You know, you can be really good at something
And then there's someone that has a feel for something
They just get it
They understand it
They know it
(ABOUT GENTRY: THE MAKING OF CODE)
G Money
Gentry
G Money
Gentry, my boy
G was at the top of the list of people that we wanted to bring in
(Larry Miller, Former president of the board, Jordan) He was a part of the original Jordan team
He came in and never looked back
Led a lot of different parts of the business on fire in the process
(Howard White, Jordan Brand VP) You know, probably the king of consumer insight
I mean, we were early days trying to envision brand Jordan
There's no way we would have seen where it went
You know, we knew it was going to go somewhere
But Gentry took it there
When we started it as a separate brand,
it was a $160 million business
And then obviously it grew to what it is today
That's, you know, above $6 billion
(THE MAKING OF CODE)
Millennials are now becoming adults
Sneakers aren't always going to be relevant
if you're going into a hedge fund guy
Like, you've got to look the part
This is a brand that's called CODE by Gentry
What CODE does,
it allows this consumer to meet everything that they had
in the sneaker world with comfort
But yet with the sophistication and elegance and styling
that allows them to dress themselves up
One of the things Gentry really taught me
(Josiah Lake, Former footwear business director of Jordan) and he lived by was,
(& current VP/GM of CODE by Gentry) you know, we're building this brand for the consumers first
And we need to make sure that we hear their voice
He always challenged us to look outside of our industry
and try to find inspiration in unique places
You know, cars, planes
Anything and everything can be inspirational
The fun stuff for me is the creative part
That, you know, that is the fun part of it
Gentry's mindset was always,
if you're looking at what the competitor is doing,
you're going to end up looking like them
And so look at something that's totally different
I've helped design products from hummingbirds that I've looked out a window and saw
And throughout the entire journey that consumers will go on with this,
they'll understand all of the details
The traction pattern that we used on the shoe actually spells out the word CODE
They actually have these elastic laces
that allow you to wear the shoe as a slip-on
We intentionally made that sock liner red
We want every customer to feel like they're walking on a red carpet
I think there's something very, very unique about the space that CODE is going to fill,
and authentically so
No matter where you go, there's a dress code
And we want to make sure that the footwear that we create
allows this consumer to meet the dress code no matter where they are
(CODE by Gentry)