ENTREPRENEURS
foreign legion
With the Argentine flag around the world
By SPREADABLE MAGAZINE
Foreign Legion was born in November 2014, when the sisters Sarita, Agustina and Victoria Estrada detected a new trend in the city: the growing use of bicycles and greater interest in outdoor life. This is how the first product arose, a lightweight, durable and functional backpack for the new lifestyle. Exploration, innovation and freedom are the values of this brand that bets on the national industry. We share this interview with Victoria Estrada exclusively for Spreadable Magazine .
The Argentine flag is present in the Foreign Legion designs. How is this country brand seal received by the public, here and abroad?
We carry the Argentine flag with great pride and responsibility. We respect the meaning of the values of our flag. It is our mission to be part of the development of the national industry. We understand that entrepreneurs are the engine of our country.
When we started, we had to demolish the myth that the national industry was of poor quality and expensive, and that communicating that we are nationally produced would lower the value of our backpacks. Many people advised us to develop the product abroad, to achieve a more profitable business given the volumes we were handling.
Luckily, when discussing it, we stayed true to our mission and the values that motivate us to keep moving forward with our company. We believe that working together we are stronger. To our surprise, communicating that we developed the backpacks in Argentina ended up becoming an added value for the brand.
Placing the Argentine flag on our backpacks reminds us of our mission: to build a healthy and strong community. The public likes to carry the flag in their backpacks. Many of our customers travel the world and carry the flag on their backpacks as a symbol of recognition.
We continually receive proposals to sell abroad and expand our market, but for now we prefer not to disperse the attention of the Argentine market, because we believe that we have much more to explore in Argentina. We like to design for Argentines. As we progress, a very rich interaction is generated with our community, which guides us when making decisions.
You started 100% digitally, with the online store. How much did this experience bring you when facing this stage of being at home?
When we started, we leaned on the digital channel. At first it was out of necessity, but as soon as we were working on that channel we realized that if we learned to master it it would be an added value.
The entry key to sell in the digital channel is much cheaper than offline. The challenge is to get the traffic of people to your digital store. One of the interesting things about online sales is that there is no limit, the number of people who can be buying at the same time is unlimited, when in the premises you have the limit of square meters or people who sell.
A well-managed digital channel is more efficient and allows you to better optimize processes. In addition, you can achieve a super interesting communication. By organizing the database, you can be closer to the customer. When we realized that the public was on the cell phone, we put our energy into finding a way to have a brand presence on social networks.
We are a brand that was born digitally, which is why we are used to thinking about the company digitally. When it comes to working from home, we find a very good response from the entire team.
Foreign Legion is a family business. What is the current work dynamic?
Working with sisters is a beautiful thing. Knowing that a sister is watching your back helps you move forward more steadily. Of course, when we fight things can also get ugly, but the three of us have the same desire to take care of the brand and move forward, that's the important thing.
The three of us have similar values, but we were trained in different disciplines and I think that helps a lot, because when making decisions, different perspectives are taken into account equally. Sarita, the oldest, is an economist. She has a more macro view of the business. Agustina is an administrator, she takes care of the box. I am an industrial designer and I deal with design aspects.
How was the idea of baby-bags born?
The baby-bags were brought to us by the public. Many of our clients bought the Atlantic model as a motherly gift. That inspired us to develop a specific backpack for babies, with thermal pockets, where you can store the bottle.
And how was the repercussion of the products with the Disney line?
Disney was a very nice challenge! They contacted us to develop a line that reaches an audience of 20 to 40 years old, which is our audience. So we had to start thinking about a line that is accepted and cool at the same time, for a non-childish audience. After a lot of joint work between the Disney design team and our team, we came up with the solution for Mickey with the angry face. It was disruptive, innovative, and it worked super well. On the other hand, the school Disney line was a complete success.
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