“Whatever we did turned to gold until it didn't. There were categories that we went into, active, swim, shoes, because in my head I could do anything so long as I did it through the lens of inclusivity. And that actually wasn't what customers are buying. They love that they could find their size, but you're not coming to my brand because I sell everybody else's sizes. You're coming because it does something for you.”
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Asked how she kept pressure under control at Good American after its huge launch, she says they didn't, and explains how the brand over-expanded because she misread what customers were actually buying: fit and fabric, not inclusivity on its own.
…all. And you've got to say, what is this company? What are we trying to do? What was the promise to the customer? And can we keep it? And all of that became really quite insurmountable, I would say. And then COVID hit. So it was like an extra sort of heavy weight because nobody was there except me.
…And like you mentioned, you know, that scale of a million dollar in one day, that's like building your Instagram profile and keep on when I'm going to be viral next. That's the same kind of fear. Yeah. So how did you keep the culture together and the pressure within that company? I mean, the truth
is we didn't. You know, we did for a while. I feel like there was a three-year run where everything was, you know, I was able to kind of like pace the new category development. I was able to keep the growth strong. And then what happens is people start looking at your company. So there becomes this sort of poaching mentality. You know, LA is pretty thin on the ground when it comes to talent, especially like digital talent in that fashion and retail space. So people really came to my staff and said, hey, you know, I'll offer you an hour 150 grand on top of whatever you're being paid. I wasn't able to match those packages. And so we lost a lot of people. So that was one thing that happened. The other thing was just not being able to scale thoughtfully, right? We kind of got a little bit of hubris in the way, like whatever we did turned to gold until it didn't. And so there were categories that we went into, active, swim, shoes, because in my head, I could do anything so long as I did it through the lens of inclusivity. And that actually wasn't what customers are buying, right? They love that they could find their size, but you're not coming to my brand because I sell everybody else's sizes. You're…
Let's go back in your history. You dropped out of school at 16. I dropped out of college at 20. Not the same. She actually made me go back to college. I didn't want to have a degree.
I'm not going to marry without a degree.
I mean, listen, you need that safety, right? I waited a