“Before I was at Crumpler, we had a couple of stores in Hong Kong, then we moved out. But with a new partner, we’ll have some flagship store presence again. Rents have gone down considerably so it’s a good time for us to give it a try,” Wilkinson told Inside Retail. “We’ve got ongoing expansion into Asia with the right partners now. Even though Indonesia and Hong Kong had some pain last year, we had partners that wanted to forge ahead and continue to grow the business in those markets. We’re setting up the business up, we have shops open, we can trade in those markets and we’ve accelerated. It is part of a longer-term strategy.” Over in Southeast Asia, the brand is rolling out several shop-in-shops in Indonesian department store Sogo, with plans to open up flagship stores in the next year. Shop-in-shops are also located at both Metro and Central department stores in the country.  Crumpler has also just unveiled its Malaysian micro-site for its customers and it is now available on online marketplaces such as Shopee, Blibli, JDID, Lazada and Tokopedia. The brand has also recently begun creating exclusive product ranges for e-commerce players Lazada and Zalora. “We’ve signed off on the first one with Zalora, which will launch in three months. We’re pretty excited about that,” Wilkinson revealed. “They’re putting some decent volume behind that. The online presence across those two channels [Lazada and Zalora] has been good for us over Covid period and will grow rapidly over the next eight months.”  Designing for the customer To cater to the ever-increasing Asian customer base, Crumpler last year began creating specific products to suit their own aesthetics, lifestyles and price sensitivities and this year, it launched its first full Asia collection called Lucky 8. In Singapore, the prices range from $79-$169.  “Originally when we were serving the market, it was the same product mix across the global territories and as it’s evolved, we’ve had an understanding of how diverse the customers are in each of the countries in Southeast Asia,” Wilkinson explained.  Particularly popular with customers in the region are lighter, versatile items, such as hip packs and small crossbody and messenger bags, Wilkinson added. In cities like Singapore, people need products they can easily sling over their shoulder while they walk around the city and in Indonesia and the Philippines where consumers often ride motorcycles and bicycles, backpacks come in handy. Meanwhile, another key design consideration for Southeast Asian customers is the need for waterproof products, given the frequent rainfall in the region. And in contrast to more conservative Australian tastes, the Asian customer base appreciates pops of colour, whether it’s a bright red lining or internal pocket. Wilkinson revealed that while Asia is a major focus for Crumpler right now, North America is on the agenda and in July, the brand will launch on fashion website Free People.