The iconic footwear and accessories brand just loves The Game Fair and is all set for this year’s event. We asked founders Marcus Fountaine and Felix Parker to tell us a bit more about the Fairfax & Favor journey.

TGF: When and why did you set up Fairfax & Favor?

F&F: Late in the spring of our 18th year, we had an epiphany – to combine our middle names and launch our very first business venture, a bouncy castle company. It was the unconventional birth of Fairfax & Favor.

We had tried to unlock other name combinations but this became an exercise in things we shouldn’t do. Fountaine & Parker sounded like a counterfeit pen company, James & John had people thinking we were selling Bibles door-to-door, and we’re pretty sure Marcus & Felix is a wine bar in Soho. The name Fairfax & Favor won.

Our mission was pretty simple: to create the most epic bouncy castle experience ever envisaged, then pitch up at Hunstanton Tennis Week. It was genius and, with the market there for the taking, we started drawing up a business plan. Unfortunately, our dream went up in smoke. Bouncy castles cost thousands of pounds, insurance was required by law and our bemused parents were reluctant to play the role of investors. It was time to reassess.

We then went on to further our studies at university though there’s no point in dressing it up, university wasn’t our forte. However, there was a silver lining: the excessively long holidays. We used these to work two jobs, splitting our time between pub shifts at the Bedingfeld Arms and working as a fireplace delivery team for After The Antique, combining our wages to fund our latest and greatest idea, selling leather gun slips to anyone that enjoyed clays.

It was a tough sell; not least because once you’ve sold someone a gun slip they shouldn’t have to buy another one for 100 years or so. That’s when the next lightbulb flickered on – shoes. Shoes are great. Except for the Kiwis, everyone wears shoes.

We pooled together with the rest of our pub and fireplace savings and used our new knowledge of leather to bootstrap our next venture: a line of handcrafted leather boots. The obvious problem was, well, we knew nothing about shoes.

It was irrelevant, though. We had a young-blood desire to prove boots could be made well – the way they ought to be – and still sold at an accessible price and nothing was going to stop us. It was the re-birth of Fairfax & Favor, it was the revival party… and the rest is history!

TGF: What was the biggest challenge in starting out?

F&F: The first challenge when starting out was ensuring that we were producing luxury products which our consumer would love and invest in for a lifetime. The next big challenge was cash flow; without cash, we were unable to start new projects and expand our product range.

TGF: We are delighted to have you back at The Game Fair in 2021. What keeps you returning?

F&F: It was one of the first events we went to when the brand started out and our stand has grown in size over the years (from 3m to 24m).

It is physically our biggest stand we have for any event we attend and it gives us the opportunity to really show what we can do in a merchandising and branding sense.

Over the years we have added our very own gin bar in partnership with Twelve Keys, which is a big hit with all our stand visitors.

It also allows us to interact with a broad range of other trade stands and meet new and existing customers. It’s always nice to put a face to a name!

TGF: How has business been during the various lockdowns?

F&F: Our online sales have been strong in the lockdown which has luckily offset the loss of sales from events, stockists and retail.

During each various lockdown we have launched our SS20 and AW20 collections which has kept our customers talking about the brand and excited to get hold of the latest new product.

We have constantly stayed in contact with our audience and, as such, have loved seeing the community of our brand grow.

TGF: You have some pretty iconic products; what’s new that we can look forward to seeing this summer?

F&F: We can’t say too much as it’s not launched yet however what we can say is this season’s SS21 collection will be bigger and brighter than ever with fresh takes on summer staples – watch this space!

One product we’ve recently launched online is the much-anticipated Alexandra trainer, which we’re so excited about!

As Fairfax & Favor’s first step into the trainer market, the Alexandra is a big move for the brand and is set to be a sell-out. As an all-year-round footwear staple, the white trainer is something we all own and can never have too many pairs of, not to mention will never go out of style!

www.fairfaxandfavor.com