Check out Sporty & Rich
A collection of simple yet thoughtfully designed products with an emphasis on longevity over momentary relevance.
The brand began as a mood board from 20-year-old Emily Oberg while working full-time at Complex Magazine.
Today S&R boasts a $50 million valuation, with revenues projected to hit $25 million this year.
What makes this minimal line so successful?
The brand has FOUR strong pillars:
Community. Curation. Content. Collaboration. Use S&R as a case study to hack culture and unlock new growth. Here's the 4x4 {4 pillars x 4 steps} Ideally, you want to root your brand strategy in one or more of the 4 pillars.
Step 1 → Become a Tastemaker. Know who you are, what you value, and express them as a curator of taste and aesthetics. Do it consistently with awareness of your niche's needs and culture. The effective production of taste creates its own collective with shared lifestyle, ways of dressing, speaking, dieting, nutrition, etc.
Taste fills products with meaning, it embodies the art of living and is the ultimate community maker.
How do you live? Express that through TASTE. Emily authentically embodies health, sustainability, and lifestyle through TASTE.
In doing so, she has cultivated a thriving community of shared interests, lifestyle, values, and ambitions. Her products align with her taste, they're produced in the US, sustainably, in limited pre-order runs, for limited amounts of time. Her community is encouraged to keep pieces forever, alluding to the brand being the new nostalgia for years to come.
Exceptional tastemakers define culture and signal trends.
Step 2 → Build a community. Consumer collectives are the new audience unit and the future of marketing. Encourage social connections as they will become the primary source of value and the key driver of your competitive edge. They work best when created around your audience's pre-existing passions, hobbies, or interests. Stop thinking of community as a top-of-funnel tactic and instead a long-term, bottom-of-funnel strategy (bonding, advocacy, loyalty). Be more personal.
Step 3 → Build a product. How? Shift to the new paradigm: Old paradigm Build product → Find users → Arbitrage customer acquisition & lifetime value. New Paradigm Build a community around problem → Build a product with them → Let them market it for you. Community-first is the way!
Step 4 → Collaborate with community. Community is an extremely powerful tool in your brand's arsenal. Unlocking possibilities to extend the brand into overlapping interests, products, and experiences. Brands are always looking to tap in, and be a part of thriving subcultures and such collaborations allow for audience overlap and brand elevation. Some of S&R's recent collabs include: Adidas Originals x Sporty & Rich Clarks X Sporty & Rich MORJAS x Sporty & Rich Solid & Striped x Sporty & Rich
The recent collaboration with Lacoste x Sporty & Rich
And my favorite, the iconic Prince x Sporty & Rich Capsule Collection.
So, by authentically curating who you are: interests, values, and aspirations, you begin your path of becoming a tastemaker. When done effectively, your taste will cultivate community through shared interests and ultimately breathe life into your product which the community members will use to self-actualize their aspirations. The better your ability to hone your taste relative to your niche's culture, the better the collective response - signaling growth. With this powerful point of leverage, you welcome new ways to extend and scale your brand through various verticals of collaboration. Something your product can’t do alone.
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