Building Community-First Brands in Male-Dominated Markets

0:00How do we make sure that we create a beautiful, highly functioning clothes that looked good, performed amazing, and how do we get more people, more women out on the mountain? What do you feel has been the biggest challenge in building a brand in the ski and snow sports category? It's all a challenge. We're a small brand and we're disrupting an entire industry. There's really nobody doing what we're doing, which again is that intersection between fashion and outdoor. Is it more tailored to like professional athletes or more aspirational to recreational everyday skiers? The goal and the real why behind the brand was to democratize the mountain, to make the mountain more accessible for women.

0:38Unlike a lot of brands who are like really focusing on building their brands on the back of athletes, we are not doing that.

0:50Hey everybody and thank you for tuning in. My name is Andres Tigueira and I'll be your host for the day. Today's episode is sponsored by The Global Talent Company, a company that's connecting amazing talent from Argentina, South Africa, and anywhere really with leading tech companies worldwide. So if your team is looking to hire top-notch South American or South African talent, just visit theglobaltalent.co and see how we can help. And today with me here, I am speaking with Alicia Moore, head of marketing at Half Days, a company that is creating performance fashion to own the mountain. So how's it going, Alicia?

1:25Welcome to the episode. We're so happy to have you here. Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me. No problem at all. It really is a pleasure. And Alicia, I must say that as a snowboarding fan myself and snowboarding Aperol that I love, I checked out Half Days and I just want to buy the whole store for my girlfriend. It looks amazing. But would you be able to tell us, Alicia, in your own words, a little bit more about what Half Days is, how you came to be the head of marketing, and anything about your background? So we'll start with what Half Days is. So Half Days was created about five years ago by Ariana, Kylie, and Correll, three founders.

2:08It really started because of Kylie and Ariana. Kylie was an Olympian skier. She had competed in the Olympics and wildly talented when she competed. She competed essentially wearing men's ski clothes. what she was given was an outfit that didn't really fit her well. And she said, I remember her saying when I first started, like, what was the impetus for creating half days? And she had said, like, I was on the world stage competing and I didn't feel as good as I was performing. And so for her, it was all about finding clothes that like made her feel confident and empowered her to do this incredible sport.

2:45So she teamed up with Ariana and Corelle and they created half days. Ariana had, you know, she had been in like the marketing and strategy and fashion space for quite some time and, you know, had that entrepreneurial bug. And together they decided that they were going to make women's ski and snowboard apparel that worked better for us. It fit us better. We took cues from the fashion industry and really kind of arrived at that perfect space between outdoor and fashion. And the goal and the real why behind the brand was to democratize the mountain, to make the mountain more accessible for women.

3:25It is, as you probably know, if you're a boarder or a skier, like a very masculine, male-centric space. And so, you know, for them, it was like, how do we make sure we create a beautiful, highly functioning clothes that looked good, performed amazing? And how do we get more people, more women out on the mountain? Wow. Now, I must say that is amazing. And I totally agreed with the fact of what you're mentioning, that it really is a male dominated like industry and sport. And even in my case, like I bought some apparel from some certain brands that I loved. And it's like I told my girlfriend, hey, you would look amazing in this.

4:02But it still is like guys wear. And it is more of a male thought out apparel. And then I just saw Half Days. And I must be honest, like I sent her your website's link and I'm like, babe, look at this. Look at all these different clothes you can buy that they're so cool and they'll fit you so nicely. And she was like, what? Yeah, no, the colors are amazing. And it really is a very, it's a great place to work because as like a woman who's been lifelong skier, I'm like, this is exactly what I wanted. there's a very like old school mentality in the women's outdoor apparel and ski space or excuse me in the like larger outdoor apparel and ski space they say shrink it and pink it and so essentially they're designing for men and they're just making it smaller to fit a woman's body but there's a lot of technical details and a lot of like small intricacies of building product for women that's very different you can't just like make a smaller torso and assume that that's going to fit a female so and in terms of marketing half days and what it's been what do you feel has been the biggest challenge in building a brand in the ski and snow sports category what has it been like disrupting a market that's so male-centric or has there been any other challenges somewhere else well i'll say this and actually kind of going back to your first question so i spent i mean i spent years on the agency side working on behalf of some massive brands like McDonald's and Verizon Wireless and some really like legacy, legacy brands.

5:33And then from there, I went to the hospitality world and I spent almost 10 years at La Cologne. And I think what's, what's worth mentioning that and then where we're at now is that when I first started at La Cologne, we were very small. There was like five people on the marketing team. We had two cafes. We didn't have a draft latte product you know we it was like we were about to hit this like rapid fire growth and but we were still a small scrappy brand and that's kind of like my sweet spot and the thing that i love the most actually about where we're at right now with half days is that it's just like the entire category is ripe for disruption much like third wave fourth wave coffee was at the time and there's really nobody doing what we're doing which again is that intersection between fashion and outdoor.

6:18You know, the outdoor industry has largely been this like very crunchy old school place. And, and so I feel like the brand is just like at this pivotal moment. And I'm like beyond thrilled to be part of this team and, you know, and to help build this thing. And in terms of like challenges, like, it's all a challenge. We're a small brand. And we're disrupting an entire industry so there's a lot of testing and learning there's a lot of like let's see what works but what we are grounded on is like who our girl is and what she wants out of the brand and so there's a lot of things that are are also working nice okay and in terms of where you want the brand to go has there been the need to make a distinction in the apparel you guys say you guys sell that is more is it more tailored to like professional athletes or more aspirational to recreational everyday skiers is there any difference in the apparel can anybody just buy whatever they want and it's it's functional both ways unlike a lot of brands who are like really focusing on building they're really focusing on building their brands on the back of athletes we are not doing that like i said when when kylie finished skiing i think she was you know she was a little fatigued from having competed at such a high level.

7:37And really what she wanted to do with Ariana was to make this sport more accessible and make it more fun. And so, you know, the idea of half days is like, we're going to be first to get like the first track on the mountain and we'll crush it. And then we're also going to be like, you know, it's two o 'clock, I'm going to go grab a drink and like hang out with my friends. So it's really about like making sure that we have products for everybody and that we're reaching as many people as possible who are interested. So it could be your first ski suit and you could just be like, I just moved to Colorado and I'm trying to dabble in this new sport.

8:09And I need to make sure that I'm like kitted out and I feel good. Or you could be a professional skier like Kylie is and it'll keep you warm and it will make sure that you're like comfortable, really in all ski terrain. And have you, in terms of your marketing, have you need to be a bit more localized where you market, seeing that snowboarding and skiing are more of seasonal sports? Do you have those campaigns put out in the winter in the States? Or I don't even know if you guys reach Argentina because I'm based in Buenos Aires, but it would be during your summer that you would do a campaign for half days here.

8:45And I bet it would probably be a hit. But how do you how do you work around the seasonality of the sport? OK, so half days has year round clothing. So we're not just ski and snowboard. However, that is where we started. We do offer clothes all year round to own the mountain, as you said earlier. So everything from like trail to active wear that can take you from like city to mountain, Pilates to, you know, a 14er. Like we're really meant to be like, you know, clothing that is very versatile and allows you to really do whatever kind of sport you're interested in. um but of course there is some seasonality again because we started in ski and snowboard in terms of dmas and markets that we're really focused on we're we're largely in the u.s we have a few wholesale accounts in canada we're largely in the u.s and what we found is like our girl's a fashion girl so she happens to be in new york and los angeles or in other cities like miami or Chicago where like there is a sense of fashion certainly here in Denver that's where I'm calling in from and that's where we're headquartered and we have our flagship store but yeah she's into fashion and she travels to the mountains so you'd be surprised how many people are shopping half days in some of these areas that are nowhere near the mountains like Southern California and they're going up into the mountains or they're taking a vacation to Jackson Hole or to Aspen or whatever it is okay now that's perfect and if people are learning about half days during the summer maybe they get a sale due to the season in the snowboard wear and then they go to the mountain with your brand it's just so cool because that means they they are aware of it all the time and and being able to buy more clothes that aren't just tailored for snow like as you mentioned there's like lifestyle and like camping gear as well right it's all apparel and accessory so no no actual gear but yeah I mean the hope is that she probably enters the space through ski and snowboard because that's what we're known for and but that that means that she's probably an adventure like a girl who likes adventure or sports or to be outside so maybe she'll enter in through ski and snowboard but she'll you know we'll see some retention and conversions later in the year when she's going on a hiking trip or a backpacking trip or honestly she's just like hey, I find myself in Breckenridge this summer and I'm doing some Pilates classes.

11:08We have active wear as well. And in terms of building community, Alicia, could you tell us a bit more how your strategy has been in order to create a community, a place where I think there was practically none before Half Days because it usually was a male-centric dominated industry and sport? Yeah, I mean, long before I started, Half Days has really been focused on building a community. We have ongoing meetups every single month. We have brand ambassadors, 35 brand ambassadors across the country who execute meetups for us. And some of them are like on mountain ski meetups. And then sometimes there's studio classes or hikes or whatever.

11:45We're currently in partnership with Hoka doing walks. It's amazing how the community really rallies. And again, it's all about that like inclusivity on mountain. And so we want as many people to come together and enjoy it as much as we do. There's also a sense of community online. our social channel is like highly engaged and we see a ton of people posting photos of us of them and they're like in their colored ski suit and it's very recognizable on mountain which is also really helpful so like capturing content or being like oh that's my sister right like she's wearing a half days i'm wearing half days we have this in common and then we also have like a really amazing slack channel which i think is really innovative for for the brand we have almost 10 000 people in our Slack channel who are constantly like communicating.

12:30And what's really cool is when you go to new cities or you're like, I just moved to Denver and I'm trying to meet new friends or whatever it is, you can sign up for the Slack channel. And you see in the forums, like people are just, they're like, what's the best restaurant? I'm going up to Breckenridge this weekend. Anybody want to ski with me? I'm brand new. And so there's definitely this like very authentic community that has grown on account of half days. And it's a really amazing thing to be part of and to help lead. That is so cool. And is there a specific reason why you chose Slack as like the hub for this community and for them to talk to each other all the time?

13:07Yeah, I mean, we've gone back and forth, but we kind of wanted to meet women where they are. And a lot of our women are working women. And so they're already on Slack. And it's just a very convenient channel for them. It's not meant to be a conversion driver like this channel that's like really honestly not very self-serving for us it's really meant to be a place for community and so yeah we've really levered like leaned into that that is so cool because this is the first time i'm hearing a slack as a place for community but the more i hear it the more sense it makes yeah the more sense it makes and okay and alicia in In terms of competing for attention when your team and what's it called in half days is against legacy brands with massive marketing budgets.

13:54How have you managed to compete against that? Even though I know your angle is a bit more niche. It's specifically tailored for women and stuff. But how have you been able to rise against all these huge other brands that have been in the market for so long? Yeah, I mean, I think this kind of goes back to my background. having come up in PR and communications is that I am definitely one of those marketers who really values like very authentic, deeply human, emotional, creative and experiences. And so at every turn, we keep at we like ask ourselves, like, does this make you stop? Does it make you feel anything?

14:33Like, does this artwork? Does this creative? Does the hike like, does it feel inclusive? Does it feel fun are we have are we like do we want to go are we taking joy from this and I think that like the the big common denominator for being in the big area where I feel like we have an opportunity to stand out is to be very very human and to be very like authentic at every turn I think some of these massive brands like they kind of they it's not that they they they lost their humanity but But they're huge and it takes forever for them to like to pivot or to like really reach their customer in a way.

15:11And like, I mean, we are very fortunate because we're still relatively small. And so, you know, Ariana and Kylie will be on the hike and they will be building this relationship. And then when I think about the creative, it's like we're all in studio together or on mountain together making the art. And it's like it's deeply personal. And I think that's going to be a huge event for us as we scale. Okay. Yeah, that's the feeling I'm getting. I feel that Half Days is so much more approachable than other brands. And you're very much more hands-on, having this community and listening to people. Even getting to meet the creators of the brand on the hikes and wherever you guys do meetups.

15:53That is so cool. And Alicia, I heard you mention that the team is really small. And I'd love to get a bit more into that as well. Like how big is Half Days? And for example, how big is your marketing team that you're managing right now? Yeah, so there's about nine people on my team. And, you know, I would say there's like roughly 30 people-ish for the entire company. So, yeah, we're pretty small. But we are, you know, we're a fashion brand. So it's really important to have a really robust marketing team because I feel like, you know, in a lot of ways, we help keep the lights on. Of course. No, no, no.

16:32Of course. And provide visibility for the brand, drive conversion. And it's super important to have a well set up marketing team, especially with this type of brand. And in terms of how you guys work, Alicia, is it a more of a remote type company or are you all in office and working together side by side? Like, how does that work for for Half Day? No, we're we're all in office right here together and in Denver. so and that's also been really really amazing i think that it's for a young brand with the growth trajectory that we have and it's really really helpful for us to all be together and to lock arms we have to create a ton of content so we're up on mountain every week creating content um and so being right here on like the front range is also really really helpful for us and ariana and kylie are amazing leaders and so it's really really helpful to also be in the office with them and to be able to like see and hear their vision for the future of the brand.

17:30Of course. And yeah, and being together side by side in the office, it's a lot easier to get things done. I imagine that if it all were remote, it would take a little bit more time to just get aligned, synced up, make sure that all the pieces are properly moving. And in just the coffee chat during the office day, then you could just get a bunch of things solved that you didn't even expect. And Alicia, in terms of, I also want to ask, it's the trending topic of the moment, and I ask this to all the industries I speak to, and it's how are you guys leveraging AI to help you guys out in the day-to-day?

18:03I'm not sure if you have any novel ways that you are leveraging AI for your advantage. But yeah, we'd love to hear your insight in that regard as well. We need to continue to leverage it, but I would say it was somewhat selective on where and how we leverage it. And I would say that's very much done on purpose, right? So there are tools like PMAX and other like media buying tools that we will use because they make sense. And if we see a good ROI on them, like we'll continue to invest in those spaces. We have also leveraged tools like LTVAI, which is an email tool that allows us to create a customer service agent.

18:45And then folks can interact with that and they will learn based on their purchasing behavior and make recommendations for them or make recommendations based on where they live or what they have expressed back to our customer service agent. um however we haven't you know from a cx standpoint our cx team we have an amazing cx team and they largely it's very personal for them right and so we don't want all of cx to be strictly bots because it's deeply personal if somebody buys something and they don't love it or if somebody buys something and they do love it and they want to tell you about their trip and what they what how they felt when they were wearing it like you want a human on the other end of that i think the same thing could be said about creative like we're really really thoughtful with every one of our creative shoots and so we very rarely if ever use ai from a creative standpoint because it's just like these are humans these are models these are real bodies like it's a real woman wearing this we want it to feel like a real woman you know and so so yeah so there's there's tools that we use we've been exploring using triple whale and they have like an amazing um program like an ai tool that allows you to like aggregate all the data and then you can ask it much like you would ask ChatGPT.

19:59You could ask it for like, how do I decipher what I'm reading here? Because data can be fully plunky. And so anyway, I mean, I think that there is, there's so many amazing tools out there that we're gonna continue to explore. But we're very thoughtful about what tools we use. And I totally agree with that approach. I really respect that because I know of a lot of people that are using AI for creativity to help them with that part of the process or to just reply to everybody. And it really is very important to make sure to keep it personal, especially when you say if a customer has a testimony of how good or how bad the product was, if they get a template in response back and it doesn't feel personalized, then you might just lose a client there because they might not feel that Half Days is as interested.

20:48And OK, Alicia, in terms of your plans as head of marketing for Half Days, what would be your priority for the next 12 months? Like what is it that you want to accomplish the most in the next year? Oh, yeah, that's a great question. I mean, we just kicked off our ski season last week, which was amazing. And I'm really, really proud of the work that we're doing, particularly around this ski season, because one big thing that I have like encouraged the team to do when I came on is to like really figure out how to leverage insights to be able to drive it like a very exciting creative campaign and so this year our campaign is all around the idea of a girl's trip and we we realized that like our girls often traveling to go skiing and and in many cases she's going on a girl's trip and the idea of a girl's trip is again going back to that like deeply human experience where we all can relate to one another there's like a sense of nostalgia and like joy and almost like a reprieve from your daily life which is like whatever that looks like but you're like letting it all go you're letting your hair down you're going on a girl's trip I haven't seen my girls I'm getting away from my kids whatever that like that joy you feel just to be surrounded by your people and so the whole season is all about girls trips and that you know it showed up in some of our our teaser content and launch content you know if you can you can sense it in some of the colors that we chose with glazed cherry and amnithist last week we were in new york and we created a fictional bar called the glazed cherry chalet which was the first stop on the girls trip and we hosted people at this like it was very cool it was like 1960s 70s martini bar chalet and we built that same vibe in studio for a photo shoot so a lot of the content you'll see on the website pdps match back to this like experience that we hosted in new york and throughout the season you'll see a ton of content that kind of again kind of goes back to this theme and so i'm like pretty excited about that i think it's just it's innovative it's ownable it it everybody can relate to it it's like it's personal um and the team just did a phenomenal job at bringing it to life and there's so many we have so many like tools in our tool belt for the next six months um so yeah i'm really really excited about that and alicia in terms of also any predictions you may have about how consumers are shopping for performance and outdoor apparel in the next one to five years, do you have anything that you think is going to happen or that you could predict is a way that the market will sway?

23:34Or if it's too broad of a question, I understand, and we can pass along, but I just want to know if you have any insights in that regard. I'll say this. What I'm seeing right now is people are shopping for clothes that excite them. Like you're seeing a lot of like patterns. You're seeing a lot of mixed patterns. You're seeing a lot of mixed textures. You're seeing a lot of people that are like gravitating to brighter colors. And I think that there is like this level of like, I'm going to dress for me. That is pretty exciting. And I imagine people will continue to shop that way to shop. And I love that because it's this level of confidence.

24:11And again, it kind of goes back to who Half Days is like we're confident and we're having a good time. And there's like this joy that comes along with that. And what I'm noticing is that there's definitely a pivot where I would say a couple of years ago was like everything was like semi monotone and like muted and everyone was wearing clothes that match back. And now you're starting to see some cheetah prints mixed in with some like some cording on sweaters. And I just think that there's more joy in what people are willing to buy. And, you know, like life is expensive. And so people are making choices on what they're purchasing.

24:47and I like to believe you know that people are choosing things that bring them joy and that's certainly what we're doing is we're trying to offer you something that makes you feel good you look snatched and you like and you and you're excited and you know you can crush them out in and in terms of your marketing channels Alicia is there or could you maybe tell us what marketing channels you're using the most and maybe which one is working the best um yeah so we I would say that like roughly 40 % of our budget is spent on paid media. And we're starting to like really play around with what media we're buying.

25:22So historically, it's been, you know, a lot of Google and meta and TikTok. And this year, we're dabbling in other forms of paid media. So podcasts or out of home, really just trying to build more brand awareness around the brand and introduce our products to new customers is like a huge focus for us. So I'm pretty excited about some of the upcoming paid media opportunities we have in front of us, particularly for the next six months. There'll be a lot of learnings for us after this year, which is amazing because we're at the growth stage right now where like it's all about like, let's try it. Let's learn.

25:58Let's pivot. Let's try. Let's learn. Let's pivot. So I'm pretty, pretty excited about that. And then, yeah, the remainder of our budget is largely used on brands and again it goes back to like the true you know the commitment from from kylie and ariana about like let's build this with the people first and let's let's bring girls together and let's create a really welcoming environment and so we we definitely spend a lot of time on creating amazing content getting products in the hands of amazing creators being on mountain with our girl skiing or hiking and really trying to make amazing experiences for them.

26:34I feel like it's almost a sorority, like the half day sorority and all the girls are like a sisterhood and y 'all be dressed so nicely in the half day. In the most inclusive way. In the most inclusive way. Of course. Of course. Like, I know my girlfriend, when she hears this podcast, she just want to go. She's going to want to go and buy something from the website. I am 100 % certain. And Alicia, I know we're almost at time, but I did want to give you the opportunity before we finalize the episode to let anybody who's hearing the podcast know how they can find out further about the products that Half Day sells.

27:11If it's a lady that's listening that wants to just get all her outfit for the winter ready, then how could she go about making that? Or if it's somebody that wants to buy something for their girlfriend like myself, how could we just go and make sure that we can look at everything Half Days has to offer? You can easily find us on halfdays.com. Our Instagram handle and TikTok is half days. And so it's very, very simple. But I would say give us a follow. Check out our website, our Slack channels in the navigation for our website. So if you want to join that or you're looking to build a community in your area, that's certainly great.

27:45We also have a really awesome Posh page where you can RSVP to all of our upcoming events. And so we post about those mid-month for the following month. And again, you can find that information in the nav of our website. Amazing. thank you so much Alicia um it really has been an honor uh listening everything that you've told us about half days and learning about your experience it really sounds like an amazing brand and I can't wait because I know that I'll get one of those jackets in my hands to give to my girlfriend one day and I'll send a testimonial to you guys just so that you know how cool it was love her great review for sure for sure it was a real pleasure I appreciate your time I know Likewise, Alicia.

28:27Thank you so much for hopping on. And to anybody that was listening, we really appreciate you also being on the episode. And just make sure to stay tuned so that you hear more about the different personalities that we bring on and the different industries that we talk to. Thank you so much.