This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
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In 2015, Jimmy, Lan and Conrad Sansone launched The Normal Brand, a fashion company focused on easy, comfortable clothing suitable for both workdays and weekends. In the nine years since, without outside funding, the brothers have opened 11 stores — in cities including Nashville and Indianapolis — and entered partnerships with retailers including Nordstrom and Von Maur. The Normal Brand, which is based in St. Louis, now sells in 500 stores nationwide.
Among the brand’s differentiators are its proprietary ultra-soft fabric, Puremeso, and its on-call influencer network — Sansone family members, including Lan, have large social followings and are regularly featured in brand marketing. The Normal Brand has seen 40% annual revenue growth since its launch, Jimmy Sansone said on the Glossy Podcast.
Also on the podcast, Jimmy and Lan Sansone discuss The Normal Brand’s strategies for fueling growth, navigating challenges and maintaining a “humble, hungry and smart” team. Excerpts from the conversation, below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
The importance of physical retail
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Jimmy Sansone: “To have a real lasting brand, you have to have a brick-and-mortar presence. All the major brands have [proven] that. Walking through one of our stores is really like walking through what was, in our minds, a dream. It’s the only place where you can get the full, 360-degree view, touch and taste — we offer drinks. And you can interact with our great teammates. So stores have been really important for us, and we’ve seen a great reaction to them. And then those [customers], if they’re just visiting the cities where we have stores, they’ll start to buy from us online or go to one of our wholesale partners. So, overall, it’s been a great venture.”
Lan Sansone: “Conrad spends a lot of time analyzing our online and wholesale [sales] data, and he physically goes to these locations and counts foot traffic. So there’s a lot of work that goes into figuring out the [best] location for our stores.”
Friends-and-family marketing
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Jimmy Sansone: “Lan is actually a great superpower we have — he’s got this incredible TikTok following. Our exposure on TikTok is basically through his account — he’s got millions and millions of views. … We’re also very lucky — again, it’s kind of an unearned strength — that our siblings play a role in being the models in a lot of our photoshoots. And we have a photographer who’s a friend of ours. So, he’ll tag along on a family trip and document it, and then we’ll throw that stuff up [on social], and it ends up performing well for us.”
Growth via category expansion
Jimmy Sansone: “We launched women’s in 2019. For three brothers from the middle of the country, men’s was the natural thing to start with. And then a lot of our customers were women, and they were asking about it. So we now have a full women’s collection, as well. … We’re learning a lot about who our women’s costumer is. … Starting in spring 2024, we’ll be coming out with silhouettes, color stories and fabrications that much more cater to who she is. … It’s a young mom. In our business plan at the beginning, we thought this was going to [resonate] with college kids. As it turns out, our [shoppers] — both the men and the women — are in the 35-50-year-old range.”
