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PRIVACY
Retail & Consumer

Youth fashion brand Hype bounces back from lockdown with overseas growth plans

“Within the first two-and-a-half weeks we lost £1 million of forward orders”

Hype has worked on a number of collaborations

One of the founders of the Hype and Just Hype urban fashion brands said the pandemic had not held back growth plans, with the business now planning further overseas expansion.

Despite the first lockdown putting a temporary halt on orders from high street stores, Bav Samani said web sales quickly made up for the shortfall as the nation turned to online shopping.

He said changing lifestyle habits during the pandemic had also seen a rise demand for loungewear with people wanting to dress comfortably at home.

He said the fashion range, which is headquartered in Blaby just outside Leicester, also hoped to move into new overseas territories in the coming months after earlier plans to move into China didn’t come off.

The brand was launched in 2011 by Mr Samani and co-directors Liam Green and Vin Patel and sells clothes and accessories through its own website and other retailers’ sites and stores.

BusinessLive spoke to Mr Samani after Just Hype was fined £60,000 for sending out 1.7 unsolicited text messages to customers.

He said the team had held its hands up to the mistake, but took issue with a suggestion from the watchdog that some of the texts had been trying to exploit the pandemic.

He said they ended up sending out 40,000 free Hype branded facemasks during the text message marketing campaign, which had since been dropped.