AYR's co-founder, Maggie Winter, shares the brand's journey to $50M by prioritizing self-funded growth over hyper-growth at all costs. This episode offers valuable insights into balancing profitability with expansion, leveraging customer feedback for product development, and strategically expanding into new categories like menswear to drive significant revenue increases while maintaining a strong DTC focus.
Key takeaways
Leverage customer requests to identify new product categories with high growth potential, as AYR did with menswear, leading to 3x growth in 2023.
Prioritize "self-funded growth" to ensure profitability isn't sacrificed for rapid expansion, allowing for controlled iteration and a superior customer experience.
Maintain a strong DTC presence (AYR is 99% DTC) to foster direct customer relationships and control brand storytelling, even while exploring strategic wholesale partnerships.
Continuously iterate on products and storytelling based on audience engagement, allowing founders to reconnect with the "merchant" aspect of the business.
Focus on building a strong community and digital footprint to provide enhanced customer experiences beyond just transactions.
When Maggie Winter co-founded apparel brand AYR 10 years ago, her goal was simple: provide consumers with luxe alternatives to fast-fashion everyday staples.
Initially, those luxe alternatives only included high-quality denim and other apparel in the womenswear category, but in 2022, AYR expanded into menswear after many requests. Menswear became AYR's fastest-growing category, seeing three times 2022's growth in 2023, according to Winter. Because of the new category, in part, AYR has become a $50 million company, growing 5x since 2020.
"[AYR's] growth has been fast, and looking back, there's so much [information] we've learned along the way tha,t now, we get to use," Winter said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. "Now that we have an audience, a business, a brand and an audience, I get to be a merchant again and live with great product. [I get to] dream about how to storytell that product … and how to connect with people over it."
Winter is also thinking about the next phase of the brand's growth journey. Currently, AYR is 99% DTC and 1% wholesale, with Shopbop being its sole wholesale partner. Along with growing AYR's digital footprint and community, Winter said she's working on new ways to provide an experience to consumers.
On the podcast, Winter discusses what's driving growth at AYR and what's in store for the brand moving forward. "We don't want to choose between growth and profitability. We want to generate self-funded growth at a rate that doesn't exceed our capacity to learn, itirate and guarantee a great experience for customers," Winter said. Get more from Glossy with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit glossy.co/newsletters to sign up.
Leverage customer requests to identify new product categories with high growth potential, as AYR did with menswear, leading to 3x growth in 2023.
What does this episode say about product & merchandising?
Prioritize "self-funded growth" to ensure profitability isn't sacrificed for rapid expansion, allowing for controlled iteration and a superior customer experience.
What does this episode say about founder & leadership?
Maintain a strong DTC presence (AYR is 99% DTC) to foster direct customer relationships and control brand storytelling, even while exploring strategic wholesale partnerships.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Continuously iterate on products and storytelling based on audience engagement, allowing founders to reconnect with the "merchant" aspect of the business.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Focus on building a strong community and digital footprint to provide enhanced customer experiences beyond just transactions.
