← The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou
The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou
619: Why Most Apparel Brands Fail and How Robin Hall Built One That Didn’t
00:44:55
In this episode, I sit down with Robin Hall, who did the "impossible" by building a thriving sustainable kids clothing brand in the most brutal niche in e-commerce. - You'll hear the full 45-minute story behind her appearance on NPR's "How I Built Th...
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to E commerce and online business. Now in this episode, I sit down with Robin hall, who did the impossible by building a thriving sustainable kids clothing brand in what I've always called the most brutal niche in E commerce. You'll hear the full 45 minute story behind her appearance on NPR's How I Built this, including the strategies, struggles and surprising pivots that took her from my wife's college friend to the founder of Town Hall, a company that's rewriting the rules on how to succeed selling apparel online. But before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over@sellersummit.com and if you sell physical products online, this is the event that you should be at. Unlike most e commerce conferences that are filled with high level fluff and inspirational stories, Seller Summit is all about tactical, step by step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches. People who are running their own e commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers and scaling real businesses. No corporate execs and no consultants. Also, I hate large events, so I intentionally keep it small and intimate. We cap attendance at around 200 people so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room. We sold out every single year for the past nine years and I expect this year to be no different. It's happening April 21st to the 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And if you're doing over 250k or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for higher level sellers. Right now, tickets are the cheapest they're ever going to be, so if you want in, go to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast.
- [01:45]
B
Today I am happy to have a close friend of the family on the show, Robin Hall. Now, Robin is actually a good friend of my wife's from college and it was pretty random how this interview got set up. One day I was listening to the How I Built this podcast, which is actually one of my favorite shows and I'm like, I think I know this woman. She sounds familiar. I think I went to her wedding, but her name was RJ at the time and not this other Robin and it turned out to be the Robin. So Robin is one of my wife's favorite people in the world and she started, she started Town Hall Company, an outdoor apparel company that specializes in sustainable clothing for kids. Now, if you've listened to my podcast long enough, you know that I think that selling clothing is one of the most difficult niches to sell into. So today we're going to delve deep into Robin's story on how she created the company. And unlike the how I built this interview, which was only 15 minutes long, we have a full 45 minutes to completely delve into her story. So how's it going, Robin? How you doing today?
- [02:52]
C
It's going great, Steve. Thanks for the warm intro and great to see you. Great to see you. Your wife is fantastic too.
- [02:58]
B
I think we were just chatting earlier. It's been almost 20 years since we've last spoken. I'm sure you and Jen have spoken before then, but all this time I had no idea you had the company. Did you have it at your wedding or did it come way out?
- [03:12]
C
No, no, no, I was straight out of. Yeah, I mean, I went to, went to school with your wife at UC Davis and then moved back down to the Bay Area where I was born and raised and went to school or went to straight out of school, went to Gap Inc. And worked at their headquarters in San Francisco and did finance and inventory with them for years. And then, you know, my husband and I looked at each other and said, if we don't try something new now, we're going to live a mile from our parents for the rest of our lives. So maybe we, we like the mountains. Let's see what happens in Colorado. And so I got a job at Vail Resorts in Colorado in 2003 and we moved there, did again back, back of the house kind of finance and accounting, but always trying to really be involved with the business and learning all about all sides of the business. And one of those kind of typical ski days where you're putting on your ski jacket and you know, I was, I was thinking, gosh, I really want to get back to seeing and touching product in my career. So putting on my ski jacket. North Face, where are they? Putting on my pants. Marmot, where are they Socks. Smartwool, where are they? Oh, Smartwell's in Steamboat. That's not too far from here. And Steamboat Springs is an incredible place. So, so I sure enough I looked for jobs, got a job at Smartwool and had an amazing 11 year career there. So was there until 2000 when the brand moved to Denver. And you know, we made the really tough, hard decision, but the right one to stay in this town. We didn't want to leave Steamboat. It's really for any of Your listeners that know it's an incredible community and a beautiful place to live, so great place to raise kids. So we stayed here, and that's when we started town hall in the year 2000. So. So it was a nice Covid baby, but it's been great.
- [04:53]
B
So what was the motivation to start Town hall and why apparel, of all things?
- [04:59]
C
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it kind of came together in this. We're calling it kind of our Venn diagram where we, you know, there were three of us, so myself, Jay Lambert and Joe Solomon. Jay and I worked at SmartWorld together, and he was incredible supply chain background and product. And Joe is this amazing entrepreneur who, you know, has his own adventure travel company. And yeah, just a great triangulation of the three of us. And. And we were putting our heads together, like, we're both. We're all staying in town. We got to do something. What should we do? And. And it was, you know, why are we asked ourselves, why are we staying in Steamboat? Well, it's really this community and our kids. We don't want to raise our kids anywhere else, and we want to give back to this community. And what are we good at? There's your answer there. Apparel. I mean, we knew we had some good. We had great network through our smartwell days. Jay is a skilled supply chain guru and expert at product as well. And we had, you know, again, a great network we could pull from. And then what are we passionate about? And it's playing outside with our kids and being outside as a family and giving back to the planet and making sure we're not just creating more stuff to create more stuff. So those kind of four things met in the middle. Kids Outdoor community and Planet. And we saw some white space for a kids apparel brand, so we launched.
- [06:18]
B
And then the name of your company is a play on your last name. And is. Is the other owner town or town literally means town?
- [06:26]
C
No, literally, town means town. No, it's a. It's certainly. We, you know, we went down there, we had a couple other naming ideas that fell through due to trademarking issues. But, you know, we kind of. Someone said, hey, you should use your last name for something. So it was hallelujah and all those ideas. But town hall just hit because it's a community gathering place, the hub where everyone's welcome, you know, to. To make change and use their voice. So that's been really, really powerful for us.
- [06:53]
B
So a lot of my listeners are very interested in the starting phase of the business. So I want to. I want you to Go back to like the early days. How much money did you invest in this business and what was your first product and how did you come up with it, design it, source it, everything?
- [07:10]
C
Yeah, I think between the three of us, to start, I think we put in like 50k. We started with 50k. Anything we could do to literally get logo and branding, our legal set up. And then, you know, very small kind of down payment on our first product line. Then we went down the road of line of credit on the house and you know, all those brutal things you do as a small business owner, which we're still working on navigating out of and around. We're in the middle of a funding raise, which is really exciting. Oh, wow. Okay. I didn't know that.
- [07:43]
B
Crazy.
- [07:43]
C
Yeah, yeah. Kind of a small friends and family safe and a simple agreement for future equity. And it's going well. We're going to close that up here in the next couple weeks and we're getting close to our goals.
- [07:55]
B
That's exciting.
- [07:55]
C
Exciting. Go ahead. You have a question?
- [07:58]
B
No, I was going to say, did you. Was your first product a single product or did you start with like a line?
- [08:04]
C
You know, we wanted to start with a little collection. We said, what do kids in mountain towns need to go outside in the winter? And winter was really resonating with us. And we said, ski jackets, they've got to have a waterproof, durable jacket and pants solution that they can go outside and play in. Then we said, okay, we need a collection. And in fact, we kind of prove this out. A couple years back we launched, or maybe one or two years back, we launched a fleece. You know, like, let's try a warmer weather thing. One fleece. And boy, it just didn't quite resonate. Like it wasn't a big enough story to talk about. You know, it's not like, hey, we're launching into a big spring line with shorts and all these things. No, it just didn't quite resonate. So we went with. We needed a collection to round it all out. So we pulled in a puffy jacket, a full 100% down puffy jacket, which has been great. And then we also thought, okay, so not everyone's gonna be a mountain town kid. There's kids in Chicago that we want to outfit with our gear that love to play outside, that, you know are walking to school on freezing days and then they want to go ski in the weekends. And so what can we build for them? So we built one other. We call it our around town jacket, which is a little Bit, little less, you know, waterproof, those types of things, but extra warm. So four pieces in the original line. And yeah, we, you know, from a factory perspect, we, we. It was cute. Our. Our co founder, Joe, is not traditionally from the industry, so he's not an apparel guy. And he said, so we're making this stuff in steamboat, right? Like, well, you know, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough. But no, I don't think so. And he's like, Colorado, the U.S. you know? And Jay, the supply chain guru, is like, joe, there's a reason why $900 ski jackets are made in Asia. They are so good over there. It's, you know, when you find the right partner, they have access to the materials that are all made over there anyway. They have the best production machines. They have skilled labor there. And so we found an incredible partner that was willing to take a shot with us and make kind of below their minimums. We had to pay extra for sure, but, yeah, gave us a shot. And they've been incredible ever since. So it's.
- [10:15]
A
How big was your first batch?
- [10:17]
C
Oh, gosh, we probably did 200 units of each. So four times 200. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was great. It was great.
- [10:26]
B
And then you're going up against, like, the north faces of the world, right? So what sets you guys apart? And, like, what was your. What was your in, so to speak?
- [10:36]
C
Yeah, yeah, Couple things. One is certainly building this for kids, and essentially we kind of say for kids by kids. We do these things called kidsumer Insights, where we take a bunch of kids and put them in the park on a blanket with trail mix and lemonade, and ask them million questions. There are little kids, zoomers. We ask them what colors they like and where do they want their pockets and what do they keep in their pockets and what do you think about the planet and how does your mom shop and what do you look at on social media? So all sorts of things. So they're informing everything we do. You know, a lot of these outdoor apparel brands do this kind of shrink it and pink it model where they just take an adult piece, make it smaller, and throw some pink on it, or unicorns and make it for kids. And we are 100% designed for kids. And what they need, durability in all the right spots, you know, those types of things. So. And pockets for the right size hands and gloves. So that's one piece, certainly. The other piece I think we're seeing with consumers a lot is they're shopping Kind of more with their hearts, at least. Our consumers are. They're looking for brands that care, that are giving back, that have unique stories, that are smaller, that are from mountain towns, that know how to make gear for mountain kids. So that certainly sets us apart as well. And. And we're building this community kind of one, one high five and sticker giveaway at a time, and it's been really special.
- [11:57]
B
When you say kids, are you talking about kids under the age of 12 or teenagers also? Or.
- [12:03]
C
Yeah, 5 to 14 is what we do. And we're actually. Yeah, yeah, we're looking at spanning a little bit lower because we're finding, you know, from a. From a business perspective, getting those kiddos into the brand a little bit earlier. And also they need good gear and there's not a lot of options out there for three and four year olds.
- [12:19]
B
So you get your first 200 units of each style. So that's 800 units. How did you make your first sale?
- [12:26]
C
Oh, wow. Well, the first sale was comedic. We, Jay and I were like, we got to make some T shirts and hats or something at least to start spreading the love. So we printed out. We had a bunch of. We partnered with someone amazing in Steamboat to do a bunch of printing, screen printings. And we go to this little event called the Fruit of Kids Adventure Games out in the west side of Colorado. And we're setting up and we're so excited. And it's my partner, Jay and I, and we're putting up the tent and this woman comes up and says, hey, I need a shirt for my kid. And we're like, oh, okay, okay, great. Here, you know, here is $30. And she's like, okay, great. And she throws us $30 in cash and walks away. And we were like, was that our first sale? And then we looked at each other and said, we don't take cash and we forgot to charge tax. And so we lost money. Our first sale, we didn't know what we were doing. It was hilarious. And so we, you know, it's been that kind of story, just make it work ever since. It's like, just make it work. So that was our first real sale. But when it came down to the apparel and the gear, man, our friends and community and Steamboat just came out of the woodwork and they A, to support us, but then B, because they really saw something in the gear and they knew that their kids helped design the gear. So those initial sales were web sales and it was our community of 14,000 people here. And then it's Just slowly expanded out and out now.
- [13:46]
B
Nice, nice. I actually went on your website and looked at the jackets. They are pretty intricate, like to design. I mean, it's like no joke. Walk me through the design process. Is this something that you guys were. Did you have to fly over to Asia? How involved was the design and did it involve CAD drawings, tech packs? You know, do you have that background?
- [14:10]
C
All the above cads and tech packs and bills of materials and yeah, getting down to all the intricacies. You know, sizing was certainly an issue. Building something kind of to size. You know, honestly, there are market leaders out there like the North Faces and the Patagonias and we looked at a bunch of their gear. You know, a couple, couple tactics we took. One is a, kids, what do you want? Okay, now, now we've got a visual idea in our minds about what's going to work and then B, what's already out there and what do we like from brands and don't like from other brands that are doing things out there. And so we kind of blended art and science there to say, yeah, let's, you know, let's add these features of benefits and ooh, we really like the fit of this. We don't like this fit. And so again, once we found this factory partner, we found a designer who's incredible, who has, you know, an expert in, in the design pieces and all those features and benefits and, and materials and fabrics and what zipper pull we want and you know, Jay is an expert at that as well and yeah, essentially build those tech packs and then designed with the factory and iterated and did probably two to three protos, I'd say prototypes on each of them. You know, when it comes down to, for your listeners, if they're curious, you know, comes down to we pay for that, you know, we pay for the sampling and all that. It goes kind of into the, the, the price of your, of your, your jackets and everything. So yeah, it was, it was, we iterated but it went, it went really well. Went really well.
- [15:40]
B
So it's the designer part of the factory or did you find your own designer?
- [15:44]
C
We found our own designer. Yep.
- [15:46]
B
Okay.
- [15:47]
C
Yeah.
- [15:47]
B
Because I know when you work with a factory sometimes like the file formats and all that stuff is, can be different across factories. Was your designer. Had they worked with that factory before?
- [15:58]
C
They hadn't, they hadn't worked with that factory. Our factory is very reputable. They do a bunch of other brands in the industry, which has been really great. But no, they've been, it's this we believe in the partnership business model where we're not just sending over a PO and then writing a check and we're done. It's. We share our behind the scenes strategic plan with these guys. We have. They know our core values, so they're always looking for sustainable materials for us and bringing those ideas to us. So it's a true partnership. So they're delighted when things work out great because it benefits all of us.
- [16:33]
B
And how did you find your designer?
- [16:36]
C
It was friends of friends. It was a network and it was a networking thing and it was just kind of reaching out to all my. Actually, it was. It ended up being a gentleman from Gap that I worked at in 2003. Wow.
- [16:46]
B
And.
- [16:46]
C
And I was like, hey, I know you were at Kids. You were at North Face kids years ago, 10 years ago. Do you know anyone in the design crew in that space? And so we were off to the races. It was great.
- [16:58]
B
And how did you convince the factory to only make 200 units?
- [17:03]
C
They. It was a combination of beautiful negotiating on Jay's part number two. We certainly had to pay for that. Like, they were like, well, with that amount, we got to make it in the sample room and that actually costs more. So we did have to pay when we were that low, which we were willing to take the risk. And I think, you know, then once again, it come back to that partnership. Like, hey, you got to believe us. This is what we're in for. Here's our reputation here. Between Jay and I, we got 25 years of outdoor industry experience. We're not just making something up here. So a lot of trust, a lot of respect, and then some risk on our side for sure.
- [17:39]
B
Okay. No, that makes sense. Actually. You guys all have the credentials, so a factory would probably take a chance on you guys.
- [17:45]
C
Right?
- [17:45]
B
As opposed to someone who's never done this before.
- [17:48]
C
Yeah, fair.
- [17:50]
A
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- [18:27]
B
Now back to the show. All right, so your first sale was a T shirt, and then you talked about, do you guys even sell T shirts?
- [18:36]
C
We sure do. Yeah.
- [18:38]
B
Okay.
- [18:38]
C
Yeah, T shirts and our trucker hats are our crusher. That's our silent winner. It's amazing.
- [18:44]
B
And you talk a lot about community. This is actually something that a lot of brands have trouble doing. So what is your strategy for building this community that you've built?
- [18:55]
C
Yeah, ours is. If you've ever been to, you know, mountain towns are special places. Everyone. You really need to be in love with the town and work hard to be here. It's not easy both from a resources perspective. It's not easy to start a business here. It's not easy from an expense perspective. Every. Mountain towns are getting hard. So there is this really secret, passionate bond about mountain towns and Steamboat in particular. And so I think we had that going for us in that, you know, we were this darling story of we were at Smartwell. We didn't stay, you know, we stayed in town. We didn't move. We wanted to give back lots of friends, lots of family, our kids. So there was that kind of natural community vibe of Steamboat. But what we really leaned into early on, Steve, was events and just getting out there and not hiding behind the screen and telling it all and the good, bad, and the ugly and then being at events and literally giving out stickers and high fives and, you know, hey, you don't want to buy a shirt today, that's fine. Take a sticker. Tell your friends about us. And when it comes to snowy times, give us a call because we've got a great jacket for you. And we did. Last year, we did 84 days of events. Wow. Everything from farmers markets to kids adventure games to, you know, Warren Miller shows. We. We partner with Warren Miller and sponsor and give away jackets at every single one of their, you know, 100 stops on their national tour every year. So it was. The events are what. We don't even think of them as selling opportunities. It really is. If we don't sell something that day, that's fine. How many stickers did we hand out? How much fun did we have? How much joy did we spread?
- [20:34]
B
So were most of the events that you started out with, were they just local and Steamboat?
- [20:39]
C
For the most part, we had our eye on some bigger things like kids adventure games, those types of things. We also, you know, we. And we can talk about this too, if you'd like. But we. We decided, you know, gosh if we don't, two things. We. We were all D2C. We were like, let's sell through our website the whole time, no problem. And we want to own that warm hug with the customer, and we want to own the margin and how we spend those marketing dollars. And we quickly realized, boy, if we don't, we're going to be a grain of sand in the world of the Internet if we don't expand out and try wholesale. In addition, there's no better way to build community than these awesome wholesale retail doors, like these specialty shops you walk into in a little mountain town or in the Bay Area that you're like, hey, what hiking boots should I buy? And where should I hike? And then where should I get my coffee afterwards? And those are the people that can help spread the love really well for brands and businesses. So I loaded up my car, drove around the state, hit 74 stops, and kind of came away with five purchase orders in that first winter. And so from then on, you know, the wholesale part of the business has been awesome.
- [21:52]
B
Okay, so do you make more wholesale than you do D2C?
- [21:56]
C
No, we're 40% wholesale. 60 D2C, which is. Feels like a great mix for us.
- [22:01]
B
Yeah, no, that isn't. That is an awesome mix. Okay, so you just said a lot of things. Let's break it down here. So, yes, you started out with events. How do you justify, like, the roi? Like, you're traveling all over the place. And you said sometimes you don't sell a thing. Like, is it not an ROI thing? Is it just a faith thing that you get your name out there, good things will happen.
- [22:19]
C
Yeah, it's brand awareness. We are, you know, it's a crowded space. Outdoor apparel is a crowded space. And to the degree that we can set ourselves out apart from not just being another jacket on the rack. And truly, it's a one, two punch. Right? So how do we go to an event and do an event in a town where we already show up? So, Jackson Hole, hey, thanks for coming out to this event. Here's a sticker, by the way, we sell at Jackson Hole sports right there, Mountain sports right there. And at skinny skis. So pop on in. And then they come in, and that drives traffic to their stores. So our retailers love it, too. So that's why I kind of went down the road of these retail partnerships, is partnering with the retailers on events, too. Goes a really long way, both in, you know, for the good of all of us, but then also to drive revenue and traffic for those Retailers.
- [23:06]
B
But is it. Can you go to an event and say that you were ROI positive? Is that not how it works? Do you know, like, how do you measure the effectiveness? No.
- [23:15]
C
Yeah, I measure the effectiveness in a couple of ways. One is a tracker. So I have a counter when I talk to people. So one event, the Outside festival in Denver, I talked to 370 people last June on one day. And so that's 370 people that didn't know about the brand. It's also the types of events we're at. I mean, we get a lot of clout when we go to an event like the Outside festival. We're parked next to Fjallraven and the North Face and seeing our logo everywhere and engagement. So yeah, the ROI on events is truly number of people we talk to. It's web traffic after the fact. It's. We take, we do all sorts of fun activations. You know, we take good old fashioned newsletter signups and yeah, it's not necessarily how much revenue did we do that day?
- [24:04]
B
Right, okay. And then walk me through, through how you got your first wholesale contract. You literally just walked into a store with a bunch of jackets and talked to the owner. Like, how does, how does that work?
- [24:15]
C
Well, it was, it was comedy because I went into the first one, I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, I've been at SmartWorld for years and I knew how the sales process worked enough to be dangerous. I had this little like flyer, you know, thing, and I walk into the first store and it smells like ski wax and there's some, you know, snowboarder dudes behind the counter and not really, you know, paying attention. I'm like, hey, my name's Robin and I have a kids brand. Do you need jackets? And they kind of look at me like, who are you? What are you doing? And I'm like, okay, this is the right store. So I walked out. You know, I did that in five stores. And then finally the sixth store, I'm like, you know, maybe I should take the jackets in with me. That's a good idea. So I put a jacket over my arm and I walk in. It's the same thing. And I'm like, five more stores. I'm like, maybe I should ask for the buyer or the owner or the manager, you know, like, it was such. I mean, Steve, I had no idea what I was doing. And so finally, the first one, it was in Leadville and this tiny town at 13,000ft in Colorado, 12,000ft in Colorado. And I walked in she's like, you know what? People ask for kids stuff all the time. Yeah, can I just buy like a size run of that red puffy? I'm like, yes, you can. And I have them in my car. So I ran out to my car and it's dumping snow and I'm putting hang tags on and I'm writing down what I'm, you know, and I walk in, and that was our first sale at wholesale. And they hung them up in the window and sold out. And there you have it.
- [25:40]
B
All right, so walk me through how this works. Like, what are the terms? So you have like, just like a car full of jackets. How, like, do you have, like a minimum order? What are the terms?
- [25:51]
C
No, no, no. When you're fighting, you're fighting. You're trying to get anything you can. So we, it was, I mean, I went down the road even of like, hey, just give us a shot. Like, let me give you 20 pieces. And then at the end of the season, if you don't sell them, send them all back to me. I don't care. So I would invoice them, they'd pay, and then I would take them back, assuming they weren't worn and torn up. And then, you know, write them a check back at the end of the season. Anything just to get our foot in the door. And I think that goes a long way with partnerships and showing that we care, we believe in our stuff. It was also a reason to check in mid season. You know, I'd call and say, hey, how are those selling? You know, the reds aren't selling great. I'll take the reds back and send you some blues. I mean, we had no other account, so this was all I was doing is trying to really foster these relationships.
- [26:36]
B
You know, why this interview is unique, Robin? Like, most of the people I have.
- [26:39]
C
Here we go.
- [26:40]
B
They're. They're all digital marketers. Right. But, like, what I love about you is this is like grassroots. This is like word of mouth marketing. This is like, you know, hard work and grassroots marketing. And it's clearly worked. I was going to say I want to lead up to how you got into rei, but I imagine all these little steps contributed to that, right?
- [27:00]
C
Yep. For sure. For sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, you start to get this credibility and then you, we, you know, we hustle on the PR side too. Just sending jackets out to, you know, gear guides and gift guides and review, review, you know, articles and that type of thing. And so really sending out and getting our product out there has been huge for us.
- [27:24]
B
Walk me through this, actually. How do you get the contact information of all these guides? Do you? Some send them to celebrities and everything too, I would imagine.
- [27:31]
C
Haven't done that. You know, like, in my mind, I'm like Jimmy Fallon's like the Holy Grail. If I could get his kids in town hall, that'd be amazing. Not that I, I'm not that. I don't know what the right word for that is. Gutsy. I don't know. Like, I don't want to just send that, you know, who knows? But I feel like, you know, reaching out to Outside magazine and Powder magazine and, you know, what have you. Those are the ones that. And I literally just Google. I just Google and then I'll read an article like in the New York Times about like, here's the best kids gifts to give this year. And I will look up that writer and their byline and then I track them down on LinkedIn, I'll email them offline, whatever. And I just tell our story. Honestly, it's. We're so values based. We're so small and nimble and able to adapt that people generally are excited to hear from us.
- [28:25]
B
So at this point, like in the beginning, is it just the four of you guys or do you have like a team? This sounds like a lot of work, actually doing events, driving around to stores and getting wholesale customers.
- [28:39]
C
Yeah, yeah, no, it was the three of us. And Joe and Jay have full time jobs elsewhere. And so I get them kind of nights and weekends when they're available. And again, Jay drives, Jay drives all the supply chain. I could never even fathom the skills and the hustle around that and the work around, that's huge. But so I kind of manage everything else. And we've since hired a part time customer experience person who's been incredible filling orders and replying to customer service details and getting our, you know, kind of working on affiliates and our influencers and that type of thing. But yeah, it's. It's still the tight kind of four of us.
- [29:17]
B
Actually. That was, I was gonna ask next, where is all your inventory stored?
- [29:22]
C
It's about a mile from our house in a little warehouse just in Steamboat Springs. And we just spent the last week filling, you know, all REI orders, all Christie sports orders. We got all those out the door. So AR is looking great right now. We love it.
- [29:37]
B
So you rented a warehouse nearby and you're doing your own fulfillment, correct?
- [29:41]
C
Yeah.
- [29:43]
B
Okay.
- [29:43]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [29:44]
B
Amazing, rj. Okay, so how many. So how many wholesale partners do you have now? And I, I, presumably the way you get them is you literally walk in, you talk to the owner and you, you know, one by one get these deals. Is that, is that accurate?
- [29:58]
C
Yep, you're right. Yeah. And when it comes to yes. So yes, we've got, I think we're at about 17 stores around the country right now. REI this fall will be in four REIs and online will be in for Christie Sports and online mainly in the west, actually solely in the west now. And yeah, I mean those, I think back to your question about how did we get rei. It comes down to we have a great buddy who is in REI for his business. This as a side note, this entrepreneur, small business community, it like, it makes me tear up. It's the most awesome, supportive group ever. I mean there are slack channels and group chats and the amount that we're just all cheering each other on and so literally it was, hey, do you want me to introduce you to the kids buyer at rei? That would be awesome. So I, I, I, I emailed and you know, my pitch, it wasn't even a pitch, it was just, you know, me writing the email was, hey, will you give us a shot in three doors or just Colorado or something? You know, the last thing we want to do is ship, ship 200 cartons to the New Jersey store and it never moves and everyone's frustrated and it doesn't work and then we're done. And she called immediately and said that's what drew me to you, is you get it that we don't. We're not shooting for the moon here. Let's just start small and tell your story and see how it goes. And so we were in the Denver flagship last year and online and this year we're going up to four and hopefully next year it's 10, then 50 and then 100 kind of things. So just proving, proving it all out. We're a slow growth brand and a passion based brand.
- [31:32]
B
How does one get into these slack channels, Robin?
- [31:36]
C
Oh, it's a secret handshake, Steve. It's pretty special. No, it's, I mean, and then everything like, like Title nine. I don't know if you know the brand Title IX I'm actually wearing there. We collabed with Title nine on a women's jacket this fall. So I'm flying out to Title nine next week, but got involved in their pitch competition last year and pitched at their pitch fest. And now, I mean what Missy and that team has built is just this community of beautiful women founder brands that get together on a regular basis and share big ideas, dumb ideas, horror stories, wins, help please type scenarios. And so, you know, there's these little microcosms of, again, slack channels and in person events that just are so cool to see.
- [32:22]
B
So you get into REI in a couple stores as a trial. Did you do anything to make sure that those trials were effective?
- [32:30]
C
Like Sarah Blakely at Spanx, like, telling all her friends to go shop in North Shore when she got them in? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what we. The. What we did was just be good partners and call them and say, what else can we do? Do you need signage? Do you need us to come tell the story? Go clinic the staff. So we'd walk in, you know, and go to bring bagels and donuts to their Monday morning meeting. Stand up meeting for the whole staff and say, here's what. Here's what town hall is all about. Here's what our jackets do. Here's the features and benefits we would, you know, partner on events. Say, hey, are you having any events? Can we host an event there on our own dime? Can we give away a jacket on our dime? Can we post about you on social media? Just all those. I mean, it sounds so silly. Core basics, but we really did them.
- [33:13]
B
And what's funny about all this, Robin, is most people aren't willing to do this stuff. I mean, it's required, but most people are afraid of the hard work. Right. They'll hide behind, like, Facebook ads. Actually, are you guys even running any ads? I didn't check.
- [33:27]
C
Zero. We've spent zero dollars on. Yeah. I mean, much to our own demise. Right? Like, we're really slow growth, but we were growing, you know, 50% every year, but on a basis. Zero. That's. That's not, you know, so no. All that to say, no, we haven't spent any. And that's what actually our friends and family raise right now is for, is, wow. We've done real well building the brand and now let's really try and click over and build the business. We got to pour some money into AIO and SEO and, you know, all the. All the core basics we've been not able to spend money on for the last five years.
- [34:01]
B
That's amazing. And it's still just three. Well, no. You hired another person and you run a warehouse. Good lord. Okay. No, it's an incredible story. Like I said, this interview is very different from the one like, here's. Here's how a typical interview goes. I'll talk to the guy and he's like, oh, yeah, we just poured in like you know, $50,000 a day in meta ads and like we got this, you know, but, but the thing is they're chasing like the roi. Isn't that great? Obviously in the beginning for them.
- [34:30]
C
Right.
- [34:31]
B
And then just by gathering emails and repeat business, that's how they grow their, their brand. It's like revenue first in a lot of cases. I feel like for you it's different. You're building a very solid foundation of community raving fans and then now you're about to take that next step and scale, which is pretty amazing.
- [34:48]
C
You got it. Yeah, yeah, it's. There's pros and cons to all of it. Right. But I think it, one of the big things we learned in our time at smartwall, which was so beautiful, is get those core values and build your foundation, your mission, vision values, and live and breathe by those. And we have. And so I think we've done it our way and now it's time to your point to, wow, what could we do if we went to the Vail Kids adventure games where we talked on My Little Clicker, you know, we talked to 300 people over the course of three days and we got, you know, 130 email addresses. What if now, wow. We actually targeted them with meta ads afterwards and you know, XYZ and really kind of exploded from there. So I think where I get really excited, where our investors are that are in this round are really excited is to see where we can go from here. What we built with nothing and a lot of hustle and now what we can build with a lot of strategy and well spent dollars on marketing.
- [35:49]
B
So prior to the raise, like selling apparel like this has got to be cash flow heavy, right? So were you literally just taking out loans to, to manage the cash flow and everything?
- [36:00]
C
Yeah. And I mean for good or for bad, doing all this stuff on, you know, with three founders and my car, driving to events, you know, there was a little cash outlay with, you know, we. Yeah, it's taken its toll for sure on the car. But you know, there's a little bit of a cash outlay on, you know, events and what we sign up for, but again, honestly. Oh, again, it kind of makes me cry, but like the goodwill of people and the goodwill of these, you know, we usually charge three grand for people to be at this event, but we love what you're doing. Just come on down. We got a lot of that and that's where we're so thankful and we keep going back to those events. To pay them back for those types of. Of things. So, yeah, we don't spend a lot of money. We do it all on a dime and we hustle a lot. So it's. But all that to say, man, when we've got to put down 50 grand, you know, 50 grand in January for something we're not going to see the revenue on until the following January because of terms. It's nasty. It is. It's brutal.
- [36:59]
B
It's brutal. You know, one thing I love about your website, I just wanted to let you know, is I went on and I shopped for a jacket, and I loved this survey that you have. Like, how cold is it? You know, do your kids, Is it wet? Whatever. And then it tells you exactly what to buy as opposed to some of these other sites. Like, there's this huge variety. You have no idea what the heck to get and.
- [37:18]
C
Right.
- [37:19]
B
Yeah, I love that aspect of your site.
- [37:21]
C
Oh, thanks. Yeah, we do see a lot of opportunity. I mean, the website is kind of the number one place. We need to focus a lot of effort right now and just, you know, a lot of video content, A lot is needed to explain the features and benefits and why, if it works for kids in the mountains, it's going to work for you in the Bay Area kind of thing.
- [37:40]
B
Oh, one thing I also wanted to ask you, and this is the first time I've heard of this, but a B company is what you guys are, right?
- [37:48]
C
Yeah. So we are a public benefit corporation, which is a legal term which essentially means we, no matter what happens to our business, if we get sold, if we. Whatever happens, we always will. We're more than just for profit. We're actually for, you know, something bigger than that. And number one is to give back to the communities of northwest Colorado, and number two is to give back to the planet. And so those kind of foundational reasons for being will always live with town hall. Then we went so far as last year to actually get B Corp certified, so we got the certification stamp, and then we've got the legal backing as well.
- [38:24]
B
So I'm not as familiar with B Corps. Like, how do they differ from C Corps in terms of how you operate?
- [38:31]
C
Literally, not much at all. Nothing. I mean, it's just. It's essentially the same. The same. You know, you got to have the same articles and corporation and the bylaws, and you have the same annual meetings and the shareholders and all that type of thing. It's truly just, hey, you cannot go against these. Is your company always heading in the direction of these core values, and we check that box every year.
- [38:52]
B
Okay. I noticed it was front and center on your site, so, like, it's a pretty strong value prop as to, for sure, the values of your company. I also wanted to ask how you got on how I built this, because that's, like, one of the biggest podcasts in the world, right?
- [39:08]
C
That was just a cold call. You know, it's like, I just. If it says. If it says reach out, I'm going to reach out. It said, hey, do you have a story to tell?
- [39:16]
B
Give a call.
- [39:17]
C
So I left a voicemail, I don't know. And they called me that, and I left it in, like, August. And, you know, I didn't tell Joe and Jay, and it was just like, whatever, we'll see if this voicemail goes anywhere. And then I got an email from our producer in, you know, eight months later. And then we recorded three months after that. I don't know, we have.
- [39:38]
B
There must be something about you, Robin. Like, I don't know if it's me.
- [39:42]
C
See, I don't know. We just have a lot of. I don't know. We have a lot going for us. We're just. I don't know. I don't know. I just. I love this brand. I love this community. And it just. Everything we do comes from the heart. And hopefully I think people see that and we're just. We're hustling, and that goes a long way, too.
- [40:02]
B
Let me ask you this. So you decided to take funding, and with that comes, like, another can of worms. Is it just friends and family or is it. Are you getting, like, institutional funding also?
- [40:13]
C
Just friends and family. Okay.
- [40:15]
B
All right. Okay.
- [40:16]
C
Yeah.
- [40:16]
B
I was about to say, if you got institutional funding, like, that puts pressure for you to light a fire and, like, go all out, but, yeah, no.
- [40:24]
C
No, this is just friends and family. And, I mean, it's no secret that the outdoor industry is not a lucrative investment opportunity. So. So this isn't, you know, the folks that we found and the folks that we're seeking out to invest really get the brand and where we're headed. And quite frankly, almost all of them that are investing are actually going to sit on an advisory board because they're just savvy and excited and passionate and want to see us succeed for the good of us and our families, but then also for this town and the business and their kids. So it's really neat to see that. It truly is. It's friends and family that are. That are actually going to serve as advisory roles. Which is really cool. That is cool.
- [41:11]
B
It sounds like you travel a lot for this business and whatnot. And I know you, you're very family oriented as well. How is, how is like your, have you integrated your business with your family and you know, make sure you have time for both. And your husband's obviously very understanding of all this.
- [41:30]
C
My husband is our number one biggest fan. He is the town hall guru. He could explain the jackets inside and out the family. For good or for bad. Town hall has a firm seat at the dining room table every day. They are part of. Town hall is part of the family. And so we go through P Ls together. We've taught the kids about financials. We asked them like, we'll have a. You know, a bunch of kids are over here jumping on the trampoline. I'm all, hey, can everyone come inside and tell me what colors of jackets you like? You know, everyone gets it, people. The family comes and works at the events for fun. You know, they're getting older now, so they've grown out of the jackets, unfortunately. But it's just such a. I don't, I don't have to separate, honestly. It's really like we're all in this together and we're doing it together, which feels really special.
- [42:19]
B
Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I, I can just tell from the website, like the pictures that you've shown. It's. It's like a very tightly knit community that, that you've, that you've created for your brand and it's pretty amazing. So for anyone listening out there, where can they go to check out the brands? What events are you going to? Do you have like a schedule where people come out? Because there are people in, you know, mountain towns for sure.
- [42:44]
C
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We'll be doing the REI Summon the Snow at the Denver flagship in I think it's the end of October, October 20th, something. So that's down there. We're doing a Kids on Snow event up at Jackson Hole. We are, yeah. There's a holiday market in town, so lots of little things. Definitely. Check out our website, townhall co.com get involved. Come, you know, join our newsletter. I send the newsletters, so you're not going to get a lot of them because I don't have time to send three a week, so. And feel free to reply if I send something dumb. But yeah, give us a follow on social. I think, you know, the other thing, it's been interesting from a marketing perspective, like being super transparent with our community and telling them all the Good. Bad. I used to do this rosebud thorn about what we're working on and I think it's been neat for entrepreneurial folks and, you know, business savvy folks to kind of follow along from a what does it take to start this business? How does this go? What is she working on? So we've been, we've been talking about the business, you know, in town hall and the products, but then also the business itself. So if you want to learn more about business, give us a follow on social as well. On Insta or Town hall Co. Do.
- [43:56]
B
You guys have like a YouTube channel or a short form video channel?
- [43:59]
C
We don't. It's on the list. It's on the list. You'd be incredible at it. Incredible.
- [44:04]
B
You should definitely do it.
- [44:07]
C
Oh, I'm, I'm taking cues from you, my friend. It's, it's pretty impressive to watch you do your magic. It's cool.
- [44:12]
B
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, Robin. Really appreciate it. It's good to get back.
- [44:15]
C
Thanks for having us.
- [44:18]
A
Hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're thinking about selling apparel, I hope this episode helps you evaluate your niche before you begin. For more information and resources, go over to mywifequitterjob.com episode619 and once again, tickets to Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over@sellersummit.com if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to sellersummit.com and if you're interested in starting your own e commerce store, head on over to mywifequitterjob.com and sign up for my free 6 day mini course. Just type in your email and I'll send you the course right away.
- [44:54]
B
Thanks for listening.