Lucas Seidenfaden – Thoughts

The last season of the podcast StartUp featured American Apparel founder Dov Charney. Charney is a highly controversial figure to say the least, but that’s a discussion for a different forum.

There are a few things I learned from Charney. They don’t apply to all businesses and all leaders, but I think they can help us all think a little bit differently.

During his 25 year tenure as founder and CEO of American Apparel, Dov Charney revolutionised the t-shirt and grew the business to a near unicorn valuation with 260 stores worldwide.

Micromanage
American Apparel was Charney’s baby and he knew it inside out. Having control of every aspect of the business meant product and marketing were aligned across all touch-points.

Tunnel Vision
When American Apparel started, the started simple: Selling T-Shirts. It was not until 2003 until they opened their first retail shop, but then did so with a vengeance. Two years later they had opened 68 stores.

Blind Confidence
Whether we call it confidence or cockiness Charney had the same Reality Distortion skills famously attributed to Steve Jobs. Charney believed in locally produced, “sweatshop-free” clothing. Setting up his factory in downtown Los Angeles and paying workers double the standard wage would be seen as bonkers by many, yet it was part of the American Apparel mission and Charney made it work for many years.

Dedication
Charney is a hustler. In the early days of American Apparel Charney would take a gym bag full of t-shirt samples to trade shows to meet with potential clients. In lieu of the tradition format of renting booths and waiting for customers to visit you, Charney took the t-shirts directly to his customers. In 2013 American Apparels fulfilment center was in shambles. Orders were increasingly late or unfulfilled and there were mountains of clothes in disarray that needed to be sorted and packed for shipping. In order to take control of the situation Charney personally moved from his LA mansion to the La Mirada warehouse and stayed there for 100 days straight.

Hire with Instinct
While some people might argue that much of Charney’s hiring was primarily guided by his libido, he also gave many people opportunities they would never have received at other companies. Senior roles were filled people others would have considered lacking of experience. When Ryan Holiday became the Marketing Director he was 22 years old. At the same time American Apparel had a reputation for only hiring a very specific kind of person. Attitude and cultural fit were more important than skills. The key takeaway here being: if someone fits your team, they will grow into the role!