Made to Measure: J.Hilburn Gives Direct Selling Some Style
Hil Davis took a business model people love to hate, gave it upscale polish, and left the menswear industry wondering, Why didn't I think of that?
Michael Edwards
Tale of the Tape Hil Davis, co-founder of the custom clothing company J.Hilburn, gets sized up by sales reps in training. J.Hilburn's 2,000-plus style consultants, as they are called, record average annual sales of $20,000--10 times the average for the typical direct-sales company.
The lights dim and the fashion show begins, naturally, with a breathy disco-house remix of a classic funk track. A square-jawed model makes his entrance on the runway in snug khaki pants and an open-collared shirt. He stops to pose halfway down and flash an all-American smile, and the room erupts in cheers and whistles. There are more than 600 women here, about one-fourth of the at-home sales force for the Dallas-based custom men's clothing company J.Hilburn, and they're more than a little excited by what they see.
For the next 15 minutes, models walk the runway in a succession of increasingly tailored looks, moving into sports jackets and suits and eventually outerwear, while the audience mostly behaves itself. Then the runway empties, and there's a pause in the music just long enough to add some drama--until the syncopated bass line of Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" starts playing, and one of the models walks out wearing a tuxedo with a green plaid jacket.
Pandemonium ensues. The women are on their feet, cheering, dancing, snapping iPhone photos. Formalwear is the latest addition to the J.Hilburn line, and this is the show's climactic moment, the unveiling of the newest products. I look across the runway at J.Hilburn co-founder Hil Davis; he's beaming like a proud father. The only moment that gets as much cheering is when, after the show, Davis leaps onto the runway and strikes a few exaggerated poses for the crowd.
J.Hilburn is rethinking one of the world's most maligned business models, direct sales (and its pyramid-shaped offspring, multilevel marketing, or MLM). If you're unfamiliar with the term direct sales, think Mary Kay or Tupperware--companies whose products are sold in person by off-site representatives working on commission. MLM companies add a twist in that reps are also compensated for the sales of any additional reps they bring on (down lines, they're called), the idea being that each person has an incentive not only to maximize her sales but also to build the biggest possible team. In the U.S., more than 95 percent of direct-sales companies use the MLM model--as does J.Hilburn--and it's not hard to see the appeal. For owners, it means wide-scale distribution and the possibility of viral growth. For sales reps, it means flexible hours and, at least in theory, limitless possible income.
One of the time-honored traditions in the direct-sales industry is that once a year, each tribe gathers its members in a large convention space, and everyone eggs on everyone else. Mary Kay calls it Seminar. Avon calls it Convention. At J.Hilburn, it's known as Conference, and the fashion show is the kickoff event this year, taking place in a giant ballroom with purple carpet in the Cosmopolitan hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. For the next two days, sales reps from around the country (they're called style consultants) will see and hear about new products, get selling tips, hear inspiring stories about fellow reps, and learn about technology tools the company is building as it moves into a new, data-driven phase of its growth--before everyone heads out to catch a show and drink martinis downstairs in the Chandelier bar.
