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"FacebookPinterest\n\n Jeremy Langmead, left, and Toby Bateman\n\nIt's hard to believe that less than three years ago the menswear e-commerce epicenter Mr Porter didn't exist and the now-crowded online shopping marketplace for guys was no more than a handful of hastily slapped-together sites. Fast forward to today and the Mr Porter is not only a must-click destination because of their well-curated mix of designer men's fashion and accessories, but also content that educates and inspires customers--regardless of what their shopping cart looks like. Two men who could easily take credit for the site's prominance in your browser's address bar (but probably wouldn't because they're humble gents) are Mr Porter's buying director, Toby Bateman and editor-in-chief, Jeremy Langmead. Both men traverse the globe for their jobs, with Bateman responsible for finding the best merchandise out there and Langmead making sure shoppers understand why it's so damn great.\n\nThat formula is now being applied to a whole new set of goods as Mr Porter thoughtfully expands into the grooming sector, stocking the site with 77 hand-picked pomades, shampoos, shave creams, and a whole lot more from trusted brands new and old like Aesop, Baxter, and D.R. Harris &amp;amp; Co. Ltd., just to name a few. Of course, talking to men at large about eye cream can be a tricky endeavor, so we caught up with the duo as they were passing through NYC to find out why the site's hair and skincare expansion makes sense for their man, how men's shopping habits are changing, and why the \"subway challenge\" keeps them working hard each day.\n\n\n\nGQ: It's been a little over two-and-a-half years since the site's launch. What's been the biggest surprise in terms of how men shop or the product they've responded to?\n\n Langmead: It just grew so quickly. It was an educated guess that it was a good idea to launch Mr. Porter. I mean in retrospect it was so obvious: we make it easy to buy clothes, you don't have to go to the shops, and there's lots of advice there. But also I think we were quite surprised by the width of the offering. We thought we'd sell more of the blazers, formal shirts, and ties, but in fact we've got a huge fashion customer base too.\n\nBateman: I'm constantly surprised at the things that we sell and it's been beyond the basics. It's been very satisfying to be able to travel the world and find amazing things. It might be a pair of shoes for $1,500 from George Cleverly that lots of people have never heard of. I get huge satisfaction from doing that. We launched a fine watch brand a few weeks ago called Bremont, which is interesting because fine watches as a category don't have much presence online. But we've told the story really well, and it's sold really well. And were talking about six, seven thousand dollars a pop on a fine watch, which is really a considerate purchase. Selling those online demonstrates that the boundaries are beginning to drop. There's nothing really that guys are not now comfortable making a purchase online for.\n\nA few of Mr Porter's new grooming lineup\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nGQ: Was MR PORTER's move into selling grooming products prompted by your consumers asking for it or was this expansion always part of the plan?\n\n Toby Bateman: We started working with Aesop on some exclusive product about a year ago with the Dapper Gentleman kit and have been broadening our offerings on Mr Porter into other lifestyle categories. So we launched some luggage, we've gone into some high-end audio equipment and whilst we had that grooming offer, it was really only a few things. You couldn't replenish it, so we started thinking about offering single units but then we thought if we're going to sell grooming products, let's do it properly. That's really how it came about, three or four months ago. We don't want to become the worlds biggest men's grooming destination, we're a fashion destination, but we recognize that these products are a part of our customers' day to day life; he's looking after himself, he's using products to hopefully keeping him looking fresh.\n\nJeremy Langmead: That's sort of you man's check list, isn't it? Blazer packed, moisturizer packed, wax packed. Sorted, and now I'm off on that trip and I've got everything I need. It's crazy to have the blazer and the outfit, but not have the rest of it looking good too.\n\nGQ: What was the litmus test in determining which grooming brands to carry? Does it differ from what you're looking for when you're selecting fashion for the site?\n\n Bateman: I don't think we had different criteria. We still wanted to have the best products, but we also recognized we need within that a little bit of scope. We know our customers like to find luxury brands on Mr. Porter whether it's clothing, or accessories, or grooming. They're not widely distributed, certainly in the online arena, so that's something that we do look for. We know our customer likes to discover things that he either has never heard of, or that he's heard of, but doesn't have access to.\n\nLangmead: It's so nice to get those products that maybe you've spied in someone else's bathroom, or in a different city and you can't get them necessarily where you are. Also there's a slight aspect that all of those products are going to look nice in your bathroom cabinet. There's a really nice aesthetic appeal to the packaging. Again, it's all about everything looking good.\n\nGQ: Editorial content is such an essential part of the Mr Porter experience. How do you plan to incorporate grooming, something that by nature is harder so show visually, into upcoming stories?\n\n Langmead: Well, I think it's all about putting it in the context of the guy who's shopping with us. It's something that hopefully improves the way you feel, look, appear. I can't remember what the figures are we are as a gender spending a fortune on looking good. We need to. We need to look good to succeed in the office, to succeed on the date.\n\nBateman: Men are interested in it, but perhaps they don't feel that comfortable enough to go to the fragrance hall of Saks. Our hope is that sort of degree of anonymity makes men not embarrassed to go in and investigate grooming products on Mr. Porter and we'll give hopefully enough information that he thinks to try them.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nGQ: Since the beginning, the weekly Journal has been such an essential part of the Mr Porter experience. How has that editorial content impacted the commercial side of the site?\n\n Langmead: The content inspires a huge part of the shopping. Obviously we're able to track the cross-section of sales, so we can see people who have gone from the journal to purchase and that's a huge part of our revenues each week. Men want information, and once they have the information they have the confidence.\n\nBateman: I'd like to think the thing we've got right is the integrity of the editorial. It's its own thing. I mean, yes, it's related to the products that were selling, but we try not to make it feel like were forcing products down people's throats through the journal. I think customers get that and one of the reasons why people trust the whole brand.\n\nGQ: In the relatively short time since Mr Porter's launch, menswear seems to have exploded and given way to a host of new online shopping destinations for guys. Do you pay attention to these new sites or are you just focused on staying in your lane, so to speak?\n\n Langmead: We do look at everything that everyone's kind of doing. And a lot of people have emulated particularly sort of our homepage design and layout and that whole content/commerce mix. But it's good, it keeps us on our toes. We always have to look forward to look what we can do that's fresher, better, so I like the competition, but also I like the fact that more people are doing it. It gives more choice to men globally, so no one's losing out, really.\n\nGQ: What's the one item that you have to have in your wardrobe this fall?\n\n Langmead: I think my favorite item from the fall would be a Massimo di Piombo baby alpaca houndstooth check coat. That's a mouthful. That's my favorite piece for fall.\n\nBateman: I've got these shoes I'm wearing at the moment from a French brand called Heschung that I'm really into at the moment. This is, for me, the shoe brand for fall/winter.\n\nPiombo coat, left, and Heschung loafers\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nGQ: So that's where we are right now. If you had a crystal ball, where do you think menswear is headed in the next three years? Whether that's what will be trending or what guys will expect from their online shopping experience?\n\n Langmead: I think the customer is going to get more and more demanding, and rightly so. We're going to have to get more and more sophisticated in the way we deal with customers and with content. I think size and fit is something we're working on, particularly with tailoring because that's the hardest thing men try and find online. We're improving our advice and the way we do it, but I know that in three years time of course there's going to be an even better way.\n\nBateman: A lot of it will depend on the technology. We simply don't know what we're going to have the technical ability to deliver in three years time. Menswear is an exciting business to be in at the moment, in terms of the women's versus the men's and I think that we're catching up very, very fast. Hopefully what were going to be seeing over the next three years is more and more men discovering how to get dressed. And that's simply our goal, actually. We're just trying to help dress well.\n\nLangmead: The big challenge over the next three years is what I like to call the subway challenge. Of course men are looking so much better, but you go on the subway and there's still a way to go. And I think that until that subway challenge is sorted, we've got a big long battle ahead.\n\nCheck out our October GQ Selects here and shop right not at Mr Porter.com."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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