Fab.com Hires Chad Phillips as Director of Product Acquisition
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The newest site (opening “doors” only 2 1/2 weeks ago) in a growing crop of flash sale retailers, Fab.com features daily product deals from emerging and established contemporary designers. Today they announced that Chad Phillips, former Creative Director of Kid Robot, has been brought on as Fab.com’s Director of Product Acquisition.
As a self-described “retail and design nerd,” Phillips was a former Product Manager at NYC-based design emporium, Moss, and has consulted with Areaware, the Greenwich Hotel, the Museum of Sex and even produced two iPhone apps: Bad Camera and Subway Bingo. In his new role, Phillips will be curating the selection of products offered through Fab.com. We got the chance to chat with Chad about the changing landscape of online retail as well as some insight on what this new sales formula means for the design community as whole.
Core77: Your experience prior to joining Fab.com has been with brands and products in a physical space. In what ways do you anticipate curating products for an exclusively digital space to be different?
Chad Phillips: Early days at Kidrobot were very digital actually, the web always made up a huge part of sales. Just before leaving I was still buying for all locations, so I am very comfortable in the digital space—I just love wacky, fun retails spaces too. The biggest difference is in the mind set of merchandising, telling a story digitally, otherwise it isn’t too much of a deviation. Being a constant online shopper helps.
A selection of products from Kid Robot from left to right: Munny customized vinyl figure, Kid Robot x Lacoste shoe, Jason Siu x Kid Robot speaker, Nemesis Project x Kid Robot bike + matching U-Lock
In what way do you think platforms like Fab.com change the landscape of retail? How does this affect designers/brands?
It’s making people excited to shop again and less guilt-ridden both because of the get-it-now nature and the lower-than-retail price. People want to shop and the economy needs us to shop. I think physical retail has just gotten to be predictable and cumbersome, so we all look to the web now. The web always has the color you want in stock. Fab is showcasing some of my favorite designers new to the scene which helps them grow and this is something brick and mortar locations can’t always try out.
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