Catching Up With: Brooke McGregor, Founder Of Sabre

josh hunter

• February 17 2009
• 633 views
• 1 comment

Brooke McGregor founded Sabre Vision with longtime girlfriend Tabitha Shafran (shown above) back in 2006 after moving to Newport Beach, California from Australia. The brand planted its feet quickly, opening more than 200 doors in 27 countries in less than three years.

The Aussie Ex-pats are currently on an extended jaunt back to Oz after having their first child, and announced recently that Sabre would shipping its first apparel offering later this month to select accounts in the US. Transworld Business caught up with McGregor for some off-the-cuff comments on the decision to expand into apparel, how the business is doing internationally, and what the future holds for Sabre. Here’s what he had to say.

Being a young, relatively small brand how is Sabre doing given the current economy?

We are lucky that the brand rolled out relatively early internationally. This has helped with a consistent growth even through the recent economic meltdown. Japan, Australia and Europe have all had very positive 12 months with the brand and are forecasting even better up and coming years. And with some solid retail partners in the USA like Active, The Closet, and Jack’s it has been great. We just can’t wait for summer to start!

What strategic changes have you made to weather this economy?

Strategic—A word that frightens me, it means looking further into the future than tomorrow right? My business partner handles that. We really have just continued to pursue our goals from the beginning, we rely heavily on web traffic to www.sabre.fm by means of product placement, international PR, and trend forecasting websites to tell our brand’s story because our budgets don’t include massive advertising campaigns.

We also have a different approach to the market - we don’t sponsor every ripper from every town, or have jumped into Moto or Wake or Energy drinks to grow overnight. I had one kid email me a while back, he said “I love your brand, I’ll accept flow if you send me five pairs of shades a month.” What’s a kid going to do with five pairs of shades a month? That’s 60 pairs a year. If he lives to the average American male life expectancy of 77.6 years old he would accumulate 4,656 pairs of sunglasses. WOW! No wonder brands are going broke.

Why does it makes sense to launch an apparel line now?

The brand from the beginning has always been more of a lifestyle brand rather than just an eyewear brand. We were one of the first in our industry to have a blog style website that created a real buzz, documenting the SABRE lifestyle and our sense of humor is hard to hate (although we do have our haters!). It’s not a full blown clothing line, it’s just some specialty pieces that we feel compliment the brand. Kids really like our brand, and they always ask us for more categories.

What’s the idea and inspiration behind Threadz?

We feel our clothing has a very similar direction as the sunglasses, when the brand launched in 2006 the eyewear industry was very stale. The major brands in the industry had become complacent and were not even close to fashionable. It was filled with wraps and bro frames. But since we started, and yes, we will take some credit, I have noticed all the brands were worried about our fresh take and speedy fashion direction, they are all still scrabbling to catch our direction today. So the threadz will carry a similar direction: fun, fashion forward, with a slightly dark side like my five personalities. We travel to Japan, Australia, and Hong Kong to find inspiration and direction, fuse it with our lifestyles and turn it into products. We are not making millions of units, it’s small runs for the selected few retailers that understand our direction.

What product categories are going to be included in the initial launch?

We are basically doing tees and sweats right now, we are working on a few special collaboration projects with key retailers internationally and in the USA so keep your eyes peeled. We will not be over supplying the industry with mass-market crap, it will be small numbers to key retailers.

What stores can Sabre Vision customers expect to find Threadz?

Right now we are just dropping them next week into Active, The Closet, and Dont Panic. The next line is on the road right now, so if you’re interested to check it out email us at info@sabre.fm

When will the product hit retail racks in the US?

Next week the threadz will hit the few key retailers in USA.

Is Sabre still headquartered in the US, or is the brand based out of Australia?

Yes HQ is still in Newport beach behind our showroom “Dont Panic” with Amanda Knost running the day to day, but Tabitha and I are spending more time with Greg [their newborn son] in Australia, and also traveling on inspiration/surf trips more.

What is Sabre’s current global distribution strategy?

With the brands strength now we would like to eventually find a distributor/licensee to handle the brand in the USA, so any interested candidates email us! But as for the global strategy we will remain building our relationships with our global partners and retailers but most importantly remain fresh and have as much fun as possible. And even cause some small controversies along the way. Sabre has had global distribution from the beginning so we are in a great position now, internationally as a brand.

Are there any plans to change or amend that strategy in the next 12 months?

Like I mentioned above, we will be actively looking for a distribution/licensee partner in the not-too-distant future in the USA, but other than that the brand will remain the same.

Internationally, what regions has Sabre identified as the most immediate growth opportunities?

Well, Japan has been amazing, it has had an amazing response from the second it started over there. Takahiro Yasutake, our Japanese guy, has been amazing for the brand. He is truly a man of his word and very proactive. Other growth areas are Europe thanks to Frank Van der Klaauw and his amazing team, and this summer in Australia with Stuart Higgins and his band of louts has really blown up. The brand has really started to spread it’s proverbial wings. Exciting times!

Any other news from the Sabre team coming down the pipe?

Just a small shout out. Thanks to all the staff, team riders, retailers and local communities that have supported our brand and it’s lifestyle. To everyone that comes to our parties, buys our products that keeps everyone smiling, thanks. And a quote from one of my all-time favorite movies Puberty Blues, “To all the virgins - Thanks for nothing”