The Modern Retail Podcast

It’s a good time to be an outdoor apparel brand.According to NPD Group, outdoorwear sales are up 45% this year, and some brands have been able to dominate this growing fervor. Teva, the shoe brand known for its velcro strapped sandal, has seen sales grow. In the ’80s, when the sandals first hit the market, Teva was the leader in the space. Then, after a couple decades of dominance, fervor died down, as other competitors like Chacos and Keens began to encroach on its territory. But over the last three years the company has been focused on reemerging as a footwear leader.“In short order,” said Anders Bergstrom, Teva’s global general manager, “we’ve retaken the number one position in sport sandals.”Bergstrom joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how he’s been handling all the curveballs thrown over the last few years. Teva -- which is pronounced ‘teh-vah,’ not ‘tee-vah’ -- has been around since 1985. “The idea -- the notion -- of a sport sandal did not exist until 1985,” said Bergstrom. Teva, he explained, was the first of its kind. “What Teva did was introduce an active component to the sandal category in a way that had not been done before,” he said.That has been the North Star for the brand -- and it’s long been associated with its well-known classic style. But the brand has been staying relevant with new styles and even brand collaborations. Some partnerships include the singer Jhené Like, Outdoor Voices and Cotpaxi. “The sport sandal itself is so iconic -- it’s so unusual -- that, for lack of a better term, collab partners just have a field day tweaking it,” said Bergstrom. “It’s not a blank canvas -- it is just a number of straps that are attached to a midsole.”What also has kept Teva relevant of late is the fact that a certain type of outdoor apparel has become quite fashionable. What some describe gorpcore -- which includes outdoor classics like Patagonia vests and hiking boots -- has become all the rage in New York fashion circles. Said Bergstrom, the way to know a fashion trend is on the horizon is to look at what’s going on in Japan. “What we call gorpcore is really just the way people in Tokyo dress, said Bergstrom. “It’s really fascinating.”He went on to explain how this has led to a new apparel adage. “If we ever have a question about whether a product is going to work or not, [ask] can you see it on the streets of Tokyo?”

For Corkcicle, the company’s mantra is to focus on innovation through partnerships.The company, which makes a variety of consumption-focused products like cups, travel mugs and wine coolers, has spent the last decade expanding the types of items it makes. And over the last few years, its business has really begun to ramp up.Sales have been growing year-over-year and, according to CEO Chris McDonough, the company is nearing $100 million in annual revenue. Much of that is thanks to some big-time partnerships Corkcicle has inked over the last few years. For example, the company has worked with Disney on a variety of capsule collections for both Star Wars and Marvel franchises. It’s also worked with bigger names in the art world like Basquiat.“It’s moved on a lot from its original days, as I think about the size and scale of the company and some of those partnerships,” said McDonough on the Modern Retail Podcast. “But that DNA of innovation and pushing those boundaries really lives through every day within the business.”On this week’s program, McDonough spoke about how the company thinks about product expansion, as well as the ways it works with partners. One of his big focuses is on constant newness. “We’ve got a very defined brand positioning,” he said. “We have eight areas of innovation -- category expansion that we’ve identified... and within those eight verticals, what we’ve done is mapped out an innovation pipeline for the next three years.”In short, McDonough is focused on making sure Corkcicle is expanding and scaling for years to come.The past two years have been difficult to deliver on such ambitions. Much of that is due to supply constraints and other pandemic-related hiccups. Still, McDonough said Corkcicle was still able to grow and deliver on its promises.One of the most important ways the brand has stayed successful amid these challenges was by being upfront and candid with its business partners. “What we’ve had to do is just keep really open lines of communication,” he said. Rather than put our head in the sand, we’re just really open with retail partners.”

Telemedicine has taken the human world by storm, and Joe Spector thinks the next frontier is pets.Spector is the founder and CEO of Dutch, which offers telehealth services for pet owners -- connecting them with veterinarians virtually. He has some experience in this space as Spector is a co-founder of Hims -- another DTC telemedicine startup best known for its balding and erectile disfunction over-the-counter services.According to Spector, there’s a huge white space for pet care. “I just realized all this innovation that I was a part of on the human side [with Hims] just has not translated at all on the pet side,” he said on the Modern Retail Podcast.So, he decided to bring some of his expertise to the pet care space. Dutch launched this year and is still relatively limited in its coverage. It is available in eight states and offers support for behavioral issues like anxiety and skin issues like rashes for both dogs and cats. “We’ll be growing to having national coverage pretty soon,”One of the big hurdles he’s overcoming is red tape and protectionism. One may think that pet health regulations are more lax than those for humans, but Spector says that’s just not true. His mission, he said, is going state by stating and “changing that red tape.”It’s a playbook he’s familiar with, but that doesn’t make it easier. Right now, his focus is on making both customers and pet health professionals trust Dutch and understand the brand. “The ethos of the company is health care and actually solving the problem,” he said.

During the pandemic, most people sought comfort -- and many of them turned to weighted blankets.Bearby, which makes knitted weighted blankets, saw sales grow more around 5x in 2020. This year, things aren’t slowing down. According to founder and CEO Kathrin Hamm, revenue is on track to double in 2021. “It has been quite a ride,” she said on the Modern Retail Podcast.Though Bearaby considers itself primarily a direct-to-consumer brand -- most of its sales come from its owned online channel -- it has had an interesting distribution trajectory. Only a few months after first launching in 2018, the company inked a deal with West Elm. Since then, the partnership has grown to more Williams-Sonoma brands, and Bearaby has continued to increase its retail footprint with other retailers like Nordstrom.Even with these partnerships, the majority of Bearaby’s sales come from online. And Hamm said she wants to keep it this way, because of product education. “When I had my first weighted blanket, there was no education around it -- it was like, here’s the thing, figure it out,” Hamm said. But, on Bearaby’s website, the company is able to properly explain what a weighted blanket is, what the benefits are, and how to use it.Retail, in this regard, also boosts online sales. In new geographies where Bearaby doesn’t see many online sales, being featured in a store can help teach people about the product. “In most cases, they didn’t know about weighted blankets,” Hamm said.She pointed to the recent Nordstrom partnership, where Bearaby’s products were placed in markets the company has traditionally not targeted. “We’re, for the first time, in markets where we as a brand don’t have a strong presence,” Hamm said. “And already, in the early weeks, we see a lift on our DTC side.”For now, Hamm’s primary focus is to get more people to know about both weighted blankets and Bearaby.

One of the ways direct-to-consumer cookware brand Made In has grown was through its connection with chefs.“Chefs are the new athlete,” said co-founder and CEO Chip Malt. That idea has been core to Made In’s growth. Malt was the most recent guest on the Modern Retail Podcast -- his interview was recorded live at the Modern Retail Summit, held in Palm Springs last week.Indeed, Made In -- which first launched in 2017 -- has inked multiple deals with celebrity chefs, including “Top Chef” judge Tom Colicchio and Mozza co-owner Nancy Silverton. Made In sells to restaurants, which make up only 5% of its total sales. But its partnerships with these chefs have helped Made In become a more prominent cookware player. Malt said sales grew 5x in 2020.The idea behind Made In, he said, was to make a cookware brand that had real brand loyalty. “Food is a very emotional category,” he said, but most people think of recipes or the food itself, rather than the tools they use to make the dishes. “We couldn’t think of anything where people care less about the brand affinity in a space of a product they use so much.”To try and create that brand affinity, Made In has tapped a deep network of culinary professionals. And, as a happy side effect, the company’s business-to-business sales have grown. For now, they remain a drop in the bucket -- but Malt said that the chef community “makes up way larger than 5% of our mindshare.”By focusing on those tastemakers, he said, “it’s an organic growth through that community.”

After hitting it big in Australia, Glasshouse Fragrances is testing out the U.S. market.The company makes luxury candles among other high-end products, and since launching in 2005, has become one of the biggest candle companies in Australia. Now, it is focused on international expansion after launching in the U.S. last year. It is currently available in over 1,200 retail locations in the country, and has expanded to body washes, soaps and diffusers. Founder Nicole Eckels joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how she built the brand and her strategy surrounding the U.S. expansion.“Scaling to the U.S. was very difficult because we have grown a very big business for our category in Australia,” she said. “And it took all of our resource just to supply that [Australian] market and to serve as that market.”Indeed, over the last 15 years Eckels has been trying to perfect her Australian business. In the early days, she was doing everything from scratch. She had a background in sales, but not so much in manufacturing. “It really was a matter of trial and error,” she said -- figuring out how to make the right products and get them in the right hands. “It was really really tough in the beginning,” she said.But now, she said that the timing is right and it’s time for Glasshouse to bring its products to the U.S. Eckels is doing this by establishing an online presence -- both direct-to-consumer as well as on Amazon. She is also seeking out distribution from independent retailers. “We’re not trying to just be everywhere and get mass distribution right away,” she said.Still, there’s a lot of work to be done. For one, she is still building out Glasshouse’s brand presence in the States. With that, she’s trying to find the right retail partners. For a luxury brand, she said, it’s a difficult balance -- and that’s what she’s figuring out now.“We are a luxury brand,” she said. “We don’t want to be everywhere but we don’t want to be too difficult to find either.”

Kids Foot Locker has big plans to be the number one shoe retailer for kids.According to Jill Feldman, the vp and general manager of Kids Foot Locker, she aims to make it a billion-dollar brand. “That’s not quite doubling [where it is now],” she said on the Modern Retail Podcast, “but we have had really big momentum recently.”There are a few major things Feldman is focusing on: for one, expansion. That includes expanding the product selection, but also Kids Foot Locker’s retail footprint. “We actually are planning on expanding our store base, which I know is a little bit unusual in retail right now,' she said. Part of that mandate is finding the best new locations, she explained, while also diversifying away from older spaces like malls.“We’re finding ways to really become embedded in the neighborhoods where our customers live,” she said.But physical expansion is only a small part of her focus. Feldman is working on revamping the entire in-store experience, as well as continue forging unique brand partnerships. Her team is “coming up with amazing collaborations between [companies like] a food brand or sometimes toy brands,” she said.All of these endeavors are aimed at targeting Kids Foot Locker’s core customers: sneakerheads. For the most part, that title is often thought of as a certain type of (often male) hype beast. But, according to Feldman, “we have a young generation of sneakerheads as well.”With this, the hope is to continue growing the Kids Foot Locker brand -- both in customers, revenue and stores. “It’s one of the fastest-growing banners in all of Foot Locker,” she said.

It’s 2021, and oat milk has become a mainstream phenomenon.One brand leading that charge is Oatly. It’s a nearly-30-year-old Swedish company, but only expanded to the U.S. in the last five years. But its expansion helped spur a nationwide acceptance of dairy alternatives.Mike Messersmith, Oatly’s president of North America, joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and talked about the brand’s growth, as well as the category as a whole. Oatly started its U.S. expansion in coffeeshops, and that helped it expand into retail; “people discover it, they talk about it and they want to buy a larger carton at the grocery store to bring home,” he said.With that, Oatly is now available nationally and in major retailers including Target and Whole Foods. In tandem with this increased distribution, the last two years have been huge for the milk alternative brand. According to Messersmith, over half of Oatly’s customers in 2020 were new to the brand that year. According to its most recent earnings report last June, the company brought in $146.15 million in revenue, a 53% jump from the year before.And while oat milk is often considered a more bourgeois product, Messersmith said he is intent on getting everyone in the country to drink it. “Our goal in this was not just to bring oat milk to Brooklyn and the arts district in LA,” he said. “I want people ordering oat milk lattes where I grew up in northeast Pennsylvania.”So far, those plans seem to be working out. The milk alternative category as a whole is exploding. Plant-based milk saw 20% year-over-year growth in 2020, hitting $2.5 billion in revenue, according to data from Spins. Oat milk sales specifically tripled in 2020.For now, his focus is on getting people to try oat milk, as well as very conscientiously expand Oatly’s product line. Last summer, for example, the company launched a series of soft-serve flavors.Even with this growth, Messersmith was clear that his strategy isn’t to take things for granted. “We’re still at the very early stages.”

Over the last year and a half, people have increasingly invested in their homes. And mattress brand Saatva was able to capitalize that demand.The ten-year-old company saw revenues almost double over the last two years. In 2017, the company disclosed that it made $207 million in revenue. According to co-founder and chief strategy officer Ricky Joshi, Saatva has been "basically profitable since day one." He joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how Saatva has been growing and expanding its product line.Saatva has tried to establish itself as the producer of a higher-end mattress made with more sustainable materials. According to Joshi, the intention since day one wasn't to raise a lot of money and, as a result, be forced to scale in a short amount of time. "We really went out there and just tried to organically build the best business possible, being really disciplined in terms of how we managed our spending," he said. The company hasn't raised any VC money, but did receive a private equity investment in 2018 for an undisclosed amount.In the early days, the focus was on making a few products -- namely mattresses -- well, as well as capitalizing on the then-nascent digital marketing landscape. Now, the company is beefing up its advertising efforts and has expanded to other products, including bed frames, sheets and comforters. Joshi said more products are on the horizon too.With that, Saatva has also been increasingly expanding its retail footprint. It has a New York showroom that currently brings in $8 million of revenue a year. Now, the brand is opening new locations in cities like San Francisco, Washington, DC, Portland and Boston. Joshi said that the New York location "significantly exceeded our expectations."With the new stores, Joshi said he's trying to figure out the right goals. For smaller cities, for example, direct sales in stores will be more important than those with larger populations where a store can have greater impact on the overall market. "Every story has its own KPIs and goals," he said.The next year is critical for Saatva's growth, in Joshi's eyes. The company is ready to open more stores, launch new products and gin up more brand awareness. "We're going to take advantage of the growth in the home furnishing sector," he said. "Particularly the luxury part of the home furnishing sector."

It’s been an unpredictable year-plus for the spirits industry, as alcohol consumption shifted away from bars to the home and, now, slowly back to bars. But that presented a unique opportunity for the apéritif brand St-Germain.The Bacardi-owned elderflower-based liqueur has benefitted from growing demand for apéritifs. But according to Emma Fox, the VP of the brand, St-Germain has also been taking great pains to get more people to know it exists.Fox started working at St-Germain about a year and a half ago. Her mandate, she said on the Modern Retail Podcast, was about “making sure that we have the right ambassadors and people that work with us.” Before, a drink like St-Germain would focus predominately on distribution in upscale bars. But Fox has updated her marketing strategy to get the bottle in the hands of both consumers and influencers.Of course, that doesn’t mean bartenders are no longer important. Hospitality professions, she said, “are a part of the fabric of St-Germain.” But, with the coronavirus causing many bars to rethink their businesses, so too did St-Germain have to update its marketing playbook. Much of the focus over the last year, she said. was on making “very very simple content.” The idea was to get more people to understand exactly what the aperitif is.Now, things are accelerating even more -- and Fox is planning bigger promotions and events. At the same time, she said, St-Germain is trying to stay focused on what it is and to whom it caters. “You’ve got a North Star to guide you,” she said. “[Otherwise], I think you can get very easily distracted in a number of ways.”