Jannik Olander - Self-made in L.A.
As he is sitting there, a hot summer’s day at Skt. Annæ Plads in Copenhagen, it is not difficult to see that the 49-year-old Jannik Olander really is not a regular businessman from over there: hair combed back, a bit longer in the back and with some dashing grey here and there, well matched by a summery tan – a souvenir from visiting a friend on Ibiza for a week. But it is particularly his Hawaii-style summer shirt and a pair of loosely fitted patterned trousers that set him apart from the city’s tourists in their solid-colored shorts and polo t-shirts.
And, of course, the fact that his Los Angeles success is more than visible around his neck, wrists, and fingers. Necklaces, bracelets, and rings are probably what really are saying that here sits a man who is not afraid to stand out from the crowd.
The chains, bracelets, and rings are certainly not a random choice. They radiate a spiritual connection. If for no other reason, then because it is he himself who has designed the jewelry which is the visible proof of the success he has won in Los Angeles.
But the story of Jannik Olander takes its beginning somewhere else. Of all places, it starts in the small village Klattrup, some six miles or so south of the city of Vejle on the Jutland Peninsula. It is a small village, with a population of only 70. It was here that he properly began to stand out from the crowd.
“I’ve probably always known that I was a bit different. And that maybe I wasn’t made for a 9-5 job. I wanted something more. It was already at 14 that I really started liking stylish and fashionable clothing. I liked looking good.”
And so, he was prepared to make an effort: “I remember that I biked the 6 miles to the kiosk at Vejle Station to buy the English fashion magazine GQ. Then I would go home to my room in Klattrup and do a close reading of it.”
As a teenager, Jannik Olander was always on the go. “I had a part-time job since I was 12, and at home I learned early on that there is only one way to get ‘the good life’: work hard and earn the money yourself. Luckily, I have always loved working – and in the US I realized I could do the work of five. But my work and my private life have grown together other the years, so for me it’s pure pleasure.”
Fashion calling
After high school he had a choice: “The big city was calling my name. But should it be Aarhus or Copenhagen? And what about an education? All I knew at that point was that I wanted to create something on my own.” It ended up being neither Aarhus nor Copenhagen. It was in London he chose to spend his gap year. One year, which would turn into seven years in London, Munich, and Hamburg.
“I started out working as a clerk at Harvey Nichols. In 1991, it was one of the hottest fashion stores in London. I was there for a year and a half before I went to Munich to work for Ralph Lauren. Later I went to Hamburg to be the Ralph Lauren store manager there.”
Not everything during these years was about fashion and sales. The fact is that Jannik Olander is a capable snowboarder, and he spent the winter seasons as a ski bum in Austria and France. During the summers he was bartending on Ibiza. And the three summers in the Mediterranean holiday paradise was, in his own words, ‘just as wild and flippant as they sound’.
But he landed a deal with the Ralph Lauren store in Hamburg: he could spend some time on finishing his bachelor’s degree in Business and Retail at Niels Brock in Copenhagen. And once that was done, things sped up. “What I finished my degree, I got a job at the legendary store Brdr. Andersen at Strøget in Copenhagen. After seven years I had finally arrived in the capital! Suddenly I was the manager of almost 200 employees. It was quite a challenge.”
But already a year after returning home, he got the opportunity to open a Ralph Lauren store in Illum. And throughout the next seven years, he opened seven new stores in Illum, for hot brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Jeans, and many more. But enough was enough.
“I was working 24/7. But I could see that it was wearing me out. And that I didn’t have time or energy left to enjoy the success. So, I sold the stores. I threw myself into a new project: It was a t-shirt company, I called it Gorilla T-shirt. I started in a garage in a backyard on Islands Brygge in Copenhagen. In three years, it became one of the largest t-shirt brands in Denmark. Yet, I ended up selling it and moved to L. A. to try my luck there.”
The truth of the shaman
It was a time with a singular focus on creating success stories. And on earning money. That it ended up being Los Angeles was an active choice of not going to New York, where the ex had settled down. “We had been together for some time. But she didn’t like my work life. Or rather, the hours I spent on it. So, she took off to New York, to follow her dream of becoming an actress. And even though I visited every three weeks or so, well, it faded. So therefore, I ended up settling in the other end of the country.” But it was while travelling in India, where he met the shaman Nialaya, that Jannik Olander got a proper eye-opener. “He told me that I would not achieve real success until I stopped focusing on the money. I should do something I was really good at, that I was interested in, and then the joy and success would come along automatically. And that was to be creative.”
Before he could find out what that was, the financial crisis caught up with him. His savings – the revenue from the stores in Copenhagen and Gorilla T-shirts – had been invested in property both in Copenhagen and in Bulgaria. The joint value took a dive to near zero from one day to the other.
“I was, in plain words, broke. I had barely 5.000 USD in my bank account. I used them to buy pearls, string, and various things to make bracelets with. Then I went around to some of the real fashion stores in Beverly Hills. They weren’t exactly screaming with joy. But they took them in on commission, and I went home to Denmark for the winter holidays. That ate the last of my money. I could only afford a one-way ticket. In my suitcase I had the last few pearls and string, which I’d try to make jewelry of to sell at home.”
At home in Denmark, he managed to sell enough bracelets to his friends, who supported his project, to afford a return ticket. And at home in L. A., he was in for a surprise. “The store in Beverly Hills had actually sold every last bracelet. And that wasn’t all: they had a waiting list of over 50 customers. It was celebrities as well as regular customers. I collected my profit and immediately bought new materials. I worked straight through the night and stood in front of the store when they opened at 10, with the new bracelets.” From then on it ran smoothly. The success was a fact. He had actually lived his dream and ‘made it big over there’! On top of that, he did it by designing jewelry for men, who otherwise will not wear accessories apart from their wedding band or a nice watch. Nialaya as a brand has just kept on growing. And it has long since grown out of the garage where Jannik Olander began his journey.
Talking about garages. There are of course several methods of measuring success. Purely mentally, his success with Nialaya has meant that he can take things easy. He is still working. But he is no longer producing bracelets and rings. He has got people to do that. Instead, Jannik Olander can use spend his energy on the actual design work and the marketing. And financially, he can follow his own personal dreams. One of them was comparatively easy: it was about driving down the Pacific Highway in a sports car and enjoy the afternoon sun, sinking like a giant red marble below the horizon. Even though he has ended up doing it a few times, he got the ultimate experience when he ‘gifted’ himself a replica model of Carroll Shelby’s Cobra sports wagon for his birthday, when he turned 46 in 2018.
“I’d spoken with one of my friends in L. A. several times about the wild part of owning a Cobra sports car. Just the story about Carroll Shelby, who created the iconic sports car back in the 1960s, is phenomenal. But owning this tiny car with the giant V8-engine would be the wildest things,” Jannik Olander says and continues: “I was holding back. It’s a heft sum. A new Backdraft Racing Cobra replica model can easily end up at 150.000 USD. But my friend convinced me to go with him to Florida, where there was a Cobra with all the extras and a beautiful finish, all you could wish for. It has, for example, a fully chrome-plated engine. The guy who had ordered it, had disappeared. In return, I could get it for a good price. So, I took the deal then and there.”
“It’s a fantastic feeling, sitting down behind the steering wheel and hear the roar of the engine’s 610 horsepowers. It’s running amazingly aggressive and raw. But it’s so loud that it actually feels like you’re in a helicopter.” Even though it is a vehicle as from another world, it is not the Cobra that is being used for the daily commute from the house in Beverly Hills to the store on Melrose Avenue. It is just a little too loud for that. But you will easily survive that, when there is a pure-blooded Ferrari in the garage for the daily commute.