The Ascent · Guest talk · weVLC × Jessica Bataille
Kees
Been
From €10,000 of borrowed money to the No. 1 G-Star store in the world.
Entrepreneur · Retailer · Rotterdam since 1986
01 · Rotterdam, 1986
It started with one small shop.
Cracks — jeans & casuals. Founded in 1986 by Kees Been and Sandra Rijker.
The Ascent · Kees Been
The invitation
21 January 1987
Opening night, 18:00–20:00.
Noordmolenstraat 37B, Rotterdam.
“Kees Been en Sandra Rijker.”
The Ascent · Kees Been
1987 · The founders
Kees & Sandra
€10,000
borrowed, to begin
First fashion show in 1987, with the first two employees. One of them still works in the company today — as a shareholder.
The Ascent · Kees Been
What he believed from day one
Niet leuk doen,
maar leuk zijn.
Don’t act nice. Be nice.
Out of our hands
Weather. Economy. Politics.
In our hands
Kindness. Service. Doing our best.
The goal
Don’t sell. Make people happy.
The Ascent · Kees Been
02 · 1989
He saw G-Star before the world did.
In 1989 Kees took G-Star into his multi-brand stores — among the first five customers the brand ever had.
ƒ10M
the turnover G-Star dreamed of back then (guilders)
€1B+
what it later became — a world brand
The Ascent · Kees Been
G-Star × Pharrell Williams
Nobody believed in it.
Kees did.
1,000
bought
900
sold in 2 weeks
The Ascent · Kees Been
The ascent, in numbers
€10K → €10M+
own money at the start → yearly turnover
2 → 80
founders in one shop → employees
20 → 10,000
customers a week → visitors in one week
25–30
people on the floor on a Saturday, in a 500 m² store
The Ascent · Kees Been
03 · Rotterdam City Center
No. 1 G-Star store in the world
Highest turnover of any G-Star store — ahead of New York, Tokyo and Paris.
A basement. “The greatest risk I took in my life.”
The Ascent · Kees Been
The store, then and now
Rotterdam
The Ascent · Kees Been
Number one
And yes,
we celebrated.
Success is shared: with the team that made it.
The Ascent · Kees Been
G-Star RAW HQ · Amsterdam
Part of a world brand.
€50M+
the headquarters building alone — before a single piece of interior.
The Ascent · Kees Been
G-Star RAW · Born in Amsterdam, 1989
“We don’t ask why.
We ask why not.”
Raw denim
Brought untreated, raw denim into fashion.
3D jeans
The first-ever 3D-shaped, anatomic jeans.
2018
World’s first Cradle to Cradle Certified® Gold denim.
Collaborations: Pharrell Williams · Snoop Dogg · Anton Corbijn · Cara Delevingne · Magnus Carlsen · Marc Newson · Vitra × Jean Prouvé
The Ascent · Kees Been · Source: g-star.com/about-us
Film · G-Star × Charlotte de Witte
Own the Arc
Film · G-Star
The Art of Raw
04 · One philosophy
Our way of working never changed.
From two of us in a shop to 80 employees: make your customers happy. They are the engine and the fuel. Without them, a company is an empty shell.
The Ascent · Kees Been
The team · medewerkers, never “staff”
Niemand kan het alleen.
Nobody can do it alone.
1987
2
first colleagues, beside Kees and Sandra
Every Saturday
25–30
people on the floor of the No. 1 store
At the peak
80
colleagues — one way of working
Still there
1
of the first two — now a shareholder
The Ascent · Kees Been
Told to the team a thousand times
Who pays your salary?
Not Sandra. Not me. Our customers. You don’t work for us — you work for them.
A phone call, 200 km away
A customer, trying on a jacket in another shop, called us: “Do you have this one too? Then I’ll come and buy it from you next week.”
That kind of loyalty, you have to earn.
The Ascent · Kees Been
Four lessons
From the shop floor
01
Customers first. Colleagues too — never “staff”.
02
Aftersales matter 100× more than sales.
03
However big: it must feel like a family shop.
04
Dare to decide, even against the current.
The Ascent · Kees Been
On growing a company
Don’t build on the right while the left crumbles.
Growth is beautiful and important — while keeping what you already have. Not all the attention on the new.
The Ascent · Kees Been
How it was built
LEGO-steentje
op LEGO-steentje.
Brick by brick.
From €10,000 to more than €10 million in turnover.
The Ascent · Kees Been
The Ascent · weVLC × Jessica Bataille
Thank you.
Kees Been
Questions?