Employees
50
Location
Los Angeles, California
Industry
Underwear
Founded
2011
Web
meundies.comSocial
There are few relationships in life as reliably intimate as the one you’ll have with your underwear. And just like connections with more, well, animate objects, what makes that relationship an enjoyable one is totally and utterly subjective. Boxers or briefs? Boyshorts or hipsters? Classic cotton or performance jersey? Loud prints or subdued solids? The options abound, and the choice is always yours.
When Jonathan Shokrian started MeUndies in 2011, the options available-in his opinion-just weren’t good enough. So he set out to create what the company boldly describes as the “world’s most comfortable undies” with a purchasing model that took out what is likely the most uncomfortable part of acquiring said undergarments: going to pick them up at the local department store. With the exception of a pop-up in Venice last year, MeUndies has been available exclusively online, where customers can count on carbon-neutral, sustainably harvested, silky smooth underwear delivered straight to their door. And for those who think logging online is too much work, there’s a one-and-done subscription model that will send you a fresh pair a month.
To better get to know the man bent on making your underwear drawer a more delightful place to pull from, we talked to Shokrian about surprisingly successful marketing strategies, the dangers of brick-and-mortar “dream locations,” and a Marky Mark reboot, MeUndies style.
Bond Street
If you had to describe MeUndies in one word what would be?
Jonathan Shokrian
Comfort.
Bond Street
What was your favorite underwear company growing up and why?
Jonathan Shokrian
Calvin Klein. Because of the way they made me look.
Bond Street
How did they make you look?
Jonathan Shokrian
Sexy.
Bond Street
Who has been the most helpful to you in your career?
Jonathan Shokrian
Jonathan Neman [Sweetgreen co-founder] has been the most helpful to me in my career. I came up with the idea while traveling with Jonathan. I was telling him about how annoyed I was with the process of buying underwear and he pushed me to create a brand that stood for something. I owe him a lot for our success.
Bond Street
What’s the most challenging part of your business?
Jonathan Shokrian
The hardest part is definitely finding new marketing channels. There are a lot of different verticals for online marketing and finding the next scalable channel can be hit or miss. The exciting thing is when you do find that one channel that you weren’t expecting and it completely takes off.
New channels like podcasts. Two years ago people weren’t listening to podcasts the way they are now and then you’ll have a show like Serial come out that brings so much attention to a new medium. It’s been really interesting, seeing fads and what’s sticking and where things are headed, then trying to stay ahead of the curve.
Bond Street
Do you think Snapchat is the next big channel for brands?
Jonathan Shokrian
It depends. I think Snapchat will need to figure out a way monetize its content and brands will need to figure out a way to create a return on their investment. Instagram didn’t have links for instance initially. So what did Instagram do? Once they started launching sponsored ads, they created a shop link to solve for that problem. Snapchat is very similar right now. We go to Snapchat to see someone’s video within their feed. You’re not really clicking out to go anywhere. Snapchat, at some point, is going to have to solve that problem and allow advertisers to post content that can link out. Otherwise it’s like traditional TV, which is great and works, but is more brand awareness than anything else.
Bond Street
What was the first marketing campaign for MeUndies?
Jonathan Shokrian
The first major campaign we did was when we advertised on a new porn site called PaintBottle. It got us a ton of publicity. The site was trying to clean up the industry standard of aggressive ads which is why you won’t see Fortune 500 companies advertising alongside them. We were one of the first brands to take the leap and what was amazing was, about six months later, GrubHub and a couple other notable brands started to test this as well.
Bond Street
You’ve done a lot of cool collaborations with people like Baron von Fancy, Curtis Kulig, and Marshawn Lynch. How do you determine who you’ll partner with?
Jonathan Shokrian
We find artists that inspire us and are consistent with our brand. We have our Keith Haring collaboration launching in the middle of next month which we’re really excited about.
But the way we identify other collaborations- your Marshawn Lynches and your Joseph Randles- is very much organic or spontaneous. Something will happen in the press and if it aligns with our brand, we try to find a way to put a great spin on it and insert ourselves into the conversation.
With Joseph Randle, which is the first sports-related partnership we had, he got caught for stealing underwear from a department store. We were like, wow, that’s kind of perfect. We started the company because we hated going to the department store to buy our underwear and felt like there had to be a more convenient, better way of going about it. Randle was a very natural endorsement deal. We reached out to his agent as said, “Look, we feel your pain. Let’s turn a negative situation into a positive one.” And so we did this partnership knowing we could put a positive spin on it by working with Joseph and the Salvation Army to help people in need during the holidays.
Bond Street
Do you consider MeUndies a tech company?
Jonathan Shokrian
Very much so. We are a direct to consumer online company and we’re constantly innovating new technology that helps make our business more efficient while creating an enjoyable experience. We’ve created backend algorithms to maximize the turnaround of products as well.
Bond Street
Who is your biggest competitor right now?
Jonathan Shokrian
Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein, Hanes because they’re some of the largest underwear companies. But no one is really doing what we’re doing in terms of creating a brand that resonates with men and women. I wouldn’t call them direct competitors, but we look at brands like Harry’s and Warby Parker in the sense that they’re doing very much the same thing that we’re doing: primarily online, direct-to-consumer, selling one core product. They’re the brands we look up to and aspire to get to one day.
Bond Street
How did you decide on a production facility? What was that process like?
Jonathan Shokrian
We initially tried to manufacture locally and it was virtually impossible. We have very few vertically integrated manufacturing facilities in LA. It took us over a year of researching and visiting multiple factories around the world to uncover where the best fabrics are made. It’s like when you meet the love of your life, you kind of immediately know. It was one of those ah-ha moments.
Bond Street
Do you have an idea of who your core customer is?
Jonathan Shokrian
It’s very broad which is great but our core consumer is between 25-35. We market to a wide range of people and It’s really interesting to see the various age ranges of people that our brand resonates with.
Bond Street
Which marketing campaign has driven the most sales for MeUndies?
Jonathan Shokrian
One of our most successful product launches and campaigns was our French Terry launch earlier this year. It did well because we timed the launch perfectly. It had just started to get colder on the East Coast and people were looking for something to keep them warm. The entire collection was made in LA which we were very proud about.
Bond Street
Do you guys have plans to open brick-and-mortar locations or is the idea to keep with your online roots?
Jonathan Shokrian
We definitely think about it. Whether it be brick-and-mortar or vending or wholesaling but I feel like we are a couple years away from exploring these channels.
Bond Street
If you were to open a brick-and-mortar store, what would be your dream location?
Jonathan Shokrian
It’s really hard. What you think could be a dream location actually might not be. Like Abbot Kinney, for instance, was a dream location for us. But once we opened a pop-up there, we realized it’s more of a weekend destination and people more or less cruise the block after having lunch. Real estate is tricky but one we’re excited about when the time is right.
Bond Street
How have you guys dealt with financing so far and what have you learned in the process?
Jonathan Shokrian
We just closed our Series B and we’re very excited about that. I think companies get in a mindset that they need to raise big rounds and grow unrealistically very quickly. We’ve been against this from the get go. We’ve been very mindful of our spend and growing slowly and sustainably to build a company that endures.
Bond Street
How do you turn an underwear company into a lifestyle brand?
Jonathan Shokrian
I think that’s a term that’s thrown out there a lot. Every brand wants to create a lifestyle brand. I don’t think you can go out there and just create a lifestyle brand. I think you have to BE a lifestyle brand. And what I mean by that is your team, your culture, what you stand for, your core values-all of those things define and make a lifestyle brand. You have to live it.
Bond Street
Being an online company, how will you continue to innovate customer service and support?
Jonathan Shokrian
If you look back, Zappos was at the forefront of redefining what good customer support looks like. We constantly think about how we can elevate the standard they set. When people call in, they’re calling because they have an issue or a question. On one hand, you want to solve the problem as quickly as you can. But on the other, you want to let them know that you’re empathisizing with them, that you’re humanizing the conversation. We really push our team to think for themselves and to deal with each customer on a case by case basis. As soon as you create a blanket policy you begin to lose the special touch and attention to detail.
Bond Street
Alright, some Quick Fire questions. What’s one thing about you someone wouldn’t expect?
Jonathan Shokrian
I actually go into the back office and sometimes fulfill orders. I really enjoy working with the fulfillment team and seeing where the orders are coming from and geeking out on how to improve the customer experience.
Bond Street
Three things you want to accomplish in 2016:
Jonathan Shokrian
Define the brand voice and message. We’ve done a great job with our brand so far, but as we grow and expand I want to create one central message that resonates with people.
Improve the quality and the product. We constantly need to be evolving, seeking new and better fabrics.
The third is a surprise…
Bond Street
One book that every entrepreneur should read:
Jonathan Shokrian
Good to Great. It helps you push yourself from the status quo to achieving excellence.
Bond Street
One person in history you’d like to see in a pair of MeUndies, dead or alive:
Jonathan Shokrian
Wow. Marky Mark. [Laughs] I’d love to do a campaign with him. That’d be amazing.