D2C Brand Ready to Disrupt $12B Work Boot, Apparel Market

When the global pandemic started in March 2020, nearly every part of the economy shut down, leaving thousands unemployed and most brands scrambling to figure out what would come next.

For Eric Girouard, who was on the cusp of launching his direct-to-consumer (D2C) workwear brand Brunt, it was particularly difficult. Girouard told PYMNTS that he froze the company’s hiring plans and “basically hunkered down,” keeping an eye on the market to decide whether to pause the business long-term or keep things moving. With construction among the first industries to restart and rehire laid-off workers after only about two weeks, Girouard realized that the company’s core customer base wouldn’t be sitting at home for very long — and so instead of freezing, Brunt ended up accelerating its launch plans.

“I also sensed that this was going to be a good time to enter the market, because those customers who are spending a few hundred dollars on their boots typically are going to be a little more conscious about what they’re spending their money on,” he said.

Brunt ended up launching in September 2020, a few months earlier than originally anticipated. Girouard said he didn’t initially see many supply chain issues, because most of the bigger brands had canceled their orders, freeing up overseas factories for new business.

“We were one of the only brands that were placing orders for boots at the beginning of a pandemic,” Girouard said. “And so, our access to not only top-tier factories, but also materials … actually allowed us to move in pretty fast, because capacity essentially had opened up from all the big brands that are 100 times our size.”

Recently, Brunt has seen some issues with freight and trucking, as the spread of the delta variant and surging consumer demand keep logistics tangled, but Girouard said the company has been taking it day by day and planning ahead. With $8.4 million in Series A funding raised earlier this month, Brunt has been working to stockpile inventory to avoid running out.

“We’ve sold out five times since we launched, and we always place bigger and bigger orders,” Girouard said.

Customer-Centric Focus

Brunt is up against some well-established workwear brands, including Carhartt and Duluth Trading Co., that have immense customer recognition among tradespeople, which makes the path forward potentially difficult.

Girouard, however, previously spent more than a decade working at eCommerce and D2C brands, including Rue La La, M.Gemi and Trade Coffee, which set him up to take on the major players. “A lot of the workwear brands have not had to innovate and really service the customer,” Girouard said. “They just carry on because they’re incumbents and legacies.”

One of the biggest lessons he learned was the importance of taking care of the customer base and meeting them in the spaces where they want to be, whether that’s through an eCommerce site, on social media or elsewhere.

“First-class customer service blows a lot of our customers away and creates a lot of loyalty for the brand,” Girouard said. He estimated that work boots and apparel is a $12 billion market in the U.S. alone, with 17 million customers.

“What’s crazy is that most innovators, entrepreneurs and investors generally overlook one of the largest and most powerful groups in the country just because it’s not sexy, it’s not super appealing, it’s not high-fashion,” Girouard explained. He noted, though, that making work boots comes with its unique challenges, including making sure they will meet safety certifications.

PYMNTS research, conducted in collaboration with sticky.io, found that 52% of consumers now purchase retail products through D2C channels, compared to 63% who make retail purchases online and 77% who make them in physical stores. Millennials are the most likely to make D2C purchases (67%), followed by Generation Z (62%).

Unlike other D2C brands, though, Brunt isn’t selling discretionary products or fashion items — “this customer literally needs our products and our boots to do their job,” Girouard said, noting that 91% of people who buy Brunt boots say they wear them every single day. And yet, the majority of people who need work boots are still forced to travel out of their way to a store to buy a new pair when they need them.

“If you already know your boot, your size and your style, it should just show up on your door when you need a replacement,” Girouard said. “It seems very simple and logical, but the industry is just so behind.”