performance-fabrics
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Mack Weldon made underwear worth buying twice
A better waistband was only the beginning. Mack Weldon’s real experiment is whether everyday comfort can turn a reluctant shopper into a regular customer.
The Two Marketers Who Turned Body Scans Into 150 Sizes of Shirt
Kirk Keel and Matt Hornbuckle had no apparel experience and one stubborn idea: that most men's shirts fit badly because there aren't enough sizes. So they built 150 of them.
The 146-Year-Old Company Hiding in Your Patio, Boat and Workwear
You probably know Sunbrella. The more interesting business is the one behind it - a North Carolina mill that learned to sell durability, distribution and trust as one connected system.
Jordan Hauser
Jordan Hauser is a New York-based retail marketing and merchandising executive who leads marketing and creative at Paul Fredrick, the Pennsylvania menswear company founded in 1986 that built its name on dress shirts sold with exact sleeve lengths and a fit guarantee. Listed publicly as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Creative (and as Chief Marketing Officer in some directory listings), he sits at the junction of two disciplines that rarely share an office: the merchandising side that decides what gets made, and the marketing side that decides how it gets told. His track record runs through department-store scale and startup scrappiness alike - director-level digital and merchandising roles across Macy's men's business and Market by Macy's, then VP of Merchandising & Marketing at Offe Market, the off-price marketplace for brand overstock. At Paul Fredrick he inherited a brand with roughly 88 employees, around $21 million in annual revenue, a Shopify Plus storefront, and forty years of accumulated customer trust in a category that has spent the last decade being told it was dying.
Pair of Thieves
Pair of Thieves is a Culver City, California men's basics brand that reimagines everyday essentials - socks, underwear, undershirts, tees and loungewear - with a focus on fit, performance fabrics and playful design at accessible prices. Founded in 2012 by three friends (film producer Cash Warren, designer Alan Stuart and operator David Ehrenberg) who each put in $1,500 to start a sock company, the brand grew into a roughly $100 million business sold at Target, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Amazon and direct-to-consumer. Its 'Give a Pair' and 'Good Fits' programs have donated millions of pairs of socks to people experiencing homelessness and to causes spanning mental health and LGBTQ+ youth support.
Paul Fredrick
Paul Fredrick is a Pennsylvania-based direct-to-consumer menswear company founded in 1986 that built its name on well-fitting dress shirts and grew into a full men's wardrobe brand covering shirts, suits, sport coats, pants, knits, shoes and accessories. Known for non-iron and performance fabrics, signature contrast-trim details and a perfect-fit guarantee, the company sells online and by catalog, backed by human customer service based in Fleetwood, PA. It is majority owned by private equity firm ClearLight Partners and is led by CEO Erica Lee.
Paragon Fitwear
Paragon Fitwear is a direct-to-consumer women's activewear brand from Ada, Michigan, best known for Sculptseam - a patented hidden-scrunch seam that shapes the glutes without an obvious ruched look. Started in a garage in 2013, the brand builds performance leggings, shorts, sports bras and loungewear around proprietary fabrics like RecStretch, UltraLux and the recycled Reluna, and sells almost entirely online to women who lift.