● Case 01 · Truewerk · DTC workwear
Building a brand the trades talk about.
Role
Director, then VP of Marketing, Ecommerce & Brand
Years
2018 – 2022
Reported to
CEO
Owned
DTC P&L, marketing, demand forecasting, customer experience
The brief
Where it started
Truewerk makes technical workwear for the trades. When I joined as Director of Marketing in 2018, it was early: few tradespeople had heard of it, and growth leaned almost entirely on Facebook and search ads. A year later I moved up to VP on the executive team, owning DTC revenue, marketing, demand forecasting and customer experience. The job was to grow the brand without growing that dependence.
What I did
The work
Positioning. Built the brand around the tradesperson as an “industrial athlete,” then widened it from workwear for work to workwear for life.
Research. Ran a quantitative survey and in-depth customer interviews to learn how tradespeople actually find and choose their gear.
Channels. Added influencer, TikTok, YouTube, direct mail, affiliate and radio, built Amazon from launch, and set up a streaming and linear TV pilot.
Retention. Built lifecycle marketing and brought customer service in-house, so repeat buyers became a real share of the business.
People, service and change. Built out the organization as the company scaled, and ran customer service alongside marketing so what customers told us fed straight into the plan. I also led the team through a new way of working: 90-day plans and two-week sprints tied to demand planning.
The insight
Tradespeople trust the person next to them on the jobsite more than any ad. So the brief for our TV work was simple: give them something to talk about.
What changed
The results
DTC revenue CAGR over four years
Site sessions year over year, 2022
Of revenue from returning customers