Your name and age: Stuart Davis, 44

Tell us about your family

I’m half Croydon, half Burmese. My Mum is the Croydon bit, and my Dad was born in Rangoon.

The story goes that when my Dad’s family were in Burma, they all wanted to emigrate to Australia (Sydney). My Grandad worked in the docks and stumbled upon an advert for an upcoming town in England that had been remodeled. He liked the sound of that. So he told the family to head over to Sydney and he would follow on after his stopover in the UK. The family went to Sydney while my Grandad, Dad and Aunt went to visit this newly refurbished town. My Aunt met a boy (who would become my uncle) and never left for Sydney.

That remodeled town was Croydon…

I have an awesome sister, Samantha – who throughout my life, has been the person who inspires me the most. She is heavily disabled; became very ill when she was 3 (I was 4). Despite what she has been through, she is constantly smiling. She keeps me grounded and real.

I’m married to Kirsty,  an awesome, smart and funny lady.  She’s the best.

And my daughter… my bonkers, supercharged little girl Leila who is now 6 (6!). She’s my best friend… and apparently, is just like me; never sits still, has a zero attention span and is, well nuts – Mum says it’s just rewards – great.

What is your business and what does it offer?

Designed in collaboration with the coolest kids we know, Dubs is an online children’s trainer brand with design, technology, fun and sustainability at its heart.

We think that just because our shoes are super planet friendly, it doesn’t mean little heroes can’t look stylish and have great fitting shoes at the same time. And, we do all we can to keep our sneakers out of landfill and in circulation for longer.

Our trainers are made from the most planet-friendly and durable materials we can get our hands on.

Our iconic sole is designed for stability, style and comfort and crafted using sugarcane, a natural and sustainable super-material and our uppers use either a lightweight flyknit material created from reclaimed plastic bottles, or durable chrome free leather mixed with recycle plastic extracted from used garments and plastic bottles.

And above all, the trainers are super durable and withstand wear and tear from the most energetic of kids. They are easy to slip on, easy to clean and super fun!

All out grown Dubs can be sent to Sal’s Shoes, our official shoe charity partner, and they’ll make sure they are given to kids that need them the most.

Dubs is on mission to bring you the most comfortable, stylish and planet-friendly kids trainers the Universe has ever seen and is determined to push sustainable boundaries within a traditionally planet-polluting industry, offering a truly circular and stylish footwear solution for conscious parents.

Dubs

Little Sneaks. Big Planet

What did you do before coming up with your business idea and how was it making the transition?

I spent most of my career in the advertising industry as a creative producer, most recently at M&C Saatchi where I held the position of Creative Operations Director. Ironically, my first job out of Uni was a dustman, at a recycling plant.

As a creative producer, I worked with brands such as Adidas, Coke, Airbnb, producing all types of content from TV adverts, press adverts to those annoying advert banners that appear on websites.

Towards the latter stages of my career, I oversaw production departments and helped agencies and brands navigate the complex world of creative production from an operations POV.

And then Dubs came long. Dubs was inspired by my bonkers, supercharged little girl and her crazy fast-growing feet and the fact that I lost my job during the first lockdown.

As a new-ish Dad at the time, I was gutted when Leila’s feet were too big for her brand-new shoes…that…she’d only worn twice and were now destined for the bin (I resorted to turning them into flower pots)

I quickly found out that 2 million shoes are thrown into landfill a week in the UK alone and children’s shoes play a major part in this problem.

Gary, my good friend and a graphic designer in the fashion industry, understood this all too well. He knew that comfort, looks and sustainability had to go hand-in-hand but the amount of waste was out of control.

So, during lockdown, we set about answering a simple question…“how do we make the Immortal Sneaker?”

Mercifully Leila was still napping at lunchtime, so we used these 37 minutes to research, learn, re-learn and speak to everyone and anyone that had knowledge in shoemaking and sustainability.

Eventually, The Dubs Universe was born, and we began to answer that question.

When did you launch and how did you get started?

Through hard damn work!

We are a start up in every sense. Money is near non-existent, and we’re still working full time to get this Dubs fully scalable.

In the beginning, I would research smaller brands, look into their social feeds and branding, give them a call and ask if they would be interested in a skill-swap. I’d look to improve their social strategy / brand tone of voice and in return, they would help / give advice on how to make shoes, or what contacts / factories I should speak to.

After a while and a steep learning curve, we knew what type of design we wanted and what type of materials I wanted to use.

Our shoes are made from the super plant, sugarcane and recycled plastic bottles, and designed with their ‘end of life’ in mind. And, that appealed to Innovate UK. So much so, we won a grant from the ‘creative and innovation fund’ which allowed us to prototype our designs. After A LOT of wear testing, we had a product that was ready to manufacture. But of course, we had no money again.

However, what we did have was experience in developing and running creative campaigns, so we decided to launch Dubs through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. This was a month-long campaign in which we managed to pre-sell enough sneakers to order the first batch.

What’s your favourite thing about running your own business?

Being my own boss…ha! Although I am a right pain in the ass.

And I guess, as a start-up, I can award myself with ‘employee of the month’ all the time.

But mostly, that feeling of creating something that is mine. A creative product that people LOVE, that I built from nothing. One that has the potential to do actual good too and help educate kids on their relationship with stuff they own – it’s pretty easy to feel empowered by this.

What’s the thing you least enjoy about running your own business?

At this time in our journey, we are tiny. So it can feel pretty lonely. I work from home, and see Gary most days, but through Zoom. I miss that office space where we can really bounce ideas off each other and get that creative spark that you can’t really do over a screen.

And as I have a full time job too, whilst trying to grow Dubs in the evenings and weekends, and trying to be a good Dad and husband too, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of working 24/7.

I need to be very mindful of ‘making time for me’. As in, try not to spend every waking spare second on Dubs. It’s easier said than done, but I try to take a day off here and there to make sure my brain is rested and I have the energy to be a good Dad and husband. Plus the motivation to crack on otherwise I’ll begin to resent the project and worst of all, become tired.

What’s been your biggest business mistake?  How did you deal with it?

Sounds like a cliche, but everyday I make a mistake. I mean, I’m not from this industry, so I am pretty much making it up as I go along.

But I guess, as long as I am aware of my skills and weaknesses, apply them in the right places, and when I make a mistake, I pivot quickly to fix it!

Have you had your ‘I’ve made it’ moment?  Or when do you think it will come?

Yes! Well, kind off. I’ve defo had my proudest ever ‘work moment’ for sure.

When I told people what I was doing…. “Dropping out of my career to start a sneaker brand”, people were like “sure”. There were raised eyebrows, my chat was dismissed and some people were damn right rude about it. But I loved that – it was the fuel I needed.

I rejected a few job offers, I said no to interviews so that I could concentrate on Dubs. There were times I got cold feet thinking “what on earth am I doing”. Some real moments of doubt crept into my mind, but I knew that if I didn’t give this a go, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.

So, the two really proud moments were when I clicked ‘launch’ on our Kickstarter campaign to push it live. And, when we finally reached that Kickstarter target, and I posted on LinkedIn “I’ve done it, I’ve launched my own brand” – that was a pretty proud moment.

Where do you hope to be in five years?

Apart from the obvious; be in X stores, have great styles, have a kids range that focuses on products that have short shelf lives; ie school bags. Lunch boxes etc.

But what I really want is for Dubs to eventually be an educational platform for kids. Through the lens of our products, I’d love to be able to influence a  change in the relationship kids have with the things they own; making them aware how small changes in the way they view their clothes can make a big difference, and build brand awareness around that.

Show the kids that buying second-hand clothes can be more budget-friendly, leaving spare cash to do other fun things, days out with the family…. or that mega bar of chocolate

And, “hero” the fact that wearing something that has had multiple owners is actually a badge of honour.  For example, let’s give each shoe its own story, its own history. If this trainer could talk, it’ll say it’s been to this festival, climbed this many trees; what adventures are YOU going to take these shoes on?

And to have a loyal, growing community of Dubsters who love our products and are spreading the word about sustainable fashion

Ooooh, I’d also love a cartoon series on CBeebies. That would be dope.

Would you ever give up your business to do something else?
I can’t imagine it. Unless it becomes financially unviable and is putting my family at risk. Which, I have to accept, there is a good chance that will happen.

But I’m 44, quite an old age to run a start-up and be an “entrepreneur” I guess. The way I feel about it, is that throughout my career, which I didn’t really enjoy if I am being honest as it wasn’t very fulfilling, and I worked with some seriously egotistical and entitled people over the years (and some very smart, lovely people too!), but during that time I learnt all the skills and gained the confidence to be able run my own Business and make big decisions. I work bloody hard, I always have. Now my efforts are being rewarded in growing my own business, not lining the pockets and winning awards for some mega rich agency that doesn’t appreciate you.

I can’t imagine giving this up for anything else.

If you have a flexible working business opportunity, please explain briefly what you offer and how people find out more

The shift towards becoming more ethically focused shoppers is all our responsibility. If you are reading this and are inspired by our mission, drop me a line. Whether you have ideas to enhance our model, suggestions for improvement, or a want to collaborate, give me a shout – the more help, the better!

Dubs Universe www.dubsuniverse.com, email : [email protected]  instagram.com/thedubsuniverse