ART + DESIGN
MEN’S DAYONE SLIDES
WOMEN’S DAYONE SLIDES
Brick ONE Denim ONE Leather ONE Moss ONE
Butter ONE Leather ONE Rose ONE Suede ONE
“I wasn’t aware of how much goes into color selection," said Ulven. “Everything must be right— the temperature, the hue, the saturation, the gradient, the color relationships … not to mention what colors are the most marketable based upon seasonality.” Step three: branding, branding, branding. The slogan— Built Different —stemmed from the literal unique design process and from the ideal consumer. Each sandal was created with the vision that they would be part of each customer’s individuality. “To me, people who are built differently are those who acknowledge what makes them unique, work toward accepting their uniqueness, evolve into the person they are meant to be, and they embrace that journey,” said Ulven. “That’s built different.”
The name— Banks & Duck —was a little more personal. When looking at other successful brands, Ulven says it all kept coming back to authenticity. What was authentic to him were the slang terms “buck” and “dank,” which he used a lot growing up. “My friends and I still use those words to this day, and my kids even use them. Dank is always good, and buck explains a level of intensity,” said Ulven. “Long story short, I switched the ‘d’ from dank and the ‘b’ from buck around, and that’s where Banks & Duck was born.” The founder acquired private investors and secured a distribution deal with Scheels , which will premiere his first collection the DayONE slides in late summer or early fall.
Products will also be available online at his website, which will launch soon. “It’s difficult to put into words what launch day will feel like,” he said. “However, when I step back and look at the full picture, I took an idea for a product and designed it, engineered it, patented it, raised private equity for it, built a brand around it, established international manufacturing, and sold it to a national retail chain. That’s buck.” FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT BANKSANDDUCK.COM+
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