UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I consulted with Breyburn, a direct-to-consumer shirting company delivering high-quality menswear at an accessible price point. With over 10,000 registered members, Breyburn was struggling to maintain its margin against the incremental cost of customer reengagement. By engaging Breyburn’s varied stakeholders in contextual inquiry, refining personas and framing a value opportunity analysis, I uncovered an opportunity to innovate on their business model: Breyburn could stagger the release of each shirt within its seasonal collection on a weekly basis, and guarantee production to meet the precise quantity of demand, with an explicit declaration of the production run included in the shipment of every shirt. Further validated by a written commitment to steady unit economics from their manufacturer, and through a survey of Breyburn’s membership, this “shirt of the week” concept resonated heavily with Breyburn’s base, who expressed tolerance of on-demand production schedules, and saw premium shirts primarily as an opportunity to “make a statement” and express a sense of personal identity; Breyburn could differentiate itself by inspiring confidence in a Breyburn member that he would be unlikely to encounter another man wearing the same shirt.