Following the Silk Road, Les Benjamins readies for global expansion

To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. The US and Europe have historically been springboard markets for the world’s leading luxury brands, but Turkish streetwear giant Les Benjamins is switching up the retail playbook and taking a new approach to global expansion — with the aim of bringing back the Silk Road. After growing up in Germany, founder and creative director Bünyamin Aydin was keen to learn more about his Turkish culture and history. He connected with the local Turkish community and began exploring themes of culture, immigration and the diaspora by connecting with local musicians and artists. His curiosity led him to explore ways of blending his creativity and heritage. In 2011, Aydin launched Les Benjamins from Istanbul, aiming to build a powerhouse brand that merges street culture of the West with that of the East. In the Middle East and Asia, the streetwear market is becoming more competitive as it grows in popularity, particularly among millennial and Gen Z shoppers. Data from Euromonitor shows that Nike and Adidas have the highest sportswear market share in the Middle East and Africa, followed by Reebok, Puma and Timberland. Asia’s growing market is also attracting international players such as Ami Paris, known for its recognisable logo and streetwear-inspired silhouettes, opened its biggest flagship store in South Korea last year. But homegrown brands see an opportunity to take market share from global sportswear giants by taking a new spin on heritage to appeal to younger customers. Following an undisclosed investment from Esas Holdings — one of Turkey’s largest family-owned investment firms — led by Fethi Sabancı Kamışlı, Les Benjamins has been repositioning for international expansion over the last three years. Sabancı Kamışlı is guiding Les Benjamins’s retail strategy. The brand has increased its number of physical stores from one to 10, and now has approximately 150 employees. Sabancı Kamışlı also brought in Les Benjamins’s first chief executive, Serkan Asikoglu. Revenue hit $32 million in 2023, up 100 per cent on the previous year; the brand forecasts a similar growth for 2024. Les Benjamins has expanded its collection from T-shirts and sweatshirts to now a full range, with six to 12 drops a year. Prices range from €40 for biker shorts to €1,500 for a multicoloured coat. “In 2024, we’re going to continue being aggressive on expansion and growth, but we’re going to do it in a profitable way,” says Sabancı Kamışlı. Some 40 per cent of sales take place online and 60 per cent bricks-and-mortar. In 2018, Les Benjamins collaborated with the Turkish football team Beşiktaş JK, designing their kit. The brand has also collaborated with sportswear giants including Nike and Puma, as well as Coca-Cola and Apple. It was these initial collaborations that caught the attention of Sabancı Kamışlı and secured Les Benjamins’s investment. “There was something different about the way [Aydin] was running the business,” Sabancı Kamışlı says. “I hadn’t seen anyone doing these kinds of collaborations before in Turkey and that was something that was very new. That got us very excited.” Last month, Les Benjamins collaborated with buzzy LA-based streetwear label Market to release a limited-edition capsule collection. Bringing back the Silk Road Les Benjamins is using historical references to guide its retail strategy. The Silk Road — the ancient trade route that bridged the Western world with the Middle East and Asia — has become an important source of inspiration for the Turkish brand, which is expanding eastwards with physical stores and pop-ups planned across Japan, South Korea, UAE and Saudi Arabia next year. “The entire story of Near East, Middle East and Far East, the histories about the Silk Road; the trade that’s been done and how culture can spread, these are all inspirations,” says Aydin. “We see Les Benjamins as a way of [communicating] how the East is now.” Choosing the wrong location can devalue the brand and attract the wrong audience, Aydin explains. “Yes, we could have opened in a couple of malls or stores and made huge revenues, but we’re against that. We’re more focused on where our brand should be.” After building a strong retail network within Turkey, Sabancı Kamışlı says moving the business to Dubai was the obvious next step as Les Benjamins has already built a presence in the market through talks such as a recent live conversation with Harper’s Bazaar Arabia in 2021, as well as regularly having a presence at Sole DXB, a popular lifestyle and street culture festival in Dubai. Les Benjamins’s pieces are resonating with young consumers in Dubai, says Adham Alsaiaari, a Dubai-based content creator who has over 200,000 followers on TikTok. “[Les Benjamins] has this Middle Eastern-Turkish touch and I think people here are drawn towards this. The younger generation here in Dubai are more supportive towards startups, and Les Benjamins is one of those brands that are very, very popular here,” he says, noting that the pieces have become a wardrobe essential through their trendy silhouettes and innovative designs. Alsaiaari argues that Les Benjamins and the Giving Movement are currently the two biggest streetwear players in Dubai. Now, Les Benjamins is looking further along the Silk Road for further expansion. “We always focused on the main markets, which are Turkey and the Middle East… We want to bring back the Silk Road, so that also includes Asia,” says Sabancı Kamışlı. Aydin spent three months in Japan earlier this year, studying the market, and the brand now plans to hold a pop-up in Tokyo next year. “There we are actually testing [the market] and seeing if we can bridge those two communities with our culture and their culture,” he says. In September, Les Benjamins launched its first pop-up in Seoul, South Korea. The two-week event had upwards of 90 per cent sell-through. Building a streetwear community Before launching into any region, Les Benjamins’s objective is to build and strengthen the community in its target markets, explains Sabancı Kamışlı; done through collaborations with local brands, as well as buzzy activations such as a pop-up or fashion shows. Once the brand has determined interest in the market, that is when Les Benjamins outlines a retail strategy, he explains. Turkey naturally became Les Benjamins’s biggest market, says Sabancı Kamışlı. “When you look at Les Benjamins in Turkey, there’s actually no competition. There may be small brands but what we’ve done is [focus] on creation [as we have] always focused on the community.” He adds that having a smart collaboration strategy has allowed the brand to connect authentically with Turkey’s young consumers. This sometimes means turning down financial opportunities, he notes. “We could do this collaboration or that partnership, which will bring in huge amounts of revenue, but we don’t do it because it doesn’t speak to the community. This has got us a lot of appreciation from the community and young people here in Turkey.” Aligning with the Turkish community and diaspora is key to building an authentic relationship with Les Benjamins’s consumers. “As an immigrant in Germany, where there is a huge Turkish community, we’ve always been curious about our culture, where we come from and the historical and cultural backgrounds,” he says. “Duality has always been an underlying theme and the topic of the diaspora, immigration are inspirations of the brand. So each season…I like to create collections that defy the cliché, that challenge the way the West perceives the East. And I like to get inspiration from artisans, craftsmen, musicians.” By leaning into his Turkish and German heritage, Aydin has been able to build a strong community of loyal customers and creatives, who are choosing to support the brand because it reflects their own personal values. “One factor that makes a streetwear brand successful is its heritage and being authentic about something,” Laura Leeb, director at PWC’s Strategy&, previously told Vogue Business. “Culture and [having] the same values in streetwear is much more important for a brand to represent in order for customers to select them.” Looking ahead, Les Benjamins will continue its store expansion in 2024, with an additional two units opening in Turkey, adding to its existing roster of eight physical stores across the country. He hints that an upcoming collaboration with a major European brand will be unveiled next summer. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. 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