Suitsupply, a favorite of fashionable men across the globe, just opened a cool new store steps from Lincoln Road. Suitsupply founder and CEO Fokke de Jong and Vice President Nish de Gruitter were on hand for a high-energy grand opening party on South Beach.
While the brand may be relatively new to Miami, there are already 60 stores world wide from Singapore to Belarus, including 16 in the United States.
We sat down with Nish de Gruitter, the company’s Vice President, to find out what they’re all about.
HL: You’ve chosen a very unique second-floor location.
NG: We are a vertically integrated company, we produce, design, manufacture, and ship our products, without agents or wholesalers which allows us to keep the price sustainable. The location is also a strategy. People don’t buy suits on impulse, they are usually targeted, focused shoppers who find us.
HL What’s different about Suitsupply suits?
NG: We do very traditional tailoring cuts, because it never goes out of style. The energy around it, however, is very modern and young. We use Italian fabrics like Angelicao and Loro Piana. Our customers are very educated, they come to us and say, “I want a slim lapel. I want a canvased suit.” These guys know what they want and we have it. The guys on our floor have ben trained for a month in our suit school in New York and know how to pin to it fits perfectly and all about the materials.
HL: That sounds very specific.
NG: It is, and on top of that people know how they want it to fit. They’ve seen it on Instagram, or magazines.
HL: Tell me about your shoes.
NG: They’re designed in-house. We partnered up with the Italian company Antonio Malicci. They make our shoes, and they are very high-quality. [For us,] it’s all about completing the look.
HL: You have an on-site tailor too. That’s very old-world.
NG: Yes, it’s like having an open kitchen. It’s not in the back and you can see the man who handles your suit. We do 70% of the alterations here, we can turn it around for people who need it quickly.
HL: You already have 60 stores! How did you get started?
NG: Our founder and CEO, Fokke de Jong, started Suitsupply out of his dorm room back in Holland. That was about 15 years ago. I started with him about 4 years ago to begin the United States. We started with a store in SoHo. We didn’t come with a big plan, we just came and got our feet wet, and thought, we’ll figure it out. We had a pioneer spirit.
