2023’s a wrap, how’re we looking for 2024?

It's that time of year when you start to wonder where the last 12 months have gone. We're sat here at Asphalte HQ a little dazed, steaming mugs in hand, trying to work out how the year flew by so quickly.

In keeping with tradition, we've taken advantage of the pre-festivity downtime to look back over the year passed and mull over what's coming up.

And, to tell you all about it, we’ll give the floor to our two co-founders:

Trying to watch the vid mid-commute, at the shops, over lunch? Don't panic, we've summed it all up below in good old-fashioned writing.

We always hoped that the whole "co-creation + quality clothing made in Europe + preorders" recipe had potential, but we really didn't expect it to go quite so well, quite so quickly.

The brand was up and running in no time, and we were making the sorts of clothes we’d always dreamed of, thanks to your enthusiasm. A big salut to you early Asphalters.

Back in 2020, the whole world was turned upside down. The pandemic had everyone fearful, for their safety, their loved ones and for their businesses. We at Asphalte were no exception.

Thankfully the epidemic didn't damage our business in the ways we feared. Our 100% digital model actually enabled us to grow. In fact, we sold four times more clothes in 2021 than in 2019.

It was during the pandemic that we were able to launch our Women's line in France and to expand our business into Europe, and in Germany especially.

While they were dark times, and difficult for all, we’re grateful that our customers stuck with us and kept Asphalte going from strength to strength.

We hit some serious rough patches in 2022.

To cut a long story short, it was a hard year for business:

2022 saw our accounts in the red for the first time, just as we were supposed to be expanding our Women's line and international business.

We organised a fund-raising event, which saved our bacon in the short term, but it wasn't enough. Our fixed costs were too high, and even with this fund-raising, a second year like 2022 would have been the end of the road for Asphalte. It was a question of survival, so we had to let some of our staff go. It was an extremely difficult situation for the people involved, as well as for the remaining team.

It was the toughest challenge we’d weathered since the creation of Asphalte.

Thankfully, 2023 saw things improve, and we’re wrapping the year right back on track.

We owe our resurrection to:

Looking back on it now, the euphoria of our early successes might have led us astray a little. So, we decided to go back to basics: one launch a week, the highest standards for every product, and the classic items that you, our customers, wanted.

It was our first-ever physical retail experience, and it worked a charm: getting Asphalte’s work out in the real world and giving us the much-needed treat of meeting many of you in person.

Once again, the enthusiasm and support of our customers gave us a huge boost and plenty of ideas for the future.

Here's what we'll be offering from the 1st of January, actually the 2nd - we all deserve a day off, don’t we?

• 6-day preorders. This is THE big change for the year ahead. As usual, preorders will kick off on Tuesdays at 10 am (CET), but from now on they'll end the following Sunday at midnight. 134 hours later, if our calculations are correct. Why? Because it’ll mean we can deliver items to you in-season. No more swimming trunks arriving late August.
• Eternal items, anytime you want ‘em. All preorders will be temporary EXCEPT for our signature pieces. That means you'll be able to preorder your Ultimate T-shirts, Ultimate Jeans, Perfect Jumpers, Perfect Socks, Button-Down Oxford Shirts, Comfort Boxers, Polos, Solid Sneakers and Perfect Sweatshirt 365 days a year via the "Eternals" section on the site.
• Monthly stock sales. Every month, we'll be holding a Stock Sale to sell off any surplus leftovers from the inevitable sizing and colour returns. Small quantities of stock that can be with you in just a few days.
• Popping up in Paris, again. People seemed to love our pop-up, so we've decided to do it again. In 2024, we'll be returning with more pop-ups in the French capital — the first being in March. If all goes as planned we’ll be popping up in more cities in the future.
• Even more in-depth content. In 2024, we want to take our dedication to transparency even further. We want you to get to know our manufacturers, to take a look behind the scenes of our photo shoots and see how things really work at Asphalte.
• Doubling down on customer care. Before and after your order, we'll do everything we can to provide you with a unique customer experience. On top of that, we’ll make sure we can get you sorted with fast, efficient and made-to-measure customer service.

What won't change in 2024:

• We’ll still be pushing ourselves to make the clothes you want most, and making them better. We never stop working to provide you with the best value for money on the market, and that's not about to change. We'll be adding new colours and patterns to our line and perfecting our wardrobe with the help of your feedback.

If we’re all still around in five years' time, we hope that by then we'll have helped to make the textile industry a little more virtuous.

We want to be part of the solution, not the problem.

By proving that our model is economically viable as well as environmentally responsible, we think we can encourage other entrepreneurs to follow suit (including those outside the clothing sector).

We want to show that preordering quality products is a win-win model from every point of view. And together, we're well on our way to achieving that.

Thank you again for your support over the last seven years, happy holidays and see you next year!

The Asphalte Team