Three Business Lessons This Woman Learned From Making Men's Underwear

6322

Tommy John Cofounder and Head of Merchandising Erin Fujimoto, was ten years into a career at JP Morgan when she realized she didn’t love it

Picture: Tommy John

She pumped the brakes on the logical next step (earning a CFP certification) to think about how really wanted to spend her time. Turning to what she did love, she launched a website selling organic skin products and fell in love with the challenge of building something from nothing. The skincare business, however, didn’t capture Fujimoto’s attention.

In the meantime, Tom Patterson, Fujimoto’s boyfriend at the time (now husband) and Tommy John cofounder, was also a willing partner in brainstorming their next Big Idea, inspired by their binges of the TV show. He complained frequently about how badly his undershirts fit, bunching under his work shirts and coming untucked. When Patterson dumped a shopping bag full of inadequate undershirt options on their living room floor, Fujimoto understood that undershirts were not just a nuisance for Patterson. Men’s undergarments were going to become their shared obsession.

Over the last decade, they have designed and refined undershirts, underwear and socks that men love. I know firsthand how true this love can be – my husband is much happier on days when he’s wearing his Tommy Johns. Neither Fujimoto nor I can ultimately relate to the problem her products solve for, but she takes great satisfaction in improving customers’ day-to-day comfort. She has gotten used to the constant and detailed underwear talk around the office and dinner table, which has become an invaluable part of their product development cycle. Apart from better protection for the family jewels, here are some universal lessons from Fujimoto’s decade of building underwear men love.

1. The basics are important.

Perhaps the most basic of disruptors in men’s fashion, like Bonobos and UNTUCKit, Tommy John stumbled on a mundane product ripe for disruption.  While we spend hundreds of millions, miles of lace and even engineering prowess designing women’s undergarments (admittedly not in pursuit of comfort), analog products for men haven’t changed in decades. Fujimoto said that she and Patterson have been blown away by men’s eagerness to talk – at great length – about their own underwhelming undergarments, and what they wish for. Once they try these new and improved versions of their everyday gear, they’re customers for life.

So, as you build your business, whether as an intrapreneur or entrepreneur, remember to look for opportunity in the mundane. As exciting as VR-anything may seem, there are real, sustainable business opportunities in better versions of our everyday needs. And everyone wants to talk about them!

2. Spend your time on what matters.

Fujimoto had the good sense to hit pause before proceeding further in her finance career, resisting the inertia driving her to study for the CFP qualification to level up in that field. She spent time with someone she loved, thinking about the problems they cared about. Then, they established a company designed to solve one of those problems. Their goal was not to ring the bell on the stock exchange after going public or build a sale-able brand for one of today’s retail giants to acquire.  They wanted to solve a problem that afflicted at least one of them directly, and the other by proxy of suffering Patterson’s daily complaints about baggy undershirts.

Since choosing men’s undergarments as their focus, Fujimoto and Patterson have grown the company slowly, with a relentless focus on their customers. They know that the fabric has to be just right, the cut just so, to earn the loyalty and repeat purchases that will drive the brand’s success. They’ve focused on profitability and taken limited investor money, so there’s no pressure to accelerate product expansions or a sale of the company.  It’s easy to get wrapped up in media coverage, internal hype, investor excitement or sales growth when you’re building something. Fujimoto admits that their path may have been less glamorous than that of peer startups. But if you forget why you started it in the first place, and get distracted from the original problem or end users you set out to help, your survival is limited.

3. Start somewhere.

Fujimoto’s advice to everyone looking to build something – anything – a side hustle, a book club, a new business, an interest group at your office – is to start somewhere.  She says, “If you have a dream, just start taking some action.” Tommy John isn’t following a 1,000-mile roadmap, just a series of next steps in 200-foot increments that have added up to the company’s success.

Fujimoto is clear that building a company is incredibly hard and that she and Patterson have bad days. She thought she worked hard at JP Morgan, but says only now does she know what it’s like to hustle. However, the satisfaction of getting through those hard days and hearing customer reviews or winning a big order is worth every minute of struggle.

Perhaps the most revealing lesson of Fujimoto’s story is that amidst today’s frantic search for meaning and impact, all we really need is to be part of helping as many people as possible have a slightly better day, in the most basic way we know how.

Nell Derick Debevoise, Forbes Women

   Если вы обнаружили ошибку или опечатку, выделите фрагмент текста с ошибкой и нажмите CTRL+Enter

Орфографическая ошибка в тексте:

Отмена Отправить