Frame co-founder Jens Grede: 'We have to bring back manufacturing to the United States'

Jens Grede's denim-first fashion line, Frame, was growing fast until the pandemic hit. The company has 10 stores and had planned to double that number in 2020.

Instead, the company is looking to 2021. "I'm still very confident about our store strategy right now," Grede said on the Glossy Podcast.

Whenever doors do open again, Grede said they'll have a lower customer capacity, masks for visitors and employees, and an emphasis on keeping things clean. "Safety for our employees and our customers is and has to be everyone's top priority right now. Long term? We don't know anything about the long term," Grede said.

Still, he has faith in the brick-and-mortar model, even as Frame's e-commerce sales are up "close to 300%" over the last few months, thanks in part to a 25% off sale. "It's really replaced [the sales of] all of our physical stores, and a little bit more than that." Making up for the revenue from wholesale is a bridge too far, however.

And if Grede could go back in time in anticipation of the pandemic, he would have geared the company toward direct-to-consumer sales earlier. "And I'm not talking about 2019, I'm talking about 2017 or '16," Grede said. "Times were very good in wholesale. Too good, in fact."

In general, Grede thinks the fashion industry should react to the pandemic with an idea also reflected in politics: bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. "Fashion brands have to carry less inventory. For that to be possible, we have to be able to turn inventory faster than we've done in the past. For that to be possible, we have to bring back manufacturing to the United States. That is the long and the short of it," Grede said.