Millennial consumers want more than just quality products.
They want to support brands that stand for something and have a strong identity.
Online sales in the United States is expected to reach $523 billion in the next five years. With Amazon accounting for just above 40% of these sales, a new wave of companies that believe in strong brand identities is poised to breathe new air into the space.
Brands such as Warby Parker, Casper, Bonobos, are gradually becoming household names, especially among Millennials. In the words of Bonobos founder Andy Dunn, who coined the term “digitally-native vertical brands”, or v-commerce, to describe these companies, “most traditional retailers...ignore or underestimate these little tadpoles. Then Unilever bought Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion. Smart people woke up.”
Pistol Lake, an LA-based startup that aims to create “the most functional apparel for minimalists”, might provide an insight into the early days of how a successful v-commerce business is built.
One Shirt to Travel the World
“Think the comfort of athletic gear like Nike Dri-Fit and Under Armour, but without the bright colors and glowing neon bands that make you look like a Power Ranger.”
That is how William Sulinski, co-founder of Pistol Lake, described Pistol Lake’s clothing lines.
Together with his co-founder, Andrew Kneisley, William raised $600,000 for their startup to create high-quality apparel that you can wear to the office, to the gym, to the bar, and even on an outdoor excursion.
In fact, much of what Pistol Lake does as a company represents hallmarks of successful digitally-native vertical brands that entrepreneurs can learn from.
Applying Startup Mentality to Clothes
In growing Pistol Lake, William borrowed extensively from his background in starting and selling tech companies and applied a startup mentality to tackling an age-old industry.
While other digitally-native vertical brands sourced their materials directly, William and his team took it a step further and created their own material to combine the functionality of sportswear with the subtlety of casual wear.
Co-founder William
“We spent 2 years engineering a proprietary fabric based on Eucalyptus pulp and recycled bottles,” said William. “We’re taking bottles that would otherwise have gone to the trash and turning it into the first fabric of its kind.”
The recycled fabric, named Eudae, is lightweight, anti-odor, and has moisture-wicking properties.
In terms of design, Pistol Lake also borrowed Silicon Valley’s extreme emphasis on iterative improvement to create its line of clothing.
“The design process itself actually took 4 years, during which we iterated constantly by using small production batches,” said William. “We had hundreds of production runs until we finally landed on the perfect shirts.”
Pistol Lake’s startup methodology has paid off well, as proven by a successful Kickstarter campaign that almost tripled the initial goal (raising $57,543).
Getting Intimate With Customers
Another defining trait of successful v-commerce brands is their intimacy with their customers.
In v-commerce, customers care. Not only do they care deeply about superior product quality, they also pay attention to what brands stand for, how they produce their products, as well as how brands interact with their customers.
Even prior to its current round of funding, Pistol Lake has already engaged its customers closely to communicate all of the above, and successfully created a dedicated fanbase.
“Early on, we didn’t focus too much on marketing,” said William, “Most of it was just word-of-mouth from our community.”
Like many digital brands, Pistol Lake relied on social media to communicate with its fans. A Reddit community founded 3 years ago, which is active to this day, is full of customer discussions and suggestions that William and Andrew read and respond to personally.
One Reddit comment read, “You openness and transparency is why I love this brand”.
That customer devotion, in part, is what attracted Pistol Lake’s early investors.
“When I saw how passionate their customers were, I knew this was a company I needed to be a part of,” said Neil Parikh, co-founder of mattress company Casper.
Creating Trust
Digital brands that stand out often go out of their way to make sure customers trust their products.
Eyewear brand Warby Parker, for instance, sends five pairs of glasses to anyone for free to try-on to make the shopping process easier. Mattress brand Casper, on the other hand, allows consumers to sleep 100 nights on their mattresses before deciding whether to commit to the purchase.
Taking a page out of Casper’s book, Pistol Lake provides a 100-wear trial to make sure customers are convinced of its “Most Comfortable Shirt Ever” guarantee.
Co-founder Andrew
The company’s early devotion to its community of customers has paid off, as its products are now praised by venture capitalists and athletes alike, including NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana, and has become the “daily uniform” of Dave Morin, founder of Path, and a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
“I can’t tell you how much this has simplified my life,” said Dave, who is also founder and partner at Slow Ventures, which invested in digital shoe brand Allbirds.
Social Impact and Brand Identity
Like digital brands Warby Parker and Allbirds, which work with non-profits or adhere to stringent social and environmental standards set by the trusted certification organization B Lab, Pistol Lake is also set on making what it stands for clearer.
“We are actively at work developing all the gear that you will need to put in a backpack and travel the world with,” said William, “All the while focusing on what we stand for.”
To William, that means creating fair-paying direct employment opportunities locally through Pistol Lake, continuing to scale the use of recycled materials, as well as obtaining a B Corp status, the certification issued by B Lab.
“As we grow, we want to have a more direct relationship with our customers as well,” said William, “We live in an age when authenticity matters, and we want to communicate clearly what Pistol Lake stands for as a company.”
According to William, the message the Pistol Lake brand wants to drive home is pretty simple:
“We just want people to know that what they wear shouldn’t limit what they do.”
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