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In its fight against fast fashion, a Melbourne-based clothing brand renowned for its comfortable textiles amongst travellers has made its international debut after securing a deal with stockists to be in 15 stores across Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Founded in 2021 by best friends Nathan Yun and Rex Zhang, Paire is an apparel brand that provides lightweight activewear, clothing, underwear and socks by using materials such as Merino wool, organic cotton and recycled silk to offer quality clothing at affordable price points.
For the first time, the brand has gone international by partnering with Singapore-based lifestyle retailer Boarding Gate and travel store The Planet Traveller to have most of its apparel, socks and underwear stocked in 12 and 3 stores respectively.
Speaking with Business News Australia, Yun says the retailers initially reached out to Paire to pursue partnerships, and that the brand could eventually be stocked across 30 stores.
“This is a huge step for Paire. We are really excited to bring our products to an international audience. Being a proud Australian brand, we always wanted to share our great products with more people across the world,” says Yun, who along with Zhang was a finalist in the recent 2024 Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards.
“We want to share the idea that clothes should be sustainable and that we are anti-fast fashion. We wanted to share these values with more people across the world. We're really happy just to share with the border audience and probably bring a little bit more daily comfort and convenience to travellers as well.”
As a 100 per cent Australian-owned brand, Paire designs its apparel in Melbourne. Manufacturing takes place in China as the pair claim it was the only place with the right machinery to make their cult-favourite socks at a 90-degree angle.
While the brand initially started as a way to offer sustainable fashion alternatives to consumers, it has found itself grabbing the attention of avid travellers who are chasing comfort, quality and durability when going on an adventure.
Although this wasn’t the target audience, Yun says it came as a happy surprise.
“Over the last year or so we've seen a huge interest growing in the travel interest for our products. We actually have a huge customer base that are buying our products for travel purposes. There are several products that really appeal to that purpose,” he says.
“For example, we have our lipstick underwear that comes packed in the size of a lipstick and dries within one minute. A lot of travellers really love to bring it on their trips. They can fit a lot more underwear and wash them easily overnight.
“We have our thermal that comes in a small foundation bottle size. Again, it's super packable, super stretchy and dries quickly. We have our signature range of socks. We got reviews from customers saying they were wearing them in Europe for 14 days straight for one trip with just one pair of socks.”
The expansion overseas comes roughly four months since Paire closed its QV pop-up store in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD to work on refurbishing the space for a permanent opening next month. While the store was initially meant to operate temporarily from November 2023 to June 2024, it quickly gained popularity, prompting the brand to re-evaluate its strategy and commit to the location.
“We’re expanding the space - we took next door as well. Now we’re becoming a much bigger store than before because we see the potential of offline retail. We saw that it was pretty strong and it's growing. We want to stay there for the next five years,” Yun says.
“We just wanted to create sustainable products, use natural materials and solve specific problems. All the Paire products are built on the fundamental idea that clothes should be sustainable, functional and comfortable. As long as our products can tick all these three boxes, that's when we give it the green light and launch our products.”
When asked about future expansion plans, Yun says the duo still have their sights set on expansion into the US and UK.
“We are still paving the way for US and the UK. We think it's possible to go into these markets directly as a brand, rather than just going through stockists. We're still working on our marketing and PR strategies as well,” he adds.
“The vision of the brand is to counter fast fashion. We really want to replace those fast fashion items in people's wardrobes - as many as possible. I wouldn't say stop buying fast fashion - I think that's unrealistic…but even buying less items and replacing them with more sustainable and better-quality products that will last longer in wardrobes and make people feel more comfortable would make us happy.”
“We want to bring these products to as many people as possible so we can really try to change that consumer behaviour.”
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