Everything Michelle Wahler said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Wahler: Wholesale distribution is marketing that brands get paid for
“I think of wholesale as marketing that you get paid for. So anytime somebody goes into a yoga studio and sees your product, they're discovering you.”
Lululemon's sheer pant recall allowed Beyond Yoga to capture Equinox floor space
“I remember when they had the whole, you know, sheer pant debacle. I don't know if you remember that, but that was a moment, because at the time, I think we were the number two brand carried on. Equinox. But Lulu was, you know, the lion's share of the space. We…”
Beyond Yoga's COO was essentially the company's only white male employee
“Jesse was pretty much the only white male in our company for the majority of the time that we were in existence.”
Mass retail expansion is easy, but maintaining high-end brand equity is hard
“I think it's very easy to go quickly downstream, and it's much harder to continue to build a really clean, high-end, profitable business.”
Beyond Yoga suffered over $6M in order cancellations in one week
“Over six million dollars of cancellations in one week.”
Building an activewear brand is deceptively difficult, causing many to fail
“Everybody thinks that they can build an activewear brand, and I've seen so many people do it and not realize how difficult and nuanced it is and fail.”
Beyond Yoga generated over $1 million in its first shipping year
“We did over a million dollars in our first year of shipping.”
Wahler: Beyond Yoga pioneered active layering and transitional clothing
“So we were among the first to do this active layering and transition clothing.”
Beyond Yoga reached $4.5 million before a $1 million drop in 2009
“So in 2006, that was the first year we were shipping. We did 1.1 million. Then the next year we did around 2.2. Then the next year we did, I think we were around 4.5. Then the global financial crisis happened and everything kind of bottomed out all, you know, …”
Wahler rejected outside investment and acquisition offers to bootstrap Beyond Yoga
“We were just reinvesting every dollar back into the business. We never took on any additional outside investment. We had a lot of people offer to invest, and a lot of people offered to buy us at different points and we just turned everybody down, and we worked…”
Wahler credits Lululemon with normalizing the $100 pair of leggings
“I always looked at Lululemon as an inspiration and as the, you know, the company that made it ok for women to buy a hundred dollar pair of leggings. And I felt like they paved the way, and I'm grateful to them for that.”
Beyond Yoga saw continuous double-digit growth after launching its Spacedye fabric
“I know that we had double digit growth, you know, pretty much from that point on, and so we never had a, I think we ever had a down year from that point on.”
HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER