Filling the Void
I recently went one on one with DUER founder and CEO Gary Lenett. With 25 years of experience making jeans for big names like Levi Strauss and a passion for bicycling, Gary saw an opportunity for functional fashion that didn’t exist on the market. Since launching in 2013, DUER can be found on the likes of professional athletes, commuters, and every adventurer in between.
Adam: First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Gary: I had been in the fashion business for more than two decades having worked with some of the biggest names in fashion—Levi’s, Nordstrom, Lululemon, The Gap, Banana Republic, Ralph Lauren, Guess Jeans to name just a few. And, quite frankly, I was tired of the race to the bottom, where everyone buys the same trend reports and tries to create the same products cheaper than anyone else. I was pulled back into the business after noticing a void in the market. Casual apparel, while stylish, was lacking performance properties; meaning, I couldn’t move through multiple activities in a day without a change of clothes. While technical apparel or even the “après gym” athleisure trend fell short in that it was difficult to dress up. We created DUER so it could fill that void in between technical apparel and fashion apparel.
Almost everything I know that is meaningful has come out of pain or failure and I would say that out of all my attributes, resilience has been my greatest asset. My greatest mistakes or failures (and I have many of them!) can all be attributable of not wanting to accept reality but rather sticking my head in the sand which of course only delays the inevitable. An example of this is the fact that as a younger man I never wanted to accept the fact that aging inventories of product NEVER get more valuable over time. I would not want to mark them down and sell them at a loss preferring to think that I would be able to find a future buyer and miraculously recover my cost or cost plus. Of course this never happens and ultimately I could have recovered more money from selling them at an earlier date. You can struggle with reality but you will never win this one.
Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Gary: It was less a case of me coming up with an idea and more a recognition of something the market was lacking and needing a solution. I was 56 years old and I started riding my bike everywhere including to and from work. As I made reference to above, this is when I realized there was nothing on the market that I could wear on the bike and into an important meeting. I knew that I could do a better job at designing a commuter jean, so I started this new venture. The idea of solving a real problem that people face, and doing something to help people live simpler, healthier lives drew me back into this crazy business and completely re-energized me.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Gary: This is tricky because on the one hand you need to come up with the ‘first creation’ in your mind and believe in yourself even when the whole world is saying you are crazy (which is most often the case when you are floating a new idea or business). On the other hand it would be reckless to invest heavily in a business idea without getting any feedback from the marketplace. I think the more experienced you are the more you should trust your gut instincts and the less experienced you are (the less you know the market), the more research you should do. One of the strategies I always recommend is to ensure that you are personally working your beta testing with potential customers. Don’t rely on other people doing research or external focus groups. You need to work with customers, learn and iterate. Don’t outsource this process.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business?
Gary: Building a true omni-channel business has been a key factor in DUER’s success to-date. Having three business channels (with the late addition of our presale channel), we’ve been able to grow globally while still operating as a lean team with limited resources. Our network of retailers through our wholesale channel has enabled us to sell in 27 countries and now informs our retail strategy as we expand further into the U.S market. When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit and we lost 75% of revenue in less than a week, our ecommerce business channel kept the business afloat. At the same time earlier this year, my team and I pivoted to launch a new pre-sale method—similar to crowdsourcing—to cut overhead cost by ensuring supply was inextricably tied to demand. This quick response model, NEXT, accurately gauges demand before producing, resulting in zero waste and a 35% reduction in overall inventory, translating to more sustained profits.
Adam: What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Gary: If you have the right “business strategies” and by that I mean you have a product that your customers want and can make it at a profit, then the singular advice I have is to hire people who are smarter and more experienced than you in the areas you’re not as strong in. It is all about execution and what I have found is that sometimes it is hard for some entrepreneurs to hire people who are smarter than themselves as the entrepreneur unconsciously views them as being a “threat” to their authority (ego). You want to hire people who will challenge you and your habitual way of thinking if you want to take your business to the next level.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Gary:
Be relatable and tell a story about why you are doing what you are doing. So for instance we don’t just sell product we sell an aspirational urban lifestyle
Develop a consistent look and feel that showcases two or three aspects of the product that are core to the brand - for DUER it’s comfort and style.
Rely on simplicity to relay even the most complex product, fabric, or technical story.
Build a loyal fan base. Our goal in the first few years was to get people in pants, period. We knew they would love our product and to this day a majority of our new customers come from referrals.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Gary: There is not one singular mold or type of effective leader. You absolutely need to have the respect of your team if you are to lead effectively. This means that you need to do your personal work to ensure that you are leading from your authentic self - people generally have very well tuned B.S. meters and regardless of your style of leadership, quickly pick up on that which is not trustworthy.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Gary: Great leaders inspire confidence. They have what I like to call “presence” and you can only be a great leader if you can develop personal characteristics that people respect and in most instances these are learned traits, habits formed through many hours of personal development. My personal development has come from different methods of reflection and coaching from others. This is not a destination but a journey and great leaders are curious and open to new learning.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?
Gary: Recruit people who compliment your skill set (you don’t want to hire replicas of yourself!) and then ensure that you truly care about them as individuals (don’t try to fake this). At the end of the day almost everyone really wants the same basic thing and that is to be heard and respected, so make sure that you do that and not just see everything as transactional.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Gary:
You always need more money than you think -don’t be afraid to take investment, even if you save it for a “rainy day”. You need money when things don’t go as expected and you need even more money to finance growth when things are going better than expected. So if it is available to you, take it!
Personal development drives organizational development. You are only as good as the people you surround yourself with and so recruitment plus training and development should always be prioritized.
Hire people who can and will challenge you. It may seem easier for you to hire people who are not going to challenge you but then again, you probably don’t really need them if they don’t add an alternative point of view or complementary skill.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Gary: Take in money from investors and don’t worry so much about how much of the “pie” you own. Worry more about how you are managing the business. It is ultimately better if you own 10% of a business that is several billion dollars in value than 100% of a business that is not worth much. If you are a great leader/manager then you have nothing to worry about when your ownership is only 10% and if you are not a good leader/manager then you have a lot to worry about even if you own 100%! (advice given to me when I was a young man by the late Jeff Brotman, founder and CEO of Costco, who owned less than 2% of Costco but was one of the most successful and wealthiest businessmen in the world)