Vision Over Hype: How Ethan Glenn Built Every Other Thursday Without Chasing Algorithms

0:00Ethan Glenn:I would love to see 20, 30 years from now, someone finding one of our shirts or sweaters at a store and being like, wow, that's so cool. Or in their grandpa's closet and being like, whoa, I didn't know you had this. It started as a digital archive, a curated space on Instagram for vintage cars, classic architecture, and the perfect drape of a legacy jacket. Ethan Glenn launched the Every Other Thursday mood board as a simple creative outlet. Today, that visual destination has exploded into a multi-million dollar apparel and lifestyle powerhouse. It was just on the path of making product, selling out very quickly, realizing that I had an opportunity there, and then just kind of throwing everything at it.

0:39Despite his lack of formal fashion training, Ethan took his eye for vintage Americana and sharp storytelling ability and engineered modern premium wardrobe essentials, proving that consumers will always choose slow craftsmanship over fast fashion.

0:53Ethan Glenn:If a company is making things that they really just wear every single day and they really believe in, then that shows and people can understand that. He joins us to reveal how he transitioned a digital community into a commercial engine and how staying true to his creative alignment made the brand unforgettable. I'm Adam Levinter and this is Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and scaling a business. Ethan, welcome. Thank you. Excited to be here. Let's start with that idea of slow craftsmanship over fast fashion. We all understand today what fast fashion is. People associate fast fashion with a number of big brands that people are quite familiar with.

1:30It sort of has this sort of dirty negative connotation to it. But in your mind, what's the difference between the two and what's the competitive advantage that you have found?

1:39Ethan Glenn:I think in a world where there's just so much clothing and product out there, the thing that can differentiate you is just the attention and the care. And I think especially with these big brands like you're talking about, they just make clothes on a mass scale. You are just putting out as much as possible to try and meet any demand, whether it's the right demand or a trend or whatever it may be. They're just getting it onto the floor as fast as possible. But I think we're in a really unique part of time where anyone can make a brand and anyone can make clothing. And whether or not that's good clothing or good design or good production, that's besides the point.

2:17Ethan Glenn:I think we're just at a space where even someone like myself with no formal training, no experience, can one day decide, I think I'm going to make clothes. And I think that is what separates it from the fast fashion side of the world. I think when you come at it as a solo entrepreneur or someone with backing or whatever the process may be, if you have a specific vision and an idea of what you want to make and something you're very excited and ready to produce, I think that really just changes the narrative from the beginning. And I think something that people can associate with and attach themselves to and understand a bit better rather than these huge big box companies that are just putting out thousands of garments a day.

2:56So how did you come to that idea, that idea that one day, you know, I want to make clothes? You started on Instagram. You had developed a bit of a personal brand yourself. Where's the idea for a clothing line come from?

3:08Ethan Glenn:I actually had no desire to start a clothing brand. That was never like on my vision board or anything in my life that I had looked towards. I came from a very like marketing background, a lot more photography and video side of things. But like you said, I had a bit of a personal brand and I had this mood board on Instagram where I was posting cool photos. and so one summer I just made a hat with the the name every other Thursday on it which was the mood board's name at the time and then I was wearing that in my videos and people were like oh can I buy that hat and then I was like I guess so then I made 20 hats and they sold out in a couple minutes and I was like wait a second what else could I make and then it just kind of snowballed and then within I'd say 12 to 18 months it was a full-fledged I guess merch brand at that point.

3:52Ethan Glenn:It was mostly logo and name driven, but it was something that was evolving quickly, faster than I could really keep up with and made me change my thoughts on what I wanted to do and how I wanted my life to go for the next five, 10 years and just kind of opened up something out of nowhere that I didn't expect or even plan for. But when you have something that you see a demand for, you kind of have to jump on it. And so that's what I did. Let's come back to that in one sec, but I want to double down on your background, which is pretty unique. So besides photography and marketing, you have a very, I would say, a non-traditional background.

4:29You started in culinary arts. This is before photography, before marketing, before clothing. So talk a little bit about how you got here.

4:37Ethan Glenn:Yeah, I, out of high school, I knew I needed to do something. My parents were like, you need to go to school for something. Mostly just because I felt like, I think all of us felt like I needed some sort of structure. and I had no idea what I wanted and a four-year degree sounded exhausting. So the thing I liked to do the most at the time was cook and I was like, great, I'll do culinary. I went into it and then I worked in kitchens for a few years and quickly realized that's not what I wanted to do with my life and career, something that I love doing and still probably enjoy more to this day than I ever did when it was a job.

5:12Ethan Glenn:But yeah, I started with that and when I quickly realized that wasn't something that was going to be for me. I looked around at what else I like doing. And at the time, I was taking a lot of photos just for fun. And so I started reaching out to little independent businesses or brands and being like, hey, can I take photos for you? Do you need photography? And I wasn't very good at that point, but it was just a stepping stone. And it started there and then got into video from there, started working for a couple large scale influencers back in Toronto. I started working for different small brands, kind of like anything and everything I could do to learn more and kind of grow that part of my career as that's what I thought I'd be doing.

5:50Ethan Glenn:And then eventually ended up working at a small marketing firm in Toronto run by a couple friends of mine where I was introduced to everything from paid ads to email to rebranding to kind of everything that a brand needs at various stages of their life cycle. And then with that I turned all of that knowledge and kind of applied it to myself down the road and to what I was doing. But yeah, from culinary to owning a clothing brand is a very strange pipeline. But I think the through line of it all is just the creativity aspect. I loved being able to just make something, a dish out of random ingredients and found that very creative.

6:28Ethan Glenn:And then now the creativity still goes on all aspects of my business. Yeah. And I think you've done well to build that community. You're obviously attracted to that notion of creativity. um when you first start building this audience at what point do you realize that this can become something bigger than just yourself and how do you start to think about building a brand from day one so i think i was lucky in the sense that i worked for a couple as i said large influencers in like the million follower realm plus in toronto before i had an audience of my own i was doing their photo, their video, editing, stuff like that.

7:09Ethan Glenn:And so I really saw the power of a large audience and what you can do with it. And part of that is brand deals and that whole world of it, but also the ability to kind of channel that audience and turn it into a brand or a company or whatever it is and have this built in, ready to purchase, ready with intent customer base. And so when I started developing followers of my own and I was growing pretty rapidly at the beginning, I thought immediately, okay, I don't want to be a quote influencer forever. It's not something that I see doing for decades. So what can I do to kind of capitalize on this momentum and growth that I have right now?

7:46Ethan Glenn:Because for a lot of people, it doesn't last forever. And so from the beginning, I started seeing what that might be. And that was right around the time that I'd made that hat and people were interested in it. And I was like, okay, maybe this is it. Maybe I can turn this into a brand. And at the time, I don't think there were near as many, quote, internet brands that were coming up out of social media. And I just kind of jumped on that. I took the audience I had and I was like, okay, well, if I make videos and they do well, why not just throw in a product that I've made? And now people have a shoppable link or something that they can then go towards and be a part of a different world.

8:23So you start with hats. Yes. Right. How do you decide this is going to become something bigger? How do you decide what products to horizontally expand into next?

8:33Ethan Glenn:So hats was just what I was wearing a lot of at the time. I still wear a lot of hats. I'm wearing a hat right now. And to me, it's like an easy first purchase for any customer. It's relatively cheap compared to everything else. And so after the hat did really well, I kind of looked around at everything in my house And I was like, okay, what can I turn into a product that I created and be able to use that in my content? Because at the time, I had a really cool loft apartment that was a big part of my content pillar for my personal page. And so I looked around, and I was always taking photos of my interior or the coffee table or whatever it was.

9:05Ethan Glenn:And so I thought, oh, let me make a little ashtray with the logo on it. And then I can set it on a pile of books. Then when I take a photo of my living room and of these books or whatever, that's there. And I can tag that. And so then I made an ashtray with the logo on it. It was very simple, but then that worked. And then I looked around and I was like, okay, well, I also use a wallet every day. So why don't I make a leather wallet? And so I just started building with these small pieces that were relatively easy to produce with no formal background or knowledge or training or anything. and then just kept looking around my space and my daily use items thinking, okay, what is realistically easy enough to make my own without needing to make a full cut and sew garment or anything too difficult?

9:51Where does the name Every Other Thursday come from? This was on the hat that this then extends to obviously the larger brand over time. But where does this idea come from, this name?

10:02Ethan Glenn:Right. So Bore was a brand. It was a mood board on Instagram, like I said, and I just posted photos that I liked. And at the time I called it every other Thursday because I thought that sounded good. And it was kind of like a riff on payday being every other week. So every other Thursday you got paid and, you know, spent money or did whatever it is that you want to do that. And then as the mood board turned into product, turned into a full-fledged brand, I just stuck with it. And now we have it to this day. So how does this scale into something bigger? And at what point do you look at this as a business that's larger than yourself?

10:39Ethan Glenn:So in the first, I would say year from making the hat, the one hat to making a bunch of products, a year later, I was looking at it and I said, okay, we have the opportunity, we have the audience. At that point, I was just doing a drop-based model out of my apartment. Every few months, I'd have a new product that I had figured out how to make and had ready to put out. And all that product would sell out within the first day or so. And so I thought, there's clearly a demand here, and I'm clearly on to something. So why don't I just dive in full time? And that's when I put in all my eggs into the basket of sorts.

11:17Ethan Glenn:That's around the time that I hired a production manager in L.A. to help me produce actual products. and clothing at a much higher level. That's when we started producing clothing in LA, from denim to shirts to all different things. And it was just on the path of making product, selling out very quickly, realizing that I had an opportunity there, and then just kind of throwing everything at it. And quickly I realized that I don't know how to make clothing and I don't know how to make product. And so I enlisted help of other people. I hired on that production manager, as I said, and then just kept fueling the beast and just kept putting everything I could into it time-wise and energy-wise to, again, capitalize on that momentum because it's not something that lasts forever.

12:01Ethan Glenn:And for us, that's kind of been our motto since day one. If it's working, let's just go as fast as possible. So how are you financing this? I mean, for those that are just, that are resonating with what you're saying, this idea of keeping up with demand. You've got something clearly, but you need to, I mean, committing to product runs and hiring people on payroll and things of that nature. This is capital intensive. It's money out before you're receiving your revenue back for these expenditures. So how are you funding the growth of this thing? I mean, ever since the beginning, it's just funded itself.

12:38Ethan Glenn:I never put any money in. We've never taken investment. Basically the first 20 hats that sold and I took that money and paid for the next 80 hats and then that sold and I paid for the ashtrays and it just kind of snowballed from there. And so every drop was bigger than the last. And for the first probably year and a half, two years, it was just, okay, that drop sold. Great. Now we have a chunk of cash. We can put that into the next thing. And the first couple of years were very drop-based model for months at a time. The website wouldn't have any product, wouldn't have anything to shop. And that was because we took all of our available capital and put it into the next batch of whatever it is that we were making and just ran it from there.

13:17Ethan Glenn:And to this day, we still haven't taken any investment. I've basically bootstrapped this on my own this whole time. We've obviously grown the team a bit since it was just me doing it out of my apartment, but I'm also someone that likes to work and is a bit of a workaholic. And so I like to take on a lot of hats and coming from a marketing background, one of the most expensive parts of building a brand is the marketing side of it from photo shoots to editing to emails, website, all that stuff. That's all stuff I knew how to do from past experience. So I didn't have to pay for any of that. And so that saved us a lot of cash as well.

13:50Ethan Glenn:So basically every dollar we made for the first few years just went straight into making more product because the rest of it I could handle on my own. And so ideally no paid acquisition whatsoever. Yeah, for the first about two, three years we I don't think ran a single ad that was all my personal audience was converting still at the beginning as I was growing it was very exciting and very fast and people were latching on to that I've since in the last few years stepped away from social media on my own side of things and so mostly just because I don't have time to but in the beginning it was tied together in the sense that if you followed me you'd see these behind the scenes type content you'd see the building of a brand sampling all the things that are exciting and interesting to watch.

14:35Ethan Glenn:But at the same time, we kept both separate. So I always made sure when you followed every other Thursday, you only saw the brand. You didn't see my face. You didn't see anything. It was its own beast. We always hired models. I was never the model. So it could grow on its own. And I think that's really important, especially for founders building a public. But yeah, from the beginning, it was just, okay, what can we do? How much can I put into it to grow it without needing to rely on paid ads or without needing to rely on a bunch of staff or money or whatever it is? How much can I just throw at it and make it work?

15:10When you say this is important for founders building in public, you're talking about the clear delineation between one's personal brand and the company itself?

15:19Ethan Glenn:I think it's something that I've always been very focused on since the beginning, but I've seen it in the past. I think building the public is very important. I think it shows transparency. It shows the company have an actual voice and a soul and not just a name on paper that makes product. But I also think that some people fall into the trap of the only way that they'll sell the product is if their face and name is attached to it. And I think especially with a lot of influencer-led brands, that ends up being the case because you follow this person and they make product and because they're selling it, you want to buy it.

15:53Ethan Glenn:But if that person disappeared one day and it was only the company left, then maybe you're not as interested anymore. Maybe you don't want to buy it. And so from the beginning, I wanted to separate the two. If you followed me, you got behind the scenes, you got my life, you got everything that has to do with me. But if you followed the brand, you only see the brand. And I felt like that was a very important distinction from the beginning and something that I continue to do to this day. Which is funny because about six months ago, we opened a retail store here in New York. And it's been incredible.

16:23Ethan Glenn:And oftentimes I'll just be in the shop doing whatever, helping out. And someone will come in and go, oh, sorry, do you work here? Could you help me with a shirt? And I'm like, yes, I can. And they're like, oh, how long have you worked here? You get in a conversation. And I'm like, well, it's actually my business. And so I think because I built those two separately and as two independent verticals, it helped the brand get its own legs quicker than I'd say someone else that maybe built the two in tandem or had a namesake label, for example. Yeah. But it's easier said than done. I mean, Ethan T.

16:55Glenn on Instagram has 100 ,000 followers. Every other Thursday has 89 and change. So it's not as if, I mean, I guess, as you mentioned, you've just walked away from Ethan 10 Glenn stuff because you don't have the time. But clearly, you have an audience that wants this content. I mean, it's incredibly difficult to build this kind of audience. Yes, you highlighted those influencers you've worked with in the past that had a million plus followers. But to get to 100 ,000 followers is not an easy feat. So by the same token, I would think that there's got to be a role here for this.

17:30Ethan Glenn:Yeah, it's definitely not easy. I think building an audience inherently is just difficult, especially today when everyone is an influencer, it feels like. And you could throw a rock and you could hit four different people that have an audience online. And I think because of that, it's even more important to have a very specific lens or idea or take on something. And so for me, that's just my life. And I post, but not as near as much as I used to. And I still share my life and I still share updates about the brand and stuff like that. But because the brand is its own voice and its own world that it lives in, I think that is just the most important factor.

18:11Ethan Glenn:And so for me looking at, yes, I have an audience still, but it is like a finite resource in my mind, whereas the brand could just infinitely grow and become a much larger being regardless of audience size, whereas being an influencer in my mind can only get you so far. Yes, you can make more money, you can have more recognition, but it doesn't have the same sort of cachet, I guess, in my mind. If you look at the J.Crew of the world, they've been around for decades and decades and decades, and there's a reason that they carry weight in their name. And I think a lot of these heritage brands are like that.

18:48Ethan Glenn:And that's something I really look towards. And you don't see an influencer is carrying the same weight as a legacy company or legacy media or whatever that may be. Can you just talk about the intentionality around building a heritage brand? Absolutely. I think from the beginning, when it was a mood board, it was just images of things that were great. And a lot of that was old advertisements or product catalogs from the likes of Eddie Bauer, J.Crew, Polo, all of these large heritage companies that have been around since 60s, 70s, 80s, whatever that may be. And because that was the North Star in the beginning of the company and what we look towards, what was on our literal mood board, that's kind of translated into what we do today.

19:33Ethan Glenn:And so a lot of our product is very simple to some people, but very specific in terms of our lens and our viewpoint. And so for us, it's looking at, okay, if someone can buy a vintage sweatshirt from the 80s that they love because it's A, made of 100 % cotton and has lasted 40 years, but B, just a very timeless style that the person that bought it in the 80s loves just as much as the person that bought it in 2026. for us that's what we try and look for when creating our product and building something that is quote timeless so that yes i can wear it and love it and then maybe 20 years from now my kid will love it or it ends up at a thrift store and some young kid is thrifting and finds it and goes wow this is so exciting i really love this and i got it for a great price because it was secondhand and i think as someone that comes from a buying a lot of vintage background i think it's very cool to have pieces with a story and have pieces that have lasted years and decades.

20:34Ethan Glenn:And so when we make product, that's usually what we look for first. Is this something that fits in our world? Yes. Is this something that could also fit in the world that our mood board was from the 60s to 90s? Yes. And so that intentional product creation or that intentional photography, everything kind of ties together. And I'm not going to call us a heritage brand because we're a brand new company in the grand scheme of things. But it's something that I would love to see 20, 30 years from now, someone finding one of our shirts or sweaters at a store and being like, wow, that's so cool. Or in their grandpa's closet and being like, whoa, I didn't know you had this.

21:10Ethan Glenn:I really like that. I think that's a really cool storyline and something that I do to this day and would love to be able to have that exact same thing replicate years down the road. I want to pick your brain a little bit on your business strategy ideas and philosophies around brand building. So you've said many times, and I'm quoting here, I'm not really a fashion guy, I'm just making clothes that I want to wear, end quote. So this idea of launching products for yourself, not a market at large, scratching your own itch, if you prefer, as a business strategy, has this been sort of the cornerstone of what you've been doing?

21:49And how do you think about it?