By developing and owning the exact specifications for their fabrics—from the yarn to the finish—Faherty can move production between different manufacturers. This de-risks their supply chain from tariffs and geopolitical issues, as the "makers become less important."
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While VCs pushed direct-to-consumer, Faherty's founders blended wholesale, retail, and online sales. This diversified revenue, managed cash flow via wholesale factoring, and built brand presence in a way a pure-play DTC model couldn't.
The move toward a less efficient, more expensive global supply chain is not a failure but a strategic correction. Over-prioritizing efficiency created a dangerous dependency on China. Diversification, while costlier in the short term, is a fundamental principle of long-term risk management.
Hardware development is often stalled by supplier lead times. To combat this, proactively map out multiple, redundant manufacturing options for every component. By maintaining a constantly updated "lookup table" of suppliers, processes, and their current lead times, teams can parallelize workflows and minimize downtime.
Founder Catherine Lockhart isn't afraid of copycats. She shares her manufacturing process openly, believing the sheer difficulty of execution is a sufficient barrier to entry. This radical transparency builds customer trust and turns potential trade secrets into a powerful marketing asset.
Facing limited capital, Faherty leaned on wholesale. They used factoring—getting advances on purchase orders from established retailers like Nordstrom—to manage cash flow and fund production, a capital-efficient alternative to dilutive venture rounds.
Mike Faherty's deep engagement with overseas factories while at Ralph Lauren built strong personal relationships. These factory owners later became his new brand's first investors and manufacturing partners, a crucial advantage for a startup.
For D2C fashion brands, the inability of third-party suppliers to quickly fulfill reorders on trending products is a key trigger for vertical integration. Larroudé's co-founder realized the cost of one large factory order was equivalent to buying the machinery himself, enabling them to meet demand in weeks, not months.
When factories in China refused to produce his insulated bottle, Travis didn't give up. He rented time on their assembly line and physically built the necessary machine modifications himself, buying screws and metal plates to adapt their equipment. This is an extreme form of taking ownership of the supply chain.
Anticipating that independence from China will be a long-term, bipartisan US policy goal, Rivian intentionally designed its new R2 supply chain to be U.S.-centric. This strategic planning aims to align the business with persistent geopolitical trends, rather than just reacting to current tariffs.
Actively Black created a powerful brand narrative by building a 'Black owned supply chain,' using cotton from Black farmers for a 'Made in America' collection. This story of economic reclamation resonated so strongly with customers that it became a top-selling product line, proving a meaningful supply chain can be a brand's most compelling feature.
