What have you achieved over this year at ITMO Store?
Alexander: We’ve had over 22,646 unique visitors to our site from 70 countries in the world. We processed 2,229 orders, 1,171 of which were done through the internet store. Our customers bought 1,245 shirts, 1,117 branded hoodies and 1,068 sticker sets.
Konstantin: Since our store opened, our range of products has doubled. Four-digit numbers make us happy, we already have over 1,200 followers on Instagram and over a thousand on vkontakte. Based on 600 hashtags and a large number of photos, our products have made it to 8 countries in the world.
How will you expand the range of products in the store?
Alexander: Soon our clients will be able to order clothes with prints of their choice. We are also thinking about our future students and are planning to release a limited collection of children’s clothing. Of course, kids grow up quickly, so we need a wide range, and it’s not a simple task. I think that we will start making products for newborns and work on clothes for older children later.
Konstantin: As in any other store, it’s important to understand what our customers want, that is, the students, teachers, graduates, friends and university’s partners. In fact, our products are often treated as souvenirs and people buy them to share a piece of the most non-classical university with their closest friends and family who live in other cities or countries. So we are very thoughtful about what we include in our new range of products, based on the wishes of our clients.
What do you have available for adults?
Alexander: We already have a line of classic style clothing. However, we pay attention to recent trends and desires of our customers. We are planning to develop a new t-shirt style, with an extended non-classical cut. Winter is coming, and that means that our beanies, warm hoodies and branded vests will be joined by new scarves. We should also wait for new products from our partners, ITMO University FabLab Technopark, who are producing new accessories from natural leather. We are bold with our plans and want to do what no one else has done, for example have a line of fitness-food products with the brand name of our sports club «Kronbars».
Konstantin: For kids and adults, soon we will have little «Panda» toys, made by the company «ITMOsha». It’s an anti-stress toy, which you can hug, that can help you relax during intense moments at work or during studies. It’ll be hard to resist this panda. We are also working on soft and comfortable sweatpants.
How do you maintain quality control?
Alexander: When it comes to quality, I’m very picky. For example, we want to start selling cool backpacks with wide straps. They’ve already shown us 15 designs, but we haven’t stopped looking. Everything that ends up in our store goes through a serious crash test. At some point a bunch of bomber jackets came to us. After a series of strength tests, it turned out that they didn’t zip up very well, so we didn’t hesitate to send them back. We work with manufacturers directly, without any middlemen. Sometimes they get tired of our requirements, but that doesn’t stop us.
You have a lot of classic cotton things. Meanwhile in other stores, we see a lot of things made from synthetics like acrylic and polyester. Even NASA does a lot of branded items from polyester. What are your thoughts on this? Maybe you will start doing things from viscose?
Alexander: Viscose, is unfortunately a very high-maintenance fabric, so it’s not easy and rather risky to work with. ITMO. STORE's format is to work with more versatile things, so you can do anything with them, like they say «in fire and in water», so like during exams, and out on a date. So a shirt with 8% lycra didn’t come about just like that, such a composition allows them to settle after a wash, it doesn’t crease easily, it fits well on any figure, and lasts a long time! Altogether, we prefer natural materials, even our beanies have at least 60% wool.
What motivates you most in your work?
Alexander: My main motivator is all the photos of people in our t-shirts and hoodies, with our toys and chocolates, cups and passport covers. We are also really motivated by the feedback from other universities, who want to know more about our experience at creating such a store. It makes me happy when at large events, where we are selling our products, people who have nothing to do with our university want to buy our products just because they are cool.
Konstantin: One of the big motivators for me is the emotions of our customers. You work on something all month, and try to have the best quality and beauty, and then someone comes along and you see how excited he is by the fruit of your labour. With Sasha, we love to compliment people when we see them wearing ITMO. STORE clothes like, «Wow! Awesome hoodie!» and they just glow! It makes me happy.
How do you see ITMO. Store in 5 years?
Konstantin: I’d like the store to be as automated as possible and convenient. Although we are already trying to optimize our work now, so that we can deal with such a volume just the two us, but of course we can always improve.
Alexander: ITMO University is developing really fast, and we are trying to keep up with it. In five years, and perhaps earlier, we hope to see it amongst the best 100 universities in the world, and ITMO. STORE will have to live up that.
On ITMO. Store's birthday, everyone has the opportunity to virtually try on clothes using the special video quest.
