workwear
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Universal Standard made room for the customer fashion left upstairs
Two friends put $300,000 into eight pieces of clothing. Their wager: women wanted better clothes in their own size, rather than another invitation to change their bodies.
West Coast Choppers built a bike shop you could wear
Jesse James made custom motorcycles that few people could buy and a badge almost anyone could wear. The interesting business lives in the distance between the two.
Bordova Turned the Uniform Closet Into a Brand Department - Here’s the Playbook B2B Operators Can Steal
Bordova sells uniforms, gifts and promotional goods. The more interesting product is coordination: one relationship for the many small decisions that make a company look like itself.
Ann Taylor
Ann Taylor is an American specialty retailer of women's clothing, shoes, and accessories, founded in 1954 and known for polished, tailored wardrobing aimed at professional women. Headquartered in New York's Times Square, the brand operates a network of stores and an e-commerce platform, and sits alongside sister label LOFT under KnitWell Group, a portfolio company of private-equity firm Sycamore Partners.
Ariat International
Ariat International is a Union City, California footwear and apparel company founded in 1993 that applied athletic-shoe technology to riding boots and grew into the world's largest equestrian sports brand. Today it designs performance boots, western wear, workwear and flame-resistant gear for riders, ranchers, tradespeople and outdoor enthusiasts, sold globally through retailers and direct-to-consumer channels.
Brixton
Brixton is a California-based lifestyle apparel and headwear brand founded in a Oceanside garage in 2004. Named after The Clash song 'The Guns of Brixton,' it started with a single vintage-inspired newsboy cap and grew into a full line of hats, clothing and accessories inspired by heritage workwear - from mariners and aviators to cowboys and laborers. Distributed in more than 30 countries and backed by Altamont Capital Partners, Brixton blends classic silhouettes with modern function and a growing commitment to sustainable materials.
Timberland
Timberland is an American outdoor footwear and apparel company best known for its waterproof yellow boot, introduced in 1973. Founded on the shoemaking work of Nathan Swartz and his Abington Shoe Company, the brand grew from rugged workwear into a cultural staple embraced by hip-hop and streetwear before becoming a global lifestyle label. Now a VF Corporation brand headquartered in Stratham, New Hampshire, Timberland sells boots, sneakers, apparel and accessories through retail, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer channels, while pursuing circular design goals through its Timberloop take-back program.
TRUEWERK
Truewerk is a Denver-based, direct-to-consumer performance workwear brand that borrows fabric technology and construction from the outdoor and military apparel industries and applies it to clothing for skilled trade professionals. Founded in 2015 by former homebuilder Brian Ciciora, the company is best known for its temperature-graded WerkPant system (T1, T2, T3) built from 4-way-stretch, water-resistant, abrasion-resistant synthetic blends that outlast and outperform traditional cotton work pants. Sold primarily through its own e-commerce site alongside a growing uniform-services offering, Truewerk has raised roughly $35M and pitches itself as workwear engineered for comfort, mobility, and durability on the jobsite.
Work 'N Gear
Work 'N Gear is a U.S. specialty retailer of workwear, work footwear and healthcare apparel, based in Quincy, Massachusetts. For more than three decades it has outfitted blue-collar and medical workers with trusted brands like Carhartt, Dickies, Timberland PRO and Cherokee across a chain of brick-and-mortar stores in the Northeast and Midwest plus a growing e-commerce and B2B business. The company is also known for its 'Boot Trade' program, which redistributes thousands of pairs of gently used work boots to people in need each winter.
M.M.LaFleur
M.M.LaFleur is a New York-based direct-to-consumer womenswear brand that coined the term 'Power Casual' and built its business around solving a single problem: getting ambitious women dressed for work without wasting their time. Founded in 2013 by Sarah LaFleur, designer Miyako Nakamura, and Narie Foster, the company pairs thoughtfully engineered professional clothing with a free personal-styling service called Bento that curates a box of pieces around each customer. After a near-collapse during the pandemic, the company was rescued by a syndicate of women investors and refocused on the wardrobe needs of a hybrid working world.
Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi Strauss & Co. is the San Francisco apparel company that invented the blue jean in 1873 and has spent 170-plus years turning a piece of workwear into a global wardrobe staple. Today it owns the Levi's, Dockers, Beyond Yoga and Denizen brands, sells in more than 110 countries, and is reinventing itself under CEO Michelle Gass as a direct-to-consumer denim lifestyle brand while pushing water-saving manufacturing across its supply chain.