Accessories are always the favorite part of our look and it's always great to add to our collection. Over a decade ago, we learned about a boho brand that allowed us to wear them with a number of our outfits, no matter the style we were rocking at the time. This brand is known for their leathers, fabrication, style, and very quickly become a go-to that you enjoy wearing!
We caught up with CEO/Founder, and Chief Cheerleader, Tony Drockton of Hammitt. His passion for this brand and its growth is undeniable. He believes in having fun in the workplace and creating memories for those that will wear the brand as they make it their own. We wanted to know more about how the brand started, how he came to the brand, the design aesthetic, and upcoming projects that we should keep an eye out for.
ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s such a pleasure to connect with you as we have been a fan of the brand for as long as it has been around! I also love that we have a few things in common from both of us being from the Midwest!
TONY DROCKTON: I’m from Cleveland and I get to make fun of it because I was born there. It was great growing up there, but then I just absolutely wanted more. I like going back, I’m grateful to have family there, but I’m also grateful as you know – you being on the East Coast and me on the West Coast, it’s great to be here! Where in Indiana?
AM: Indianapolis and my parents met and graduated from your Alma mater, Bowling Green State University!
TD: Oh wow! I’ll be back there in BG this month.
AM: Nice, I went to Indiana University.
TD: Yup, that’s a good one! BG, they have a thing called Entrepreneurship Week every year and I started going back last year and I’m going back this year. I get to speak and judge a competition it’s so fun!
AM: Before we delve into talking about the brand, can you tell me about your background and how you came to Hammitt?
TD: Well we are in our 16th year, quick start, I bumped into Stephanie Hammitt when she was making the bags locally and I fell in love with her as a person as she’s wonderful. She was looking for an investor and I loved the designs and the brand and thought, “let’s give this a shot.” That’s the nexus and once I got into this industry, I fell in love with it.
AM: I remember being gifted a back back in 2009 at an Editor event and I love a lot of the things about that bag that are still cornerstones of the brand. The hardware – the rivets are one of my favorite things, the beautiful fabrication, just how easy it is to wear. I would take them with me to TV segments, a number of events, and travels. I think that it is a testament to the brand that it has really held true as well as having grown into other categories, which is great!
TD: Thank you! The DNA of the brand has been since Stephanie Hammitt and it has really iterated along what we felt would improve the functionality, keep it relevant on the design side, and more importantly to last multiple generations. It’s really about standing the test of time like you mentioned. That’s what we look to do with every new design and also some of our earliest designs are some of our best sellers.
AM: For those that aren’t familiar with the brand, how would you describe what Hammitt is and what are those main things about the brand that people can always see?
TD: I’d say the joy of the brand is how I like to describe it. Like you said, years ago you ran into it and you still remember it and wear it. I think that whether you’re manufacturing footwear or handbags or furniture or cars, when you make something that people get joy out of being apart of, wearing, driving, being in a community of, you’ve nailed it. Think of the late Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, I was just relistening to his biography and he talked about how he wasn’t a shoe guy, he was an experience guy and that he wanted to make sure that his internal team, his vendors, and his customers all had a great experience with Zappos. I follow that same lead with Hammitt.
AM: Being the CEO and the Co-Founder of the brand, tell me about your roles at Hammitt and I also love that you are the Chief Cheerleader which I think is awesome!
TD: Thank you! Well you know, when you’re the founder, you do it all. There’s just a couple of us in the office including our current designer, Jeanne Allen, she's on her 10th year. Then you grow into sort of more of a leadership role as a CEO. I stepped away and became Chairman and brought in a CEO for 7 years and then he just retired. We retired our first long time Hammitt person in March and now I'm CEO again! So I’m Founder, CEO, and also the Chief Cheerleader which has always sort of been my role. I go back to my football days where I was always the guy cheering them on whether I was on defense or offense saying, “we can do it, we can do it!” Whether we were down 1 or up as you want to keep up that energy.
I think it’s very important for people to have fun wherever they work and also cheerleading our team during some of the tougher years. It’s just as important to remind people to stay humble when things are going as well as they are right now and that’s a cheerleader right?
AM: Absolutely.
What’s an average day or week like for you at the brand?
TD: Ha! There isn’t one! You really want to have an open schedule for when people need you. I’m a big believer in keeping that so that I can have 1:1 time as needed. We also have a limited number of regular meetings that we all have within the company and then I try to spend as much of my time in front of our customers or in front of our retail sales associates at our 3 stores, or with our vendors out in some of our Wholesale partners. That’s the joy of standing by our collection in the middle of Minneapolis, and having people try it on and to ask them how they know Hammitt or standing in my store. Or it’s about walking down the street when someone has it on in the wild and asking them how they know about the brand? The next words they say are the words that energize me. Most of the time it’s, “oh I just love this bag, it was given to me by somebody,” or “that it has traveled with me all around the world.” Sometimes it’s simply how many memories that it has created. That’s what they usually talk about. That’s what is so wonderful!
AM: Well, I love the fact that you are so in tune from the customer side and also with your team. My background was in Wholesale, I worked at Lacoste so I dealt with a lot of our accounts. When you see someone that is in the C-Suite that’s rolling their sleeves up, it’s actually energizing not only from a customer perspective, but the actual team of employees that works together. So that’s amazing.
TD: You know Kimmie, in the earliest days, every new person had to work in our in-house distribution center for at least a week. They got to run the products, they got to ship them, pack them, write the handwritten notes when people purchased them, look at the repairs when they came in, and check in new product. That sort of energy can’t be recreated by starting in the office. We’re much bigger now so not everyone is in our fulfillment center, but many of us still spend time on the retail floor, and if we don’t do that, we absolutely spend time at our events. We throw a lot of events and our team always shows up to support. Being in front of the people that love the brand, it’s not work. If it’s work, get out! The greatest companies in the world do this all the time whether it’s in the fashion industry, or any other industry, or the service industry right?
AM: Yup! 100%
How would you define the Hammitt customer?
TD: Ooo. You know, laying aside demographics and laying aside the main psychographics, she loves life and that’s our customer.
AM: I love that! You never know what detailed answer will come with a question like that and it’s great when you hear it, but there is something simple and expansive about she loves life!
I love that the assortment is so diverse whether you’re minimal or not. Can you walk us through the assortment or major product types of the brand?
TD: Well, let’s start with some signature pieces that have been around for about 5-15 years. We have our Daniel which is our satchel and it’s carried all over the country. It can hold a notebook computer or it can hold just a couple of things for the day. We have the Bryant right next to that – those 2 go hand-in-hand. Our collectors have both. Then you go into our clutches and we have the VIP which has been around since almost the beginning and there is a whole series of VIP different styles around that. The belt bag is hot right now so Charles is in charge. There’s a slingback so you can wear it around or wear it as a crossbody it’s a great bag. Then we drop down into the bag that I like because it’s called The Tony!
AM: That’s fair!
TD: It’s a perennial winner when it comes to events. I’m sure for Athleisure Magazine, there are a couple of people that might like sports and you have to have a clear bag when you’re going into the stadiums! Then The Tony leather sits side by side that series. Then we have a new entrant called the Kyle. Kyle is small and goes everywhere for the woman who seeks joy and goes everywhere, she’s going to love Kyle!
AM: Wow! When does the Kyle come out?
TD: Let’s just say that it could be out by the time that people are reading this!
AM: Ok!
So if there had to be only 3 bags that a woman would take to start or round out her collection what would those essentials be in the world of Hammitt?
TD: If she’s going on a trip and she can only take 3, I think that she's going to pack the Charles for everyday and probably inside of that, she is going to have a Tony or a VIP to go out with friends or for some events. Those are the go-to bags that I see most women carrying.
I have to mention one more!
AM: See that’s what happens!
TD: It just came out and we just dropped our VIP Mobile which carries a mobile phone and everything that you need in a day.
AM: In terms of fabrication, I love that you just have so many colors and textures. What’s your approach when it comes to colorways in general or as it pertains to the different bodies?
TD: The beauty of having a brand that has been developed over this time, I have an amazing design team led By Jeanne and Collier Smith, they’re all about color theory and one just currently came back from over seas and the other is in Brazil right now. Additionally, they were in Paris, they have been to Milan, so they just finished choosing colors for Spring 25 and they’re already looking for colors for Summer 25. They really look at color as a combination of when the bags are going to come out and what is the inspiration for the collection. So, they have some pastels in our Fall collection for 24 and they’re pastels – they’re right on the runway in the Fall collections. They really try to align both with that woman that loves to be a little bit on the fashion edge while also always wanting something that is timeless. So they walk that line with color theory.
AM: In terms of hardware, I have always loved that about the brand as well. Is that the same thought that goes into that by maintaining certain elements of it and deviating a bit here and there depending on the styles that it is on?
TD: You know, we’re really consistent on our hardware. The reason for that is the DNA of the brand is actually the look of the the brand from far away and across the street. So that signature rivet detail either comes down on the side, the bottom, or the front of every design. It’s 1 size rivet and it’s spaced pretty consistently and that’s the main hardware. Then the other piece of hardware is interchangeable, for example, all of our straps are removable so you can move them from bag to bag especially when trends change. So, we’re pretty consistent. But I will let you in on a secret – we might be working on a new custom piece of hardware that may come out sometime this year and that’s new for us! What we will do also is that within the rivet, we may change finishes and we might even change to a custom rivet for one of our collectible editions. We have done a lot of collaborations. So we have done collaborations with different brands so there will be some customization on the actual rivet for a specific collection which you might have seen in the past on a few items and you’re definitely going to see that later on this year.
AM: Well that’s exciting.
What is your process in terms of your inline items when you’re thinking of adding items to the heritage of the brand versus keeping the core?
TD: Again, the design team, their call to action is that when they see a need in the market, then they’re going to bring us a new silhouette. So we don’t hamper them and say that we need 4,000 new silhouettes every week. In general, it comes down to about 4 times a year that they’re going to bring out a silhouette that fills a need as functionality is the backbone of the brand, but that is also probably on trend as we do have the classic silhouettes that are already in place. It’s a combination of the two and I will let you in on another one, every time that we launch a new silhouette, a single H rivet that we put on it is on the right corner and it signifies that it is brand new. It’s only on it when we launch it.
AM: I like that, it’s almost like a hidden Mickey when you go to Disney. When you know where to look.
TD: Yeah! I heard of this thing about the first pickle at Disneyland, have you heard about it?
AM: Yeah I had heard something about it!
TD: We have some Disney girls that work for us and if you’re the first one in the park and you run to the pickle vendor, you get the first pickle and then a button! I love Easter Eggs.
AM: Same!
TD: When I was a young kid playing video games and you would bump into the secret doorway or you would have to tap the keys in a certain way to open up another level, we have a lot of those in this brand!
AM: I love it!
TD: This catalog right here is our latest one and it has multiple hidden Easter Eggs inside of it. We have the H rivet on our bags, inside of our bags is a little vintage tag which actually says when it was made, every bag has a secret little red somewhere whether it’s outside or inside, and it goes on and on and on.
AM: That’s so fun because as people grow with the brand, they have these fun things to look for and there’s always something new to unveil which is what makes the brand so exciting.
TD: It is! People want familiarity, I believe and the familiarity is the consistency of our long term silhouettes and the signature of the detail and the high quality in the functionality. So they also want something new and when we launch a pure fashion collection, so right now it’s April, we just came out with a new colorway on the VIP that will only be launched now on that silhouette and when it’s gone it’s gone. So it’s a seasonal exclusive, now we also may have repeat seasonal colorways that we bring back every year and that would be normally on newer silhouettes or on other ones. So next year if a leather is really good and then we have our long time perennial leathers that we use over and over again and that’s what we call our bestseller collection. So we have the combination of the 3 and that really allows us to serve every customers needs.
AM: About how many launches would you say a year are taking place – or drops? Because I always love that in accessories it tends to be different then in apparel.
TD: They design in quarter periods. So this year, we call is 24.1, 24.2, 24.3, and 24.4, but traditionally they would call it I guess, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Holiday, Cruise but within each one of those quarters, we have our monthly collections and within our monthly, we also have our weekly drops. So really, every week we’re dropping a new leather family and/or a new leather family with a new silhouette. Every month we have new combinations of either leather families or silhouettes and for every quarter, we have a new collection that tells a story.
AM: Your Sales Meetings must be interesting because that’s massive!
TD: Well, that’s our design team. I love it and they come up with everything. They get inspired and we’re in our 24.2 which is Summer. By the way, do you know Jose Canseco?
AM: Um of course one of the premier power hitters in MLB with the A’s and played for a number of teams including the Yankees!
TD: Well, our latest catalog as you can see here, this is his daughter Josie (Kygo Feat. Ella Henderson - Here for You video, Kith Park: SS2019 NYFW, The Surreal Life)! She’s adorable and amazing.
AM: When you first were talking about the catalog a few minutes back and I was looking at it, I thought wow Jessica looks really good but I know she is much older then the young girl that is on the cover, but wow that’s her daughter!
TD: That’s Josie, we shot her last month and this catalog is our summer collection and it was inspired by our hometown of Hermosa Beach which is where the brand is born and raised, where I live right now with my son, our offices, and Hermosa is a very eclectic town. It’s right next to Manhattan Beach, but it’s its own personality. They came back and that was about a year ago and they laid out what they thought would be a collection to honor our hometown and she was perfect. We shot her and everything came together in this collection of what I just told you about it. It has monthly drops, it has weekly drops, we had a big launch event on April 4th and that’s the first time that we have done this sort of launch. But it’s about bringing everyone together to honor our little town of Hermosa Beach – it’s been fun.
AM: How do you approach doing collaborations and partnerships. I love the work that you have been dong within Mary Fitzgerald of Netflix's Selling Sunset as I think she’s great and you can see how she is aligned with the brand.
TD: We love Mary, she was truly a fan for a long time like you, she knew Hammitt. She was a real estate agent right here on the South Bay where we’re from and then she went out to the West side and had the show, she already had our bags so she was already wearing them. That’s one way that we do collaborations when it seems to be a match. Another way is when my design team and myself love art! Art is my personal inspiration. I go to Art Basel, whenever I travel I go to a lot of modern museums so does Jeanne so does Collier and we found Alex Alpert who is our latest collaboration and we found him at Art Basel a couple of years ago and we’re launching with him this quarter next month. It’s graffiti and when you at look at the design, it’s actually all Hermosa Beach, it’s our city, its waves, volleyball, our logo and he drew this on leather and then we made it into the collection. And that rivet which you can see is a melting rivet.
AM: Which is pretty cool.
TD: So Alex is a fulltime artist, young, very cool and he has a collaboration that I can’t mention coming out with a global brand. He’s gotten really lucky and I don’t even know if he is even 30 yet! The commonality between Mary and Alex – it’s the ones that we think have a great personality. They love life and we want to really collaborate with people where we enjoy the relationship.
AM: Are there other collaborations that we should also keep an eye out for? Are you thinking about LA28 which is coming up? I could see some amazing things there.
TD: Yeah, so there’s a women’s rally launching in the Fall called the Princess Rally and it’s a 100 women driving sports cars from Southern California up to Northern California and it’s sponsored by Richard Mille, a luxury watch brand. We’re doing a collaboration between us, Richard Mille, and them.
Every September we have what we call the September Issue. We have a collaborative bag that will be coming out for that this year as well. Then at the end of the year, there is an artist that we have a collaboration coming out with and she is a print artist and that’s Dani Dazey. She has already posted about it and she's lovely! She’s so great and she did a beautiful print and we have a whole collection that we will be dropping before the end of the year with her. We’re already working on our collaborations for ’25.
AM: Haha I’m always thinking of something. Being that my background is in fashion, being a Fashion Stylist, as well as being an Accessory Expert, I love seeing true collaborations between people or brands that are amazing on their own, but when they are brought together, you truly have a whole new way of looking at something that you really appreciate.
TD: You know, it’s wonderful right? One of the things that we do is these pop-ups as we have 3 retail stores – Manhattan Beach, South Coast Plaza, and Le Jolla here in California. For Women’s Month in March last month, every Saturday, there were 5 of them and across 3 stores, we had 15 pop-ups of small artisans – candlemakers, hatmakers, flowers, and permanent jewelry. They came and set up in our stores on a Saturday and we welcomed in our customers to meet them and they brought their fans and we had champagne, drinks, and music pumping. It was a really great atmosphere and we will be bringing in a lot more of that as we go on throughout the year. It was very successful.
AM: Do you do pop-ups outside of California like here in NY? Or are you thinking of making a store in NY?
TD: We have had pop-ups throughout the country, not in the traditional open for 2 month set up. But we have sat inside a Kendra Scott store in The Hamptons or back in their hometown. We have been invited to do trunk shows all over the country with our retail partners and we still do. We just celebrated National Hammitt Day with our largest partner on a Saturday and they had a small gift for all of their clients and it was a lot of fun. NYC, it’s still on my map and my bucket list. In our earliest day, we used to do a week in the windows of Henri Bendel for Hammitt when they were around.
AM: I remember! I loved that store and still miss it!
TD: I loved it too and I liked us being there. So I have always wanted to come back to NY in style and be on 5th Ave for our own pop-up and it will happen one day!
AM: That is so amazing and I can’t wait for that. Are there any pop-ups in your local area that you want to share that are taking place this Spring or Summer that we can keep an eye out for for our readers?
TD: I would say that in our 3 stores at least 1 to 2 times a month we have small artisans and makers that will be coming in and so look out for those. On May 17th is our Annual Investors Day. So we did a crowd funding and we have a lot of collectors who invested and we are bringing them all together and it’s a day of joy and fun. We can share our results and what we’re doing moving forward. This will be the first time that we have done that. So this will be great. Then once a year we usually have an in-person event that is in Nov where people fly in from all over the country and it’s a theme. Last year’s was Mama Mia and it was a Greek theme and people get to come and be in that theme to have fun, food, and great cocktails. It’s also a great way for them to be able to see all of our latest designs.
AM: Obviously as we’ve been talking, it’s a women’s brand, but there are a lot of pieces that translate for a man as well. Would you ever create a men’s capsule collection or go in that direction in some way?
TD: [Smiles]
AM: I thought so!
TD: I don’t know, maybe you’re on to something haha!
AM: What have been some of the things that you have been proud of for this brand?
TD: I mean, I’m always the proudest when someone comes up to me and tells me how much they have loved my Hammitt. It’s always what they do with them, where they traveled, who they got it from, what memories they have created, and the second piece of it is our team! I was so proud of Angel who was just in NYC.
AM: Yup, I saw him and had the chance to chat with him at the Accessories Council event at Tin Building by Jean-Georges.
TD: He started at our retail store 3 years ago and I asked him what he wanted to do and he told me that he wanted to work at our headquarters. I said great and I told him that when he was ready, let’s go.
AM: What are things that are taking place with the brand whether it’s holiday season or whatever that you’re able to share that it longer term that we can keep an eye out for.
TD: I just saw our Holiday collection. It just came in and it’s mind blowing. It’s the colors, the textures, and it’s going to take it to another level and is a celebration of who we are. I gave you the secrets of Fall – the Princess Rally is going to be great, our September Issue, wait until you see it. That’s all I can give you for now!
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PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Hammitt
Read the APR ISSUE #100 of Athleisure Mag and see THE JOY OF ACCESSORIES | Tony Drockton, Hammitt in mag.
