Episode Details

This episode we welcome Joe Kudla, CEO and Founder of Vuori, the fast-growing Southern California-inspired activewear brand. Joe's journey is a fascinating one that anyone in retail and branding will enjoy and can learn from. We discuss the origin story of the company and discover how two big pivots allowed Vuori to find its unique positioning and set it on its path to its recent $4 billion valuation. We also unpack how Vuori plans to stay remarkable in a crowded activewear space and why physical retail will be key to its next stage of growth. Lastly we learn about the importance of "word of mouth"--to be literally remarkable--in propelling Vuori forward.

But first we take on the news of the week, including Kohl's coming under pressure from activists to pursue a sale, Amazon going deeper into physical retail with Amazon Style and a suburban iteration of Amazon Go to the suburbs, cutbacks at Glossier, and ever mounting issue of product returns.

Amazon Style video link

NRF Returns Study

Steve predicts the returns debacle back in 2017.

About

Joe Kudla is the founder and CEO of Vuori, a rapidly growing performance apparel brand inspired by the aspirational active

Southern California lifestyle. A student of life and various active pursuits, he drew upon his personal interests to bring a new

perspective to the activewear market, prioritizing versatility, comfort and sustainability. Prior to Vuori, he started Vaco San

Diego, a professional accounting and IT consulting firm and he started his career as a CPA at Ernst & Young. Joe earned

his accounting degree from the University of San Diego where he was acknowledged as an all American Lacrosse player.

About Us

Steve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his       website.    The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book  Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption is now available at  Amazon or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a      Forbes senior contributor and on       Twitter and       LinkedIn. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel      here.

Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus  Global E-Commerce Tech Talks  ,     

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