Latex Epicentre brings world of Future Fetish to London .
Latex Epicentre is a new UK company, but behind it is the well-established Polish clothing label Future Fetish, which specialises in great value catsuits made using advanced production techniques. Tony Mitchell finds out from London operation boss Maciek Skowronek what lies behind the decision to create a separate UK brand. Top banner image: Polish model Sangria007 photographed by Future Fetish founder Marek Bodzioch
That company is Future Fetish — a brand that dates to the early 1990s. It was founded in Poland by Marek Bodzioch, a mechanical engineer from Krakow, in the south of the country.
Marek was travelling in Western Europe for his job when he noticed a moulded latex catsuit in an adult store in Vienna. He became interested, because of his training, in the technical details of how these garments were produced.
As an engineer, he wondered whether he could make any improvements to the manufacturing process, which involved pouring latex into a mould and baking it in an oven. Upon returning to Poland, Marek began to experiment with the same processes.
Marek’s engineering training helped him both to make some advances in production and to design the styles for what became the Future Fetish line (which has since moved from moulded rubber to latex sheeting).
With training in mechanical drawing, rendering, and computer-assisted graphics, he became the principal designer as well as the engineer behind the company. He was the first manufacturer based in Poland to make key advances in latex production and the manufacturing of erotic items.
At the beginning, it was tough going for the new business, because while the latex fashion scene was already thriving in the UK and elsewhere, there was not much demand for this sort of clothing in Poland in the ’90s.
However, the brand began to sell in Western Europe, especially in Germany. And today, the Future Fetish brand has a following throughout Europe and boasts regular customers in Japan, Canada, and the United States — as well as in Poland.
Future Fetish already has a well-designed English language website so why create a separate ‘satellite’ operation in London under a new name?
Marek’s nephew Maciek Skowronek joined the business after graduating from university. It is Maciek who, having worked in marketing, distribution, and production, is now leading the effort to bring Future Fetish to the UK through the Latex Epicentre project.
And it is Maciek who is talking to me now about the new London operation.
The obvious first question to ask him is: Why? When Future Fetish already has a well-designed English language website that is easy for UK customers to use, why create a separate ‘satellite’ operation in London under a different name, with its own website showing only a fraction of the styles seen on the parent label’s site?
“We opened the UK business under a separate brand name, Latex Epicentre, for several reasons,” Maciek explains.
“First, to open a business in the UK, it was necessary to create a different arm of the enterprise. We gave the UK entity a new name to distinguish it.
“Third, due to a dispute we had with a German copycat business, we thought that rebranding ourselves might result in improved sales. I’m happy to say this has worked well.”
Ah, the legendary copycat dispute. Chances are, even if you’re not that familiar with Future Fetish products, you might have heard of the major legal battle (by fetish standards) the label was embroiled in a while ago.
Maciek accepts my invitation to tell his company’s side of that story.
‘Our German distributor started a copycat factory. He was making latex clothing him- self and he’d stolen our designs and our Future Fetish brand’
“A few years ago, Future Fetish started a partnership with a German businessman who became our sole distributor in Germany. After about a year of working together, this person suddenly stopped ordering clothing from us.
“We discovered that he had started his own copycat factory in Germany. He was making latex clothing himself, and he’d stolen our designs and our Future Fetish brand.
“He used our name and our marketing materials, such as photographs. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, sure, but you can imagine that we weren’t too pleased!”
In response, Maciek says, the Polish label was forced to hire a lawyer in Berlin.
“We were able to prove that our designs, trademark, and photos had been stolen. In response to our legal action, the businessman stopped using our photographs and changed the name of his brand.
“Unfortunately, he had already managed to do some damage to our reputation.
“During the period when there were two websites on the internet both selling clothes under the Future Fetish name — one real one and one fake one — some customers became confused.
“The quality of the imitation garments was below our standards. The copycat business produced items with flaws and sometimes failed to deliver to customers.
“We managed to stop him from using our name, but it is still important for us to explain to our customers today what happened.
“Even now, we sometimes hear from people who had a bad experience with this copycat business, and we have had to work to re-establish ourselves.
“We are very happy to explain that Latex Epicentre is the UK distributor for Future Fetish, as our website says. But for attracting UK clients, the new brand and new name has proved to be an effective strategy.”
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Tags: Clothing, Designers, Latex, Retail