How Awe Inspired leveraged its celebrity fan base to become a DTC jewelry powerhouse

There are a lot of mixed signals about how holiday sales will perform this year, but DTC jewelry brand Awe Inspired is bullish.

Awe Inspired sells jewelry like necklaces and bracelets, but they all feature pendants or charms meant to showcase empowerment, such as a Greek goddess or an astrological sign. The company's sales are up 45% this year, and it has become a celebrity favorite with people like Taylor Swift and Julia Fox showing off their Awe Inspired products. "We have some forces propelling us forward, so I'm planning to have a great holiday," co-founder and CEO Max Johnson said on the Modern Retail Podcast.

Johnson spoke about the company's growth over the years, its marketing strategy as well as what he's focused on for this holidays this year.

Awe Inspired first launched in 2018 while Johnson was working as a product manager at a telehealth platform. But it wasn't until 2020 that the company really began to see traction. The brand often partners with organizations promoting causes; it saw big spikes in popularity with jewelry like a Harriet Tubman pendant alongside the NAACP and a Florence Nightingale charm with the National Federation of Nurses that was introduced during the pandemic.

With these launches came organic virality. In the case of the nurse pendant, for example, "the cast of Grey's Anatomy wore it," said Johnson.

Now, Awe Inspired is trying to expand to offer more types of jewelry that reach new types of customers. "We're building a charm business," Johnson said.