Kristin Hars, founder of Sisterly Tribe, shares her journey of building a premium yoga lifestyle brand rooted in Scandinavian minimalism and strong community values. The episode offers valuable insights for DTC entrepreneurs on leveraging social media for community building, the strategic shift to ethical European production for scalability, and the critical importance of prioritizing profitability for long-term independence and growth.
Kristin Hars is trying to start a yoga apparel empire from Gothenburg, Sweden. Hars has worked in retail for decades, rising the ranks at brands like All Saints and Jack Wills -- ultimately becoming the CCO of Nordic fashion retailer Bubbleroom. But she left her position in 2020 to start her own brand, Sisterly Tribe, which makes yoga apparel and focuses on fostering a tight-knit community. "I was missing this kind of brand that was very Scandinavian, minimalistic, sophisticated -- a premium brand. But it is also very much about being sustainable and ethical -- and having all these values around it," she said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Sisterly Tribe had very humble beginnings. To get it off the ground, Hars partnered with local yoga studios, as well as started an Instagram account. "Instagram has been a really important channel for us -- growing our following, growing our community… We're spending a lot of time there connecting with the community," Hars said. But after about a year, the business was selling out of products and ready to grow more. In 2022, it raised a seed round of funds to help it expand. As part of its growth, Sisterly Tribe moved its production from Bali to Portugal. "It's in Europe, it's closer to home -- and I'm able to visit them more frequently," Hars said. "That was one of the reasons to move -- to be able to scale up the production because now I'm with a partner that has more capacity to scale up and they work with bigger brands." With all of this, Sisterly Tribe has big plans to grow its presence this year -- both in Europe and in the United States as well. Hars is also focused on building a profitable business (the startup, she said, isn't yet profitable). "When you have a profitable company, you can decide the destiny of where the company's going," she said. "You don't have to constantly be out raising funds. And you can focus on actually building the brand, building the community and doing what I'm actually excited about."