The Bold Metrics Podcast

Listen in as host Jeff Mergy and Cassie Abel, Founder & CEO of Wild Rye, discuss building a women-first outdoor performance brand, navigating tariffs, and reaching the 10-year milestone that only 2% of apparel brands ever hit in the latest episode of Bold Brands.

A conversation on the rise of AI-powered engineering, advice on the best way for anyone to get started with AI, and the spiritual experiences that shape how we build a more abundant future.

Listen in as host Jeff Mergy talks with Carolyn Mair, Behavioral Psychologist & Author of The Psychology of Fashion. They discuss apparel's impact on human behavior, sustainability, and how what we wear influences our emotions and moods.

Listen in as host Jeff Mergy and Bethany Muths, Chief Marketing, Digital, and Omni Officer at Mizzen+Main, discuss driving customer engagement through product and marketing in the latest episode of Bold Brands.

Join us as host Jeff Mergy discusses the latest in video commerce & apparel technology, and how it's shaping the future with Sophie Abrahamsson, President of Americas at Bambuser.

Cecelia McAleer, an apparel industry executive, shares her learnings about design, fit, and sizing over her 25+ years of experience.

Learn more about how alder apparel incorporated feedback from their customers to grow their product line, how they're trying to change the way women think about clothing size, the challenges of designing clothing for a wide range of body shapes and sizes, and more.

Hyde Closet delivers professionally styled, rental menswear in subscription boxes to simplify shopping while generating valuable data insights. Uncover how they offer unique exposure for emerging brands, drive effective marketing through style curation, and help large brands mobilize idle inventory.

Learn how the brand integrates sustainable practices throughout the business by implementing eco-friendly production methods and reducing packaging waste while creating stylish apparel for the modern woman.

Maria McDonald, the Director of Sustainability at United By Blue, shares her insights on sustainability in the fashion industry, the challenges and opportunities in creating eco-friendly products, and United by Blue's positive environmental impact.

Learn how the brand is using technology to track and optimize their production, manufacturing, and distribution, and exactly how Sheep Inc. became the world’s first carbon negative apparel brand while supporting animal welfare and land regeneration.

Ebru Debbag, Executive Director of Global Sales and Marketing at SOORTY is a veteran in the industry and takes an impact-at-scale approach to drive positive change through one of the world’s most prominent vertically-integrated denim jeans manufacturers.

Brent Hollowell, Volumental's CMO, shares how brands can effectively communicate tech solutions in a human and relatable way.

Ram Radhakrishnan, Silq’s CEO and co-founder, speaks with BOLD Brands host Jeff Mergy to outline how the company uses proprietary inspection data to deliver predictable shipping costs and transit times to empower apparel manufacturing companies to scale their business effectively. Listen now.

A former executive VP of Emerging Brands at J. Crew, Geren started Canava with co-founder Yisbel Zamora to create a sustainable lifestyle and apparel line that focuses on redefining the tools of a conscious lifestyle. Learn how a focus on transparency and authentic narrative has helped the brand grow, and why addressing fit and sizing when selling apparel online is crucial to creating an inclusive, and successful, brand.

Founder & CEO of Factory45, Shannon Lohr works with idea-stage entrepreneurs to launch brands that are sustainably and ethically-made. She has worked closely with startup apparel companies from all over the world to create environmentally-friendly products while empowering transparency in the supply chain. BOLD Brands host Jeff Mergy speaks with this Wall Street Journal “Woman of Note” to find out how apparel brands can increase supply chain transparency through sourcing, localization and storytelling, as well as what exactly the future of fashion entails.

Fueled by her passion for sustainability and circularity, Karin gives us the inside scoop on why resale is imperative for brands, both as a positive environmental approach and as a revenue driver. Listen now to discover how Recurate leverages the blockchain to ensure authenticity, why it is the only tech resale provider that directly integrates into a brand’s eCommerce, and how it uses data to drive smarter decisions at the companies it partners with.

Vanessa Barboni Hallik is the founder and CEO of the first B-corp certified luxury fashion brand, Another Tomorrow. A former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, Vanessa left her finance career to focus on sustainable fashion and reinvent the way luxury brands do business with tech-enabled supply chain transparency and embedded resale.

Play Out Apparel is a gender, race, age, sexuality, size, and ability-inclusive brand launched in 2018. Starting with gender-inclusive underwear and streetwear with sizing from XS to 5X, the brand is also developing its own gender-equal swim category to launch this year. Bold Brands speaks with its CEO and co-founder, Abby Sugar, on what it takes to build a truly inclusive brand, how the company embodies its values throughout the manufacturing and marketing process, and what making it to the Forbes 2021 Next 1000 list means.

In this episode of BOLD Brands, host Jeff Mergy speaks with John Strotbeck, the founder of Boathouse Sports, a custom athletic outerwear and gear brand that combines mass customization with lean enterprise to deliver the highest quality product to over 500,000 teams and 10 million athletes over the last two decades. Discover how Boathouse Sports started with a handful of products before turning into a full apparel team supplier nationwide and abroad, all while keeping manufacturing in Philadelphia, PA.

Livsn’s founder, Andrew Gibbs-Dabney, has taken a dynamic and sustainable approach to building the brand, while focusing on fit, performance and products built for people who value collecting experiences more than stuff. He shares what it takes to build a successful online apparel brand, and what to avoid along the way.

Learn how the apparel industry can build trust without greenwashing, and why fully-compostable fabrics need to be the future of fashion. Marije’s own brand - Positive Fibers, recently created the world’s first fully-compostable jacket as proof that fashion and ethics can work together to create something beautiful. Listen now on Apple Podcasts.

Max Perez, the founder of xSuit, explains how his digitally-native suiting brand is transforming business attire with innovative fabric technology that requires less cleaning, zero ironing, and incredible comfort. Find out how xSuit created the most-funded suit campaign of all time on KickStarter and how the brand evolved into one of the most innovative everyday suits on the market.

In this episode we are speaking with Kristy Caylor, the co-founder and CEO of For Days - a revolutionary DTC apparel brand that champions closed-loop commerce to create a sustainable clothing company. The company incentivizes customers to adopt a more sustainable approach to fashion with its Take Back Bag program and swap program, and has been featured by Vogue and Fast Company, among others. Find out how they are disrupting the linear fashion business model while building a successful, sustainable approach to fashion.

The direct-to-consumer brand Truewerk provides industrialized athletes- a term Brian coined about the people the company served - with apparel that would exceed their needs and leverage modern fabrics, greater attention to detail, and a deeper connection to the job site - innovating workwear for modern trade professionals. Listen and discover how this digitally-native workwear brand found its niche and owns it while going from strength to strength despite the global pandemic—a must-listen for anyone interested in starting up their own online apparel business.

In this episode we speak with Andy Fine, founder of DTC suiting company, Sartoro. Andy launched Sartoro in February 2020, just as the world was poised on the brink of a global lockdown due to COVID-19. Finding himself stuck in Vietnam, where he had been overseeing production, Andy used the time to further develop the brand and learned how to adapt to global challenges, especially supply chain disruptions. Listen to discover how Sartoro turned the epic challenges of 2020 into opportunities for eCommerce growth

The Mississippi-based custom denim jean company, founded by Josh West and Nick Weaver, makes all their jeans in the USA, leveraging local seamstresses' skills and expertise to create their signature five-pocket denim in the finest raw materials. Blue Delta Jeans also introduced an online fitting tool that allows customers to be fit from anywhere in the world. In this episode of BOLD Brands, we speak with CEO Josh West and Blake Cocanougher, VP of Sales & Director of Wholesale Operations, to find out how they are building a scalable DTC model for custom jeans using cutting edge fit and sizing technology.

Stephanie Benedetto, the CEO and Co-Founder of Queen of Raw—an online marketplace to buy and sell unused textiles—shares her motivation to turn pollution into profit and keep textile waste out of landfills by leveraging data analytics and technology. Featured on NPR, Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Vogue, Stephanie is a 2020 Inc. Female Founders 100. Find out how she grew Queen of Raw during COVID-19 and her forecast on the technology that will change the future of apparel retail and fashion eCommerce.

Californian brand Olivers is all about premium athletic staples reimagined for the 21st century. In this episode, we speak with its CEO, David Wolfe, to find out how this direct-to-consumer menswear label's focus on high-quality innovative fabrics, sourced from as far afield as Australia and Peru, has led to higher conversions and helped expand their online business.

Selling luxury sleepwear and lingerie online might have seemed like a long shot when Julianna Rae launched in 2005 but a quality product range combined with excellent customer service and care meant that the brand built up a loyal fan base quickly and has continued to grow. Now in its 16th year, this digitally-native company owes its success to paying close attention to what its customers want, while also focusing on creating a seamless online shopping experience. We speak with co-founder, Juli Lee, to discover how the brand has pioneered luxury lingerie eCommerce.

In this episode, we speak with Kelly Watters of Western Rise—a line of premium, menswear classics that focused on performance and versatility to cater to an adventurous modern lifestyle. Celebrating innovative technical fabrics and designs that could go from a boardroom meeting to hitting the trail, find out how its founders expanded their DTC business during 2020 while stepping up on the brand’s sustainability and social responsibilities.

Vancouver-based Gentle Fawn has established itself as a leading purveyor of chic, feminine, and yet effortless, clothing for women. As the brand celebrates its 18th successful year in the competitive world of apparel retail and fashion. We speak with co-founder Carla Hogg to discover the power of listening, why sustainability is a core part of the company culture, and how they work with retailers and customers to get back on track in a post-COVID world.

Imagine a pair of overalls made from sweatpants material. Sound great? Well, Kyle Bergman thought so too. The founder of The Great Fantastic has the enviable title of Chief Swoveralls Officer and has created the world's most comfortable pair of overalls. Find out how he built up a successful brand while balancing a commitment to producing quality apparel that champions sustainability. From collaborations with influencers to artists, hear how Bergman is turning Swoveralls (Sweatpants + Overalls, geddit?) into The Next Big Thing.

In this episode, Jeff Mergy speaks with Charlie Burgwyn, the chief design and creative officer, as well as the founder of Stitch Golf. Founded in 2012 as a headcover company, Stitch became known for designing and creating products with precise attention to detail, all the way down to the last stitch. With exacting attention to detail, Burgwyn has created an enviable brand in one of the fastest-growing sports categories while remaining true to the sport of golf. Discover how authenticity and consistency have played a role in the brand’s fast-growing success.

In this episode, Marc C. Close of Six Atomic explains how their cutting-edge technology enables brands and designers to get their designs to market in minutes, as opposed to months. Discover how automating the patternmaking process, technical design and grading enable Six Atomic to create an on-demand supply chain for companies while improving sustainability by producing less waste and using fewer resources.

Using computer vision and graphics technology, Forma builds photorealistic avatars that are a dynamic and personalized extension of a person’s online identity. From just a single image, users can create a flexible visual identity instantly, and photo-realistically, allowing individuals to try on any outfit virtually. BOLD Brands speak with co-founder and Forma CEO, Ben Chiang, to find out how, and why, the next fashion moment will take place in VR.

Apparel retailers face incredible challenges in a post-COVID world. In this episode we speak with the founder of Luxor and Finch, Jessica Couch, to discover how brands can build a better business using technology, and how fixing fit and sizing issues isn't just about reducing returns but also helps tackle the important issue of inclusivity and diversity.

In this episode, Bold Metrics’ co-founder Morgan Linton speaks with Desiree Buchanan, Founder of DTC womenswear label PopLinen, to find out why brands need to embrace diversity and empower sustainability, as well as the smart PR moves to help them through this pandemic.

Great content engages customers and increases conversions. In this episode, Bold Metrics’ co-founder Morgan Linton speaks with Eph Apparel’s co-founder, Andrew Parkes, on the importance of captivating content, how to best engage with customers online, and why casual wear could save the day.

In this episode, Bold Metrics’ co-founder Morgan Linton speaks with Diana Ganz, co-founder of online suiting company, Suit Shop (formerly The Groomsman Suit), on using technology to boost customer confidence, the impact of Covid-19 on formalwear sales, and her tips for starting up your own online apparel company.