Maxime and Jimmy Gov of Project X Paris target €300 million revenue by 2027

FashionNetwork.com has met brothers Jimmy and Maxime Gov, co-founders of Project X Paris, the emerging French streetwear brand known as ‘PXP’ by its community, at the Hill Door, a Parisian content creation venue set up and run by influencer Noholita. The two brothers, who hail from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in northern France, founded the brand in 2013 and launched its first collection two years later. They spoke with FashionNetwork.com about their strategy and growth plans between now and 2027. 

FashionNetwork.com: Which unique features have enabled you to break into and stand out in the highly competitive streetwear market over the last 10 years?

Jimmy Gov: From the beginning, our distinguishing feature has been selling affordable premium streetwear that combines urban style icons like sweatshirts and hoodies, the staples of a street wardrobe, with the kind of French elegance exemplified by generous volumes, sleek silhouettes and attention to detail. To modernise streetwear, we start from a sportswear blueprint and transform it by adding a touch of quality. In the case of khaki cargo trousers for example, we adopt new materials like textured fabrics, and for tops, we use highly distinctive colours, pastel hues or bright colours, and unique geometric prints. We want our items, which are evergreen and seemingly simple, to be comfortable and not just beautiful. Ours is couture streetwear.

Maxime Gov: We’re trying to develop a more original product range compared to other brands in our sector, while still remaining quite commercial. Our best-seller, the crew neck sweatshirt, is priced at €49.95. It stayed at this price during the Covid pandemic, and it will still stay at €49.95 despite inflation. We’re targeting a fairly young clientèle (between 15 and 30 years old), we are aware of their budget, and that’s why we want to remain affordable.

FNW: How do you attract and foster young consumers’ interest in the brand?

JG: We promote our collections by enlisting leading French and international rappers like Orelsan, Aya Nakamura and Rim’K. We made a video of the latter’s Allô track, featuring items from our summer collection. We have a real community of artists and above all friends, with whom we do collaborations, as with Gradur in 2016, presentations, notably with French Montana, and events, like the sensational evening we did in Clermont-Ferrand with Tyga.

MG: We have also designed manga-themed collaborations, for example with One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen – the latter will be available this autumn – and gaming-themed ones, for example with the producers of ‘Call of Duty’ at the start of the year. The frequency of collaboration drops depends on the opportunities we have, and on our progress as the brand grows. We’ll celebrate our 10th anniversary in 2025. It’ll be a very important and highly creative year, we have many projects that we will unveil gradually. 

JG: At the same time, we’re relying heavily on social media. We have a strong presence on channels that help us stay in touch and forge links with Gen Z consumers. TikTok is an obvious choice for a fashion brand, but so is Snapchat, it’s an extremely underestimated app given the amount of traffic it generates. We have a budget of over €2 million for IT development and digital media buying costs. In our business model, the wholesale channel accounts for 50% of our sales, traditional retail for 40%, and e-tail for 10%. By 2027, we’re planning to increase the e-tail share to 20% and reduce the share of traditional retail to 30%.

FNW: What about wholesale expansion and international initiatives?

JG: Project X Paris is currently available at 1,500 stores by leading retailers such as Intersport, Sport 2000 and Foot Locker, where we are ranked third for market share in the ready-to-wear segment. Foot Locker is a key partner for us, we’re trying to improve our in-store positioning, better express our brand content, and develop special initiatives and activation periods, like the one we’ll do for the final part of the year.

As for international expansion, we’ve adopted a proximity strategy, aiming to enter countries close to France. We will double the number of stores we operate in Europe, from 60 to 120, by 2026. We started our international roll-out last year with Belgium, where we now have a dozen stores. Next year we will open in the UK, in London and Manchester, and we will cover the whole of Spain. Exports currently account for 15% of our business. 

FNW: What are your revenue targets?

JG: We currently generate a revenue of €70 million, and we’re growing at a 50% rate. I don’t have a crystal ball, but our growth is consistent with the roadmap we drew up a few years ago. We’re set to top the €100 million revenue mark by the end of the year, and we’re expecting to reach €300 million by 2027. To bolster our plans, we have been strengthening our staff, hiring many talented fashion and luxury executives this year: ​Geoffrey Manoha, our new head of marketing and communication, who was at Kenzo and Louis Vuitton, Raphaël Lefort, who’s in charge of our wholesale strategy, and Raphaël Young, who has worked with Virgil Abloh at Off-White, and is our premium line’s creative director.

FNW: Are you aiming to premiumise your product range? 

MG: Of course. By introducing two new collections a year, marked by regular drops, we are constantly developing new products, as we did with the sneakers we launched last year. In 2024, we will premiumise our range by launching a new line called X by Project X Paris, where ‘X’ signals our passion for collaborations. It’s a more premium line, distinctive for its futuristic, minimalist vibe, and will be commercialised in autumn 2024 at select high-end retailers like the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps department stores. This new range, with an edgier designer feel, is aimed at streetwear connoisseurs who are looking for something more conceptual, and will be the perfect complement to our existing wardrobe.

FNW: As entrepreneurs in charge of a fashion brand within a troubled ready-to-wear sector, are you optimistic about the future?

JG: The fashion industry in general has been hit by defaults like Naf Naf’s and so many others, but these are opportunities that we can seize to grow. Previously, shopping malls were saturated with brands and retailers. Nowadays, setting up shop there is easier, we have a dozen store openings planned in shopping malls in the coming months. Personally, I’m very optimistic about Project X Paris, and I’m sure it has a bright future. We are growing at our own pace in France and Europe. We currently employ 250 people, and we’re planning to hire another 20 by the end of the year, and about 50 next year, to keep up with our growth objectives. In the long term, we’re thinking about entering the USA. It’s a huge, highly attractive market with 500 million consumers, so we want to do things properly, and land there with real omni-channel firepower.