UNTUCKit: Chris Riccobono
Episode
73 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Productivity, Relationships, Startups
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Manufacturing quality control: Cotton fabric grows and shrinks unpredictably, requiring pre-washing and strict length specifications within fractions of an inch. Most brands allow 2-3 inch variances because tucked shirts hide length inconsistencies, but untucked shirts demand 28.75-inch precision every time or the entire concept fails.
- ✓Naming as competitive advantage: Choosing a descriptive, non-sophisticated name like UNTUCKit over an Italian-sounding brand name enabled billboard advertising with just the name and tagline. The simplicity allowed instant comprehension and became synonymous with the category, like Kleenex for tissues, despite fashion industry ridicule.
- ✓Slow growth survival strategy: Growing from $90,000 to $300,000 to $500,000 over three years with terrible initial product quality allowed time to perfect manufacturing before scaling marketing. Keeping customer lists from bad batches enabled future outreach when quality improved, turning early failures into eventual wins without destroying the brand.
- ✓Alternative marketing channels: Radio sports shows, Howard Stern, airline magazines, and billboards returned measurable revenue when competitors focused solely on paid social media. Testing each channel with small budgets and tracking direct conversions identified profitable channels that established brands ignored, enabling growth with minimal venture capital.
- ✓Wholesale timing strategy: Delaying wholesale partnerships until establishing direct-to-consumer brand strength and profitable operations creates negotiating leverage. Entering Nordstrom and Macy's after proving customer demand through 90 owned stores positions the brand as a proven winner rather than a desperate startup seeking distribution.
What It Covers
Chris Riccobono built UNTUCKit from zero fashion experience into a brand with 80+ stores by solving one problem: dress shirts designed to be worn untucked at 28.75 inches length, nearly selling for $750 million before COVID.
Key Questions Answered
- •Manufacturing quality control: Cotton fabric grows and shrinks unpredictably, requiring pre-washing and strict length specifications within fractions of an inch. Most brands allow 2-3 inch variances because tucked shirts hide length inconsistencies, but untucked shirts demand 28.75-inch precision every time or the entire concept fails.
- •Naming as competitive advantage: Choosing a descriptive, non-sophisticated name like UNTUCKit over an Italian-sounding brand name enabled billboard advertising with just the name and tagline. The simplicity allowed instant comprehension and became synonymous with the category, like Kleenex for tissues, despite fashion industry ridicule.
- •Slow growth survival strategy: Growing from $90,000 to $300,000 to $500,000 over three years with terrible initial product quality allowed time to perfect manufacturing before scaling marketing. Keeping customer lists from bad batches enabled future outreach when quality improved, turning early failures into eventual wins without destroying the brand.
- •Alternative marketing channels: Radio sports shows, Howard Stern, airline magazines, and billboards returned measurable revenue when competitors focused solely on paid social media. Testing each channel with small budgets and tracking direct conversions identified profitable channels that established brands ignored, enabling growth with minimal venture capital.
- •Wholesale timing strategy: Delaying wholesale partnerships until establishing direct-to-consumer brand strength and profitable operations creates negotiating leverage. Entering Nordstrom and Macy's after proving customer demand through 90 owned stores positions the brand as a proven winner rather than a desperate startup seeking distribution.
Notable Moment
The company came within days of selling for approximately $750 million in February 2020 when 15 acquisition offers evaporated due to COVID. Revenue dropped 50 percent, bankruptcy attorneys recommended liquidation, and Riccobono negotiated individually with 90 landlords and factories to survive without telling his wife how dire the situation became.
Episode Transcript
Wondery plus subscribers can listen to How I Built This early and ad free right now. Join Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. Audible has an incredible selection with over 1,000,000 audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible originals all in one easy app. Find the genres you love and discover new ones. Explore best sellers, new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time. Enjoy audible anytime while doing other things. Household chores, exercising, on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free thirty day audible trial and your first audio book is free. Visit audible.com/built. I've stayed in awesome homes on Airbnb in places like Athens and Berlin and Rome. And each time these places have given our family a chance to feel like locals. It's the best way to travel. Picture this. You're spending a cozy evening out of town in a home you booked on Airbnb. The space is thoughtfully designed and you think, I bet I could host my own home on Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com/host. If you run a small business, you know there's nothing small about it. Every day there's a new decision to make and even the smallest decisions feel massive. When all of these decisions feel daunting, it helps to have the right platform with all of the tools that you need to be successful. Shopify. Shopify's point of sale system is a unified command center for your retail business. It brings together in store and online operations across up to 1,000 locations. Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/built. Go to shopify.com/built. Shopify.com/built. Tell me about the about that first batch of inventory because you I mean, you say that the shirts were terrible which is shocking. I mean, I I don't well, it comes off the off the boat in New York. You open the boxes and what? They you see right away that they're not good? Well, actually, when people started wearing them and saying that they now used it for a rag for their car, that's when it really, but you know what's funny? You know what's funny? I didn't we thought through it and said, you know what? We will one day get them back. We'll keep a list of those people, and I'm gonna lose x amount of customers. I mean, you didn't …
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Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode
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Tools
“Sponsor mentioned in episode: Audible at audible.com/built”
“Sponsor mentioned in episode: Shopify at shopify.com/built”
“Sponsor mentioned in episode: Workday Go”
“Sponsor mentioned in episode: Airbnb at airbnb.com/host”
“Sponsor mentioned in episode: Claude AI at claud.ai/hibt”
Products
“Sponsor mentioned in episode: American Express Business Platinum at go.amex/bplat”
company
“Chris Riccobono built UNTUCKit from zero fashion experience into a brand with 80+ stores by solving one problem: dress shirts designed to be worn untucked at 28.75 inches length”
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