What does a guy wear to yoga? This is the question that disrupted a highly competitive activewear industry, and the question that led to a lifestyle brand creation in return. As we take a deeper look into why founders start what they start, we found Joe Kudla, the man behind Vuori. Like most DTC brand founders, the mission started with one man who had one question.
Kudla isn’t just your run-of-the mill retired lax bro, he’s a former college athlete who found a gap in the market for more quality-driven activewear pieces and decided to do something about it. Whether you know Vuori or are just allowing me to familiarize you with it now (get out from under your rock), the brand has seen incredible global growth since its humble Encinitas beginning in 2014. The brand blends SoCal lifestyle into its high quality performance apparel, creating athletic clothing with a different perspective. Designed with this versatility at the forefront, Vuori seamlessly transitions you from your workout to your daily life.
While inspired by yoga, Kudla’s background wasn’t grounded in being a yogi. “I was an athlete, growing up I played football and lacrosse, football through high school, and then lacrosse in college, and I just beat up my body,” He says. “Then a friend suggested I try yoga. I fell in love with the practice, and I was doing it every day. That was what started me off on this journey.”
“I was an athlete, growing up I played football and lacrosse, football through high school, and then lacrosse in college, and I just beat up my body. Then a friend suggested I try yoga. I fell in love with the practice.”
It’s been a long journey for this founder, but in the end, it’s paid off. Kudla chats through everything that got Vuori to where it is today, omnichannel ecom and wholesale strategies, growth in failure, red light therapy, and more. So let’s get moving. It’s time to learn from the master.
ESQUIRE: Why did you start Vuori? What did you think was missing from out there?
JOE KUDLA: The observation of the market was that the big mainstream active brands weren’t really designing premium apparel. It was a mass offering, where they were working with shiny, synthetic materials, big brand logos. So as somebody who was going to yoga every day… Nobody was really paying attention to the male customer. It was very much overlooked or an afterthought for the premium brands. Our vision was to build something premium for men that would support you through a tough workout, but had an aesthetic and a fabric sensibility that would transition it into your everyday life. Our founding ethos was built to move in style for life, and it was all about that versatility that Vuori has become famous for.
“Our vision was to build something premium for men that would support you through a tough workout, but had an aesthetic and a fabric sensibility that would transition it into your everyday life.”
What were the first steps that you took logistically? Essentially, how did you raise the money to start Vuori?
Fundraising was very challenging for me; I’m not gonna pretend that it wasn’t. I had not built a successful track record in apparel. I was a CPA by trade, and I had started two clothing brands out of the garage, neither of which had really gone anywhere. They were great learning experiences, and I taught myself about how apparel was made. But I always loved design, and I always loved product—I just didn’t have a successful track record. So raising capital, especially from the financial institutions and the venture community, was very challenging. I maxed out my credit cards, took all of my savings, and got a few friends and family to invest alongside me. We were able to put together enough money to go to market and put our first samples together, but it wasn’t a big budget, and we were competing with other concepts, especially ones more focused on the women’s market. We always felt like a bit of an underdog especially in those early days. We went out, hired two people that are still with me today, our head of marketing, Nikki Sakelliou, and our head of men’s design, Rebecca Bray, and the three of us set out on this journey.
What was your initial strategy?
The first strategy that we had was a bit flawed. Our business premise at the time was to follow the women’s brands that were launching at Equinox, Core Power Yoga, and other studio gyms that were carrying products. We felt like there was never anything interesting for men on the racks of any of these studios, so we felt like we could sell into these studios and build a great little foundation for our business. And we quickly learned that men, while reluctant to go to yoga in the first place, were definitely not willing to stick around and shop after the class.
How did you change direction?
We pivoted with the remaining dollars we had left, and the clock was running out for us so we decided to try an ecom-first strategy. And that was when we started to define our growth, develop a relationship with a customer where we could learn from the customer—understand what they liked about the product, what they were using it for, what didn’t work for them. It was clear that they loved the product ethos, but they didn’t connect with how we were telling the story of the brand, which was largely through this lens of men’s yoga at the time. So we started speaking honestly about how the customer was using the product, and what we heard over and over again was that versatility that I talked about. They loved how the product felt, how it fit, how they could wear it across multiple aspects of their lives because it didn’t have logos and big reflective details all over it. And it was that versatility that we started talking about. We were really, really proud to have been one of the first men’s brands to speak to versatility.
Aside from e-commerce, what other channels did you use to grow the brand?
Vuori has always embraced an omnichannel holistic strategy. While we shifted our focus to selling on the internet, we never totally neglected wholesale. Vuori was always built with a certain percentage of our sales being done through a strategic group of wholesale partners like Nordstrom, Rei, and Equinox. Very early in our life cycle, we also launched our first store, and we became obsessed with building community, starting in our pop-up in Encinitas. We started hosting amazing events and bringing people together to sweat and share in like minded experiences. We applied the lesson of community to our stores, and we will have 50 in the US by the end of this year.
“Very early in our life cycle, we also launched our first store, and we became obsessed with building community, starting in our pop-up in Encinitas. We started hosting amazing events and bringing people together to sweat and share in like minded experiences.”
What was the first piece you produced that made you think, “I can do this” and is this piece still available? Or has it evolved?
Our Kore short for men is the ultimate physical manifestation of our brand promise. You know, the mission is that we’re inspired by this active coastal California lifestyle. We’re a new perspective on performance apparel, and we wanted to bring more of this West Coast casual aesthetic to active wear to create a product that you actually want to wear across multiple aspects of your life. The Kore short was our first try at creating a product where people could feel that, where we didn’t have to tell them what the brand stood for, where they could understand it through the lens of our product.
We started out with just some solid colors then started to explore prints, changing the waistband details—and our customers just fell in love with that short. It wasn’t until a few years later when Rei brought us into a 10-door test to try a men’s activewear concept within its best doors. So they brought in the Kore short, and when that short outperformed our biggest competitors and brands that we had looked up to as kids that we were like, “Okay, I think we’re onto something. I think this business has legs.”
Tell us what your current favorite Vuori products are?
That’s like choosing your favorite child. But let me think…
To talk more about favorites, we have our Esquire Endorsement and Investment sections, what’s the one thing you can’t live without right now?
I just got a JOOVV red light therapy. It’s awesome because you program it for 10 or 15 minutes, and you sit in front of it. You feel like you’re sitting in front of the sun. It’s warm. It has incredible health benefits. And it’s a 10 minute little pause where you can do a meditation or a little bit of breath work, and it’s been just a great little part of my routine now.
Gaby Keiderling is a New York based writer, working on fashion, lifestyle, travel, and sports features. She also covers celebrity style for Esquire’s ‘Get Ready with Me’ franchise. Her work can also be seen in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Sometimes you can spot her around the West Village, out on a walk with her dog Sneakers.
