Dismantling America’s relationship with fast fashion with Bryan Marville | D2C Stories

Hey there, great people of the D2C community who are building fantastic things! This is your host Berkay writing.

This Friday on D2C Stories:
🧦 Dismantling America’s relationship with fast fashion: Bryan Marville from WORN
🤓 Tweets of the week
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🧦 Dismantling America’s relationship with fast fashion: Bryan Marville from WORN

Alright, here comes our favorite part: D2C success stories!

In the 10th episode we did with successful D2C entrepreneurs, we had an eye-opening conversation with Bryan, founder of the performance socks D2C brand, WORN.

What really stood out about Bryan was his grounded perspective and his deep grasp of the business world.

On his LinkedIn bio, Bryan labels himself as a strategist. And it’s true! With over a decade of experience in Madison Avenue agencies, collaborating with big names like Bud Light and Uber, he's a pro at transforming ideas into real-world strategies.

Bryan started his entrepreneurial journey with WETSOX, a company focused on creating frictionless socks for wetsuits, hunting, and fishing gear.

After a successful exit and a desire to build something even bigger, Bryan got his hands dirty and started WORN.

You can listen to the episode on Spotify, Google, or Apple Podcast!

And here are some highlights from our chat

😯 “There is an opportunity to improve any market that has been commoditized.” During his days with both WETSOX and WORN, this opportunity existed by offering practical functions or unique problem-solving features. In the case of WORN, it is their incredible fabric known as Arrowool™.

🐑 Arrowool™ Material: In the early design phase of WORN, the team focused on creating a performance-enhanced material called Arrowool™. This material, made by blending Merino wool with technical fabrics, offers superior water resistance, durability, shape retention, and antimicrobial properties, and has a lower environmental impact.

And very recently, they patented this fabric!

💪 Bootstrapping. WORN operated with bootstrapping in the initial two years. The team prioritized product development over non-essential expenses, focusing solely on product development.

🏃‍♂️ Testing your product yourself. A sports enthusiast himself, Bryan enjoys activities like surfing and running, and took a very personal approach during the product development. He personally tested his own products, at times going for runs with one sock made of one fabric on one foot and another made of a different material on the other foot.
Additionally, Bryan worked with numerous fellow sports enthusiasts, providing them with free products to evaluate the materials firsthand.

📞 Cold Calling Investors with a Product-First Approach. When seeking investment, WORN took an unconventional approach by cold-calling potential investors and sending them a tangible representation of their product. The product was used to speak for itself before any financial discussions began, fostering a unique connection with investors.

📈 Some mistakes, some lessons. Fueled by the new investment, Bryan admits he made some mistakes. One crucial mistake he made was overlooking high customer acquisition costs on some channels to grow faster, partly influenced by investor expectations for substantial growth.

Now he's shifted to a more slow, sustainable, and risk-averse approach to growth.

💰 Startup Realism. Bryan also mentioned the unrealistic notion that simply calling an idea a startup guarantees funding.

🏢 Business vs. Startup Mentality. Referring to their venture as a business rather than a startup was a crucial mindset shift for WORN. This perspective encouraged more efficient and sustainable operations.

🇺🇸 Dismantling America’s relationship with fast fashion. Bryan points out that many folks in the US view clothing as a commodity, and this actually poses a significant issue for our planet. Especially for footwear, people tend to buy cheaper products more frequently, instead of buying once and using them longer.

That commodity mentality is exactly what Bryan stands against!

WORN is greatly influenced by the strategy of Patagonia, particularly Yvon Chouinard, the CEO. Their approach resonates with Bryan, who believes the best sustainable product is one you can use for a long time.

In line with this philosophy, WORN prioritizes creating durable products. And this is possible thanks to their Arrowool™. 

The aim is to take people away from the disposable consumer culture and offer eco-friendly essentials that can be enjoyed for the long term.

📦 Streamlined Packaging for Efficiency. WORN uses a streamlined packaging system that caters to both direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels.

🆇 TWEETS OF THE WEEK

1. Cold truth 🥶

2. Is dropshipping dead?

3. Gifs are underrated?

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