Client:
Truewerk
Business Stage:
Evolution Years
Category:
Workwear
WERX Role:
Design, Develop, Produce
During the days when people still attended Outdoor Retailer, we would have the opportunity to meet a lot of people. In the summer of 2022 we were at the OR show in Denver where we had great conversations with so great folks. Most bring from the outdoor industry, but some being new-commers interested to learn more about the market, materials and how to create outdoor products.
Making Workwear Make Sense.
About a month after the show we received an email from one of these interested folks. His name was Joe, and to both our surprise within the same city. Joe had always dreamed of starting his own outdoor brand, and through his recent business achievements was in the position to do so. Not only that, but he wanted to establish the brand to give 100% of his profits back to environmental charities. We were in.
The Collab
Being that Joe and his business partner (and wife) Melissa were in the same city as us, we had the opportunity to work very closely in the planning phase.
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We started with an industry analysis to understand where their product interests aligned with market needs.
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Then we moved to creating aesthetic mood boards to start forming a design language around what their brand would look and fele like.
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Next was to create the multi-season product line plan. We outlined the categories of products, the types of products within those categories, and a merchandising story across categories.
Challenges
Goals
WERX came in and became an extension of the Truewerk company, and acted as their design, development and production management wing of their company handling all responsibilities with their product, even making some products in-house in the WERX Studio.
The initial challenge that we wanted to tackle was updating and make overall brand design aesthetic more uniform and functionally progressive to serve the trade industry. Furthering the challenge was passing off this consistency to the in-house design team that would eventually take ahold within Truewerk.
Truewerk's inherent vision and drive was already great, it was just a bit scattered. Auditing the entire brand product offering helped us find out which styles were driving most of the success of the brand, and pulling out the products that were either outliers in design language or not big sellers but had potential to be.
Approach
We audited the entire brand product offerings to find out which styles were driving most of the success of the brand, and pulling out the products that were either outliers in design language or not big sellers (but had potential to be).
Focusing on what the brand’s vision was and what customers were gravitating towards, we were able to create a design aesthetic to follow to update the winners and revamp the slower styles to be more consistent throughout the entire range. We also audited all the materials used to ensure quality could be increased while consistency and efficiency could be increased to raise the overall brand standards while increasing margins through optimizing usage.
Our Process
Leveraging upon the brand's success and reputation within the pants category, we expanded the line to offer a pant, and eventually every layer, for most work environments. The need for comfort, protection and durability were the main pillars to build out the line assorment for, as well as uniform and special projects to drive the innovation within the brand.
Another key to the project scope was creating operating manuals, standards and working protocols for the source base and internal team to follow. Auditing the factory working flow and complete operating set-up allowed us to instill new standards that increased production efficiencies and output.
The Result
Focusing on what the brand’s vision was and what the customers were gravitating towards, we were able to create a design aesthetic to follow to update the winners and revamp the slower styles to be more consistent throughout the entire range.
We also audited all the materials used to ensure quality could be increased while consistency and efficiency could be increased to raise the overall brand standards while increasing margins through optimizing usage. WERX collaborated with Truewerk to create multiple categories and lines, while utilizing several tiers of fabrics to make a system based product assortment.
Where are they now?
Truewerk skyrocketed in growth, which quickly reached a demand scale that made an in-house product development team a necessity. WERX worked with the Truewerk management to download and pass off the responsibilities to their new internal product team, giving them the ability to continue their growth and focus under one roof. Truewerk’s growth has no signs of letting up.
