The sleek business card of Jean-Pierre Lutgen, CEO of Ice Watch, displays the addresses of his two offices: one located in Bastogne, a Belgian town near the border with Luxembourg, and another one in Hong Kong. From Europe to Asia, this funky brand has become true arm candy for millions of fans. Although the company was founded only 3 years ago, it’s difficult to refer to it as a startup, as the high brand recognition of Ice Watch internationally puts this company already in the league of well-established funky brands.

Today, Jean-Pierre Lutgen, the creative and entrepreneurial founder and CEO of this funky brand, talks about his passion for Asia, plastic, marketing and putting pieces of the puzzle together. (more…)

Zigfreda is a colorful luxury wear brand that was started by a Brazilian designer Katia Wille together with a Dutch businessman Hans Blankenburgh back in 2004. This makes Zigfreda and its sub-brand for kids, BabyZig, far from being a startup, one might say. (more…)

Today, we’re happy to announce the second semi-finalist of our summer contest for funky start-up brands, The Smart Hanger.

When Leigh Meadows, founder of The Smart Hanger, decided to take a little break from work two years ago in order to dedicate some time to her personal projects, little did she know that she’d soon have a new business to run. As Leigh said in an interview to SCHMOOZY FOX, the idea of The Smart Hanger, a Toronto based company was born out of a to do list that was supposed to include only her personal projects. Since then, this simple and yet original project received a lot of press coverage, and featured in the popular program The Dragon’s Den.

Today Leigh tells us why The Smart Hanger can be called a funky brand. (more…)

The funky Crashpadder team

Today, we’re happy to announce the first semi-finalist of our summer contest for up-and-coming funky brands, Crashpadder. 

Crashpadder is an online community that brings together “crashers” and “padders”. “Crashers” are business and leisure travelers in need of inexpensive accommodation, whereas “padders” are homeowners who want to rent out spare rooms in their houses for short term stays.

Crashpadder is the brain child of Stephen Rapoport, whose extensive travels around the world, adventurous spirit and love for meeting people led him to this idea.

Crashpadder has existed for just over a year, and it can already boast thousands of rooms available for short-term rent in 67 countries. (more…)

Miquel Fluxa from Camper

Camper shoes was one of the first funky brands featured on this blog back in 2008.  When Camper opened its shop in Brussels, I thought that a Funky Brand Interview would be spot on for SCHMOOZY FOX’s blog.

And here it is! I had a chance to talk to Miquel Fluxà from Camper.  A son of Lorenzo Fluxà who founded Camper in 1975, he is responsible for business development and brand extensions at Camper. Educated at ESADE and Stern Business School in New York, where he studied business administration, Miquel thinks that one of his professional strengths is the ability to understand and work with creative people such as designers.

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I love Antwerp. It’s a city of great fashion, outstanding design and funky shops. My discovery of funky brands from Antwerp began with an interview with Wim Somers, founder of Theo.

It was at the very end of that interview that Wim mentioned Theo’s collaboration with a talented young Antwerp designer, Tim Van Steenbergen, who worked on Theo’s sunglasses collection.

I noted down Tim’s name with the intention of finding out more details about him later. While I was waiting for my train to Brussels at the Antwerp Central Station, I was browsing through magazines at a press kiosk, and the first article I randomly opened was… an interview with Tim Van Steenbergen!

I don’t quite remember which magazine it was, but here’s my very own interview with Tim. (more…)

The MN bike by Biomega

Having talked about square wheels in the previous interview featuring a Swiss watch brand Maurice Lacroix, today our focus is on round wheels — a Danish brand of bikes called Biomega. Launched in 1998 by an industrial designer Jens Martin Skibsted, Biomega is a company that has been building its brand through a rigorous strategy of brand partnerships. Through co-operation with PUMA and such world-famous designers as Marc Newson, Ross Lovegrove and Karim Rachid, as well with its bikes featuring in permanent collections of art museums, the brand of Biomega has occupied a very interesting niche on the bike market: (more…)

A Maurice Lacroix watch with a square wheel

Have you ever thought that wheels can take different shapes than just a circle? According to Wikipedia, a wheel is “a circular device that is capable of rotating on an axle through its centre, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load (mass), or performing labour in machines.”

Well, here’s the big news: a Swiss watchmaker Maurice Lacroix has recently revealed a new watch model, Masterpiece Regulateur Roue Carre, which contains a S Q U A R E  W H E E L to display the hours!

Being somewhat of a geek, I found this engineering and design innovation funky enough to trigger my interest in finding out more about the brand. (more…)

Michael Chia

The importance of building one’s personal brand in social media cannot be underestimated. What you say about yourself on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other channels, and how you appear there, can either enhance or diminish your personal message.

The first thing people see when they visit your LinkedIn profile, or Twitter account, is your photo. That’s why you should not underestimate the role of the “right” photo which ideally has to communicate not only your appearance but also your personal value proposition. (more…)

LottyDotty founders showing their products. Photo by SchmoozyFox

As mentioned in the article Events as Brands: Paris Fashion Week , I promised to shed more light on some of the brands I discovered during my recent visit to Paris.

Lotty Dotty, a Paris-based start-up that manufactures funky T-shirts, is one of them. Having heard about Lotty Dotty prior to visiting Paris, I noted down the address of its showroom near the Pompidou center in Paris, and got in touch with Lotty Dotty’s co-founder, a Paris-based US born fashion designer Shevanne Helmer. (more…)