BIOGRAPHY: NUMAN ATAKER
Fashion designer. Founder of the globally renowned fashion brand JOHN PAUL ATAKER, A brand which happens to be named after his son, i.e. John Paul.
Life Story
Numan Ataker was born in 1970 into an Assyrian family as the 6th of 10 siblings in the rural South Eastern Anatolia in a village of Sirnak town.
A fairly well to do farmer, his father decided to move his family to the West, to Istanbul.
Numan is 6 years old then. They move in together with his brother who went to İstanbul earlier and settled there.
A hard life in dire economic conditions ensues.
The 7 year old Numan is sent to work in a ready to wear garments workshop. He also starts at the same time attending primary school; pupil by the morning, child apprentice in the afternoon.
Talented Numan’s skills are soon recognized and the owner of a neighboring workshop proposes to pay better wages and becomes his new employer. Impressed by Numan’s skills and proficiency, the new master makes a challenging offer one day: “son, the day you are able to sew yourself a full shirt, all by your own, I will let you produce your own shirts and market them.” Really motivated by this attractive challenge, little Numan sews his fully self produced shirt at the age of 9.
From that day on, the little apprentice sews shirts of his own, and after his master has checked each one (QC), he tours wholesalers and retailers for marketing these. The proceeds are returned to the master.
From very early on, Numan’s childhood was almost fully occupied by intense and time consuming labor. Besides working at a workshop after school hours, during the remainder evening “off” hours, Numan sold chewing gum and bottled water, peddling on the Istiklal Street in Beyoglu. The most crowded boulevard of the Big City.
Like all his brothers, all the money earned was handed to his father.
Years later, in 1982, his father gathered his children around and announced that he had been saving all the money they have earned; and now, with the help of this money, he was going to open up a garments workshop for the family.
That same year, Numan is registered with a Secondary School. All brothers start working with great enthusiasm in their new family-owned workshop.
After a short while, his father summons Numan and tells him he should quit school, arguing it is unfair to the rest of his 3 brothers who are working full-time and not attending any school. Complying with his father’s request, Numan ends his educational life as a secondary school dropout at the age of 12(13?).
This is one of the worst traumas of his life, Numan Ataker says. For years he sees himself attending school, sitting on his desk, listening to his teachers and wearing school uniforms in his dreams.
As he turns 18, all his 3 brothers quit the family workshop, leaving him alone and solely in charge. But there’s a problem: The clients are hesitant to continue with their orders, anxious that such a young “master” may not be able to sustain the quality and steady flow of the products.
Numan decides he has to win over the old clientele and gain new ones. To this end, he produces full line prototypes of shirts and other sampler garments and tours clients with a presentation. He also prepares a presentation (with their respective models) for leading world brands who outsource to Turkish producer firms. The result is great success. Not only he secures the-then-current client base’s loyalty, he also wins over some major new customers.
By the time he is 20, Numan’s workshop is a major and reputable supplier for a multitude of prominent local and international brands.
1991 sees Numan Ataker exploring new opportunities in the garment accessories market. He quickly grows and expands his business to this area, becoming a major supplier.
In 1999, Numan Ataker concludes he has reached his limits of growth in the accessories market in Turkey and joins hands with his cousin to venture into the textile production (kumaş/clothes) and textile design fields.
Numan Ataker is very quick to expand in this sector, too. Thanks to experience gained in adjacent sectors relevant to textiles, prêt à porter, sewing and garments accessories, he advances rapidly and consolidates his position in competition with 30-40 year old, well established firms.
It is 1999 by then.
By this time, the overall global picture has also been greatly transformed. Numan Ataker starts to explore the Far East textile production, technology and marketing platforms. He starts to develop trade relations and starts importing from these markets, bridging domestic and European markets with the Far East.
In 2010, Numan Ataker decides to cut away from the Far Eastern markets and harness the potentials of the domestic (Turkish) textile industry.
Shortly after, in 2012, Numan Ataker focuses all his attention and energy to establish a global fashion brand centered in the United States, New York, NY. And thus, a years’ long dream becomes reality.
Family
Numan Ataker is married to Ms. Sehristan Ataker. They have 4 siblings: Lara Gul (2001), Zoe Keely (2003), and John Paul (2006). Philip Joseph (2011)