We speak with Mr Porter's buying and sales director about his love for shoes and why it resulted in him being labelled as the ‘Imelda Marcos’ of Shepherd's Bush
Mr Porter needs no introduction, the leading men’s style destination has unveiled their new shoe category through ‘the world’s best shoes’ campaign, a comprehensive selection with over 90 of the world’s most current shoe designers arranged across 13 categories, along with eight exclusive capsule collections to boot.
The person largely responsible for making every man’s shoe dream a reality? None other than Toby Bateman, the buying and sales director of Mr Porter who oversees all elements of the menswear offer across the casual, contemporary, formal, and designer ranges.
Ahead of Mr Porter’s celebration with Jimmy Choo, we had the opportunity to speak with Bateman about Mr Porter’s growth and why shoes can always make or break an outfit:
On whats changed since he last spoke to Hong Kong Tatler:
We’ve developed our business in different locations around the world, Hong Kong is now the third largest territory, which is phenonmenal and partly why we’re here is to celebrate that. I don’t think the aesthetic of Mr Porter has changed, I still think we’re still quite true to how we were when we launched four and a half years ago, we still very much focus on style, we do sell some fashion but the brand image and concentration is helping men find and develop their own style, which is a journey all men make through their lives. We’re still trying to help them do that through the selection of brands we have, the way we edit those brands and how we put it together in our editorial content.
On people who accuse Mr Porter of playing it safe:
If you draw a line in the sand and at one end you put ‘classic’ and at the other end you put ‘fashion’, it’s quite easy if you work in this industry or if you’re an avid consumer of mens clothing to go around the world and pidgeon hole a lot of the shops as being one or the other.
However, we never wanted to be considered ‘fashion’ and we never really wanted to be thought of as ‘classic’, we always wanted to be thought of being contemporary and stylish, so ideally somewhere in the middle of both. I think one of the reasons why Mr Porter has been so well received is because other people weren’t doing that, as a retailer its easy to turn your business to being more about the brands you sell then about why you’re selling them, and I really want Mr Porter to concentrate on why we’re selling them.
It’s the diversity of our product offer that resonated with the people we spoke to before we launched Mr. Porter, and why we continue to go from strength to strength
On ‘the world’s best shoes’ campaign:
Earlier this year I sat down with the heads of different departments, I said we have a really great shoe offer – can you think of one place in the world that has all of that on offer? It’s not about congratualating ourselves it’s more about us trying to make people more aware of the diversity of shoes we have on Mr Porter.
On whether shoes can make or break a look:
Definitely, you should always start with your shoes when getting dressed
His favourite pair at the moment:
Anyone that works at Mr Porter will tell you that I have a ridiculous amount of shoes, I’m the Imelda Marcos of Shephards Bush. Occassionaly I buy a pair of shoes which my wife really doesn’t understand, the most recent pair is the Hender Scheme raw leather sneakes from Japan which are almost like a pink colour. Tonight I’m wearing a pair of very comfortable Berluti loafers that I also place high on my list
A pair of shoes he has his eyes on:
Edward Green’s Dovers – I absoluley don’t need them but I do want them
His go to brand:
It would probably have to be something like John Lobb.
When he’s in the mood to splurge:
Unfortunately I do splurge quite frequently, I would probably say Berluti is an extravagance
The shoes he would pair with the following four outfits:
- Blue jeans & a white t-shirt: Common Projects, a smart sneaker
- Navy suit with a white shirt: Very dark brown John Lobb oxford
- Camel coloured knit and black trousers: A white sneaker
- Unicorn onesie: Nothing, that’s enough you don’t need any shoes
On the future of Mr. Porter:
We always have new brands, new ideas, new categories – in the spring we will finally start working with Dries Van Noten which everyone at the office is really thrilled about.