The Intuitive Futurist: David Gensler

David Gensler is a radical thinker with a nimble, perceptive mind. He’s also an extremely rare element in his field. As an entrepreneur, designer, content creator and cultural engineer, he has used his marketing knowledge and innovative strategies to garner substantial results for major global brands like Adidas & Leica. In addition to his success in the fashion & lifestyle lanes, he’s expanding his repertoire into the areas of tech, politics and even social activism. He fully deserves to be in our Rebel Issue, because he’s always ready to champion unorthodox ideas and stand steadfast for the causes he believes in. Learn more about the complex mosaic of Mr. Gensler’s existence below:

As a strategist, designer and futurist, you’ve been involved with a wide range of brands, businesses, creative collectives and more. What is the main inspirational factor you look for before immersing yourself in a new project?

I have to be excited about the people I will be working with on any new project. By the nature of my career, I get to touch so many different industries and products and ideas – and regardless of the “what,” I am always most inspired by the “who” – the talented people that dream up or lead the small ideas into global movements.

How important is the concept of “true innovation” in the way you approach every new endeavor?

It is tricky… Sometimes you have to “ride the wave” in front of you and take advantage of a trend, but overall, I try to avoid relying on trends and try to focus on developing internal company cultures that feed from and produce constant innovation. For me innovation is always process and never a “thing.”

What would you say is the most common reason you encounter for brands not adapting to a rapidly changing market and rather settling for tradition over evolution?

Change is scary and hard.

Tell us about the work you did with Leica Camera and LeicaCraft and how you played a major role in their current cultural resurgence?

I had always loved the Leica brand, not just as a product, but also as a legacy brand. I had approached them about a year before their 100-year anniversary and proposed a number of new strategies to accelerate their business. At that time they were going through a lot of shifts in upper management and the old guard was quite “skeptical” of what I had proposed, but the chairman of the company was open to do some tests and the rest I guess is history. I recognized a simple truth, that there are less and less “professional photographers” and more and more people who use photography for their businesses. With that insight we focused on “culture” and the tactic of putting Leica in places it typically avoided or did not know existed. We developed an ambassador program and a full cultural platform (LeicaCraft) which I still control and maintain. More quickly than I could have ever imagined, the strategy was 100% successful and they have a new era of young management that has embraced the “culture first” strategy around the world. Now you see hipster photographers wearing Leica’s like Kanye had kids wearing a Jesus Piece – all kidding aside, Leica makes a great product and it is amazing to see new generations embrace the brand.

Some of your current new projects include VanishToday, Sennheiser and KameraCraft™. Can you elaborate more about these projects? Also does Vanish Today have any relationship to your Streetwear Today publication?

VanishToday is a cultural platform that helps inspire people to get away from the computer and enjoy the great outdoors. We call it “curated escapism” and you will see more and more products launching this year.

StreetWear Today is a 15-year-old publication that I have had the honor of being a part of since 2005. My partner Martin runs the mag from Germany and is dedicated to sticking to print and not moving too fast. It is nice to be able to take our time and really focus on curating content and not just throwing up every trend to feed the digital machine.

I am working with Sennheiser to help expand their reach and engagement into new markets and cultures. They make an incredible product – some people refer to them as the “Leica of Audio” – so my job is fun because I get to introduce people to a product that amplifies an experience that fuels passion and energy … Music and Sound.

KameraCraft™ is a new platform/community/collective dedicated to uniting camera nerds! Its real mission is to promote global camera culture and the true craft of photography. We are just about to launch a lifestyle collection of streetwear and accessories and later this year a “secret app” that will help accelerate the culture even faster. So far we have been blessed and the platform is the fastest growing in the industry, gaining roughly 1000 new users per day on average. The world’s obsession with pictures has produced an very large new generation of young photographers and we are trying to unite them in one movement.

“I also pioneered a new system which I call, ‘Data Weaponization,’ – that has been tested successfully in the public and private sectors.”

We find it quite impressive that your creative sensibilities are accentuated by your academic achievements. Can you share some words on the recent post-graduate work?

My grandfather always pushed the power of knowledge and I was lucky to be good in school – but also recognized that to maintain a competitive edge, it was not just about institutionalize education and degrees, but about remaining in a constant state of “input.” Since I was 18, I have been “in school” in one form or fashion and typically go through phases once every 6 or 7 years where I dig in and focus even harder as a way of forcefully evolving myself.

Back in 2011, I was invited to participate in a couple of post-graduate fellowships that fed off some of my professional work that had been getting some media coverage – so I used the opportunity to radically shift my approach and process to begin and end with economics and data.

My most recent work focused on theoretical economic models, mostly looking at collaborative and organic economic systems. I also pioneered a new system which I call, Data Weaponization – that has been tested successfully in the public and private sectors. I am not trying to be overly vague with this answer – it is just that I have several bodies of work about to be published and I don’t want to say too much, too soon.

The FutureCraft philosophy/methodology you created has been recently utilized by some global brands. First off, what is FutureCraft, and are you working hand in hand with these brands on this expansive project?

I had originally developed FutureCraft as part of my SVSV (serum versus venom) brand in 2003. We were looking to raise the bar in streetwear and more youth aimed menswear and at the time everyone was just doing the same thing and the market was Ina state of flux. FutureCraft is a way of defining a particular process in the pursuit of innovation – by carefully colliding the latest state of the art technologies with traditional Craft based techniques and tools you can typically produce consistent positive results.We then successfully applied the FutureCraft methodology to other brands with great success.

Now some current and previous clients have adopted FutureCraft and turned the ideas into their own product innovations. It is always exciting to see your ideas adopted, mutated and realized by others. In that same breath it is always scary at the same time – because you don’t want people to “mutate” the philosophy too far in one direction and kill its intended function.

Being a designer yourself, what do you make of the rampant “hype” culture that has consumed fashion – especially the emergence of brands like Yeezy, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Vetements?

There is a personal answer and a professional answer to this … Professionally, whatever variable works to drive growth, it is the responsibility of the managers of the business to utilize it. “Hype” and “influencers” are what rule the day, “right now” – but with anything, we are all governed by cycles that we honestly don’t control. The market has already had an adverse reaction to the “hype” based brands and in reaction has produced an entire “analog” movement in response. I am not saying one way is better than another – I will say that I personally prefer the slower, more carefully produced “analog” culture to the “now, now, now” Hype machine.

Is there any industry or challenge remaining within the design/marketing realm that you are eager to tackle or pursue?

I am very interesting in tech and bringing what I do to this sector. I am always amazed at how quickly a new technology, with little to no brand or culture can have a rapid rise in value, and then do nothing to really expand the meaning of their brands to remain competitive and relevant beyond the obvious function of their initial product.

I am also heavily getting involved with politics – both on a grand scale with our nations failed two party system, but more acutely on a local level, focused on combating corruption. I think anyone in this country would agree that the current state of the world and the current system of leadership are inseparable bedmates.

I will begin to focus on the ground beneath my feet and begin to help put the right people in positions of power. I have recently experienced corruption and incompetence first hand – and it stands directly against the overall health and future of our nation. I, unlike many others, will not complain and do nothing about it. Innovation is not just about technology and brands and commerce. We don’t hear the word “innovation” used with politics or law or social issues. This must change (quickly).

What’s coming up for you in the next 5 years – more consulting projects, starting new brands/publications or are you just going to see what comes around your way?

I am a new father and that is and will remain my primary focus. I have a beautify daughter named Zoe Rose and she comes first. With that said, I am happy consulting brands and managing my own projects. It gives me the time to spend with my daughter without having too much work stress distracting me. I also find that with more balance between work and home, I am ultimately more focused with work. I used to work 30 hours a day, 9 days a week … which in reality is less productive and obviously unhealthy.