Ron Poisson Talks His Brand & the Future of Cult of Individuality in the Fashion Landscape

Chris: What’s the story behind the name “Cult of Individuality”?

Ron: Well, the name came from Dems, a cult phenomenon, but it's that individual expression of who you are.

Music was always a vein for me. Because I was doing gift lounges, I got to experience all of these different artists that came through and they really kind of resonated with me. I wanted to create a brand that reflected that diversity. This brand became so unique because it cross pollinated every ethnicity and genre of music with zero stereotypes. And we live in a society that wants to put everybody into that proverbial box. Cult of Individuality basically became the antithesis of that, be who you want to be.

Chris: Can you elaborate on your quote, “you can’t do epic shit with basic people?”

Ron: There's one thing that I learned being in the business; you’ve got to create a living, breathing culture around what you're doing. Otherwise you're a commodity and it's all about price and you can't be cheap enough.

You can't accomplish things with people that want to cruise through life and aren't ready to get down and dirty. You don't have to be an epic person. You just have to have epic work ethics and beliefs and grind. And for us, with this brand, that really embodies who we surround ourselves with from the teamwork and what we do.

Chris: Where would you say most of your inspiration comes from?

Ron: So for us when we design, I am more of the creative director role. I give the kind of theme I want to go to. Angelo’s the head designer now, so he’ll put his mood board together. I have another graphic person who puts his mood board together. My daughter puts her mood board together and I do, then we all come together and we look at where some of the symmetries are from wherever our source of information is in terms of fashion, and then we kind of cultivate it.

The thing about us as a brand is that we don't necessarily play by the rules with everything. If someone says, “Well, this is a great trend,” we have to ask, does it make sense organically within the brand? Does it make sense for us? How can we interpret it? If it doesn't, then we just keep moving. A lot of our inspiration is just stuff that we kind of just feel really good about internally.

Chris: Your brand’s diversity feels authentic compared to others. How did you achieve that?

Ron: What's great about the brand is that all different walks of life come in. So a lot of times I'll have my hip hop guys come in and they're like, “Dress me like a rock star.” I'll have my rock guys come in that want to go more street wear. And then we have my 76-year-old father who puts on a polo and a black pair of jeans and he's kind of looking like he's going to play golf.

So the brand is such a unique presentation of garments that can fill a multitude of different situations or a multitude of different personalities. You and I can wear the same exact pair of pants, but the way we dress it up with the shoes, the jacket, the shirt, the jewelry, whatever, will look like a completely different individual. And for us, that's what we pride ourselves about. There's something in this brand for everybody, but it's also something that you could have for a lifetime that the quality's not going to let you down.

Chris: How do you balance staying trendy with maintaining originality?

We're continuously evolving but it’s also a learning thing from me as a designer because for a long time, nothing would go into the brand that I personally wouldn’t wear. But as we progressed, I realized that wasn't the answer because as I get older, my tastes change. But I think a key ingredient is maintaining a youth movement.

As a brand, we have been very cognizant about trying to remain relevant in those teens to 20 somethings and that's what we did for me. So I've brought in youthful people that have different perspectives and look through the business through a different lens. That’s why when people come in and say “Oh my god, Ron, your brand is amazing.” I'm like, it's not just me. This is all we.

Chris: In a world dominated by fast fashion, how do you convince people to invest in quality products that may be a bit out of their price range?

Ron: It’s really about reeducating. We live in a disposable economy where people will buy something, go home, wear it, toss it out, then go right back to buy something new. For us, our product that we build is about longevity. You can wear it a million times, put it away and come back and keep wearing it. It's about something I'm buying that's not disposable that you're going to have for a long time. When people come in and they see and touch and feel, they know the quality is there.

Chris: Can you provide an example of how you’ve prioritized quality in your work?

Ron: With our stretch denim, we use a yarn called T 400. It’s what gives us our amazing elasticity and retention because when it comes to stretch jeans, the hand feel of the retention of that fabric is what makes it different. You won’t get any of that sagging in the knee or in the ass like you do with some other brands. For us, that T 400 yarn that we use is expensive, but it's built to last.

Chris: In your opinion, what are the key components of a successful brand?

Ron: There's five elements to me that make a brand a success: design, sales, marketing, manufacturing and the proper backend operations. None of them take precedence over the other because we can have the best looking design, but if we don't have the right salespeople or the manufacturer can't produce or they're late, the quality automatically drops. So all five of those are the spokes in the wheel. And if one of those spokes breaks, it becomes a shit show.

Chris: Do you have any advice for brands just starting out in the industry?

Ron: To me, there's one of three questions you have to be able to answer if you're doing a clothing line. If you can't answer one of those three questions, chances are whatever it is you're doing is never going to make it.

The first question is, are you doing something that's so completely groundbreaking and different that will get people saying, “Oh my god, I've never seen anything like that. I’ve got to buy it.” The second question is, is there a celebrity that is not just wearing the product, but endorsing it because they actually love it? It’s really important to build genuine and organic connections here. The third question is who is your competition? Once you figure that out, offer a product that doesn't compromise the integrity of the retail store by any inferior qualities, but is at a much more reasonable price. Back then I priced my jeans at $45. So went into a shitty economy, gave them a lower price point with a triple margin, with a product that looked as good as those guys that were selling for $200. So that's how I got into the business.

Chris: How do you manage frequent requests for free products?

Ron: I get a lot of people asking for free stuff and I usually have to consult my wife about it. I wouldn't be able to do this without her. She’s helped me figure out a balance of just learning how to say no or giving what’s considered a reasonable amount. And what I started doing when I start to get past the budget, I tell people I can give them an outfit or two. If they want more, I'll give them an artist discount code and you can go use and buy whatever they want to buy. But they very seldom use the artist discount code.

Chris: How important is the role your wife plays?

Ron: Listen, my wife is everything. I mean she's involved in everything. She's often talking me off the ledge. She also travels with me. So whether I'm going to Art Basel or doing something, she'll come and it adds a nice balance. It’s nice to have a constant source of motivation and awareness too. She knows what we're doing from our brand and whatnot. There’s even times she'll see celebrities wearing our products before my marketing team sees and she's sending me screenshots. Then I'm sending it over to them and it's getting posted on social media. So yeah, a very important support system.

Chris: Do you see a resurgence of people wanting quality denim in this upcoming generation? If so, how do you see this affecting the future of fashion?

Ron: Well, it is kind of hard to quantify that right now. I would say what's starting to happen in denim is that you're starting to see people that are open to more than just light blue, medium blue, dark blue, and black. There's a lot of novelty things that are happening from silhouettes. You see the cargoes, the big, the oversize and things like that. You're also starting to see people have gotten better with the washing techniques, the embellishment techniques, and I think that the end consumers are starting to appreciate that.

It’s definitely difficult in this economy right now though. I mean, $200 is not cheap, and only about 5% of the population would be willing to spend that much on jeans. That’s why finding that middle price range is so important especially for those younger looking to invest in what’s trending. So I think the appeal to quality is definitely there and I think as the economy opens up, you'll see it even more so in the business.