The Exchanges

Q It's an amazing idea. Randy, what do you think? How do you get, how do you market this to them?

A So today's world, I think we are heading to a place where you want to be borrowing community versus buying it. And the concept there when I say that is you want to be finding people that really resonate with a specific community that you're trying to find your way into. People that already have a head start there. Influencers and creators. Are establishing themselves, and micro communities are popping up everywhere. And the work of getting into those communities cannot come from a place of, I'm a brand, I have dollars, I'm putting money to get in front of you. That just doesn't read as authentic in today's world. So, finding the people who you think best represent that community, and have built a following, speaking authentically to them, And then figuring out the connective tissue between you and that person is the work of sort of hand-to-hand combat marketing in today's world. And I think starting from that place, you mentioned working women, you mentioned Christian communities, you mentioned Muslim communities. Start by trying to find a list of the people who are having the biggest impact in those places. And then look at the people that those people are following and look at who's following them. And maybe you start to build out An idea of the type of person you can partner with.

AI assessment note: “you want to be borrowing community versus buying it”

Q The orders start coming in. And is it, I mean, at this point, what, what are the hires that you're making? I mean, are you thinking about, you got to come up with new designs. You got to come up with a, do you start to kind of expand your team and designers and marketing experts? And, and what, what do you start to think about in terms of expansion?

A Well, I think in that moment, um, you know, there was sort of a new floor for the business. It's kind of the way we thought of it. We had all these new customers and we had made a lot of promises through this business, right? Like we promised we'd be donating a pair of socks and how do we show people the work that we're doing on the donation side? We promised a certain level of comfort and quality with our product. How do we ensure that people understand that in what we're communicating and how do we back that up? So customer service became super important. Dave mentioned he took every customer service call for the first, you know, year plus of the business. We would be out at a bar. He'd get a call and he'd go outside and disappear for an hour talking to a customer. But in that shark tank moment, we brought in a team and you know, that was the beginning of our customer service team and our happiness guarantee. And then we realized that like we had, we had brought somebody on to help fill that marketing gap.

AI assessment note: “we brought in a team and you know, that was the beginning of our customer service team”

Q And so the spark was, wait a minute, if this is the number one most requested thing at homeless shelters, maybe there's a model we can build similar to Tom's or to Warby Parker. I mean, were you thinking along those lines, or did it just kind of come to you? What do you remember?

A It was community first, I'd say. So, first we, we asked why. Why are socks the most requested clothing item in homeless shelters? So we, we made a call. We called a shelter, and we said, is this true, first of all, and why? And they said, well, you know, if you, if you're living on the street, you might not take off your shoes at night, and you know, a fresh pair of socks means a lot. You walk everywhere, you, you have hygiene issues around your feet, And then it can be a huge issue if it rains. This is a big issue. And because socks are a wear through item, we don't allow people to donate them. So you cannot donate used socks to the majority of shelters and organizations that help in the homeless community. And they said, so we end up having to buy socks. So it's a big issue.

AI assessment note: “It was community first, I'd say. So, first we, we asked why.”

Q going on here, right, Randy? One is, it's a brand about modesty, which could potentially have a wide appeal, and then size inclusive, which is also, and I wonder whether those are two separate categories, right? Like, can you, first of all, Randy, do you think it, you would market to each of those categories separately, or do you think it's better to focus on one of those two things?

A I think the magic is in the center part of that Venn diagram, and starting smaller, but Just because it seems smaller doesn't mean there aren't thousands of people who could be interesting ambassadors for you. And the idea that someone might be a great guest for your podcast, but a bad influencer or ambassador for your brand is okay, right? So I think your approach to who you want to talk to and who you want to help carve a way in are two different things. I do think there's an uphill challenge in that communities that tend to be insular This might not be the easiest nut to crack, right? But this feels like the kind of thing where when it works, it's going to really work. So having kind of a test and learn attitude and be willing to try a lot of things and fail in small ways, nothing that's going to sink you, but taking a lot of shots with a strategy is going to be the way forward here.

AI assessment note: “I think the magic is in the center part of that Venn diagram”

Q So you have this, so you land on this idea, you land on this sock. And at what point do you feel Randy comfortable quitting your job and, and, and quitting your steady paycheck to actually go into this full, full time, full force?

A Things were coming to an end for me at the end of 2012 at Urban Daddy. Um, you know, it, it was time to move on. It wasn't a good situation at the end. Um, there was conflict, there was, it wasn't ideal, but we were also, you know, things were moving Moving pretty quickly compared to how they had started with Bombas, we started to get a little momentum, and Dave had left his job, and, you know, there's that moment where you have to say, like, ok, now's the time, let's, let's do this thing. And again, we, we had other things going on, so we had a little bit of safety, but, you know, after having a job for six years, to be in a position where you're just building something, building multiple things even, It's a moment, and I think a lot of people face that moment when they're doing this, and you just have to, you have to give it a little bit of a leap, and you have to have put in the legwork, I think.

AI assessment note: “Things were coming to an end for me at the end of 2012 at Urban Daddy.”