One of the things we have loved about the re-launch of TRUE was our ability to re-focus our distribution channels. Put in plain english we now focus more on selling directly to you through our site.
How does this work?
By selling our gear directly to you and primarily online, we’re saving you from paying unnecessary markups and costs associated with the traditional brick-and-mortar retail model.
How does that benefit me?
Essentially this means you get top-quality products for far less than you would buying through traditional retail. Plus we can oversee your buying experience, education about our products, order fulfillment, warranties and customer service to guarantee you have the best possible experience with our brand.
Why D.T.C. over the old guard way of traditional retail?
In the old retail model there is a whole slew of extra expenses and markups that we simply bypass here at TRUE. Our competitors all sell through big box retail, causing a double-dip on margin along with a number of other unnecessary expenses.
"Big box retailers tend to strangle innovation. Their well intentioned goal of lowering prices often times causes product designers to gut core components, quality manufacturing techniques, and sustainable practices that truly great products need." - Jason M. | Creative Director
Why did TRUE stray from the old guard?
It's simple: better quality products at lower prices all while improving the consumer experience.
We aren't a big corporation with shareholders pushing us around. We are independently owned and operated. So when we started to call our own shots, we took inspiration from other brands that have eschewed from the typical retail model.
Amazon (a fellow NW company) isn't your typical bookstore, and it wasn't started by a typical bookstore employee or owner. However, they forever changed the way people will buy books. Uber wasn't started by a taxi driver's union. Tesla wasn't started by a major auto manufacturer... you get the point. Why pay for more mediocre? Why wouldn't we start a golf shoe company, and do things differently?
But isn't Footjoy, Nike, Adidas, Ecco, and everyone else is doing this the old way?
TRUE. But they are so massive and set in their ways, they could never change their archaic models to do business this way (even if they thought it was the right way).
Sometimes we see being small, nimble and relatively new at something actually to our advantage. We're so new we didn't realize you had to strip shoes of premium components to reach a retail price-point. We didn't realize you had to pay top level athletes who may or may not like your shoes huge endorsement dollars to wear them, then pass along those fees to your customers. We didn't realize you had to have a huge sales infustracture and retail chains carrying your shoes and just markup the same exact product 2x's to make the cost structure work. So we didn't.
So it's that easy?
This DTC approach has not been without its challenges, we have had to learn and implement new technologies and applications that allow us to host our website, secure online transactions, deal with fraud, manage inventory, and establish logistics deparments. We're learning on the fly in this ever changing landscape.
We aren't the only company doing this...there are other great brands who are focused on direct to consumer as well. We wanted to highlight a few of our favorites below:
- Cody's Pick: Warby Parker "The whole buying experience changed the way I think about buying glasses forever." www.warbyparker.com
- Justin's Pick: Kuiu "You can't make higher quality gear - the direct pricing is just a bonus." www.kuiu.com
- Jason's Pick: Allbirds "If you don't wear TRUEs ever day, at least there are wool runners..." www.allbirds.com
- Marie's Pick: Everlane "Their transparency with pricing and sourcing is next level." www.everlane.com
- Josh's Pick: Dollar Shave Club "Just watch their videos, enough said." www.dollarshaveclub.com