corner, black and white zig-zags all over a counter and racks and racks of clothing, from past and present collections.

The staff are mostly what you'd call young and funky; they kid around in hoodies, jeans, sneakers and jandals.

Just quietly, several of them admit they feel like it's an "honour" to work here and that, once you start here, you can't help but take part in the distinctive culture of the brand.

"Actually we talk a lot of shit," laughs one employee. Indeed, at times they appear to be using a different, indecipherable language - this may best be referred to as "speaking Huffer".

And really, the overall feeling, what with the bright colours, funny pictures and cute colloquialisms, is that a bunch of big kids live here.

"Yeah, it's a bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, eh?" agrees one of the Huffer-ites.

And then of course there are the Huffer parties you may recently have read about - the label's last gig, after their show held on the waterfront during Air New Zealand Fashion Week, was packed; people were being turned away all night.

Inside central Auckland bar Tabac, the rooms were filled with hot young things, all sweatily dancing to De La Soul and Rage Against The Machine like it was 1992. It most resembled some sort of crowd scene from Beverly Hills 90210, only better. And if they were giving out prizes for party of the week, Huffer would have won.

The party the brand put on at the Las Vegas trade show to introduce themselves to the streetwear industry sounded even wilder. The festivities for 750 invitees, held at the Hard Rock Cafe in conjunction with the not-PC-and-proud-of-it Vice magazine, featured our own Mint Chicks and another rock 'n' roll band, The Black Lips, who are infamous for disrobing onstage and occasionally even urinating on their audience. In this case, the bassist tried to play his guitar using only his genitals - he eventually got kicked out of his own gig.

"That was quite good actually," notes Dunstan, "because we didn't have to pay full price for the performance."

All of which might make it quite hard to believe that this is the New Zealand label that has the potential to be as big as (possibly even bigger than) the likes of Trelise Cooper and Karen Walker in international terms.

In the next few weeks, recession or no, Huffer start delivering their clothing into the United States - because over there, the company that was deliberately founded by two friends on April Fool's Day more than 10 years ago is anything but a joke.

The label will soon be available in around 30 American stores - including boutiques on Melrose Ave where the New Zealand label will hang next to the likes of Ksubi from Australia, Nudie denim from Sweden and the Insight surf label, as well as at the premium stores owned by large US chain, Urban Outfitters. This week Huffer are shipping around $90,000 worth of clothes to the States, which will be followed up by further orders worth another $300,000 or so. Eventually they hope to be stocked in around 60 stores and if all goes according to plan, Huffer estimate that they will be doing business worth around at least a million dollars in the US every year.

It all started when, during an exploratory trip there, Buckley had a bit of a realisation. "I just felt like we could fit in, with the way we present our brand and with our particular kind of creativity," he explains.

Add to that idea, a new manufacturing partnership - designed here, Huffer is now mostly made in China - and an American agency to represent the brand in that country (if you read the gossip pages, you may know that Huffer's agent on the West Coast is actor Harrison Ford's son, but neither the Huffer guys nor their agent want to make a big deal out of it) and around 18 months later, it's on.

"We have done a bit of exporting in the past," Dunstan explains. "The first time I went to Australia I just packed a bag full of clothes and was like, hey, I've got some clothes for you to look at". Past efforts to export to Japan were on a similarly small scale, he says. "But this is probably our most serious and most researched go at exporting."

Not surprisingly this "go" has included learning a fair few lessons. "We've figured out that it's really important to back yourself," Dunstan says. "We were led astray a little bit by these range advisers."

"Basically they [the range advisers] tell you what the US market wants - but we realised that really, at the end of the day, it's all just opinion," Buckley explains further. "After all, for us the original idea was our point of difference, everything from our design identity to the style of our photography. And you have to believe in what you're doing. We did need advice about corporate structure though - and the logistics of these kinds of delivery are pretty complicated," he adds.

"Yeah," Dunstan laughs, "Opening a bank account is hard enough. It took days."

Speaking of banking, Buckley and Dunstan are well aware of the damage a really serious recession in America could do to their export business there. "Just got to batten down the hatches really," Buckley outlines their coping strategy. "We can only try to deliver well and to make the end customer really happy. We're a pretty strong business now and we're pretty capable. To be honest, it would take three or four really serious balls-ups to knock us out."

In the time that it has taken from Huffer to grow from a two-man-business - Dunstan sold furniture and Buckley used to work in a cafe and in construction in order to start the business - into a multimillion-dollar business, the company has obviously had to evolve, as have its founders.

Ask Buckley and Dunstan these days whether they would rather be the next Quiksilver or the next Prada and, although you might not expect this, for them the answer is obvious: Prada.

"Or maybe that's a bit direct," Dunstan says. "Maybe more like Prada and Nike, slash something a little more organic."

"There's probably a touch of Quiksilver in what we do," says Buckley, who reckons he doesn't skateboard that much anymore: he says his competitive attitudes toward skating have been transferred to doing business.

"And there's this common preconception that we're skatey dudes but that's not really us today. Our roots lie in board sports - like skating and snowboarding - and that's what influenced us in the beginning but we are more of a fashion brand now. We're going into the US as a contemporary streetwear brand."

"Still," points out Dunstan, who says he surfs more than he snowboards these days, "the success of Huffer has a lot to do with that original identity."

Too true. As another local designer was overheard to say, "Huffer are so lucky. Right from the beginning their branding has been great." But the thing that designer doesn't realise is that Huffer has always had that image because of Buckley and Dunstan themselves. They wore those clothes, went to those parties and talked "Huffer", long before it became the culture of a business with around 11 employees. Their menswear designer, Aaron Styles, who's been with the company for two years, fondly recalls seeing Buckley in skateboarding demos. And their womenswear designer, Rachel Sloane, says she always admired the label from afar for being laid back and cool.

Now that Dunstan and Buckley are growing up, and Huffer is too, how do they keep up the image?

Judging by the looks on their faces they haven't really thought about it too much.

"I think as soon as you start worrying about being contrived, then you are," Dunstan says.

And then the other three come up with quotes that make you realise that, although they've come a long way, they haven't lost any of the wholesome, nutty goodness of Huffer along the way.

"There's definitely a sort of collective consciousness here," says Styles.

"We're all pretty open people here and Dan's such a creative soul."

"And you do just sort of live it," continues Sloane, referring to the label's distinctive culture.

"And we're all friends too. It's not just a clothing brand, it's pretty tight little family and it's a fun place to work.

"We just sort of talk about crazy stuff, talk about all sorts of rubbish really and it sounds pretty playful but that's how a lot of the design happens."

Finally Buckley starts explaining their foray into America in a way that anyone who's ever tried surfing, skating or snowboarding will understand: "When I was skateboarding a lot I had these friends who used to break their arms or their legs all the time and I realised that there's this delicate balance," Buckley explains.

"Basically your determination to do something needs to be balanced with your ability to understand what you're capable of.

"There's a level of skill and there's a level of courage and you have to be able to push yourself but also to understand your own capabilities."